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Abstract

This paper examins how the medieval distinction between proper and improper signification can give a plausible explanation of both metaphorical use and the usual transformations a language can undergo. I will show how Thomas Aquinas distinguishes between ordinary ambiguous terms and metaphors, whereas William of Ockham and Walter Burley do not leave room for this distinction. I will argue that Ockham’s conception of transfer of sense through subsequent institution of words is best thought of as an explanation of how ordinary usage can contain ambiguities, whereas Burley’s conception of transfer of sense without new imposition is more plausible when it comes to explaining metaphors. If metaphorical use is lumped together with equivocation, the account of how they work cannot do full justice to either, an insight that we already find in Peter Abelard, if not in Boethius.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    On medieval views on the origin of language(s), see, e.g., Eco 1993; Ashworth 2013b.

  2. 2.

    Jennifer Ashworth has provided excellent surveys on this matter. See Ashworth 1991, 2007, 2013a. See also Purcell 1987 for the increasing use of transumptio for metaphor instead of metalepsis in the thirteenth century.

  3. 3.

    “[…] de aliquo nomine dupliciter convenit loqui: uno modo, secundum primam eius impositionem; alio modo, secundum usum nominis. […] Et similiter dicendum est de nomine ‘lucis’. Nam primo quidem est institutum ad significandum id quod facit manifestationem in senu visu: postmodum autem extensum est ad significandum omne illud quod facit manifestationem secundum quamucumque cognitionem.—Si ergo accipitur nomen ‘luminis’ secundum suam primam impositionem, metaphorice in spiritualibus dicitur […] Si autem accipiatur secundum quod est in usu loquentium ad omnem manifestationem extensum, sic proprie in spiritualibus dicitur.”

  4. 4.

    For metaphora connected to translatio/translative, see Aquinas 1970, 202a: De veritate 7.2. For the pair metaphoratransumptio/transumptive see Dahan 2009, 261–262.

  5. 5.

    See Is 35:1 in Aquinas 1974, 153: Exp. Iasia 35: “letabitur deserta et inuia, et exultabit solitudo et florebit quasi lilium.” Aquinas comments (ibid., 153): “Primo (ed. add. ponit) hominum iocunditatem, quam comparat prato florenti, quod etiam ridens dicitur, quod quidem habet pulcritudinem in flore.” Also Aquinas 1892, 132: ST I-II.88.1 seems to allude to the Isaiah passage.

  6. 6.

    Cf. Reginaldo of Piperno’s reportatio of Aquinas’ Super I Cor. 11.2 (Aquinas 2019, n. 87584): “Dicendum quod in omni figurata locutione, commune est quod sensus non est ille quem primo aspectu verba praetendunt, sed ille quod ille qui loquitur significare intendit, sicut si dicam: pratum ridet, non est sensus huius locutionis quod illud pratum rideat, sed illud quod ego significare intendo, scilicet quod pratum similiter se habet in decore cum floret sicut homo cum ridet. Hoc etiam modo se habet in locutionibus ironicis: cum enim non intendo hoc quod verba praetendunt significare, sed contrarium, ille est verus sensus quem ego intendo, et ideo nihil falsitatis est ibi.”

  7. 7.

    Of course, Aquinas uses the distinction between first and second imposition but in a different sense and in line with the common medieval distinction between first and second intentions. A second imposition is the case when words are imposed for words (Aquinas 1929, 624: Super Sent. I.26.1.1ad3).

  8. 8.

    “Aliud est aequivocum a consilio, quando vox primo imponitur alicui vel aliquibus et subordinaretur uni conceptui et postea propter aliquam similitudinem primi significati ad aliquid aliud vel propter aliquam aliam rationem imponitur illi alteri, ita quod non imponeretur illi alteri nisi quia primo imponebatur alii, sicut est de hoc nomine ‘homo’. Primo enim imponebatur ad significandum omnia animalia rationalia, ita quod imponebatur ad significandum omne illud quod continetur sub hoc conceptu ‘animal rationale’, postea autem utentes, videntes similitudinem inter talem hominem et imaginem hominis, utebantur quandoque hoc nomine ‘homo’ pro tali imagine, ita quod nisi hoc nomen ‘homo’ fuisset primo impositum hominibus, non uterentur nec imponeret hoc nomen ‘homo’ ad significandum vel standum pro tali imagine” (trans. Spade 1995, 34, slightly modified).

  9. 9.

    “[…] potest aliquis imponere hoc nomen ‘a’ ad significandum quodcumque animal quod occurret sibi cras. Hoc facto, distincte significat illud animal, et significabit apud omnes volentes uti voce sicut imposita est, quantumcumque illud imponens non distincte intelligat, nec forte distincte intelliget quando sibi occurret.” Ockham 1979b, 47: Ord. 22.

  10. 10.

    I am following Schierbaum 2014, 82–87 here, but with one qualification. According to her, subordination should in no sense be thought of as a mental activity. If it were, the only way to subordinate a word to a concept would be by imposition, but this does not seem to be entirely Ockham’s view; see below.

  11. 11.

    It is open to discussion what exactly Ockham means by a change of the concept’s natural signification. See Schierbaum’s discussion in Schierbaum 2014, 87–92. Ockham himself gives the example that a concept (and thus the subordinated word) loses its signification when all of its individual significates cease to exist; see Ockham 1978a, 347: In De int., prooem. 2.

  12. 12.

    The example of a dead man goes back to Aristotle and inspired the popular sophism of the dead man alive; see Ebbesen 1979. Ockham mentions the dead man as an example of metaphorical speech but without referring to imposition; see Ockham 1974, 758: SL 3-4.3.

  13. 13.

    “Ex hoc enim quod est aliqua similitudo inter duas res, vox quae imponitur uni transfertur ad aliud, ut quia sicut pes animalis substat animali, sic lignum substat ponti, et hoc nomen ‘pes’ imponitur ad significandum pedem animalis, transumitur tamen hoc nomen ‘pes’ ad significandum lignum substans ponti. Sed hoc non est ex impositione, quia imponitur totaliter ad placitum; modo quod ‘pes’ significet tale lignum vel pro tali accipiatur, ad hoc intellectus quodammodo ratione ducitur, et ideo non est impositio sed transumptio” (trans. Ashworth 2013c, 146, slightly modified).

  14. 14.

    Like Ockham, Burley claims that our words directly signify things, not our concepts of things. However, they disagree about whether the things directly signified by words are particular objects or their common natures. Ockham holds the former, Burley the latter. Burley on signification, see Cesalli 2013, 93–99. For a comparison of their views on signification see Dutilh-Novaes 2013, 74–79.

  15. 15.

    From an exegetical point of view, one finds both aspects in Boethius, that is, the user’s reason and will; however, Boethius does not mention imposition, see Boethius 1891, 166: In Cat. 1. The larger background, of course, is the dispute between linguistic naturalism and conventionalism, which we already encounter in Plato’s Cratylus.

  16. 16.

    “Vel dicendum (et melius) quod propria significatio dicitur dictionis quam recipit usus communiter. Unde quod modo per aliquam dictionem significatur transsumptive, cum usus inoleverit, significabitur proprie, et tunc erit dictio equivoca quoad primum modum. Et ideo […] contingit sic significationem que non est modo propria, sed transsumptiva, fieri postea propriam per frequentem usum” (trans. Copenhaver et al., slightly modified).

  17. 17.

    “Vix etiam est aliquod vocabulum, quin in libris auctorum aliquando sumatur proprie et secundum suam primam significationem, et aliquando improprie et metaphorice et secundum significationem impropriam.”

  18. 18.

    Recall that Ockham relates Aristotle’s second mode of equivocation with Boethius’ deliberate equivocals. See also ibid., 22–23: In SE 2.2.8. For improper supposition, see Ockham 1974, 236–237: SL 1.77.

  19. 19.

    “Istis modis et multis aliis possunt dictiones a proripa significatione tranferri ad impropriam, cuiusmodi translationis grammatici diversas docent species. Inter quas continentur istae: metaphora, synecdoche, metonymia, antonomasia, emphasis, catachresis, metalempsis, anthropopathos, onomatopoeia, phantasia, paralange et multae aliae […]. Et nota quod aequivocum tale, iuxta istum secundum modum, vacatur a Boethio aequivocum a consilio.”

  20. 20.

    “[…] scriptores veteres, quia tam profunditate scientae quam splendore eloquentiae praepollebant, necesse fuit eos propter ornatum eloquii per diversa vocabula et varias dictionem orationum formas suam intentionem exprimere […].”

  21. 21.

    “Videtur autem alius esse modus aequiuocationis quem Aristoteles omnino non recipit. Nam sicut dicitur pes hominis, ita quoque dicitur pes nauis, et pes montis, quae huiusmodi omnia secundum translationem dicuntur. Neque enim omnis translatio ab aequiuocatione seiungitur sed ea tantum cum ad res habentes positum uocabulum, ab alia iam nominata re nomen ornatus causa transfertur, ut quia iam dicitur quidam auriga, dicitur etiam gubernator, si quis ornatus gratia cum qui gubernator est dicat aurigam, non erit auriga nomen aequiuocum, licet diuersa, id est, moderatorem currus nauisque significet. Sed quoties res quidem uocabulo eget, ab alia uero re quae uocabulum sumit, tunc ista translatio aequiuocationis retinet proprietatem, ut ex homine uiuo ad picturam nomen hominis dictum est.”

  22. 22.

    “Sed vox fit nota rei […] ex transumptione autem ut quando vox imponitur rei primo in ratione signi et sub propria ratione, deinde, propter similitudinem rei illius cui primo imponebatur vel propter proportionem vel relationem quam habet ad aliquam aliam rem transumitur ista vox ad aliquid aliud repraesentandum, ut patet: ‘ridere’ enim proprie attribuitur et ex impositione significat risum hominis, propter quandam similitudinem huius actus ad florere transumitur haec vox ‘ridere’ ad repraesentandum vel significandum florere.”

  23. 23.

    “[…] quando sermonem exornamus […] non novam impositionem vocis facimus […] Quod itaque in ‘auriga’ vel in ‘ridere’ quandoque aliud intelligimus ex adiunctis sibi, quam habeat eorum propria impositio, non est hoc aequivocationis multiplicitati deputandum.”

  24. 24.

    However, Abelard also saw that metaphorical expressions can also make their way into ordinary usage and thus get a “quasi-imposition” (Rosier-Catach 1991, 164). See also Martin 2011.

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Klein, M. (2023). Metaphors, Dead and Alive. In: Hochschild, J.P., Nevitt, T.C., Wood, A., Borbély, G. (eds) Metaphysics Through Semantics: The Philosophical Recovery of the Medieval Mind. International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées, vol 242. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15026-5_8

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