A Study Of Bipin Indurkhya's Metaphorical Interaction Theory

As Lakoff and Johnson mentioned in'Metaphors We Live By', metaphors are a natural part of the way we think and construct language. Actually, all conceptual connections of human are based on metaphors. Metaphors are not simply the ways to modify language, or category misplacement as logicians said. More importantly it is a basic way of cognition to things.In1930s, I. A. Richards published'The Philosophy of Rhetoric', who first brought up the interaction theory of metaphor. He found the tenor and vehicle often belong to different categories. There is a significant tension between them. Richards believed that the tension and interaction between tenor and vehicle, not their similarities, explained the functions of metaphor. In'Models and Metaphors'(1962), Black explained tenor and vehicle from the angle of principle subject and subsidiary subject. Tenor is the principle subject, which provides the frame of a metaphorical representation; vehicle is the subsidiary subject, which provides the focus of a metaphorical representation. In Black's interaction theory, tenor and vehicle are not individual concepts but two relatively independent system of commonplaces.Indurkhya arranged and supplied the theories of Richards, Black and others, and developed the interaction theory further. In'Metaphor and Cognition:An Interactionist Approach'(1992), Indurkhya provided a more refined theory of interaction, to solve the problems of the interaction theories in the past, which he thought was a contradiction:to admit the reality may limit our subjective perception; or to deny the reality has the ontology structure which cannot be changed by human perception. To end this paradox, Indurkhya proposed three concepts as intermediary, to connect cognitive agent and reality. These three concepts are concept networks, cognitive relations and sensorimotor data set. In his point of view, the function of metaphor has something to do with projection. Metaphor is actually a very regular projection, which projects vehicle to the experience area of tenor. The experience area here includes sensorimotor data set and imaginary perception of experiences based on it. Obviously, the projection will definitely lead to two structures of experience, which are concept network limited by cognitive agent and sensorimotor date set limited by reality. The result is to build a metaphorical relationship between the two.In this paper, I reviewed the history of the interaction theories of metaphor and based on the book'Metaphor and Cognition:An Interactionist Approach'written by Indurkhya. I wanted to show more details of Indurkhya's theory of interaction than just the frame we see in lots of books and articles, which based on Indurkhya's theory but rarely mentioned his name or his works. The last chapter is about how Indurkhya's theory affected the union of the interaction of metaphor and the interaction of cognition.