Metaphor and understanding me

This paper explores the role of the metaphor-maker in the construction of meaningful metaphor construction. More specifically, the paper defends the claim that the semantic language-user is key for the possibility of both meaning and the understanding of metaphor. This takes into account the seemingly contradictory status of two claims: (1) that words can be meaningful without context, intentionality or the presence of, or origin in a language-user, while (2) the expectation of a context, intention or speaker is central to finding meaning in words and particularly metaphors. The apparent contradiction can be resolved if we see that the possibility of meaningful metaphor says as much about our expectation and need for meaning as it does about the language itself. Understanding words is thus as much about understanding the utterer of the words, as about the words themselves. Through exploring Wittgenstein’s ideas about metaphor, this idea should become clearer. The paper will then explore what the limitations of computational metaphor might be as a result.