Wierzbicka, Anna (2002). The semantics of metaphor and parable: Looking for meaning in the Gospels. Theoria et Historia Scientiarum, 6(1), 85-106.

Open access

Abstract:

Human communication relies largely on metaphors. This applies to literature, to politics, to everyday interaction, to religion and to ethics. In some areas of life – e.g. in ethics and religion – there are certain key metaphors whose meaning has been debated for centuries and no doubt will continue to be debated into the third millennium; and yet there is no widely accepted methodology with the aid of which such debates can be resolved and possible meanings clearly formulated.

This paper tries to show how the NSM approach can provide such a methodology. The focus is on three extended metaphors, all from the “Sermon on the Mount”: the metaphor of the left hand, the metaphor of a speck in one’s brother’s eye and the metaphor of building on the rock.

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners