METAPHOR IN THE LANGUAGE OF RELIGION
Keywords:
Metaphor: A Point of Inquiry, Metaphor: Definition, Question of, Sentence, Myth, Metaphor, Linguistic Structure, and 'Transcendent Reality, Metaphor as Ritualistic SymbolAbstract
The language of religion has been studied from different perspectives by theologians. philosophers, literary critics and linguists. Scholars from these diverse disciplines have focussed on different issues related to the language of religion. Philosophers' primary interest lies in the questions related to the contents while linguists are primarily interested in analyzing the 101m of the language of religion. Thus philosophers such as Ayer, Carnap and Wittgenstein discuss questions such as (a) what kind of reality does language of religion depict, and (b) is language capable of expressing religious contents? and (c) how does language express religion (symbolically, or analogically?), etc. On the other hand linguists such as Ferguson," Rabin s and Samarin" are primarily interested in identifying formal features (phonetic, phonological, syntactic. etc.) which define the 'register' of the language of religion.
References
L. Wittgenstein, Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics. Psychology and Religious Belief. Edited by Cyril Barrett. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 1966. 20. Op. cit. p. 156. 21. Op. cit. 22. Op. clt . p. 109.
D.Z. Phillips, Religious Beliefs end Language Games, In Basil Mitchell (ed.) The Philosophy of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1971. pp, 121-142.
A. Ortony. Some Psycho-linguistic Aspects of Metaphor. 1980. In Cognition and Figurative Language. R.A. Honeck and R.R. Hoffman (eds). Hillsdale: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, Publishers. pp. 69-86.
H. R. Zimmer, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization.
Joseph Campbell(e.d.). Pantheon Books. 1947, pp, 3-11.
The Bhagavadgitii 11.32. 8. M. Black, 'How Metaphors Work: A Reply to Donald Davidson'. In Sacks; Sheldon (ed.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1979.
S. Ullman, Simile and Metaphor. In Anna Morpurgo Davies and Wolfgang Meid (eds.), Studies in Greek, Italic, and Indo-European linguistic Off'Jfed to Leonard R. Palmer.
Innsbruk: Innsbruk Beitrage Zur Sprachwissenschaft, 1976, pp. 425-430.
I.A. Richards, The Philosophy of Rhetoric. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1936.
P. Ricour, The Role of Metaphor: Multi-disciplinary Studies of the Creation of Meaning in Language, 1978. Translated by Robert Czarny with Kathleen McLaughlin and John Costello. S.J. London: Routledge & Kegal Paul.
W.J. Samarin. The Language of Religion. In Language In Religious Practice, W.J. Simarin (ed.). Rowley. Mass.: Newburry House. 1978.
L. Wittgenstein. Philosophical Investigations. Translated by G.E.M. Anscombe. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1953.
