Abstract

This dissertation explores a pragmatic view of metaphor in the light of Donald Davidson's and W. V. O. Quine's similar accounts of radical interpretation. After examining and dismissing a number of structuralist explanations of how metaphor works, the study proposes that metaphors operate as stimuli which humans produce in order to direct their interlocutors' attention to new objects or to new aspects of familiar objects. To support this explanation of metaphors as a simple stimuli of no more complexity than their phonic makeup. Much of this expanded explanation of metaphor relies on the tenets of classical behaviorism and of the modernist philosophical pragmatism and functionalism of Peirce, James, Dewey, and Mead. ;Two studies explore the ramifications of a pragmatic view of metaphor for understanding interpretations of metaphorical utterances in naturalistic speech situations. One set of studies examines first year college students' interpretational efforts in response to a series of metaphors. A second, similar study examines the responses of members of Alcoholics Anonymous to a series of metaphorical slogans from AA discourse. ;Also examined is the role of radical interpretation in the organizational history of AA and other alcoholism treatment venues