ABSTRACT
Metaphor is, at root, a problem of knowing. It can serve a crucial role in the development of knowing, both for an individual and for a community. It is a powerful vehicle for recasting identity, for apprehending structure in novel ways. While metaphor can serve this role in perception and in action, its linguistic forms are especially powerful. Since language can be a powerful means for promoting changes in knowing, commitments on epistemic issues are as important for a theory of language as they are for theories of perception and action. Traditional views of metaphor have focused on the sentences that occasion metaphoric thought. Analyses are typically directed at determining the formal properties by which a metaphoric sentence may be identified, and explaining how the meaning of the sentence is related to its form.
