Perception, Textual Theory and Metaphorical Language

Abstract

As Gestalt Psychology deals with phenomenological subjectivism , that is to say the analysis of human experience and its conditions, this approach can be defined as science of immediate phenomenal data (that which appears here and now). If we try to apply the thesis of critical realism which Gestalt is based on, we can say that language refers not directly to physical reality, but to the phenomenological one ; in fact when we communicate, we do not speak of the external world, but of our personal experience of the world. One of the most suitable theories in order to represent the relation between language and phenomenal reality is the textual theory elaborated by J.S. Petöfi, who analyzes at the same time the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic aspects of a text. From this point of view, language cannot give meanings to perception; on the contrary language derives from perception, that is to say linguistic structures are based on cognitive structures and primarily on the perceptive ones. In such an outlook, we can focus on metaphor: it is a linguistic form which can suggest images and express meanings figuratively as Lakoff and Johnsons’ research points out. The relation perception/thought/language and the contribution of hermeneutics and of contemporary semiotic theory lets us understand the existence of several levels of interpretation and the important use of metaphorical and symbolic language both in everyday life and in literary and scientific works.