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Full Idea
There is hardly a word in the language - be it an adverb, preposition, conjunction, or what have you - that is devoid of metaphorical potential.
Gist of Idea
Hardly a word in the language is devoid of metaphorical potential
Source
Stephen Yablo (Apriority and Existence [2000], §12)
Book Ref
'New Essays on the A Priori', ed/tr. Boghossian,P /Peacocke,C [OUP 2000], p.213
A Reaction
Yablo goes on to claim that metaphor is at the heart of all of our abstract thinking. 'Dead metaphors' (like the "mouth" of a river) sink totally into literal language. I think Yablo is on the right lines.
| 8858 | Philosophers keep finding unexpected objects, like models, worlds, functions, numbers, events, sets, properties [Yablo] |
| 8859 | The main modal logics disagree over three key formulae [Yablo] |
| 8862 | Platonic objects are really created as existential metaphors [Yablo] |
| 8861 | Hardly a word in the language is devoid of metaphorical potential [Yablo] |
| 8863 | We must treat numbers as existing in order to express ourselves about the arrangement of planets [Yablo] |
| 8864 | We quantify over events, worlds, etc. in order to make logical possibilities clearer [Yablo] |
| 8865 | If 'the number of Democrats is on the rise', does that mean that 50 million is on the rise? [Yablo] |