The Other in The Self: The Ontological Metaphoricity of Language

Abstract

Through text and illustrations, I (first author) theorize language as a being that becomes and revels in its plurality, illuminating the inherent and necessary aesthetic and multimodal dimensions of any struggle toward meaning. To do so, I start by foregrounding my own experiences with the diversity that characterizes language to portray the significance of studying its ontology and plurality. I then identify philosophical hermeneutics as a practical metatheory that centrally positions language as a medium for understanding. From a hermeneutic perspective, language manifests as a network of meaning that is constituted through an ontological metaphoricity that echoes a capacity to both present and represent phenomena. This metaphoricity of language is then discussed in terms of its linguistically, speculative, and dialogic dimensions. I pose that language discloses an otherness in ourselves that is fostered in a capacity for renewed understandings and meanings that are yet becoming.