| Summary: | Includes abstract. === Includes bibliographical references (leaves 188-198). === Similar to previous academic papers on the topic of relevance, this dissertation too responds to specific claims proposed by relevance theory. The relevance-theoretic account of the recovery of metaphorical interpretations is of particular interest and is considered relative to the assertions of Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 1999) and Lakoff and Turner (1989), proponents of the cognitive linguistic approach to metaphor. The study has three distinct parts. It firstly explores the treatment of metaphor within the framework of Relevance Theory. Secondly, it argues via the assertions of the Contemporary Theory of Metaphor that the relevance-theoretic treatment of metaphor is in violation of one of its fundamental claims about cognition, namely, that human cognition tends to be geared to the maximization of relevance. Thirdly the salience of the cognitive-linguistic view of metaphor is illustrated through the metaphorical characterisation of D.J. Opperman’s (1979) volume of poetry, Komas uit ‘n bamboesstok.
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