Is the Conduit Metaphor a Really Wrong Metaphor for the Understanding of Our Communication?

Mieczysław Nasiadka

Uniwersytet Warszawski

Abstract

The paper briefly presents the main assumptions of the Conduit Metaphor, described by Reddy as the basic model of human communication, which is present in both our thinking about language and in the language we speak itself. Unfortunately, most often we are unaware of this fact. According to Reddy, expressions structured by this metaphor make up, roughly speaking, about 70 per cent of all language expressions we use day-to-day while talking or writing. At the same time both Reddy and other linguists blame this metaphor for most cases of unsuccessful communication, among other things, due to the fact that it allegedly implies that words and other linguistic expressions contain only fixed meaning independent of context or due to the fact that it allegedly does not demand that the receiver of a message should expend any effort to understand the sender correctly. The author of the paper tries to defend the Conduit Metaphor, refuting the charges against it by recalling, among other things, the fact that (like other conceptual metaphors) this metaphor may have a lot of particular instantiations that allow us at least to bring into question Reddy’s and other linguists’ accusations against it.

Keywords:

communication, metaphor, conduit metaphor, concept, idea, meaning, container, sending, philosophy in the flesh