Metaphors and Folk Classification

Abstract

Most work in the field of ethnographic semantics has concentrated on the determination of referential correspondences between folk categories and objective experience. Here, it is argued that the relationship of words to referents varies in different kinds of contexts; and a properly contextual account of naming requires that we admit "metaphorical" considerations in a description of the meaning of words. The data to be considered concern the use and naming of plants in the magical spells of the Ilongots, a hill people of Northern Luzon, Philippines.