Scientific Metaphor and its Noetic Ambivalence

In this paper we revisit the inspiration of J. Kořenský’s work on the problem of metaphor in scientific reflection on language. For us, the notion of noetic instrumentalisation of metaphor is the main concept by which the author captures that metaphor is an essential tool for interpreting, representing and modelling the processes of linguistic activity. We find Kořenský’s analysis of the noetic instrumentalisation of game inspiring, pointing out that the same metaphorical concept allows, on the one hand, for unifying interpretations of language, but also for interpretations that are in an ambivalent or even polemical relationship. In our study, we analyse the noetic ambivalence of the metaphor of fabric, which functions as a means of interpreting language/speech in two conflicting methodological lines: on the one hand, in a structural linguistic methodological framework, where it harmonises with the instrumentalist approach to language; on the other hand, in a social interactionist framework, where the conceptualisation of speech activity as fabric is used to explain the socially practical linguistic reality of language. The aim of the analysis is to answer the question of what lies behind the noetic ambivalence of this metaphor. To explain this, we draw on J. Dolník’s (2014) reflections on the role of autonomisation in interpreting, and distinguish between the resultative and emergent nature of the metaphorical base in scientific interpretation using metaphor.