Starting from Failure The Theory of Vicification—Metaphor, Structural Boundary, and Analysis

This paper begins from the structure of aphasia that language necessarily encounters in self-reference, and proposes the theory of vicification. Taking the discovery of aphasia as its starting point, and resting on three foundations—existence, difference, and vicification—the theory of vicification discovers the drama that structure performs toward its own failure, and from this discovers the trace of the void. Re-entering the drama to examine the operation of structure, it describes two directions of the escape movement: inquiry turns inward, driving toward the structure of aphasia; dissipation turns outward, driving toward the generalization of vicification into nihility. Dissipation congeals into coagulation. The vicificative void is the rediscovery of the structure of aphasia within the drama of structure. The structure of aphasia is the structural analysis of the phenomenon. The theory of vicification strictly distinguishes theoretical foundation from formalization: the theoretical foundation is the structural analysis of metaphor; formalization is the attempt to approach metaphor, requiring extensive empirical approximation. This paper does not claim to provide an operable quantitative scheme, but only claims to provide a theoretical program requiring empirical approximation.