Abstract

Focusing on Ricoeur’s hermeneutic phenomenology of language, the aim of this paper is, on the one hand, to show how the world of human experience is configured and reconfigured through processes of semantic innovation. On the other hand, the question is discussed how it is possible for members of different linguistic and cultural communities to communicate – if it is true that these processes culminate in the establishment of different »world-views«. The first part of the paper retraces the way in which Ricoeur developed the methodical approach of a hermeneutic phenomenology of language based on the model of the text. Then, Ricoeur’s theory of metaphor as well as his theory of narrative are presented. Finally, taking up Ricoeur’s theory of translation, i.e. his concept of »linguistic hospitality«, the perspective of an ethics of intercultural communication is outlined.