LessonsClassifying Metaphor by Its Terms and Common Feature: Concordance, Opposition and InclusionQuiz

وكذلك استعارة الموجود لمن عدم وفقد
Conversely, the name of something existent may be borrowed for what is absent or lost.

An absent or vanished thing may be portrayed as “present” because of its memory, effects, or relevance to a current discussion. Such usage does not ordinarily assert its literal external existence. The speaker transfers the word across the contrast for a purpose.

Analytical test: where external existence is actually asserted, one cannot infer a metaphor merely from an unusual claim. But where a missing entity is called present to highlight a surviving effect or conceptual presence, figurative opposition can be at work; context determines which reading is intended.

Opening interactive controls...

Treating the nonexistent as existent

Classifying Metaphor by Its Terms and Common Feature: Concordance, Opposition and Inclusion

وكذلك استعارة الموجود لمن عدم وفقد
Conversely, the name of something existent may be borrowed for what is absent or lost.

An absent or vanished thing may be portrayed as “present” because of its memory, effects, or relevance to a current discussion. Such usage does not ordinarily assert its literal external existence. The speaker transfers the word across the contrast for a purpose.

Analytical test: where external existence is actually asserted, one cannot infer a metaphor merely from an unusual claim. But where a missing entity is called present to highlight a surviving effect or conceptual presence, figurative opposition can be at work; context determines which reading is intended.