LessonsConcluding the Classification of Simile: Mention, Omission, and Emphatic ForceQuiz

Suppose someone asks, “How brave is Zayd?” and the answer is simply «أَسَدٌ» (“A lion!”). Zayd is not repeated: the preceding question supplies him as the subject.

Here the subject, respect, and particle may all be omitted, while the lion as comparison term remains. Yet the same word can refer literally to an actual lion when someone points at the animal in a forest.

The intended figure requires evidence from the context of predication. The fact that an expression has only one word does not itself establish a simile.

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Why an omitted subject requires context

Concluding the Classification of Simile: Mention, Omission, and Emphatic Force

Suppose someone asks, “How brave is Zayd?” and the answer is simply «أَسَدٌ» (“A lion!”). Zayd is not repeated: the preceding question supplies him as the subject.

Here the subject, respect, and particle may all be omitted, while the lion as comparison term remains. Yet the same word can refer literally to an actual lion when someone points at the animal in a forest.

The intended figure requires evidence from the context of predication. The fact that an expression has only one word does not itself establish a simile.