LessonsDefining Literal Usage: Linguistic Assignment and Speech ConventionQuiz

The place of kināyah in classifications of literal and figurative usage is more than a verbal dispute. One account highlights the intended implication, while another emphasizes that the expression may still be legitimately used in its ordinary sense.

It would therefore be careless to claim that kināyah is in every respect simply literal or in every respect simply figurative. One must ask what exactly is being classified: the established lexical sense, the speaker’s intended referent, or the communicated implication.

For practical analysis, the essential distinction remains that a kināyah indicator typically operates differently from an indicator that rules out the primary sense in figurative transfer.

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A contested boundary in the classification of kināyah

Defining Literal Usage: Linguistic Assignment and Speech Convention

The place of kināyah in classifications of literal and figurative usage is more than a verbal dispute. One account highlights the intended implication, while another emphasizes that the expression may still be legitimately used in its ordinary sense.

It would therefore be careless to claim that kināyah is in every respect simply literal or in every respect simply figurative. One must ask what exactly is being classified: the established lexical sense, the speaker’s intended referent, or the communicated implication.

For practical analysis, the essential distinction remains that a kināyah indicator typically operates differently from an indicator that rules out the primary sense in figurative transfer.