In an actual ground, the selected feature belongs to both terms; in an imagined ground, the mind constructs that likeness through a particular scene or hypothesis. These are not the same distinction as sensory versus intellectual.
Sensory/intellectual classifies the terms, while actual/imagined classifies the ground. Sensory terms may still participate in an imaginatively constructed resemblance.
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Ilm al-Bayan and Simile: Definition, Elements, Terms and Particles
In an actual ground, the selected feature belongs to both terms; in an imagined ground, the mind constructs that likeness through a particular scene or hypothesis. These are not the same distinction as sensory versus intellectual.
Sensory/intellectual classifies the terms, while actual/imagined classifies the ground. Sensory terms may still participate in an imaginatively constructed resemblance.