Where has a word been transferred? is a question about the metaphor itself. What prevents a literal reading? is a question about the clue. Treating them separately clarifies difficult examples.
One interpretation of “claws of death” focuses on the transferred word “claws”; another centers the imaginary attribution of claws to death. Either way, attaching claws to death generates the unusual relationship that signals the rhetorical image.
A striking relation should not automatically receive one label without identifying the theory under which it is being classified.