LessonsImplicit and Imaginative Metaphor: Competing Accounts and al-Sakkaki’s DefinitionsQuiz

Three analytical possibilities should be distinguished:
1. Primarily imaginative: the force comes from an imagined property absent from the target, as in death’s physical claws.
2. Realizable meaning: the purpose is an intelligible attribute of the target, such as force in battle or the vigour of youth.
3. A dual reading: an imagined scene expresses a genuine psychological or practical condition.

The third need not mean that two contradictory literal propositions are asserted. A vehicle of expression can be imaginary while the quality conveyed is real; precise classification still depends on the contextual and theoretical analysis.

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Three analytical possibilities in the examples

Implicit and Imaginative Metaphor: Competing Accounts and al-Sakkaki’s Definitions

Three analytical possibilities should be distinguished:
1. Primarily imaginative: the force comes from an imagined property absent from the target, as in death’s physical claws.
2. Realizable meaning: the purpose is an intelligible attribute of the target, such as force in battle or the vigour of youth.
3. A dual reading: an imagined scene expresses a genuine psychological or practical condition.

The third need not mean that two contradictory literal propositions are asserted. A vehicle of expression can be imaginary while the quality conveyed is real; precise classification still depends on the contextual and theoretical analysis.