The disagreement over implicit metaphor leads to a closer definition of literal and figurative use. If a word retains its original meaning while its attribution is imagined, it is not immediately clear whether the whole expression should be treated as lexical, intellectual, or some other figurative phenomenon.
Three notions must be separated: assignment (waḍʿ) relates an expression to a conventionally assigned meaning; use (istiʿmāl) is the speaker’s employment of that expression; interpretive transfer (taʾwīl) connects one conceptual domain to another through a claimed relation.
The following definitional restrictions are intended to clarify such cases rather than add merely decorative words.