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

بالكلمة المستعملة فيما وضعت له من غير تأويل في الوضع
A word used for what it was assigned to denote, without interpretive adjustment to that assignment.

The definition contains three parts: the word, use in an assigned sense, and absence of interpretive adjustment to assignment. Merely recognizing a familiar lexical sense is not enough if the theory allows a claimed extension of the category.

“Lion” used for the animal is literal. When “lion” describes a brave man, the relation to the assigned animal sense becomes different, even if a theory explains it by claiming that the man belongs figuratively to the class of lions.

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Al-Sakkākī’s definition of literal usage

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

بالكلمة المستعملة فيما وضعت له من غير تأويل في الوضع
A word used for what it was assigned to denote, without interpretive adjustment to that assignment.

The definition contains three parts: the word, use in an assigned sense, and absence of interpretive adjustment to assignment. Merely recognizing a familiar lexical sense is not enough if the theory allows a claimed extension of the category.

“Lion” used for the animal is literal. When “lion” describes a brave man, the relation to the assigned animal sense becomes different, even if a theory explains it by claiming that the man belongs figuratively to the class of lions.