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

An objection arises: if assignment refers only to a word’s actual established sense, metaphor is already outside literal use, so why add an exclusion of interpretation? Conversely, if assignment can extend through imagined claims, what keeps literal and metaphorical uses distinct?

The issue turns on what assignment is taken to mean. Under one conception it is the conventional relation to an actual meaning; under another, an imaginative claim extends the apparent class of reference. Using both senses interchangeably obscures the dispute.

In calling a courageous man a lion, the animal, the man, and their shared courage must be kept separate. This shows exactly where interpretive adjustment enters.

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A challenge to the restriction on interpretation

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

An objection arises: if assignment refers only to a word’s actual established sense, metaphor is already outside literal use, so why add an exclusion of interpretation? Conversely, if assignment can extend through imagined claims, what keeps literal and metaphorical uses distinct?

The issue turns on what assignment is taken to mean. Under one conception it is the conventional relation to an actual meaning; under another, an imaginative claim extends the apparent class of reference. Using both senses interchangeably obscures the dispute.

In calling a courageous man a lion, the animal, the man, and their shared courage must be kept separate. This shows exactly where interpretive adjustment enters.