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

أظفار المنية
The claws of death.

The target is death; the predator is not named; claws point toward it. Context and the impossibility of literal claws on death prevent a physical reading.

رأيت أسداً يخطب
I saw a lion delivering a sermon.

Here “lion” is expressly stated and “delivering a sermon” signals a human speaker. In the first example, an attribute reveals an unstated source; in the second, an overt noun moves beyond its actual referent. Though both can suggest power or courage, their structures differ.

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Worked analysis of two metaphorical expressions

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

أظفار المنية
The claws of death.

The target is death; the predator is not named; claws point toward it. Context and the impossibility of literal claws on death prevent a physical reading.

رأيت أسداً يخطب
I saw a lion delivering a sermon.

Here “lion” is expressly stated and “delivering a sermon” signals a human speaker. In the first example, an attribute reveals an unstated source; in the second, an overt noun moves beyond its actual referent. Though both can suggest power or courage, their structures differ.