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

In “the mounts of youth,” horses are not being asserted as physically attached to youth. Speed, vitality, and desire are intelligible qualities of youth, expressed through the equipment of a journey.

If the properties are analyzed as genuine qualities of the target, one explanation follows. If the horses and mounts are treated as independently imagined objects, another explanation follows. The technical dispute concerns which elements are actual attributes and which are imaginative constructions.

The distinction between external actuality and mental imagery therefore remains central. A metaphor need not assert the literal existence of its imagery in order to communicate effectively.

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Youth’s imagined equipment and its actual qualities

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

In “the mounts of youth,” horses are not being asserted as physically attached to youth. Speed, vitality, and desire are intelligible qualities of youth, expressed through the equipment of a journey.

If the properties are analyzed as genuine qualities of the target, one explanation follows. If the horses and mounts are treated as independently imagined objects, another explanation follows. The technical dispute concerns which elements are actual attributes and which are imaginative constructions.

The distinction between external actuality and mental imagery therefore remains central. A metaphor need not assert the literal existence of its imagery in order to communicate effectively.