LessonsImplicit and Imaginative Metaphor: Definitions, Core Examples, and AnalysisQuiz

In explicit metaphor (taṣrīḥiyyah), the name of the source is spoken and used for the target: a brave person, for instance, is called “a lion.” The source noun has been directly applied to someone else.

In the construction under study, the direction of expression differs. The target remains named as itself — death — but the predator is not named. Only its identifying attribute, claws, appears.

Using “lion” for a brave person and describing “the claws of death” are therefore not structurally identical. The first centers on borrowing the source name; the second centers on attributing a source-specific feature to a stated target.

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Implicit versus explicit borrowing of a source name

Implicit and Imaginative Metaphor: Definitions, Core Examples, and Analysis

In explicit metaphor (taṣrīḥiyyah), the name of the source is spoken and used for the target: a brave person, for instance, is called “a lion.” The source noun has been directly applied to someone else.

In the construction under study, the direction of expression differs. The target remains named as itself — death — but the predator is not named. Only its identifying attribute, claws, appears.

Using “lion” for a brave person and describing “the claws of death” are therefore not structurally identical. The first centers on borrowing the source name; the second centers on attributing a source-specific feature to a stated target.