A contextual clue blocks the literal interpretation, but in an effective metaphor it also guides the reader toward the intended image.
Three questions assist analysis:
1. Which literal meaning is excluded here?
2. What common feature links source and target?
3. What word or speech situation identifies the intended referent?
Keeping these questions distinct clarifies the difference between a clue, a resemblance, and the resulting rhetorical effect.
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Representative and Implicit Metaphor, Imaginative Attribution and Kināyah
A contextual clue blocks the literal interpretation, but in an effective metaphor it also guides the reader toward the intended image.
Three questions assist analysis:
1. Which literal meaning is excluded here?
2. What common feature links source and target?
3. What word or speech situation identifies the intended referent?
Keeping these questions distinct clarifies the difference between a clue, a resemblance, and the resulting rhetorical effect.