In the classical example, a transfer expression such as “I confer ownership on you” is directed to a free woman in a context suitable for a marriage contract. Literal ownership of her person is not a lawful object, so that reading is unavailable.
The legal setting can therefore point to marriage as the particular transferred meaning. The case does not treat the woman as literal property; it illustrates a term being used for a different, legally defined contract.
A case with several plausible meanings would require additional evidence rather than an automatic inference from the word alone.