Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes the figures of the plane of expression as forms of valorization of the acoustic substance of linguistic sounds, of the optional dispositions of constituents, and of the rhythm of the utterance based on the distribution of pauses and stress. It outlines the key notion of conflictual complex meaning, which provides the semantic purport for the living figures of the plane of content and above all for oxymoron and for the most significant instances of metaphor and metonymy. The book contains a typology of conflicts preliminary to the description of living figures. It also describes oxymoron as the figure of contradiction, which combines a formal conflict with a consistent conceptual content. The book analyzes conceptual interaction, which is the distinctive and constitutive property of metaphors, as an algebraic magnitude.