ABSTRACT
The process of coming to terms with figurative language divides itself into two stages: the rejection of an orthodox, but unacceptable interpretation, and the discovery of an unorthodox, figurative interpretation. Rule of transference might be called the Quotation Rule; it is the one we encountered in interpreting the paradox that truth is a lie. The traditional figure of SYNECDOCHE is identified with a rule which applies the term for the part to the whole. METAPHOR is so central to our notion of poetic creation that it is often treated as a phenomenon in its own right, without reference to other kinds of transferred meaning. Nevertheless, from a linguistic point of view, the literal meaning is always basic, and the figurative meaning derived. Definitions of the figure METONYMY are often broad enough to include the preceding two tropes synecdoche and metaphor. Simile is an overt, and metaphor a covert comparison.
