ABSTRACT
A particular word's semantic context is the range of possible meanings that any such word may reasonably be said to have. Nevertheless, there are usually limits to any word's semantic context. This chapter offers three main ways of thinking about these limits: the situation in which the word is used, the history of that word and the extent to which the word is meant to be – or can be taken as – figurative. The word that needs semantic contextualisation is 'traffic'. For the last few generations this word has predominantly meant the movement of vehicles along a road or the movement of, often illicit, goods. The understanding of the way figurative language works is one of the most important elements of literary analysis – and undoubtedly one which provides amongst the keenest rewards. There are a variety of ways in which language can be figurative, but perhaps the most useful to grasp fully are metaphor, metonymy, simile and synecdoche.
