We can begin to consider the study of metaphor by considering the nature of text, and of the word “text” itself. If we were to be asked for a definition of “text”, our first recourse might be to a dictionary, and here we would find what at first glance appears to be precisely the definition we need: “The wording of anything written or printed; the structure formed by the words in their order; the very words, phrases, and sentences as written” (OED).
This may seem as though it is a clear, “literal” meaning, and certainly it absolutely summarises some of the everyday uses of the word that we might make when contemplating the study of literature – although even here we may suspect that the dictionary …
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