figurativeとは 意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• IPA: /ˈfɪɡəɹətɪv/

形容詞

figurative (comparative more figurative, superlative most figurative)

1. Of use as a metaphor, simile, metonym or other figure of speech, as opposed to literal; using figures.
   • 2005 May 1, “The Sea of Love”, in New York Times‎:

     The lovers she seems to pursue with her figurative language in fact retreat under the barrage of similes, metaphors and fables.

   • 2017 May 16, Jerry Stuger, “Kafka and Autism. The Undisclosed Logic Behind Kafka’s Work”, in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, volume 47, →DOI, pages 2336–2347:

     It is important to emphasize that Kafka as an autistic person was not always consciously aware his interpretations and writings were literal, thus the line between literal and figurative were not consciously clear for Kafka. This blurring stems from the specific focus of autistic persons who look at external predictable behavior of people and situations rather than at internal mental states of individuals. Kafka wrote from his autistic perspective in which the literal form is a default state of understanding the external world. For Kafka to move beyond the literal is not only to express that which cannot be said literally, but to express that which is not literal. The figurative is not simply not the literal, it is more than the literal. It is beyond the literal. The gap between the literal and the figurative, across which the reader is compelled by language to traverse, is for Kafka also the space which language cannot adequately express. The use of parable by Kafka marks his most concentrated effort to examine the space between language and that which is beyond language.

2. Metaphorically so called.
3. With many figures of speech.
4. Emblematic, symbolic; representative, exemplative
   • 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     This, they will say, was figurative, and served, by God's appointment, but for a time, to shadow out the true glory of a more divine sanctity.

5. (art) Representing forms recognisable in life and clearly derived from real object sources, in contrast to abstract art.
   • 1875-1886, John Addington Symonds, Renaissance in Italy

     They belonged to a nation dedicated to the figurative arts, and they wrote for a public familiar with painted form.

反意語

• literal

派生語

関連する語

• figure

参考

• transferred sense

Further reading

• “figurative”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “figurative”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “figurative”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “figurative”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “figurative”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• figurative in Britannica Dictionary
• What is figurative language?, merriam-webster.com
• figurative in WordReference English Collocations
• Figurative art on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Literal and figurative language on Wikipedia.Wikipedia