Connotative Meanings of Metonymy and Simile in Imam Ali bin Abi Talib's Speech

Abstract

Connotative meanings , particularly in figures of speech, are one of the semantic behaviours of linguistic structures. The current paper investigates some of these meanings in Islamic political discourse and their role in conveying the speaker's intended message to the audience. For many reasons, Imam Ali's speech, in one of his famous sermons, ash-shiqshiqiyyah sermon, has been selected as data of analysis.  It is hypothesized here that Imam Ali's sermon ⁽¹⁾ uses figures of speech to indirectly express his ideas and intended meanings, and ⁽²⁾ tends to connote such meanings to achieve more than one purpose particularly via metonymy and simile.