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Figures of speech are often used and crafted for emphasis, freshness of expression or clarity. However, clarity may also suffer from their use.
Note that not all theories of meaning necessarily have a concept of "literal language". (See Literal and figurative language.) Under theories that do not, figure of speech is not an entirely coherent concept.
An example of the figurative use of a word can be given by the word crown. If you say: I am going to crown you., does that mean: