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being done by the figurative nature of the underlying similes, and so their
figurative interpretations need explaining in turn. Indeed, our original two
main questions arise for figurative similes: What is it for such sentences to
have figurative meanings, and how are those meanings conveyed to hearers?
Fogelin (1988) exploits the notion of a salient feature of a thing.7 (Those
are the features that jump out at you, or loom large for you.) In that way he is
able to mobilize a nonsymmetrical similarity relation (p. 78): "A is similar to
B if and only if A has a sufficient number of B's salient features." A may share
a sufficient number of B's salient features without B's sharing a sufficient
number of A's salient features, since the particular features of B that A shares
need not be salient in A. For example, a chipmunk is very like a rat, except
for being cute or perceived as such by humans; it has most of the rat's salient
features, being a small scavenging rodent of loose morals
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