All languages have a limited number of words to use in expressing thoughts and ideas.
We have approximately 40,000 words we use to express hundreds of thousands of experiences, feelings, and thoughts. Because of this poverty of words, we begin saying the sun rises or we feel blue. This type of expression is what we call a figure of speech, which is a special way of creating a picture in the mind of the reader or listener to enhance understanding. Principles for Interpreting Figures of Speech Identify a figure by trying to take the passage literally. If it makes no sense to apply it literally, then it's probably a figure of speech.