Swales (1990) said that ‘figurative language’ is often used in speaking and writing to express ideas and emotions, and to affect the views and attitudes of others. However, there is increasing evidence that the use of figurative language varies depending on the nature of the communicative activity, or, more specifically, depending on factors such as topic, audience, mode of communication, situational context, and so on.
Kreuz & Roberts (1993) said that ' figurative language ' is not deviant a form of communication that requires special or additional cognitive processes to understand and that occurs only in special circumstances. Rather, figurative language is ubiquitous in many forms of discourse no more difficult to understand in context than literal language and, according to some theorists, fundamental to the way people conceptualize the world.
According to Barton (2007), figurative language is that which provides the reader with comparisons, substitutions, and patterns that shape meaning. Literary texts sometimes make concentrated use of figurative language. However, most language is figurative in some sense, because words do not have single, objective meaning.