Ibn Jinni, Metonymy and the Authenticity of Truth

As a one of the most important figures of speech among linguistic phenomena، metonymy is considered to be a factor involved in understanding the meaning of the speaker''s intention correctly، hence it is frequently investigated from various aspects of literature، principles of jurisprudence and theology. Ibn Jinni was a famous grammarian and linguist in the 4th century A. H (10th century AD) who had a very different observation on metonymy. In his point of view، metonymy has a great extent of usage، so that a large number of words used in any languages are considered to be metonymic. This idea leads to the difficulty of distinguishing metonymy from true meaning and as a result can affect or change one of the well-known theories in principles of jurisprudence called the Authenticity of Truth. Thus، using descriptive - analytical method، this article studies the viewpoint of Ibn Jinni about the metonymy and the consequences of accepting his theory with regard to the Authenticity of Truth. It seems that there are serious restrictions in using this principle contrary to what has been claimed in principles of jurisprudence.