Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 225):
Specifically each type of expansion contributes one figurative mode, as in the following examples:
In these examples the figures of speech are largely lexical; but the principle they illustrate — that because of the "play" that occurs between different strata the system has the potential for construing figurative meanings — extends throughout the grammar, as we shall see in the next chapter. What this means is, that whatever is construed can also be reconstrued, giving yet another dimension to the topology of semantic space.