Metonymy

=Metonymy =

**Metonymy** is a figure of speech in which the name of a thing is substituted for the name of something else with which it is intimately associated. [1] Metonymy is also the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by refferring to things contiguous to it, in either time or space. The substitution is based on association by contiguity.[2]For instance, “crown” is used as a metonym(an instance of metonymy) for royalty. [3]

Metonymy derives from the Greekμετωνυμία, metōnymía, "a change of name", from μετά, metá, "after, beyond" and -ωνυμία, -ōnymía, a suffix used to name figures of speech, from ὄνῠμα, ónyma or ὄνομα, ónoma, "name." [4]  1 Definition of Metonymy 2Types of Metonymy  3 Application of Metonymy  4 Synecdoche  5 References  6 External Links ||
 * === Cotents ===
 * 2.1 Referential Metonymy
 * 2.2 Predicative Metonymy

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Basically speaking, metonymy is divided into two categories: referential metonymy and predicative metonymy.[5] =====

**Referential Metonymy ** In referential metonymy, the metonymic noun phrase has an intended referent related to but different from its literal meaning.[6] Referential metonymy is widely used in English. Here is an example: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%; text-decoration: none;">“The ham sandwich is waiting for his check.”[7] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%; text-decoration: none;">It is not literally the ham sandwich doing the waiting but rather the person who ordered it. Therefore, the actual and intended referent of “the ham sandwich” is related to the person, not the food.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px;">**Predicative Metonymy** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%; text-decoration: none;">Predicative metonymy is a type of metonymy in which the referent of the noun phrase remains unchanged and the argument place of the predicate is shifted instead.[8]In other words, in predicative metonymy, the actual and intended referent of the noun phrase is just the literal one and it is more accurate to say that the predicate is coerced. For instance, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-decoration: none;">“Which airlines fly from Boston to Denver?”[9]

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%; line-height: 24px;">The only possible explanation seems to be that it is a set of airlines that offer flights from Boston to Denver. The actual and intended referent of “airlines” goes straightforward to flights rather than anything else. Meanwhile, the predicate “fly” used to be related to flights is shifted to “airlines”.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%; line-height: 25px;">**Application of Metonymy**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Generally speaking, metonymy has 9 widely accepted usages which makes expressions vivid ,succinct and interesting.[10]

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"> 1 __ PART FOR THE WHOLE __ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">They share the same **roof.** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%; line-height: 23px;">Roof, as a part of a house, is the covering on top of a building which protects people and their possessions from the weather. Here, it is used to substitute the word "house ". Thus,"share the same roof" means " live in the same house".

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">2 __CHARACTERISTICS FOR THINGS/HUMANS__ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">A thousand **mustache** can live together, but not four **breasts.** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">“mustache” is the characteristic of men while “breast” is that of women. By this way, what the sentence delivers is a thousand men can easily get along well with each other while two women fail.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">3 HUMANS OR ANIMALS FOR THEIR CHARACTERISTICS <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">**The** **wolf** and **the pig** mingled together in his face.[11] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Though the wolf and the pig are animals, they represent different characteristics. The wolf prepared to attack the preys at any time is always associated with brutalness while the pig is often related to greediness considering its big size and longing for food.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">4 __PRODUCER FOR PRODUCT__ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Anton Rubinstein was renowned for his rendition of **Tchaikovsky.**[12] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">“Tchaikovsky” in the sentence above no longer refers to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky who is a prominent Russian composer of the Romantic era. In fact, it is equivalent to the musical pieces he has composed.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">5 __RAW MATERIAL FOR END-PRODUCT__ <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">But, as it is clear from the city’s guide-book, Chester still has my survivals of its past, both in the form of picturesque traditions and picturesque **bricks** and **stone**.[13] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;"> “bricks” and “stone” are raw materials used to lay the foundation of the building. In the sentence above, "bricks" and "stone" represent the end-product, namely the building.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">6 __CONCRETE ENTITIES FOR ABSTRACT FEATURE__ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">The rather arresting pectacle of little old Japan adrift amid beige concrete skyscrapers is the very symbol if the incessant struggle between **the kimono** and **the miniskirt.** [14] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Kimono is a type of traditional Japanese clothes while miniskirt is what young western girls prefer to wear. Thereby, "the kimono" and "the miniskirt" respectively refer to traditional Japanese culture and modern western civilization.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">7 __ABSTRACT FEATURES FOR CONCRETE ENTITIES__ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">It was not only writers, you know, it was a thoroughly representative gathering—**science, politics, business, art, the world**. [15] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">“science” ,“politics”, “business”, “art” and “the world” carry abstract meanings, each respectively standing for specific field. In the sentence, each word is specified, representing people who work in the certain field.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">8 __OBJECT USED FOR USERS__ <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">“Well, Mr. Weller,”, says the gentleman, “you’re a very good **whip**, and can do what you like with your horses. ” [16] <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">It is known to all that Mr. Weller cannot be an object—a whip. He can only use the whip to command his horses. In this way, the object, namely the whip replaces the user—Mr. Weller.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">9 __TIME/PLACES FOR EVENTS/INSTITUTIONS/A CERTAIN GROUP OF PEOPLE__ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">(1) **Scotland Yard** was called in by the Xuereb family soon after the couple disappeared and 120 officers with 80 vehicles were put on the case under the command of Commander William Hucklesby, head of the antiterrorist squad.[17] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">“Scotland Yard” refers to the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK, while its meaning extends in the sentence above, representing police officers working in the institution. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%; line-height: 23px;">(2) We will never forget **9.11.** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">"9.11" is not an ordinary day any more. It reminds people of the terrorist attacks on 9.11, 2001 when al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airlines and intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, killing everyone on board and most of those working in the buildings. Thus, "9.11" has become intimately associated with terrorist attacks.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px;">**Synecdoche**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**Synecdoche** is a figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole (as fifty sails for fifty ships//)//or the whole for a part (as society for high society <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; line-height: 23px;">).[18] Synecdoche is usually understood as a specific kind of metonymy,however, there still exists the difference between the two figures of speech used in rhetoric. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Synecdoche is a specific term employed when a part of the thing is put into use to mean the whole thing itself.[19] "All hands on deck" is an example, where 'hands' not only mean a part of the body, but also represent the men attached to them. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; line-height: 23px;">"Get your butt over here." is another instance, where "butt" also represents the man attached to it. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; line-height: 23px;">Metonymy is similar, but uses something more generally or loosely associated with a concept to stand in for it.[20] when British people refer to the crown, they are really discussing the powers, authority and responsibilities of the monarchy, which is symbolized by the crown. The difference between metonymy and <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">synecdoche <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; line-height: 23px;">is that in metonymy the employed word is linked to the concept one is really talking about, but is not actually a part of it whereas in synecdoche the employed word entails the part-whole relation with the concept one is actually referring to.[21]


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 35px;">References **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">[1 <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 80%;">] __[]__ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 28px;">[2] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Wardhaugh,Ronald.1977. //Introduction to Linguistics//. McGraw-Hill Book. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">[3]http://grammar.about.com/od/mo/g/metonymy.htm <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; display: block; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; line-height: 23px;">[4]Welsh, Alfred Hux; James Mickleborough Greenwood (1893).//Studies in English Grammer. A Comprehensive Course for Grammar Schools//. New York City:Silver Burdett. pp.222. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px;">[5] __ [] __ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 宋体; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">[6] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-size: 15px; text-align: left; vertical-align: auto;">__[]__. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 宋体; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">[7] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-size: 15px; text-align: left; vertical-align: auto;">__[]__. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 宋体; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">[8] __[]__. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 宋体; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> [9] __[]__. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[10] Panther, Klaus-Uwe & Günter Radden (eds). //Metonymy in Language and Thought. Amsterdam//: John Benjamins. 1999.  <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[11]Panther, Klaus-Uwe & Günter Radden (eds). //Metonymy in Language and Thought//. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 1999. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[12]Panther, Klaus-Uwe & Günter Radden (eds). //Metonymy in Language and Thought. Amsterdam:// John Benjamins. 1999. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[13]Panther, Klaus-Uwe & Günter Radden (eds). //Metonymy in Language and Thought. Amsterdam//: John Benjamins. 1999. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[14]Panther, Klaus-Uwe & Günter Radden (eds). //Metonymy in Language and Thought//. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 1999. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> [15] Panther, Klaus-Uwe & Thornburg, Linda (eds).//Metonymy and Pragmatic Inferencing//, John Benjamins Publishing Company. 2003. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> [16] Panther, Klaus-Uwe & Thornburg, Linda (eds).//Metonymy and Pragmatic Inferencing//, John Benjamins Publishing Company. 2003. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">[17]Wardhaugh,Ronald.1977. //Introduction to Linguistics//. McGraw-Hill Book. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">[18] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/synecdoche <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">[19] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-syn1.htm <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[20]http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-syn1.htm <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[21]http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-syn1.htm <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 宋体; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 宋体; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px;">**External Links**

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 宋体; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">[1] [|http://www.google.com/bookshl=zhCN&lr=&id=Raqw1erGJcQC&oi=fnd&pg=PA349&dq=metonymy&ots=bSwX_vpYEJ&sig=TF2YybtJ12scdJnxPHCfqUJvJx4#v=onepage&q&f=false] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 宋体; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">[2] []  <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">[3]<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">http://www.cleanlanguage.co.uk/articles/articles/210/1/Metonymy--Part-Whole-Relationships/Page1.html  <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">[4]<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">http://www33.ocn.ne.jp/~homosignificans/symbolnoumi/english/metonymy.pdf