13. Metonymy and metaphor compared.

Metonymy is a trope based upon a real connection between the 2 objects: that which is named and the name of which is taken. (transfer by contiguity)

I was followed by a pair of heavy boots.

Stereotyped (“etymological”) metonymy (I’m fond of Dickens; I collect old china) have no expressive force as contrasted to genuine metonymy («…за рекой в поселке моя любовь, моя судьба живет»).

The following types of metonymy are differentiated:

1) names of tools instead the names of actions (the guitar played beautifully)

2) consequence instead of cause (the fish desperately takes the death=snaps at the fish-hook)

3) the material instead of the thing made of it: He examined her bronzes and clays.

4) characteristic feature of the object (Hey you, green coat! You left your handbag!)

5) a symbol instead the object symbolized (synecdoche): the crown(= king); a hand(= worker)

Synecdoche – a variety of metonymy: using the name of a part to denote the whole or vice versa.

Stereotyped synecdoche: hands – worker(s); a hundred head of cattle – a part for the whole;

Stop torturing the poor animal! (instead of …the poor dog!)

Reading books when I’m talking to you!

+ Periphrasis (см. 16 билет)

Metaphor is a trope based on likeness of the two, there being no actual connection between them. (transfer by similarity)

Time was bleeding away.

The reception was cold.

As they are disconnected, to find features in common, the speaker must search for associations in his own mind that is not as in the case of metonymy, where both objects lie before our eyes. => metaphor requires a greater intellectual effort. Metaphor seems to be a more essential shift (change of semantic planes) than is observed in metonymy.

Metaphors:

1) Simple

2) Complex (sustained, prolonged) – one metaphoric statement, creating an image, is followed by another containing the development of the previous metaphor.

“This is the day of your Golden opportunity, Sarge. Don’t let it turn to brass.”

Incongruence of the parts of a complex metaphor is called catachresis (or mixed metaphors):

• “The Tooth of Time, which has already dried many a tear, will let the grass grow over his painful wound.”

• “…there is in the hay needle, and among the sleeping dogs there is one on whom I shall put my foot, and by shooting the arrow into the air, one will come down and hit a glass-house.”

Trite metaphors: seeds (roots) of evil, a flight of imagination, to burn with desire. Many of them are set phrases: to fish for compliments, to prick up one’s ears, the apple of one’s eye, to bark up the wrong tree, chewing the rag, with the cards face up, etc.

Fresh metaphors:

“If Aitken found about us the New York job would go up in smoke” (= every chance of getting the New York job would be lost).

“Only briefly did I pay heed to the warning bell (=the feeling of alarm) that rang sharply in my mind.”

Personification is a variety of metaphor, attributing human properties to lifeless objects.

Markers:

-he, she instead of it

-direct address

-capitalization

Functions:

-in classical poetry of the 17^th cent. P. was a tribute to mythological tradition and to the laws of ancient rhetoric.

-to impart the dynamic force to the description

-to reproduce a particular mood

-to depict the perception of the outer world by the lyrical hero

• 'No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet

To chase the glowing Hours with flyingfeef.’

• “O, tender Night…”

Allegory is a device by which the names of objects or characters of a story are used in a figurative sense, representing some more general things, good or bad qualities. This is often found in fables {басни) and parables {притчи). It is also a typical feature of proverbs (metonymical A.), which contain generalizations (express some general moral truths):

All is not gold that glitters;

Every cloud has a silver lining;

There is no rose without a thorn;

Make the hay while the sun shines

Metaphorical A.: broken chains - freedom; white dove – peace etc.