11 Metaphor Metonymy

A metaphor is a relation between the dictionary and contextual logical meaning

is based on the affinity or similarity of certain properties or features of the two corresponding concepts. Metaphor can be embodied in all the meaningful parts of speech, in nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and sometimes even in the auxiliary parts of speech , as in prepositions. Stylistic function of a metaphor is to make the description concrete, to express the individual attitude.

Actually, there are at least three main theories of metaphor.

• Substitution (replacement) theory – we use one word or expression instead of another if we lack a lexical unit that nominates the object directly.

• comparative theory

interaction theory - the tenor and the vehicle interact and as a result some qualities of the vehicle are discarded as useless and others sieved. They compliment each other. Any notional part of speech can be used metaphorical.

The metaphor, according to I. A. Richards consists of two parts: the tenor and vehicle. The tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the subject from which the attributes are borrowed. Other writers employ the general terms ground and figure to denote what Richards identifies as the tenor and vehicle: All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances. In this case, the world is the tenor and the stage is the vehicle. "Men and women" are a secondary tenor and "players" is the vehicle for this secondary tenor. The metaphor is sometimes further analyzed in terms of the ground and the tension. The ground consists of the similarities between the tenor and the vehicle. The tension of the metaphor consists of the dissimilarities between the tenor and the vehicle. In the above example, the ground begins to be elucidated from the third line: "They all have their exits and entrances". In the play, Shakespeare continues this metaphor for another twenty lines beyond what is shown here - making it a good example of an extended metaphor.

Any part of speech may be used metaphorically: a noun (”diamonds hung in the grass”); a genitive construction—that is, a metaphor plus a noun in the genitive case (“the colonnade of the forest”; “the bronze of muscles”); an adjective (”duck nose,” a metaphorical epithet); or a verb, including the participial form (“there, where sound the streams of Aragva and Kura, merging together, embracing like two sisters”).

Metonymy is also based on association, but it is not association through analogy. It is association through contiguity. The tenor and the vehicle have really existing connections and thus the vehicle represents the tenor.

M. can be based on several kinds of relationship:

1) A concrete thing used instead of an abstract notion: Man cannot live on bread alone.

2) container for the contained: to smoke a pack in one go;

3) a characteristic feature for its owner: “It’s me”, answered a squeaky voice;

4) the material instead of the thing made of it: Не то на серебре – на золоте едал (Грибоедов); those are some nice threads [clothes], "willow" for cricket bat, "copper" for penny, "paper" for money, "ivories" for piano keys, "plastic" for credit card, "the hardwood" for a gym floor, "steel" for a sword, "iron" for weightlifting barbells, "lead" for a bullet, "rubber" for vehicle tires, "cloth" for a member of the clergy, "suit" for a businessperson;

5) object for the doer: his prolific pen, кисть художника запечатлела, the pen stopped. Их села и нивы за буйный набег обрек он мечам и пожарам (Пушкин);

6) symbol for what it stands for: to succeed to the throne, to pass into an untimely grave, Man can not live on bread alone.

7) the name of the author instead of his works;

8) the place instead of the people there: the hall applauded, Все поле охнуло (П.)

9) emotion or attitude instead of naming the thing or person that causes it: “Love on his knees before Beauty”, “You, fallen grandeur”

10) synecdoche (trite & original - mentioning 1 ear, eye, head…instead of 2: give me a hand with it, give ear to what I say, look me in the eye)