Metonymy
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In [[rhetoric]], '''metonymy''' ({{IPAEng|mɨˈtɒnɨmi}}) is the use of a word for a concept or object which is associated with the concept/object originally denoted by the word.
Metonymy may be instructively contrasted with [[metaphor]]. Both figures involve the substitution of one term for another. In metaphor, this substitution is based on similarity, while in metonymy, the substitution is based on [[contiguity]].
'''Metaphor''' example: ''That man is a pig'' (using ''pig'' instead of ''unhygenic person''. An unhygienic person is '''like''' a pig, but there is no contiguity between the two).
'''Metonymy''' example: ''The White House supports the bill'' (using ''White House'' instead of ''President''. The President is not like the White House, but there is '''contiguity''' between them).
In [[cognitive linguistics]], metonymy refers to the use of a single characteristic to identify a more complex entity and is one of the basic characteristics of [[cognition]]. It is common for people to take one well-understood or easy-to-perceive aspect of something and use that aspect to stand either for the thing as a whole or for some other aspect or part of it.
Metonymy is attested in cognitive processes underlying language (e.g. the infant's association of the nipple with milk). Objects that appear strongly in a single context emerge as cognitive labels for the whole concept, thus fueling linguistic labels such as "sweat" to refer to hard work that might produce it.
The word ''metonymy'' is derived from the [[Greek language|Greek]] ''μετωνυμία'' (''metōnymia'') "a change of name", from ''{{polytonic|μετά-}}'' (''meta''-) "beyond/changed" and ''{{polytonic|-ωνυμία}}'' (''-onymia''), a suffix used to name figures of speech, from {{polytonic|ὄνομα}} (''onoma''), "name" ([[Oxford English Dictionary|OED]])).
== Metonymy vs. metaphor in cognitive science and linguistics==
[[Metaphor]] and metonymy are both [[figures of speech]] where one word may be used in place of another. However, especially in cognitive science and linguistics, the two figures of speech work very differently. [[Roman Jakobson]] argued that they represent two fundamentally different ways of processing language; he noted that different forms of [[aphasia]] affected the ability to interpret the two figures differently
({{Harvard reference | Surname=Jakobson | Given=Roman | Year= 2002 | Chapter=Two Aspects of Language and Two Types of Disturbances | Editor=Linda Waugh and Monique Monville-Burston | Title=On Language | Edition= | Publisher=Harvard University Press | Place=Cambridge, MA | URL=http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/JAKONL.html?show=catalogcopy }}).
Metonymy works by the [[contiguity (linguistics)|contiguity]] (association) between two concepts, whereas metaphor works by the [[similarity]] between them. When people use metonymy, they do not typically wish to transfer qualities from one referent to another as they do with [[metaphor]]: there is nothing press-like about reporters or crown-like about a monarch, but "the press" and "the crown" are both common metonyms.
Two examples using the term "fishing" help make the distinction clear (example drawn from Dirven, 1996). The phrase "to fish pearls" uses metonymy, drawing from "fishing" the idea of taking things from the ocean. What is carried across from "fishing fish" to "fishing pearls" is the domain of usage and the associations with the ocean and boats, but we understand the phrase in spite of rather than because of the literal meaning of fishing: we know you do not use a fishing rod or net to get pearls and we know that pearls are not, and do not originate from, fish.
In contrast, the metaphorical phrase "fishing for information", transfers the concept of fishing into a new domain. If someone is "fishing" for information, we do not imagine that he or she is anywhere near the ocean, rather we transfer elements of the action of fishing (waiting, hoping to catch something that cannot be seen) into a new domain (a conversation). Thus, metonymy works by calling up a domain of usage and an array of associations (in the example above, boats, the ocean, gathering life from the sea) whereas metaphor picks a target set of meanings and transfers them to a new domain of usage.
===Example: "Lend me your ear"===
Sometimes, metaphor and metonymy can both be at work in the same figure of speech, or one could interpret a phrase metaphorically or metonymically. For example, the phrase "lend me your ear" could be analyzed in a number of ways. We could imagine the following interpretations:
# Metonymy only: Analyze "ear" metonymically first — "ear" means "attention" (because we use ears to pay attention to someone's speech). Now when we hear the phrase "lending ear (attention)", we stretch the base meaning of "lend" (to let someone borrow an object) to include the "lending" of non-material things (attention), but beyond this slight extension of the verb, no metaphor is at work.
# Metaphor only: Imagine the whole phrase literally — imagine that the speaker literally borrows the listener's ear as a physical object (and presumably the person's head with it). Then the speaker has temporary possession of the listener's ear, so the listener has granted the speaker temporary control over what the listener hears. We then interpret the phrase "lend me your ear" metaphorically to mean that the speaker wants the listener to grant the speaker temporary control over what the listener hears.
# Metaphor and metonymy: First, analyze the verb phrase "lend me your ear" metaphorically to mean "turn your ear in my direction," since we know that literally lending a body is nonsensical. Then, analyze the motion of ears metonymically — we associate "turning ears" with "paying attention", which is what the speaker wants the listeners to do.
It is difficult to say which of the above analyses most closely represents the way a listener interprets the expression, and it is possible that the phrase is analysed in different ways by different listeners, or even by one and the same listener at different times. Regardless, all three analyses yield the same interpretation; thus, metaphor and metonymy, though quite different in their mechanism, can work together seamlessly. For further analysis of idioms in which metaphor and metonymy work together, including an example very similar to the one given here, see
{{Harvard reference | Surname=Geeraerts | Given=Dirk | Year= 2002 | Chapter=The interaction of metaphor and metonymy in composite expressions | Editor=René Dirven & Ralf Pörings | Title=Metaphor and Metonymy in Contrast | Publisher=Mouton de Gruyter | Place=Berlin | URL=http://scholar.google.com/url?sa=U&q=http://wwwling.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/qlvl/PDFPublications/02Theinteraction.pdf | Access-date=[[August 20]], [[2006]] }}.
==Metonymy in polysemy ==
The concept of metonymy also informs the nature of [[polysemy]] — i.e. how the same phonological form (word) has different semantic mappings (meanings). If the two meanings are unrelated, as in the word ''pen'' meaning ''writing instrument'' versus ''enclosure'', they are considered [[homonym]]s.
Within logical polysemies, a large class of mappings
can be considered to be a case of metonymic transfer (e.g. ''chicken'' for the animal, as well as its meat; ''crown'' for the object, as well as the institution). Other cases where the meaning is polysemous however, may turn out to be more metaphorical, e.g. ''eye'' as in the ''eye of the needle''.
See also:
* {{cite conference
| first = Dan
| last = Fass
| authorlink =
| coauthors =
| title = Metonymy and metaphor: what's the difference?
| booktitle =
| pages =
| publisher = Association for Computational Linguistics
| date = 1988
| location = Morristown, NJ, USA
| url = http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=991671&dl=
| accessdate = 2006-08-20}}
* {{Harvard reference | Surname= | Given= | Year= 2002 | Editor=René Dirvens & Ralf Pörings | Title=Metaphor and Metonymy in Contrast | Publisher=Mouton de Gruyter | Place=Berlin }}
* {{Harvard reference | Surname=Lakoff | Given=George | Title=Metaphors We Live By | Publisher=The University of Chicago Press | Place=Chicago, IL | Year=1980 | isbn = 0226468011}}.
* {{Harvard reference | Surname=Jakobson | Given=Roman | Year= 2002 | Chapter=Two Aspects of Language and Two Types of Disturbances | Editor=Linda Waugh and Monique Monville-Burston | Title=On Language | Edition= | Publisher=Harvard University Press | Place=Cambridge, MA | URL=http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/JAKONL.html?show=catalogcopy }}
== Metonymy as a rhetorical strategy ==
Metonymy can also refer to the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it. For example, in Jane Austen's novel ''Pride and Prejudice'', the main character Elizabeth's change of heart and love for her suitor, Mr. Darcy, is first revealed when she sees his house:
<blockquote>
They gradually ascended for half-a-mile, and then found themselves at the top of a considerable eminence, where the wood ceased, and the eye was instantly caught by Pemberley House, situated on the opposite side of a valley, into which the road with some abruptness wound. It was a large, handsome stone building, standing well on rising ground, and backed by a ridge of high woody hills; and in front, a stream of some natural importance was swelled into greater, but without any artificial appearance. Its banks were neither formal nor falsely adorned. Elizabeth was delighted. She had never seen a place for which nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste.
[[Jane Austen]], ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'', Chapter 43.</blockquote>
Austen describes the house and Elizabeth's admiration for the estate at length as an indirect way of describing her feelings for Mr. Darcy himself. One could attempt to read this as an extended metaphor, but such a reading would break down as one tried to find a way to map the elements of her description (rising ground, swollen river) directly to attributes of her suitor. Furthermore, an extended metaphor typically highlights the author's ingenuity by maintaining an unlikely similarity to an unusual degree of detail.
In this description, on the other hand, although there are many elements of the description that we could transfer directly from the grounds to the suitor (natural beauty, lack of artifice), Austen is emphasizing the consistency of the domain of usage rather than stretching to make a fresh comparison: each of the things she describes she associates with Darcy, and in the end we feel that Darcy is as beautiful as the place to which he is compared ''and'' that he belongs within it. Metonymy of this kind thus helps define a person or thing through a set of mutually reinforcing associations rather than through a comparison. Advertising frequently uses this kind of metonymy, putting a product in close proximity to something desirable in order to make an indirect association that would seem crass if made with a direct comparison.
== Metonymy and synecdoche ==
[[Synecdoche]], where a specific part of something is used to refer to the whole, is usually understood as a specific kind of metonymy. Sometimes, however, people make an absolute distinction between a metonymy and a synecdoche, treating metonymy as different from rather than inclusive of synecdoche. There is a similar problem with the usage of [[metaphor#Metaphor and Simile|simile and metaphor]].
When the distinction is made, it is the following: when A is used to refer to B, it is a synecdoche if A is a component of B and a metonymy if A is commonly associated with B but not actually part of its whole.
Thus, "The White House said" would be a metonymy for the president and his staff, because the White House (A) is not part of the president or his staff (B) but is closely associated with them. On the other hand, asking for "All hands on deck" is a synecdoche because hands (A) are actually a part of the people (B) to whom they refer.
Those who argue that synecdoche is a class of metonymy might point out that "hands" (A) is a metonym for workers (B) since hands are closely associated with the work the people do as well as literally, a physical part of the people. That is, hands are associated with work through a metonymy at the same time as being associated with the people through synecdoche.
An example of a single sentence that displays synecdoche, metaphor and metonymy would be: "Fifty keels ploughed the deep", where "keels" is the synecdoche as it names the whole (the ship) after a particular part (of the ship); "ploughed" is the metaphor as it substitutes the concept of ploughing a field for moving through the ocean; and "the deep" is the metonym, as "depth" is an attribute associated with the ocean.
== Examples of metonymies ==
{{Cleanup-laundry|date=June 2008}}
{| class="wikitable"
!word!!original use!!metonymic use
|-
|colspan="3"|'''General'''
|-
|dish||item of [[crockery]]||a course (in dining)
|-
|[[sweat]]||perspiration||hard work
|-
|[[tongue]]||oral [[muscle]]||a [[language]] or [[dialect]]
|-
|the press||[[printing press]]||the [[news media]]
|-
|any company's CEO/Chairman||the company's [[chief executive officer]] and/or [[chairman]]||the entire company itself
|-
|colspan="3"|'''American'''
|-
|[[Washington, D.C.|Washington]]||[[capital]] of the [[United States]]||the [[federal government of the United States|United States federal government]]
|-
|[[White House|The White House]]||Official residence of the [[President of the United States]] || the President and staff
|-
|[[Capitol Hill]]||Location of the [[United States Congress]] || Congressmen and Congress in general
|-
|[[The Pentagon]]||building in [[Arlington County, Virginia|Arlington, Virginia]] that houses...||...the [[United States Department of Defense]]
|-
|[[Foggy Bottom]]||neighborhood in Washington, D.C. that houses...||...the [[United States Department of State]]
|-
|[[Hollywood, Los Angeles, California|Hollywood]]||[[District]] of [[Los Angeles, California]]||the [[Cinema of the United States|American film industry]]
|-
|[[Broadway (New York City)|Broadway]]||street in [[New York City]]||[[Broadway theatre]] in particular, and [[American theatre]] in general
|-
|[[Wall Street]]||street in [[New York City]]||the [[United States]] financial markets
|-
|[[Silicon Valley]]||Geographic region of the [[San Francisco Bay Area]]|| [[Silicon Valley|all the high-tech companies located in the area]]
|-
|[[Redmond, Washington|Redmond]]||A city in the state of [[Washington]]||[[Microsoft Corporation]], company that is headquartered there
|-
|[[Cupertino, California|Cupertino]]||a city in the state of California||[[Apple Inc.]] which is headquartered there
|-
|[[Detroit, Michigan|Detroit]]||largest city in [[Michigan]]||The United States' [[automobile industry]], historically centered in Detroit
|-
|[[Langley, Virginia|Langley]]||town in [[Virginia]]||The [[Central Intelligence Agency]], whose headquarters are in this town
|-
|[[Sand Hill Road]]||a road in [[Menlo Park, California]]||Used to refer to some of the biggest [[Venture Capital]] firms in Silicon Valley, many of whose offices are located along this road.
|-
|[[Madison Avenue (Manhattan)|Madison Avenue]]||a street in [[New York City]]|| the [[United States]] [[advertising]] industry
|-
|[[Seventh Avenue (Manhattan)|Seventh Avenue]]||a street in [[New York City]]|| the [[United States]] [[fashion]] industry
|-
|[[Houston, Texas|Houston]]||largest city in the state of [[Texas]]|| [[NASA|NASA Mission Control]]
|-
|[[Cape Canaveral]]||a geographic feature in the state of [[Florida]] near the...|| [[Kennedy Space Center|NASA Kennedy Space Center]] and [[Cape Canaveral Air Force Station]]
|-
|[[Merritt Island]]||a city and island in the state of [[Florida]], home of the...|| [[Kennedy Space Center|NASA Kennedy Space Center]]
|-
|[[Cooperstown, New York|Cooperstown]] || a [[Administrative divisions of New York#village|village]] in the state of [[New York]], home of the... || [[National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum|Baseball Hall of Fame]]
|-
|colspan="3"|'''Canadian'''
|-
|[[Bay Street]]||street in [[Toronto]]||the [[Canada|Canadian]] financial markets
|-
|[[Ottawa]]||[[capital]] of [[Canada]]||the [[Government of Canada|Canadian federal government]]
|-
|[[Queen's Park (Toronto)|Queen's Park]]||The [[University of Toronto]]-owned park that houses... ||the [[Government of Ontario]]
|-
|colspan="3"|'''British'''
|-
|[[The Crown]]||A monarch's headwear||the [[British monarchy]]
|-
|[[The Palace]]|| [[Buckingham Palace]]||the [[British monarchy]]
|-
|[[10 Downing Street|Downing Street]] or "Number 10"||Official residence of the [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]]||the [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|British Prime Minister]] and his or her staff
|-
|[[Whitehall]]|| A neighborhood of [[London]] in which may be found...||...the offices of the British government's senior bureaucrats
|-
|[[The City]]||The [[City of London]]||the [[United Kingdom|British]] financial markets
|-
|[[Westminster]]||The [[City of Westminster]] in [[London]]||The [[Parliament of the United Kingdom]], located in Westminster.
|-
|[[Harley Street]]||A street in the [[City of Westminster]], home to a high concentration of [[dentist]]s, [[surgeon]]s and [[physician]]s||the [[United Kingdom|British]] private medical industry
|-
|[[Holyrood]]||A district in [[Edinburgh]], where you can find...||...the [[Scottish Parliament]]
|-
|[[Fleet Street]]||The original location of much of...||the British press
|-
|[[Scotland Yard]]||Name of the original headquarters of...||the Metropolitan Police
|-
|[[Thames House]]||Headquarters of...||the [[MI5|British Security Services]]
|-
|[[Vauxhall Cross#Vauxhall Cross|Vauxhall Cross]]||Headquarters of...||the [[Secret Intelligence Service]]
|-
|colspan="3"|'''French'''
|-
|[[L'Élysée]] ||The [[Élysée Palace]], official residence of...||the [[French president]] and his or her staff
|-
|[[Matignon]] ||The [[Hôtel Matignon]], official residence of...||the [[French prime minister]] and his or her staff
|-
|colspan="3"|'''European'''
|-
|[[Berlaymont]]||The building housing the...||the [[European Commission]]
|-
|[[Brussels]]||the capital city of [[Belgium]], also home to most of the...||[[Institutions of the European Union]]
|-
|[[Strasbourg]]||[[Alsace|Alsatian]] city, which is the [[Seat of the European Parliament in Strasbourg|official seat of the]]...||[[European Parliament]]
|-
|colspan="3"|'''Rest of the world'''
|-
|[[Moscow Kremlin|The Kremlin]]||A fortified complex in [[Moscow]]||Formerly the [[government of the Soviet Union|Soviet government]]; used today to a lesser extent for the [[government of Russia|Russian government]]
|-
|[[Zion]]||a mountain/fortress in [[Jerusalem]]|| the city of [[Jerusalem]] and more often, the land of [[Israel]] in general
|-
|[[Beehive (building)|The Beehive]]||A building in [[Wellington]]|| houses the [[Government of New Zealand]]
|-
|[[Gulag]]||chief administration of the Soviet forced labour camps||the prison camps it administered
|-
|[[Malacañang Palace|Malacañang]]||official residence of||the [[President of the Philippines]]
|-
|[[Vatican City|The Vatican]] or [[Rome]]||official residence of the [[Pope]]||the [[Roman Catholic Church]]
|-
|any country's capital city||the country's capital||that country's government in general, and often, as the whole country itself
|}
In fact, the capital of any nation can be used to refer to that nation's government, especially in terms of foreign relations. Thus, a dispute between the governments of [[Jordan]] and [[Iran]] might be described as a fight between [[Amman]] and [[Tehran]]. Another frequent example of metonymy is the use of a [[association football|football (soccer)]] team's stadium to refer to the club itself, such as "[[Old Trafford]]" as a reference to [[Manchester United F.C.|Manchester United]]. Also, the [[chief executive officer]] and/or [[chairman]] of a major company can be used in reference to the entire company iself, such as, [[Steve Ballmer]] announced a new product, can be translated as [[Microsoft]] announced a new product.
==See also==
* [[-onym]]
* [[Deferred reference]]
* [[Figure of speech]]
* [[Metalepsis]]
* [[Newspeak]]
* [[Sobriquet]]
* [[Social stereotype]]
* [[Synecdoche]]
* [[totum pro parte]]
* [[pars pro toto]]
==References==
<references/>
* {{cite book
| last = Corbett
| first = Edward P.J.
| title = Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student
| publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]
| location = New York
| year = 1971
}}
* {{cite book
| last = Dirven
| first = René
| title = Conversion as a Conceptual Metonymy of Basic Event Schemata
}}
* {{cite book
| last = Fass
| first = Dan
| title = Processing Metonymy and Metaphor
| ISBN = 1-56750-231-8
}}
* {{cite book | last = Smyth | first = Herbert Weir | year = 1920 | title = Greek Grammar | publisher = Harvard University Press | location = Cambridge MA | id = ISBN 0-674-36250-0 | pages = p. 680}}
* Blank, Andreas (1998), ''Prinzipien des lexikalischen Bedeutungswandels am Beispiel der romanischen Sprachen'', Tübingen: Niemeyer.
* [[Joachim Grzega|Grzega, Joachim]] (2004), ''Bezeichnungswandel: Wie, Warum, Wozu? Ein Beitrag zur englischen und allgemeinen Onomasiologie'', Heidelberg: Winter.
[[Category:Rhetorical techniques]]
[[Category:Literary devices playing with meaning]]
[[Category:Semantics]]
[[Category:Greek loanwords]]
[[bg:Метонимия]]
[[ca:Metonímia]]
[[cs:Metonymie]]
[[da:Metonymi]]
[[de:Metonymie]]
[[es:Metonimia]]
[[fr:Métonymie]]
[[gl:Metonimia]]
[[hr:Metonimija]]
[[io:Metonimio]]
[[is:Nafnskipti]]
[[it:Metonimia]]
[[he:מטונימיה]]
[[hu:Metonímia]]
[[nl:Metonymie]]
[[ja:換喩]]
[[no:Metonymi]]
[[uz:Metonimiya]]
[[pl:Metonimia]]
[[pt:Metonímia]]
[[ru:Метонимия]]
[[sr:Metonimija]]
[[sh:Metonimija]]
[[sv:Metonym]]
[[vi:Hoán dụ]]
[[uk:Метонімія]]
[[zh:轉喻]]