Metonymy

The metonymy (Greek μετωνυμία metonymía, Namensvertauschung ',' Rename ', latin metonymia, also denominatio or transnominatio ) is a rhetorical figure in which a linguistic expression is used not in its proper literal sense, but in a non-literal figurative sense: between the literally called and meant figuratively thing then there is a relation of contiguity, that is the neighborhood or real factual togetherness ( proximitas ). Metonymy is one of the tropics.

Kinds of metonymy

By type of Kontiguitätsbeziehung particularly the following sub- types of metonymy are conventionally distinguished:

• Cause is effect ( read Schiller) as the producer for product ( a BMW for a vehicle of this manufacturer), the name of the author for his work, or vice versa, the effect for the cause ( noise for dispute )
• Commodity stands for the resulting generated ( the iron of the sword as a weapon forged from iron, a glass of drink )
• The place for the situated there (Africa starves: the inhabitants, Brussels decides: the EU institutions, the hall applauded: the audience ), or the epoch for the people living in it ( the Middle Ages believed )
• Owner of the property, Commander of the performers ( Hannibal conquers Rome)

Demarcation

Metonymy as a rhetorical figure belongs to the tropics, that is, expressions that are generally based on a difference between the literally said and what is meant transfer. The type after they are distinguished by the type of relationship that exist between what is said and what is meant.

Metaphor

Relationship by similarity: When metaphor is a relation of partial similarity or analogy with simultaneous partial dissimilarity; the related terms belong to each other different areas of reality. For example, the sound of the wind, as it is similar to the utterance of a living being, called whispering or howling of the wind.

Synecdoche

Relationship through the upper or lower term: In the synecdoche is a relationship between the particular and the universal, if it is used, for example, the singular include the plural or a type for each genus or vice versa. For example, is in the phrase his bread to earn the food "bread" generally for subsistence or man evolved over thousands of years - the term " man " stands for the whole of humanity or Africa suffered another famine - the term " Africa " stands for the people living in Africa. A superordinate category (Africa) is therefore reversed with a sub-category (population of Africa ), and vice versa.

Metonymy

Relation by contiguity: Metonymy works contrast with a relation of spatial or temporal contiguity between concepts of the same reality area. The terms can be proportionate spatial proximity ( eg vessel for content ), temporal succession ( as cause and effect ), or simultaneity. Just as the synecdoche come said and what is really meant for the same sphere of reality, as opposed to metaphor. However, unlike the synecdoche it remains on the same level (no change to an upper or lower category).

Vs. metonymy. synecdoche

Specifically, the distinction between metonymy and synecdoche depends largely on how conceives the relation of part and whole ( pars pro toto, totum pro parte). In synecdoche exists a relation of part and whole, as the Special (glass) can be seen as part of the general ( drinking vessel ). This relationship is an abstract relationship between parent and subordinate concept. The relationship between part and whole in metonymy, however, is a real existing relationship between the two terms. If the glass is considered to be typical of a beverage container, there is a metonymic substitution between units before actual connected, which together form a whole ( drink in a glass, " a glass of wine ").

When observing this difference, the concept of synecdoche of the pars pro toto type of metonymy can be so on categorical relations ( between category and subcategory ) Narrow, however, on relations between objects which form a whole in the unit. Neglecting the difference synecdoche is, however, combined with the latter type, and then sometimes regarded as a subspecies of metonymy.

Also, the subtype relationship of raw material and product is classified differently. As a designation of a whole (sword ) by the aspect of its material composition ( iron ), he is considered subtype of metonymy. But as the name of the substance can iron for " weapon ( of iron ) ' interpreted as the more general term, which all products can submit the same quality of material, this type is sometimes classified as a subtype of synecdoche.

Combined applications

Because at one and the same expression can interact different species of tropical transmission, it is recommended not or do not apply the concept of metonymy and other tropical exclusively on the linguistic result in its concrete meaning, but also and primarily to ensure constitutive linguistic- cognitive operations. So is about the pair of terms crown and tiara metonymically for the people " Emperor and the Pope " as a carrier of these attributes, but these people can turn a metaphor for the institutions or abstractions " Empire and the Church", " secular and ecclesiastical power " position. In linguistics, the interaction between metonymy and metaphor sometimes under the term Metaphtonymie (Louis Goossens ) is treated.

Metonymic and other tropical transmissions are not confined to the area of linguistic expression, but can also be found in the field of fine arts, where attributes such as crown and tiara also metonymically may serve to Versinnfälligung analog abstractions for their support and in conjunction with metaphorical transfer.