19.Metaphor.Metonymy.

Metaphor

According to I.R.Galperin,the term 'metaphor', as the etymology of the word reveals, means transference of some quality from one object to another.Also the term has been known to denote the transference of meaning from one word to another.

A metaphor states A is B

A figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between Two unlike things that actually have something in common. A metaphor expresses the unfamiliar (the tenor) in terms of the familiar (the vehicle).When Neil Young sings, "Love is a rose", "rose" is a vehicle for "love",the tenor.

One of the prominent examples of a metaphor in English literature is the All the world's stage monologue from As you like it:

Ex:All the world's stage,

And all the men and women merely players,

They have their exits and their entrances

Metaphors classified according to its degree and unexpectedness: trite(dead) and geniune(original). Dead metaphors are fixed in dictionaries. they often sound banal like cliches:

Ex:to burn with desire;a flight of imagination; legs of the table; winter comes.

Original metaphors are not registered in dictionaries. they are created by the speaker's/writer's imagination and sound fresh and unexpected

Ex:Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.; The house was a white elephant but he couldn’t conceive of his father in a smaller place. - describes the size and enigma of the house.

Prolonged or sustained metaphors.: if a sentence contains a group of metaphors; consists of principal(the central image of sustained metaphor) and contributory images(the other words which bear reference to the central image)

Ex.Mr . Pickwick bottled up his vengeance and corked it down. The verb to bottle up is explained in dictionaries as follows ‘to keep in check’,’conceal,restrain,repress.The metaphor in the word can hardly be felt.But it is revived by the direct meaning of the verb ‘to cork down’.This context refreshes the almost dead metaphor and gives it a second life.Such metaphors are called sustained or prolonged.

Metaphors are used to help us understand the unknown, because we use what we know in comparison with something we don't know to get a better understanding of the unknown.

Metonymy.

A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as "crown" for "royalty").

Trite (fixed) metonymy represents derivative logical meaning of a word and is fixed in dictionaries. ▲ Nothing comes between me and my Calvins (Calvin Klein Jeans). Contextual m. – unexpected substitution of one word to another. ▲ She married into conversation > very talkative man.

The examples below include both the metonymy and the possible words for which the metonymy would fill in:

• Crown - in place of a royal person

• The White House - in place of the President or others who work there

• The White House asked the television networks for air time on Monday night.

• The suits - in place of business people

• Dish - for an entire plate of food

• Cup - for a mug

• The Pentagon - to refer to the staff

• The restaurant - to refer to the staff