Metonymy and synecdoche

The word "synecdoche" is derived from the Greek word συνεκδοχή, from the prepositions συν- + εκ- and the verb δέχομαι (= "I accept"), originally meaning accepting a part as responsible for the whole, or vice versa.

Sic! –synecdochic - syn'ec·doch'ic (sĭn'ĕk-dŏk'ĭk) or syn'ec·doch'i·cal (-ĭ-kəl) adj.

Synecdoche is closely related to metonymy, indeed, synecdoche is sometimes considered a subclass of metonymy because it denotes the same contiguity (nearness) but between the part and the whole. For example: steel" for a sword, "plastic" for credit cards,"lead" for bullets (e.g. "They pumped him full of lead."),"silver" for flatware or other dishes that were once made of silver, etc.

Here are other famous poetic examples of synecdoche:

Give us this day our daily bread. (Matthew 6)
I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
(T. S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock")

(the "ragged claws" is a part of the whole - the actual reference is to a crab. Thus the word "claws" represents the whole crab.)

Certain place names are sometimes used to denote an area greater than that warranted by their strict meaning. Examples of this include:

"America" for the United States of America;

"The Balkans" for the entire Balkan Peninsula and historically-related parts of south Eastern Europe;

"Bosnia" for Bosnia and Herzegovina;

"England" for Great Britain, the British Isles and/or the United Kingdom.

So if you can see the image as part of a whole, then it is synecdoche.
If the image is actually a whole thing and represents another whole thing, it is metonymy. This difference doesn’t influence upon their emphatic character as both stylistic devices have the same stylistic function.

Read, translate and analyse the following. State the type of relations between the object named and the object implied. Comment upon the stylistic functions of the SDs. Pay particular attention to metonymy and synecdoche.

1. Daniel was a good fellow, honourable, brilliant, a figure in the world. But what of his licentious tongue? What of his frequenting of bars? (A. Bennett)

2. The trenchful of dead Japanese made him feel even worse but he felt he must not show this, so he had joined with the others; but his heart wasn’t in it. (J. Jones)

3. The syntax and idiom of the voice, in common conversation, are not the syntax and idiom of the pen. (I. Shaw)

4. He was interested in everybody. His mind was alert, and people asked him for dinner not for old time’s sake, but because he was worth his salt. (S. Maugham)

5. I get my living by the sweat of my brow. (Ch. Dickens)

6. I crossed high toll bridge and negotiated a no man’s land and came to the place where the Stars and Stripes stood shoulder to shoulder with the Union Jack. (J. Steinbeck)

7. Two men in uniforms were running heavily to the Administration building. As they ran, Christian saw them throw away their rifles. They portly men who looked like advertisements for Munich beer, and running came hard to them… The first prisoner stopped and picked up one of the discarded rifles. He didn’t fire but carried it, as he chased the guards. He swung the rifle like a club, and one of the beer advertisements went down. (Ir. Shaw)

8. For several days he took an hour after his work to make inquiry making him some examples of his pen and ink. (Th. Dreiser)

9. “Some remarkable pictures in this room, gentlemen. A Holbein, two Van Dycks, and, if I am not mistaken, a Velasquez. I am interested in pictures. (A. Christie)

10. Many of the hearts that throbbed so gaily then, have ceased to beat; many of the looks that shone so brightly then, have ceased to glow. (Ch. Dickens)

11. “The guards now change Buckingham Palace to a Lennon and McCartney»(The Sunday Times, 2009)

12. Two men, one with thin black hair and the other with luxurious red mop, stood side by side, like day and night. The redwas smiling ready to see the funny side of danger, the black,with his wry face and triangle eyebrows, was the embodiment of despair. (R.Chandler)

13. Up the Square, from the corner of King Street, passed a woman in a new bonnet with pink strings, and a new blue dress that sloped at the shoulders and grew to a vast circumference at the hem. Through the silent sunlit solitude of the Square…this bonnet and this dress floated northwards in search of romance. (A. Bennet)

14. “…he had a stinking childhood.” “If it was so stinking why does he cling to it?” “Use your head. Can't you see it's just that Rusty feels safer in diapers than he would in skirts?” (T. Capote)

15. It’s the inside of the man, the warm heart of the man, the passion of the man, the fresh blood of the man…that I speak of. (Dickens)

16. The streets were bedded with six inches of cold, soft carpet, churned to a dirty brown by the crush of teams and the feet of men. Along Broadway men picked their way in ulsters and umbrellas. (Th. Dreiser)

17. Study the following table and explain what metonymy stands for. Compare the original meaning and the transferred one.

IRONY

Irony (from the Ancient Greek εἰρωνεία eirōneía, meaning hypocrisy, deception, or feigned ignorance) is a situation, literary technique, or rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or discordance that goes strikingly beyond the most simple and evident meaning of words or actions. Irony is traditionally defined as the clash of two diametrically opposite meanings within the same context, which is sustained in oral speech by intonation. Irony can be realized in different ways: through the situation, which may extend as far as a paragraph, chapter or a whole book. Henry Watson Fowler, in The King's English, says “any definition of irony—though hundreds might be given, and very few of them would be accepted—must include this, that the surface meaning and the underlying meaning of what is said are not the same."

Eric Partridge, in Usage and Abusage, writes that "Irony consists in stating the contrary of what is meant."For example:

But every Englishman is born with a certain miraculous power that makes him master of the world. …he conquers and annexes half the world and calls it Colonization. (B.Shaw)

The above quotation sounds ironical due to the contradiction between the direct meaning of the words and their implied contextual meaning. The topical net may be evaluated as positive – “miraculous power, master of the world”, which concerns and leads to a very dubious effect caused by the actions of those “masters of the world” – “Colonization”.

According to the dictionary to conquer is “overcome and take control of (a place or people) by military force”, to annexe –

“add (territory) to one's own territory by appropriation”. (OED) Thus “miraculous and master” have acquired quite ironical and even tough critical connotation which absolutely eliminates those found in the dictionary. It’s obvious that the real meaning is far from positive but utterly negative and rough.

Verbal and situational irony is often intentionally used as emphasis in an assertion of a truth. The ironic form of simile, or the irony of sarcasm or litotes may involve the emphasis of one's meaning by deliberate use of language that states the direct opposite of the truth, or drastically and obviously understates a factual connection.

In certain kinds of situational or historical irony, that occur outside works of fiction, a certain factual truth is highlighted by some person's complete ignorance of it, or belief in the opposite of it—however, this contrast does not occur by human design. In some religious contexts, such situations have been seen as the deliberate work of divine providence to emphasize facts, and taunt or toy with humans for not being aware of them in situations where they could easily have been enlightened (this is similar to human use of irony). Such ironies are often more evident, or more striking, when viewed retrospectively in the light of later developments that make the truth of past situations obvious to all.

Almost all irony involves commentary that heightens tension naturally involved in the state and fate of a person (in the present, or the past) who badly needs to know a given fact they could easily know but does not.

Verbal irony is a disparity of expression and intention: when a speaker says one thing but means another, or when a literal meaning is contrary to its intended effect.

Dramatic irony is a disparity of expression and awareness: when words and actions possess significance that the listener or audience understands, but the speaker or character does not.

Situational irony is the disparity of intention and result: when the result of an action is contrary to the desired or expected effect. Likewise, cosmic irony is disparity between human desires and the harsh realities of the outside world (or the whims of the gods). By some definitions, situational irony and cosmic irony are not irony at all.

Verbal irony is distinguished from situationalirony and dramaticirony in that it is produced intentionally by speakers. For instance, if a man exclaims, “I’m not upset!” but reveals an upset emotional state through his voice while truly trying to claim he's not upset, it would not be verbal irony by virtue of its verbal manifestation (it would, however, be situational irony). But if the same speaker said the same words and intended to communicate that he was upset by claiming he was not, the utterance would be verbal irony. This distinction illustrates an important aspect of verbal irony - speakers communicate implied propositions that are intentionally contradictory to the propositions contained in the words themselves. There are, however, examples of verbal irony that do not rely on saying the opposite of what one means, and there are cases where all the traditional criteria of irony exist and the utterance is not ironic.

Ironic similes are a form of verbal irony where a speaker intends to communicate the opposite of what they mean. For instance, the following explicit similes begin with the deceptive formation of a statement that means P but that eventually conveys the meaning not P:

as soft as concrete

as clear as mud

"as pleasant and relaxed as a coiled rattlesnake" (Kurt Vonnegut from Breakfast of Champions)

Dramatic irony is the device of giving the spectator an item of information that at least one of the characters in the narrative is unaware of (at least consciously), thus placing the spectator a step ahead of at least one of the characters.

For example:

In City Lights the audience knows that Charlie Chaplin's character is not a millionaire, but the blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill) is unaware and believes he's rich.

In Oedipus the King, the reader knows that Oedipus himself is the murderer that he is seeking; Oedipus, Creon and Jocasta do not.

In Othello, the audience knows that Desdemona has been faithful to Othello, but Othello does not. The audience also knows that Iago is scheming to bring about Othello's downfall, a fact hidden from Othello, Desdemona, Cassio and Roderigo.

Tragic irony is a special category of dramatic irony. In tragic irony, the words and actions of the characters contradict the real situation, which the spectators fully realize.

Ancient Greek drama was especially characterized by tragic irony because the audiences were so familiar with the legends that most of the plays dramatized. Sophocles' Oedipus the King provides a classic example of tragic irony at its fullest.

Irony has some of its foundation in the onlooker’s perception of paradox that arises from insoluble problems. For example, in the William Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo finds Juliet in a drugged death-like sleep, he assumes her to be dead and kills himself. Upon awakening to find her dead lover beside her, Juliet stabs herself with a dagger.

Situational irony is a discrepancy between the expected result and actual results when enlivened by perverse appropriateness.

For example:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a story whose plot revolves around irony. Dorothy travels to a wizard and fulfills her challenging demands to go home, before discovering she had the ability to go back home all the time. The Scarecrow longs for intelligence, only to discover he is already a genius, and the Tin Woodsman longs to be capable of love, only to discover he already has a heart. The Lion, who at first appears to be a whimpering coward, turns out to be bold and fearless. The people in Emerald City believed the Wizard to be a powerful deity, only to discover that he is a bumbling, eccentric old man.

In O. Henry's story The Gift of the Magi, a young couple are too poor to buy each other Christmas gifts. The wife cuts off her treasured hair to sell it to a wig-maker for money to buy her husband a chain for his heirloom pocket watch. She's shocked when she learns he had pawned his watch to buy her a set of combs for her long, beautiful, prized hair.

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice begins with the proposition “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” In fact, it soon becomes clear that Austen means the opposite: women (or their mothers) are always in search of, and desperately on the lookout for, a rich single man to make a husband. The irony deepens as the story promotes his romance and ends in a double wedding.

Irony adds adornment, colours, elegant variation, embellishment, embroidery, emphasis, to the English language.

Bitter, socially and politically aimed irony is referred to as sarcasm.It comes from the ancient Greek (sarkazo) meaning 'to tear flesh' but the ancient Greek word for the rhetorical concept of taunting was instead. Sarcasm appears several times in the Old Testament, for example:

Lo, you see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? (Achish, king of Gath, I Sam 21:10-15) .

According to The American Dictionary of the English Language (2000) sarcastic is used synonymously with ironic, caustic, satirical, sardonic.

Although there's no way of pinpointing the very first use of sarcasm, it has long been a staple in literature (along with irony and satire) as a source of humor or simply as a way to prove a point. Many Biblical scholars point to examples of sarcasm in the Bible. Ecclesiastes 11:9 reads "Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things" (New American Standard Version). Many Biblical scholars interpret this to mean "if you want to be judged by God, do whatever you want." William Shakespeare is well-known for his use of sarcasm. In the play "Julius Caesar," the character of Mark Antony gives a speech at the funeral of Caesar that begins, "Friends, countrymen, lend me your ears." In this speech, Mark Antony repeats the phrase "honorable man" several times speaking of Brutus, whose actions (murdering Caesar) have been anything but honorable. This repetition has the effect of completely inverting its literal meaning. Writers use sarcasm to criticize everything from religion and government to philosophers and other writers. The 14th-century English author and poet Geoffrey Chaucer speaks of the Friar in "The Canterbury Tales" as a "wanton and merry" person who seduces women and accepts bribes. This is a sarcastic criticism of the clergy, who had become very corrupt.

Mark Twain was one of the greatest American sarcasts. He wrote his 1903 essay "Was the World Made for Man?" in response to Alfred Russell Wallace's promotion of the theory that the Earth is the center of the universe. Throughout most of the essay, M.Twain claims to agree with Wallace. But the essay ends by saying that just as the Earth was made for man, the Eiffel Tower must have been built for the skin of paint at its pinnacle, which demonstrates that M.Twain was being sarcastic when he initially agreed with Wallace.

When sarcasm is written instead of spoken, the reader must be able to tell from the context as there is no intonation to rely upon. This difficulty may be the origin of the axiom "sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but the highest form of intelligence." Some writers have proposed the use of a sarcasm mark, an upside-down exclamation point at the end of a word or sentence to denote that it was intended to be taken as sarcastic. Sarcasm is often even less understood in online communication; ways of indicating sarcasm online include bolding the stressed word or phrase, putting it in quotation marks or even using faux tags like <sarcasm>thanks</sarcasm>.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 4431