Chapter 6  Use of Words

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Figure of Speech 2

 Metonymy

Metonymy is a figure of speech that has to do with the substitution of the name of one thing to another.  Metonymy  uses something more generally or loosely associated with a concept to stand in for it. To put it simply, metonymy is the change of the name.

Synecdoche

A synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole, the whole for a part, the specific for the general, the general for the specific or the material for the thing from which it is made.  For example, they were short of hands at harvest time. England won the football game. He manages to earn his bread. In these examples, hands are used to substitute for farmers or people. England stands for England team;  earn one's bread is another way to say make a living. After the introduction of the metonymy and synecdoche, we may find both metonymy and synecdoche involve substitution of names. Yet they differ in that the former, metonymy is a case of using the name of one thing for another closely associated with it and the latter, synecdoche is substituting part for the whole and vice versa.

Transferred epithet/ hypallage

A transferred epithet, a hypallage in its literary term, is a figure of speech wherein an adverb or adjective is transferred from a noun to which it belongs, to a noun with which it fits only grammatically, but not logically or practically. An epithet is defined as an adverb or adjective (or a phrase including either), which changes or modifies any noun. The definition sounds a bit confused. Once we leaned examples, we may find actually we use this figure of speech in our lives every day without even realizing it. For instance, you must have said, on so many occasions, "I have had such a wonderful day!". This is an example of a transferred epithet, because the “day” was not wonderful, but the experiences that you had that day made you feel wonderful. The feeling of wonderfulness has been transferred from you to the day. The same would go for another common phrase, “I had a sleepless night”. Here again, the night was not sleepless, you were. There are numerous examples of this figure of speech found in our daily lives, and the list can go on and on. A transferred epithet is not very difficult to spot, and it surely gives any piece of text a literary and poetic twist, which is also called an artistic term.

This figure of speech can be used to give a poetic effect to a text. It enhances the effect that a sentence has on the reader, and gives a certain ring to it, thus it has been widely used in literary works. Some examples are listed below.

In T.S. Elliot’s lines "Even just the bewildering minute counts; you have to give yourself up."  “bewildering minute” is using transferred epithet. Similarly, “honest forehead” from Charles Dickens’  David Copperfield                                                       ".... rubs everything that can be rubbed, until it shines, like her own honest forehead, with perpetual friction."  “careless match” From William Faulkner’s Golden Land "... may be completely destroyed in that second's instant of a careless match, between the moment of striking and the moment when the striker might have sprung and stamped it out."