英语修辞与写作·9.2　Metonymy和Synecdoche

9.2　Metonymy和Synecdoche

9.2A　Metonymy和Synecdoche的含义与形式

1） Metonymy译作“换喻”，Synecdoche译作“提喻”。

这两种辞格十分相近，其共同点是不直接说出所指对象的名称，而采取某种替代形式；它们的区别在于：Metonymy是借与某事物密切相关的东西来表示该事物，因此亦称之为“借代”，而Synecdoche是以某事物的局部表示整体，或反过来以整体表示局部。例如人在幼年离不开摇篮，因而借用the cradle表示“婴儿时期”，这就是Metonymy：

He must have been spoilt from the cradle.

又如：“头”和“手”等是人体的部分，用它们表示整个人，则是常见的Synecdoche形式：

More hands（=working men） are needed at the moment.

We had dinner at ten dollars a head（=each person）.

2） 注意这两种辞格与其他比喻形式之间的区别，试比较：

Greece was the cradle of Western culture. — Metaphor

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. — Analogy

9.2B　Metonymy的使用

1） 不像明喻、隐喻等比喻形式那样利用不同类对象的相似或类同点构成比较，而是利用两个对象之间的某种联系来唤起别人的联想，从而避免生硬直说。例如，通过讲某物的常用盛器，让别人联想到被盛的东西，或用某地名指那里的人。例如：

The kettle is boiling.

— The water in the kettle is boiling.

Italy cannot be vanished in warfare nor Greece in studies.

— Italians cannot be vanished in warfare nor Greeks in studies.

通过讲工具或所有物，让别人联想到经常使用该工具的人或该物的所有者：

The pen is stronger than the sword.

— Those who use the pen have more influence than those who use the sword. / The officials have more say than the officers.

Land belonging to the crown occupied the best part of the country.

— Land belonging to the monarch occupied ...

通过讲特征或特定环境，让人联想到具有该特征或在该环境下的人：

The grey hair should be respected.

— The old/aged should be respected.

What is learned in the cradle is carried to the grave.

— Things learned in childhood will not be forgotten till death.

Having finished the law school, he was called to the Bar.

— ... he became a lawyer （Am E） / a barrister （Br E）.

2） 借用历史上或传说中的典故与现实生活中某种人或事之间的相似性来暗示说话者的观点，达到借古喻今或借此言彼的目的。这类metonymy也称之为“引喻”。例如：

Every government should attend to cleaning its own Augean stables.

相传国王奥吉尼斯的牛舍内养牛3000头，30年未打扫，故Augean stables成了肮脏的代名词。这里用来影射各国政府都有腐败现象，应注意克服。

Bacchus has drowned more than Neptune but has killed fewer than Mars.

Bacchus, Neptune和Mars分别为希腊、罗马神话中的酒神、海神和战神，这里用它们表示酒、大海和战争，说明被酒淹死者多于大海，而被酒杀死者少于战争，表示了劝人戒酒和反对战争的意思。

At the end of two years, your sheep-skin should be the least important thing you take away.

美国女作家Diane Wakoske在Writer's Digest杂志1992年8月号撰文谈到上大学进修写作时，强调要趁这个机会多读书、研究和提高写作能力，而不要去追求学位文凭，并利用童话故事A Wolf in Sheep-skin说明她的观点。

3） 新闻报道中记者们经常利用metonymy形式称呼各类人或物，给人以简洁有力而又幽默巧妙的印象。人的姓名、人体部位、地名、地址、动植物、社会职业，等等，都可以用作换喻，而且可以新创，故而不断有新的换喻出现。这里是一些常见的例子：

Down Under: Australia

British Lion: England / the English government

Ivan: the Russian people

John Bull: England / the English people

Uncle Sam: the United States of America

Capitol Hill / the Hill: the Legislative Branch of the U. S.

Downing Street: the British government/cabinet

Hollywood: American film-making industry

Fleet Street: the British press

Foggy Bottom: U. S. State Department

Madison Avenue: American advertising industry

the Pentagon: the U. S. military establishment

Wall Street: U. S. financial circles

the White House: the U. S. President/administration

brain/head: wisdom, intelligence, reason

heart: feelings, emotions

Quisling: traitor

Romeo: lover

Helen: beautiful woman

Milton: poet

the Bar / the bar: the legal profession

the bench: position （or office） of judge / magistrate

the press: news reporters, journalists, newspapers

9.2C　Synecdoche的使用

1） 美国著名诗人罗伯特·佛罗斯特（Robert Frost）说：

I prefer the synecdoche in poetry — that figure of speech in which we use a part for the whole.

除了诗人所说的局部表示整体外，还可以反过来用整体表示局部，例如：

This famous port used to be a harbour which was crowded with masts.

句中masts代替boats，即局部表示整体。又如：

All the plants in the cold country are turning green in this smiling year.

句中this smiling year指the spring，乃整体表示部分。

2） 在单数与复数、抽象与具体、物体和它的构成原料之间也会构成提喻。例如：

To the Carthaginian came aid from the Spaniard, and from the fierce Transalpine. In Italy, too, many a wearer of the toga shared the same sentiment.

（Patricia Bizzell）

句中Carthaginian等3个斜体字都是单数表示复数。又如：

Dread disaster smote his breasts with grief; so, panting, from out his lungs' very depth he sobbed for anguish.

（Patricia Bizzell）

句中breasts, lungs形式上复数，即把一个身上的左右胸肺以两个的形式表示出来，意在强调，实际上只是单数。又如：

There is a mixture of the tiger and the ape in the character of a Frenchman.

（Voltaire）

句中tiger和ape分别表示“残暴”与“狡猾”，是具体表抽象。又如：

“Einstein is my admiration,” the little girl said.

句中admiration指所崇拜的人物，是用抽象表具体。又如：

This child who is so curious of music is going to be a Beethoven, I dare say.

句中用Beethoven表示“杰出的音乐家”，即特殊表示一般。又如：

Even if you don't know Pavlov's dog from Qedipus Rex, you can write helpful, topical articles dealing with the workings of the mind or human behavior.

（Carol Turkington）

句中dog指巴甫洛夫神经学，是具体表示抽象，也可作局部表示整体。又如：

Instances of synecdoche can be found in the uses of “iron” for golf club, “cotton” for dress, “pigskin” for football, etc.

句中iron指高尔夫铁头球棒，这既是以典型用具联系人，也是局部代整体，或以某物品的制作材料代表该物，等。

练习九　（Exercise Nine）

I. Preview Questions:

1. Is analogy similar to simile in form?

2. Allegory is more tactful than metaphor, isn't it?

3. Can you cite an example to indicate that the use of an analogy can make an abstract idea concrete?

4. Indicate with an example how useful an analogy can be in persuasion?

5. What does the Greek word “allegoria” mean?

6. What play did the idiom “All that glitters is not gold.” originate from?

7. What figure of speech is used in the sentence “He must have been spoilt from the cradle.”?

8. What figure of speech is used in the sentence “More hands are needed now.”?

9. What examples can you give to indicate the popular use of metonymy in journalism?

10. What figure of speech does Robert Frost prefer?

II. Identify the figures of speech in the following sentences:

1. In rivers the water that you touch is the last of that has passed and the first of that which comes: so with time present.

2. Greece was the cradle of western culture.

3. Laugh and the world laughs with you; weep and you weep alone.

4. Every government should attend to cleaning its own Augean stables.

5. The birds are singing to the smiling year.

6. Would you like a cup or two, Eve?

7. The city has its philharmonic but also its poverty.

8. People often compare life to a road through the mountain because both have their ups and downs.

9. Too many professionally-prepared resumes read like a pitch from an old-time snake-oil pedlar.

10. There was a glamour in the air, a something in the special flavour of that moment that was like the consciousness of Salvation, or the smell of ripe peaches on a sunny wall.

11. I took a last drowning look at the title as I gave the book into her hand.

12. The Wall Street definitely has more say in their policy making.

III. Read and identify the types of figurative language:

1. The poor man had six mouths to feed.

Wisconsin meets Oregon in the Rose Bowl.

2. Suited to the pen, he sought to live by the plow.

Only a limited number of the press were admitted to the ceremony.

3. There has been a radical transformation of power. In traditional conflicts, states were like boiled eggs: War — the minute of truth — would reveal whether they were hard or soft. Today interdependence breaks all national eggs into a vast omelet. Power is more difficult to measure than ever before.

（Stanbey Hoffman）

4. What I like best are the stern cliffs, with ranges of mountains soaring behind them, full of possibilities, peaks to be scaled only by the most daring. What plants of high altitudes grow unvanished among their crags and valleys? So do I let my imagination play over the recesses of Laura's character, so austere in the foreground but nurturing what treasures of tenderness, like delicate flowers, for the discovery of the venture-some.

（V. Sackvile-West）

5. It is certain that had he never lived, most of what is correct in their parrot-learned knowledge would be absent.

（J. London）

6. The messenger was not long in returning, followed by a pair of heavy boots that came bumping along the passage like boxes.

（Dickens）

IV. Further reading

Grammatical metaphor is a semiotic process first described by Halliday as three familiar types of “rhetorical transferences”: “metaphor,” in which a “word is used for something resembling that which it usually refers to”; “metonymy,” in which a “word is used for something related to that which it usually refers”; and “synecdoche,” in which a “word is used for some larger whole of that which it refers to is a part,” e.g.

Metaphor 　A flood of protests poured in. [flood exemplifies a large quantity]

Metonymy 　Keep your eye on the ball. [eye directs the gaze]

Synecdoche 　Let's go and have a bite. [a bite is part of eating a meal]

The term “metaphor” is also used as a general label for these types of verbal transference. A common view of metaphor is a transference in the usage of words. We should look at it first from the perspective of meaning and ask “not ‘how is this word used?’ but ‘how is this meaning expressed?’”

Halliday distinguished types of grammatical metaphor most generally as metaphor of “mood” and “modality” and metaphor of “transitivity”: the first expands the potential of language for interpersonal meanings, and the latter expands its potential for ideational meanings.

[Keith Brown （Editor-in-chief） et al. 2nd ed., vol. 8, 66－72]

参考答案

Ⅱ. 1. analogy;　2. metaphor;　3. allegory;　4. metonymy;

5. synecdoche;　6. metonymy;　7. metonymy;　8. analogy;

9. simile, metaphor;　10. simile;　11. metaphor;　12. metonymy

Ⅲ. 1. synecdoche (Naming a part when the whole is meant, or naming a whole when a part is meant.);

2. metonymy (Substitution of an associated word for what is actually meant);

3. analogy (The explanation of a particular subject by pointing out its similarities to another subject which is usually better known or more easily understood.);

4. analogy;　5. metaphor;　6. metonymy, simile