A Brief Discussion on Metaphor and Metonymy.doc

some thoughts on learning advanced english-with special reference to metaphor and metonymya brief discussion on metaphor and metonymy、preface.metaphor and metonymy, as rhetorical devices, find broad application in english. linguists have done a great deal of research on their nature, similarities and differences. aristotle classified metonymy as a specific form of metaphor in his poetics(诗学).1in modern linguistics, however, metonymy is separated from metaphor as an independent rhetorical phenomenon. advanced english is rich of examples of both of them. this paper focuses on the comparison of them in terms of their nature, types and usages, especially with examples in advanced english. 、the nature and formation of metaphor and metonymy in cognitive linguistics.in “a dictionary of literary terms”, metaphor is defined as “a figure of speech in which one thing is described in terms of another”. metonymy is defined as“the substitution of a word referring to an attribute for the thing that is meant, e.g. the crown, used to refer to a monarch”. from these definitions, we can tell that the words or images used in metonymy belong to one concept or one cognitive domain. in cognitive linguistics, metaphor and metonymy both embody the ways in which people see the world. basically, metaphor and metonymy are considered as“the mapping or projection of target domain by source domain”. some other linguists assert that both of them are “the activation of target domain by source domain.”2 in other words, these two rhetorical devices reflect the association of two things in peoples minds. for example, in the title mark twainmirror of america, mark twain is compared to a mirror. the common knowledge that a mirror can reflect things makes us know that his books faithfully reflect american society. in spite of their similarity , metaphor and metonymy hold apparent differences in nature，with the former based on “similarity”, whereas the later on “contiguity”.3 (jacobson) speaking of metaphor, common features between tenors and vehicles are crucial. differently, in the formation of metonymy, people tend to remember the most obvious, impressive attribute of a thing, person or concept which linguists call the “salience”. then, people use that “salience” to refer to the original thing naturally. to illustrate, “white house” is the place where the us president work, so it can be easily connected with the us government. it is the same with “downing street” and “the pentagon”.、different types and usages of metaphor and metonymy. 1、four types of metaphor.(1)、metaphorical usages in nouns. it is the most basic and common way of metaphor often with a sentence format “a+verb+b”.“the pottery market and carpenters market lie in elsewhere in the maze of vaulted streets which honeycomb this bazaar.” here “maze” emphasizes the streets are so intricate and numerous that they are just like a maze. “you pass from the heat and glare of a big, open square into a cool, dark cavern which extends as far as the eye can see.” the market is compared to a cavern in that they are both dark，deep and have vaulted roof. “mark twain went west by stagecoach and succumbed to the epidemic of gold and silver fever in nevadas washoe region.” (2)、metaphorical usages in verbs, in which the verb in a sentence serves as the core of metaphor.“mark twain honed and experimented with his new writing muscles”. “hone” originally means to sharpen on a fine-grained whetstone, here it means to perfect and practise. “the boy wolfed the food the moment he grabbed it”. the verb “wolf” here compares the way of eating of the boy to that of a wolf, thereby vividly illustrating how hungry he is. “the vast basin drained three-quarters of the settled united states”.(3)、metaphorical use of adjectives. 4 “ she has a photographic memory for detail.” in this sentence, the girls brain is compared to a camera in that she can remember details so clearly just like all things are on a photo taken by a camera.(4)、some special metaphorical usages. during the history of language development, some specific metaphors were used and broadly accepted by people so that they were passed down and became established metaphors. such is the case with “keep ones hair on”, which means one is angry. 5 additionally, some metaphors are stemmed from the bible and are closely related to english culture. “and i ask whether for him, the arch anti-communist, this was not bowing down in the house of rimmon.” the underlined part originated in the bible, which refer to expediential submission to the religion of rimmon . in fact, however, he or she does not believe it at all. in this context, it means pretending to compromise with communism. “she thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand.” the underlined part is indicate having ones fate under control. it is not a noun compared to anther noun or a verb to anther verb. it is rather a fixed metaphor evolved from the development of language and culture. 2、four types of metonymy. metonymy has several widely accepted usages: (1)、the names of artists or writers are used to represent their masterpieces. to illustrate, “have you read lu xun?” (2)、some animals are used to refer to a country, or certain group of people.6 “john bull” is regarded as a nick name of the great britain. in advanced english lesson 4, “cows are smoothing and slow and dont bother you, unless you try to milk them the wrong way.” “cows” here alludes to submissive and timid african-americans, specifically, maggie. (3)、the names of places and buildings represent government or related bureaus.7 “the capitol hill” indicates the american congress and “the press” refers to all the media. (4)、something specific is used to symbolize its owner, someone who often use it or a concept it is associated with. “the rather arresting spectacle is the very symbol of the incessant struggle between the kimono and miniskirt.” kimono and miniskirt are symbols of old traditions and new modern life respectively because kimono is traditional japanese clothes while miniskirt is often worn by young girls of new generations. “but for making money, his pen would prove much mightier than his pickax.” in this typical metonymy, the tools of writing reports and mining, pen and pickax, symbolize these two jobs respectively. in both examples, the signifiers can naturally remind people of the signified because the former one includes obvious features of the later one, which linguists call “salience”.、 sometimes it is hard to distinguish between metaphor and metonymy. these two rhetorical devices sometimes can be found in the same sentence. for instance, “he is so wise that he is the zhu geliang in our village.” “he” is compared to “zhu geliang” because both of them are intelligent and it is a metaphor. on the other hand, in terms of “zhu geliang”, it indicates all wise men, which is a metonymy. in addition, in the sentence “and i ask whether for him, the arch anti-communist, this was not bowing down in the house of rimmon”, “the house of rimmon” refers to communism and it is a metonymy. meanwhile, both bowing down in the house of rimmon and compromising with communism are for expediential reasons rather than true will. they are similar in this light so that we can regard it as a metaphor. though we can analyze some sentences from different perspectives, it is crucial for us to remember the core of metonymy is “contiguity”, while that of metaphor is “similarity”. moreover, linguists such as lakoff & johnson contend that both signifier and signified in metonymy belong to the same cognitive domain8 and people use the “salience” ( the most obvious feature that can remind you of the signified ) to refer to a thing, person or concept. therefore, in my view, “house of rimmon” and “communism” are in different cognitive domains and are two concepts. only in this context, they share similari