METAPHOR, METONYMY PREPARED BY MIKE KURIA REF BOOK: STYLISTICS: A RESOURCE BOOK FOR STUDENTS By Paul Simpson.

METAPHOR Process of mapping between two different conceptual domains Basic schemes by which people conceptualize their experience and their external world Can be discoursed in terms of source domain and target domain: – She blew her top Source: Heated fluid in a container Target: Our understanding of anger Note that the relationship between metaphor and linguistic form is an indirect one: why the same concept can be expressed in a variety of metaphors What makes metaphors stylistically important: – Novelty (as opposed to being common place and idiomatised) – Its semantics- why the metaphor eg “The regime is finished but there is some tidying up to do

THE CONCEPT OF NOVELTY Can be understood as referring to the newness or uniqueness of a conceptual mapping between a source and a target domain. Striking method of expression which a writer uses to relay a metaphor If a writer/speaker marries two metaphors, the concept is known as mixed metaphor. Novelty cannot remain so indefinitely- continuous use can turn it into an idiom.

EXTENDING AND ELABORATING METAPHORS 40LOVE middleaged coupleplaying tennis whenthe gameends andthey gohome thenet willstill be tweenthem

EXTENDING THE METAPHOR Extending: expressing the metaphor through linguistic resources which introduce new conceptual elements from the source domain – Movement from sport in general to tennis in particular – Use of tennis introduces the to and from movement of love as in tennis- captured by the graphological organization of the poem – Textual layout becomes an orientation metaphor Conventional metaphors usually use the vertical metaphors- this poems opts for a horizontal metaphor Horizontal approach accommodates both conflict and the emotional to and from of the game of love

ELABORATING THE METAPHOR Elaborating the metaphor involves capturing an existing component of the source domain in an unusual or unconventional way – Once the game is extended to tennis, the net for example becomes a symbol of the emotional or psychological barriers between the couple – the scoring system 40-love means zero in French- is the couple scoring nothing? A parallel of the age of the couple?

METONYMY Based on a transfer within a single conceptual domain Involves transposition between associated concepts which commonly translates in transfer between the part and the whole (hired hand), the producer and the produced (A Tyra Perry), an institution(the Hague) and its location – Synecdoche- when a part stands for the whole eg a fresh pair of legs – Location representing an institution: The pentagon, Buckingham palace, statehouse was not amused – Producer for the produced- have you seen the latest Tyra Perry? Metonymy simply upgrades a certain characteristic of part of a phenomenon and upgrades it to the whole- it does not create distance between itself and the referent as metaphors do. To differentiate metaphors from metonymies: metaphors can easily form similes using “is like” unlike metonymies

Metonymy: Stylistic Function Plays an important role in caricature – Eg in cartoons where a body part is exaggerated and eventually comes to symbolize the person President Kibaki's hand was instrumental in the picking of month of March next year for elections and he even vetoed Cabinet discussions on the matter arguing that the High Court had settled this matter.

Misery is a vacuum. A space without air, a suffocated dead place, the abode of the miserable. Misery is a tenement block, rooms like battery cages, sit over your own droppings, lie on your own filth. Misery is a no U-turns, no stopping road. Travel down it pushed by those behind, tripped by those in front. Travel it at furious speed though the days are mummified in lead. It happens so fast once you get started, there's no anchor from the real world to slow you down, nothing to hold on to. Misery pulls away from the brackets of life leaving you to free fall. Whatever your private hell, you'll find millions like it in Misery. This a town where everyone's nightmares come true.” ― Jeanette Winterson, Written on the BodyJeanette WintersonWritten on the Body EXERCISE I: EXPLORING USE OF METAPHORS