英語修辭與寫作·9.2　Metonymy和Synecdoche

9.2　Metonymy和Synecdoche

9.2A　Metonymy和Synecdoche的含義與形式

1） Metonymy譯作“換喻”，Synecdoche譯作“提喻”。

這兩種辭格十分相近，其共同點是不直接說出所指對象的名稱，而采取某種替代形式；它們的區(qū)別在于：Metonymy是借與某事物密切相關(guān)的東西來表示該事物，因此亦稱之為“借代”，而Synecdoche是以某事物的局部表示整體，或反過來以整體表示局部。例如人在幼年離不開搖籃，因而借用the cradle表示“嬰兒時期”，這就是Metonymy：

He must have been spoilt from the cradle.

又如：“頭”和“手”等是人體的部分，用它們表示整個人，則是常見的Synecdoche形式：

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

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

2） 注意這兩種辭格與其他比喻形式之間的區(qū)別，試比較：

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、隱喻等比喻形式那樣利用不同類對象的相似或類同點構(gòu)成比較，而是利用兩個對象之間的某種聯(lián)系來喚起別人的聯(lián)想，從而避免生硬直說。例如，通過講某物的常用盛器，讓別人聯(lián)想到被盛的東西，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.

通過講工具或所有物，讓別人聯(lián)想到經(jīng)常使用該工具的人或該物的所有者：

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 ...

通過講特征或特定環(huán)境，讓人聯(lián)想到具有該特征或在該環(huán)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） 借用歷史上或傳說中的典故與現(xiàn)實生活中某種人或事之間的相似性來暗示說話者的觀點，達(dá)到借古喻今或借此言彼的目的。這類metonymy也稱之為“引喻”。例如：

Every government should attend to cleaning its own Augean stables.

相傳國王奧吉尼斯的牛舍內(nèi)養(yǎng)牛3000頭，30年未打掃，故Augean stables成了骯臟的代名詞。這里用來影射各國政府都有腐敗現(xiàn)象，應(yīng)注意克服。

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

Bacchus, Neptune和Mars分別為希臘、羅馬神話中的酒神、海神和戰(zhàn)神，這里用它們表示酒、大海和戰(zhàn)爭，說明被酒淹死者多于大海，而被酒殺死者少于戰(zhàn)爭，表示了勸人戒酒和反對戰(zhàn)爭的意思。

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

美國女作家Diane Wakoske在Writer's Digest雜志1992年8月號撰文談到上大學(xué)進(jìn)修寫作時，強(qiáng)調(diào)要趁這個機(jī)會多讀書、研究和提高寫作能力，而不要去追求學(xué)位文憑，并利用童話故事A Wolf in Sheep-skin說明她的觀點。

3） 新聞報道中記者們經(jīng)常利用metonymy形式稱呼各類人或物，給人以簡潔有力而又幽默巧妙的印象。人的姓名、人體部位、地名、地址、動植物、社會職業(yè)，等等，都可以用作換喻，而且可以新創(chuàng)，故而不斷有新的換喻出現(xiàn)。這里是一些常見的例子：

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） 美國著名詩人羅伯特·佛羅斯特（Robert Frost）說：

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

除了詩人所說的局部表示整體外，還可以反過來用整體表示局部，例如：

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

句中masts代替boats，即局部表示整體。又如：

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

句中this smiling year指the spring，乃整體表示部分。

2） 在單數(shù)與復(fù)數(shù)、抽象與具體、物體和它的構(gòu)成原料之間也會構(gòu)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個斜體字都是單數(shù)表示復(fù)數(shù)。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形式上復(fù)數(shù)，即把一個身上的左右胸肺以兩個的形式表示出來，意在強(qiáng)調(diào)，實際上只是單數(shù)。又如：

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

（Voltaire）

句中tiger和ape分別表示“殘暴”與“狡猾”，是具體表抽象。又如：

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

句中admiration指所崇拜的人物，是用抽象表具體。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“杰出的音樂家”，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指巴甫洛夫神經(jīng)學(xué)，是具體表示抽象，也可作局部表示整體。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指高爾夫鐵頭球棒，這既是以典型用具聯(lián)系人，也是局部代整體，或以某物品的制作材料代表該物，等。

練習(xí)九?。‥xercise 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]

參考答案

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