n. pl. Metalepses .
(Rhet.) The continuation of a trope in one word through a succession of significations, or the union of two or more tropes of a different kind in one word.
Metalepsis
| Dictionary: Met·a·lep·sis |
n. pl. Metalepses .
| Literary Dictionary: metalepsis |
metalepsis, a term used in different senses in rhetoric and narratology. In rhetoric, the precise sense of metalepsis is uncertain, but it refers to various kinds of complex figure or trope that are figurative to the second or third degree; that is, they involve a figure that either refers us to yet another figure or requires a further imaginative leap to establish its reference, usually by a process of metonymy. Extended similes and rhetorical questions sometimes show a metaleptic multiplication of figures. Thus Marlowe's famous lines from Dr Faustus combine metaleptically a rhetorical question with synecdoche and hyperbole:
Was this the face that launched a thousand shipsThese same lines illustrate a slightly different sense of metalepsis as a figure that brings together two distantly related facts (here, Helen's beauty and the destruction of Troy), metonymically joining cause and effect while jumping or compressing the intervening steps in the causal chain. In narratology, metalepsis is a breaking of the boundaries that separate distinct ‘levels’ of a narrative, usually between an embedded tale and its frame story (see diegesis). An example occurs in Chaucer's Merchant's Tale, when a fictional character within the tale told by the Merchant refers to the Wife of Bath, who should be unknown to him since she exists on another level as one of the pilgrims listening to the Merchant. Narrative metalepsis, sometimes called ‘frame‐breaking’, has become common in modern experimental fiction.
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
| Word Tutor: metalepsis |
IN BRIEF: n. - The continuation of a trope in one word through a succession of significations, or the union of two or more tropes of a different kind in one word.
| WordNet: metalepsis |
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.
The noun has one meaning:
Meaning #1:
substituting metonymy of one figurative sense for another
| Wikipedia: Metalepsis |
Metalepsis (from Greek Μετάληψις) is a figure of speech in which one thing is referenced by something else which is only remotely associated with it. Often the association works through a different figure of speech, or through a chain of cause and effect. Often metalepsis refers to the combination of several figures of speech into an altogether new one. Those base figures of speech can be literary references, resulting in a sophisticated form of allusion.
A synonym for metalepsis is transumption, derived from the Latin transsumptio invented by Quintilian as an equivalent for the Greek.
Examples
- "I've got to go catch the worm tomorrow."
- "The early bird catches the worm" is a common maxim in English, advocating getting an early start on the day to achieve success. The subject, by referencing this maxim, is compared to the bird; tomorrow, the speaker will awaken early in order to achieve success.
- "He's got a lead foot."
- Lead is heavy; a lead foot would be heavy; the weight of a lead foot would push down on the automobile accelerator; hence, he drives quickly. The meaning comes from transferring heaviness from lead to feet and by understanding that the context of the comment is how "he" drives.
Quotes
"For the nature of metalepsis is that it is an intermediate step, as it were, to that which is metaphorically expressed, signifying nothing in itself, but affording a passage to something. It is a trope that we give the impression of being acquainted with rather than one that we actually ever need." -- Quintilian, [1]
"But the sense is much altered & the hearer's conceit strangely entangled by the figure Metalepsis, which I call the farfet, as when we had rather fetch a word a great way off then to use one nearer hand to express the matter as well & plainer."
Puttenham, George (1569), The Arte of English Poesie, http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/PutPoes.html.
"In a metalepsis, a word is substituted metonymically for a word in a previous trope, so that a metalepsis can be called, maddeningly but accurately, a metonymy of a metonymy."
Bloom, Harold (1975), A Map of Misreading, Oxford University Press, http://books.google.com/books?id=WvLAEnHKM9oC&pg=PA102&lpg=PA102&dq=metalepsis&source=web&ots=_cy9A7Yh14&sig=bWbckDDefW2JDvl58eGahJQ3dG0.
See also
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 | metaleptic |
| Metalepsis (moth) |
| Bernard Rands |
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 | Dictionary. Webster 1913 Dictionary edited by Patrick J. Cassidy Read more |
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| Literary Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Copyright © Chris Baldick 2001, 2004. All rights reserved. Read more |
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