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synecdoche

 
(sĭ-nĕk'də-kē) pronunciation
n.
A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor), the whole for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing made from it (as steel for sword).

[Middle English synodoches, from Medieval Latin synodoche, alteration of Latin synecdochē, from Greek sunekdokhē, from sunekdekhesthai, to take on a share of : sun-, syn- + ekdekhesthai, to understand (ek-, out of + dekhesthai, to take).]

synecdochic syn'ec·doch'ic (sĭn'ĕk-dŏk'ĭk) or syn'ec·doch'i·cal (-ĭ-kəl) adj.

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pronounced si-nek-dǝ-kee, is a figure of speech in which a more inclusive term is used for a less inclusive one or vice versa, as in England came out to bat (England more inclusive for 'the England team') and a fleet of fifty sail (sail less inclusive for 'ships'). See also metonymy.

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synecdoche [si‐nek‐dŏki], a common figure of speech (or trope) by which something is referred to indirectly, either by naming only some part or constituent of it (e.g. ‘hands’ for manual labourers) or—less often—by naming some more comprehensive entity of which it is a part (e.g. ‘the law’ for a police officer). Usually regarded as a special kind of metonymy, synecdoche occurs frequently in political journalism (e.g.‘Moscow’ for the Russian government) and sports commentary (e.g. ‘Liverpool’ for one of that city's football teams), but also has literary uses like Dickens's habitual play with bodily parts: the character of Mrs Merdle in Little Dorrit is referred to as ‘the Bosom’.

Adjective: synecdochic.

Columbia Encyclopedia:

synecdoche

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synecdoche (sĭnĕk'dəkē), figure of speech, a species of metaphor, in which a part of a person or thing is used to designate the whole-thus, "The house was built by 40 hands" for "The house was built by 20 people." See metonymy.


Poetry Glossary:

Synecdoche

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A figure of speech in which a part of something stands for the whole or the whole for a part, as wheels for automobile or society for high society.


Origin: (Lat. conceptio, intellectio) is a metasememe that signifies a relationship of the particular and the general. Like metonymy, it is constituted by a substitution of contiguities. Synecdochē presents either particular things instead of a whole, or a whole instead of something particular. An example of the former case is the expression “Caesar conquered Gallia,” in which “Caesar” represents the members of the Roman army; an example of the latter is the sentence, “The Americans have landed on the moon,” in which the term Americans denotes only the astronauts involved.

If contiguity is taken as the distinguishing characteristic of metonymy, synecdochē may be defined as one of its subclasses (Plett, 2000, pp. 191–192). Accordingly, Lausberg describes synecdochē as a metonymy denoting a “quantitative relationship between the word used and the meaning intended” (1998, section 572). Although Quintilian regards synecdochē as a trope in its own right, he acknowledges the kinship of the two tropes by stating that “it is but a short step from synecdochē to metonymy” (Institutio oratoria, first century ce, 8.6.23).

Several types of synecdochē can be distinguished according to their respective functions of generalization or particularization (Plett, 1991, pp. 71–72). The first type includes substitutions
  1. of the whole for a part (“America [the American team] succeeded in the Olympic games”);
  2. of genus for species (“He was lost on the waters [the ocean]”); and
  3. of plural for singular (“We [I] regret to inform you”).
The second comprises substitutions
  1. of a part for the whole (“There were some new faces [people] in the crowd”);
  2. of species for genus (“He had spent his last few dimes [money]”); and
  3. of singular for plural (“Columbus [and his crew] set sail for America”).
A special interpretation of synecdochē is given by Kenneth Burke, who, in A Grammar of Motives (Berkeley, 1969, pp. 507–508) describes it as one of the “Four Master Tropes,” which include metaphor, metonymy, synecdochē, and irony. In Burke's system, synecdochē is connected to the function of representation and signifies relationships that on other occasions have been described as metonymic, namely substitutions of “part for the whole, whole for the part, container for the contained, sign for the thing signified, material for the thing made …, cause for effect, effect for cause, genus for species, species for genus, etc.” Metonymy, according to Burke, is a “special application of synecdoche.” Whereas synecdochic relationships are “convertible” and may function in either direction, metonymical relations are restricted to the substitution of quantities for qualities and are therefore unidirectional. Burke finds a “perfect paradigm or prototype” of synecdochē in the philosophical concept of a correspondence between microcosm and macrocosm, which conceives of man as a “little world.” Another instance, also taken by Burke (1969, p. 508) from intellectual history, is Jean-Jacques Rousseau's concept of a volonté générale, which is assumed to “represent” the volitions of all the members in a society.

Random House Word Menu:

categories related to 'synecdoche'

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to synecdoche, see:
  • Rhetoric and Figures of Speech - synecdoche: metaphoric form in which a part signifies the whole and less general stands for more general, or vice versa


Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Synecdoche

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Synecdoche (play /sɪˈnɛkdək/; from Greek synekdoche (συνεκδοχή), meaning "simultaneous understanding") is a figure of speech[1] in which a term is used in one of the following ways:

  • Part of something is used to refer to the whole thing (pars pro toto), or
  • A thing (a "whole") is used to refer to part of it (totum pro parte), or
  • A specific class of thing is used to refer to a larger, more general class, or
  • A general class of thing is used to refer to a smaller, more specific class, or
  • A material is used to refer to an object composed of that material, or
  • A container is used to refer to its contents.
Contents

Similar figures of speech

Synecdoche is closely related to metonymy (the figure of speech in which a term denoting one thing is used to refer to a related thing); indeed, synecdoche is sometimes considered a subclass of metonymy. It is more distantly related to other figures of speech, such as metaphor.

More rigorously, metonymy and synecdoche may be considered as sub-species of metaphor, intending metaphor as a type of conceptual substitution (as Quintilian does in Institutio oratoria Book VIII). In Lanham's Handlist of Rhetorical Terms,[2] the three terms have somewhat restrictive definitions, arguably in tune with a certain interpretation of their etymologies from Greek:

  • metaphor: changing a word from its literal meaning to one not properly applicable but analogous to it; assertion of identity rather than, as with simile, likeness.
  • metonymy: substitution of cause for effect, proper name for one of its qualities, etc.
  • synecdoche: substitution of a part for whole, species for genus, etc.

Etymology

The word "synecdoche" is derived from the Greek word συνεκδοχή, from the prepositions συν- + εκ- and the verb δέχομαι (= "I accept"), originally meaning accepting a part as responsible for the whole, or vice versa.

Use

The use of synecdoche is a common way to emphasize an important aspect of a fictional character; for example, a character might be consistently described by a single body part, such as the eyes, which come to represent the character. This is often used when the main character does not know or care about the names of the characters that he is referring to. An example of this would be the The X-Files character Cigarette-Smoking Man.

Also, sonnets and other forms of love poetry frequently use synecdoches to characterize the beloved in terms of individual body parts rather than a whole, coherent self. This practice is especially common in the Petrarchan sonnet, where the idealised beloved is often described part by part, from head to toe.

Examples

A part referring to the whole
  • Prominently used in slang and vulgar speech, where a person's home is referred to as their "crib" or the entire person is referred to by their genitalia.
  • Referring to people according to a single characteristic: "the gray beard" representing an older man or "the long hair" representing a hippie. This leads to bahuvrihi compounds.
  • Describing a complete vehicle as "wheels"
  • Calling workers "hands", e.g. Many hands make light work; All hands on deck!
  • Historical: The Kingdom of Sardinia in the 19th century was commonly referred to as Savoy because its ruling house was from Savoy. The Soviet Union was commonly referred to by its largest and most well-known member, Russia. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia later named Serbia and Montenegro was commonly referred to by its largest constituent republic, Serbia.
  • Use of the names England (only one of the four constituent nations) or Great Britain (the geographical name of the main island) to mean the entire United Kingdom.
  • Use of Holland, a region of the Netherlands, to refer to the entire country.
The name for a whole when used to describe one part of it
A general class name used to denote a specific member of that or an associated class
  • "the good book," or "The Book" for the Bible
  • "truck" for any four-wheel drive vehicle (as well as long-haul trailers, etc.)
  • "He's good people." [Here, the word "people" is used to denote a specific instance of people, i.e. a person. So the sentence would be interpreted as "He's a good person.")
A specific class name used to refer to a general set of associated things
The material that a thing is (actually, historically, or supposedly) made of referring to that thing
A container is used to refer to its contents
  • "barrel" for a barrel of oil
  • "keg" for a keg of beer

See also

References

  1. ^ Synecdoche - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
  2. ^ Lanham, Richard A (1991). A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms: A Guide for Students of English Literature, Second Edition. Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: California University Press. p. 189. ISBN 0-520-07669-9. 

Further reading

  • Monateri, Pier Giuseppe (1958). La Sineddoche. Formule e regole nel diritto delle obbligazioni e dei contratti. Milano: Giuffré. 

External links


Translations:

Synecdoche

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Français (French)
n. - synecdoque

Español (Spanish)
n. - sinécdoque


 
 

 

Copyrights:

American Heritage Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
 Fowler's Modern English Usage. Oxford University Press. © 1999, 2004 All rights reserved.  Read more
Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Copyright © Chris Baldick 2001, 2004. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more
Poetry Glossary. Copyright � 2007, ILOVEPOETRY, Inc, All Rights Reserved.  Read more
 Oxford Encyclopedia of Rhetoric. Encyclopedia of Rhetoric. © March 2001 Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Random House Word Menu. © 2010 Write Brothers Inc. Word Menu is a registered trademark of the Estate of Stephen Glazier. Write Brothers Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
 Rhymes. Oxford University Press. © 2006, 2007 All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia on Answers.com. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Synecdoche Read more
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