Quote: zooo @ December 13 2008, 6:27 PM GMTI've never even heard the word synecdoche before.
I've never heard either word before.
Are you having less these days or what? Page 3
Quote: Godot Taxis @ December 13 2008, 6:29 PM GMTNot much call for metaphor out in the country. They like to call a spade a spade.
Tell me about it. If I stayed here much longer my brain would atrophy and I'd only retain words of one syllable, like the rest of the yokels.
Oh wait, yokel has two...
Quote: Scatterbrained Floozy @ December 13 2008, 6:28 PM GMT
I really, really don't.
Do.
Quote: Godot Taxis @ December 13 2008, 6:29 PM GMTNot much call for metaphor out in the country. They like to call a spade a spade.
I did that and was done for being a racist.
Arf arf!
Quote: zooo @ December 13 2008, 6:35 PM GMTatrophy
...
Waste away.
Melty melt.
Quote: Aaron @ December 13 2008, 6:34 PM GMTI've never heard either word before.
You won't see it on the back of a DVD box.
Quote: zooo @ December 13 2008, 6:40 PM GMTWaste away.
Melty melt.
Ah, that makes sense. 
Quote: Godot Taxis @ December 13 2008, 6:43 PM GMTYou won't see it on the back of a DVD box.
Ahh, so that's where I'm going wrong!
Quote: Godot Taxis @ December 13 2008, 6:43 PM GMTYou won't see it on the back of a DVD box.
Not unless it's Synecdoche Episode I - the figurative allusion"
I did a lol.
Quote: Scatterbrained Floozy @ December 13 2008, 6:20 PM GMTA synecdoche is when a body part of a person is used to represent them. Like a woman might be perpetually described using her eyes, her legs, her boobs etc.
So if you call someone a prick is that a synecdoche?
I've been cutting back for the last few years being a student. There isn't much more I can cut back on....I suppose I could stop buying beer...but that's crazy talk.
Actually over the last few months a lot of my friends have stopped going out on the weekends and have been just hosting parties at home.
Quote: Curt @ December 13 2008, 7:25 PM GMTI suppose I could stop buying beer...but that's crazy talk.
Yeah, like anybody would ever seriously consider that.
Quote: Scatterbrained Floozy @ December 13 2008, 6:20 PM GMTA metonym is when something external, but associated with them, is used to represent a person. Like a business man's metonym might be "the suit".
A synecdoche is when a body part of a person is used to represent them. Like a woman might be perpetually described using her eyes, her legs, her boobs etc.
Sorry Floozy, not correct. The difference between the two is subtle in that both are figures of speech where a part stands for a whole - as you say, a 'suit' for a businessman, but a synecdoche is just a little less associative than a metonym in that it requires a metaphor that is specific to the object being discussed.
A woman could never be described using her eyes or legs as synecdoches as these atributes are present in men and other creatures. For example 'the eyes of the community' would never be understood to only refer to women. Even boobs is a tough call, although I suppose you could have a stripclub manager saying: "get me some tits in here" - meaning some dancers - although that would be a metonym and not a synecdoche.
Quote: Timbo @ December 13 2008, 7:03 PM GMTSo if you call someone a prick is that a synecdoche?
No, it's personification.
Quote: Godot Taxis @ December 13 2008, 7:39 PM GMTSorry Floozy, not correct. The difference between the two is subtle in that both are figures of speech where a part stands for a whole - as you say, a 'suit' for a businessman, but a synecdoche is just a little less associative than a metonym in that it requires a metaphor that is specific to the object being discussed.
A woman could never be described using her eyes or legs as synecdoches as these atributes are present in men and other creatures. For example 'the eyes of the community' would never be understood to only refer to women. Even boobs is a tough call, although I suppose you could have a stripclub manager saying: "get me some tits in here" - meaning some dancers - although that would be a metonym and not a synecdoche.
I am so going to have to debate this next English lesson. Because I'm pathetic like that, and now have to relearn definitions.
From Phil Murphy: "Can you tell me whether the words synecdoche and metonymy mean the same thing?"
Both are figures of speech used in rhetoric. They're not the same thing, though metonymy is often interpreted so widely that synecdoche can be regarded as a special case of it.
Let's take synecdoche first (which is pronounced as /sɪˈnɛkdəkɪ/ , by the way). You use this when you speak of a part of something but mean the whole thing. When Patrick O'Brian has Captain Jack Aubrey tell his first lieutenant to "let the hands go to dinner" he's employing synecdoche, because he's using a part (the hand) for the whole man. You can also reverse the whole and the part, so using a word for something when you only mean part of it. This often comes up in sport: a commentator might say that "The West Indies has lost to England" when he means that the West Indian team has lost to the English one. America is often used as synecdoche in this second sense, as the word refers to the whole continent but is frequently applied to a part of it, the USA.
Isn't that like what I said? It's what I meant. "The hands" could literally mean someone's hands, but it's still a synecdoche.