[lit-ideas] Re: Tropeing along, singing a song

  • From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2006 13:59:48 -0600

WO: 

The last time I was at Hemingway's in T.O, I spent a long
night with some profs and students discussing the difference between
synechdoche and metonomy (sp?)...
Could anybody explain this
fine distinction to a non-literary kind of guy?

I was in Hemingways once while visiting Toronto and was dragged there by I won't say who (or is it whom? -- no, who -- unless it's whom). But I didn't get into any metonymy vs. synecdoche discussions that I can remember. Thank God. At least thank God I don't remember doing so. So anyway, synecdoche is a part for the whole as in "all hands on board", meaning the sailors who have hands -- non-handed ones need board. Metonymy is the container for the thing contained, like in "lend me your ears" ears isn't a part for the whole person, it's that the whole of all that is associated with what ears "do". But I find that a rather precious distinction. I call 'em all tropes. Give 'em enough trope to hang themselves, I say.

"Thurber recalled that he lay awake that night trying to find an example of the reverse idea and came up with an image of an angry wife about to bash hubby over the head with a bottle of Grade A, saying "Get away from me or I'll hit you with the milk". That's metonymy all right, but you can argue it's also synecdoche, because milk is an essential component part of a bottle of milk, not just something associated with it."

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-syn1.htm

Mike Geary
Memphis



----- Original Message ----- From: <wokshevs@xxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2006 1:14 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Tropeing along, singing a song


Quoting Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:


This is euphemism. 

snip

Which reminds me. The last time I was at Hemingway's in T.O, I spent a long
night with some profs and students discussing the difference between
synechdoche and metonomy (sp?). Because of the nature of that evening, I find I
no longer have that interesting distinction available to me. I remember at the
time thinking it's a useful distinction to understand since it applies to a
wide variety of cases. I know it's something Gadamer would be interested in,
since it has something to do with parts and wholes. Could anybody explain this
fine distinction to a non-literary kind of guy?

As I delve deeper into my meory of that same evening, I recall that after what
I
think was our fourth round of malts and ales, we discussed the meanings of a
number of Russian terms which the students claimed would be very impressive
when used in a term paper. Used correctly, that is. I'm not sure I remember
what they all mean, but surely if anybody's interested, the resources of this
list are more than ample for the task. (Yes, I'm still snowed in and bored to
tears.) I hope I'm getting the spelling right.

1. ex cathedra
2. deus ex machina
3. apriori
4. aposteriori
5. lingua franca
6. ad hominem
7. quid pro quo
8. ipso facto (not a magical incantation from A.L. Weber's *Cats*)
9. post hoc propter hoc
10. mens rea
11. womens rea
12. in cognito ergo sum
13. pace
14. ad hoc
15 hic up
15. arete (Not French for "Stop.")
16. eo ipso

Then, as I recall, around 2 am, some of the the profs took it up a notch.
Mandelbaum! Mandelbaum!

13. bonitas moralis (No, he didn't play for the Chicago Cubs)
14. littera legis
15. sapere audi (hint: something to do with knowing about high performance
cars.)
16. in foro humano
17. exercitia coelestica (hint: the albino monk in *The Da Vinci Code*)
18. facultates sexuales
19. vaga libido (I'm not making this up.)
20. Gospodsi, Gospodsi, pomiluy nas. (This one really is Russian.)
21. Eloi, Eloi, llama sabarachtini.
22. peccatilla
23. odium religiosum
24. Paideusis
25. erotetic method (No, it's not what you think!)
26. Sittlichkeit (in differentiation from Moralitaet)

Wait! I think I hear a plough. Must run. Freedom may be just around the
corner.

Cheers, Walter

Walter Okshevsky
Department of Terminology for Term Papers
Umberto Ecco School of Symbology
Duluth, Iowa, USA
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