Difference between Metonymy and Synecdoche

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HI my question is :what is the difference between metonymy and synecdoche and also give some examples for both.

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

A dictionary is a good resource for understanding word meanings.

synecdoche
–noun Rhetoric . a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the special for the general or the general for the special, as in ten sail for ten ships or a Croesus for a rich man.

metonymy
–noun Rhetoric . a figure of speech that consists of the use of the name of one object or concept for that of another to which it is related, or of which it is a part, as “scepter” for “sovereignty,” or “the bottle” for “strong drink,” or “count heads (or noses)” for “count people.”

metonymy seems to be the more general term, since some of its examples also fit the definition of synecdoche. They are related, and perhaps even used interchangeable, as these quotes show:

To represent the poverty class as a synecdoche for the working class is to coopt, repress, misrepresent, and dismiss the lives of poor women
Tetouan's three major cemeteries

-- the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian ruins of a forgotten past -- serve as a silent synecdoche for this poor city and its uncertain future.

He walks through " snow puddles, " a synecdoche for the state of both the speaker and nature. Like the Visionary -- who is between fear and gladness, adulthood and childhood -- and like the natural environment -- which is in " twilight, " a border between day and night and covered with a " clouded sky, " a sky in a transitional state between gas and liquid -- the snow puddles are also liminal, as they are ice on the verge of becoming water. This synecdoche is also an oxymoronic figure, for it yokes together water and ice, fluidity and stasis.

We travel for difference, and so we concentrate on those things -- the buildings, the food, the people -- that distinguish this place from that, on the exceptions to the ordinary run of our lives. And in consequence nearly all travel writing depends upon metonymy. Or perhaps upon cliche. It identifies those aspects of a country or culture that differ from other countries, other cultures, and then identifies those attributes with the whole, a catalogue of the typical that in Germany runs to sausages and lederhosen, Volkswagens and blondes, and a cultural prohibition against jaywalking and Sunday shopping alike -- all of them serving to define the country much more to foreigners than they do to the inhabitants themselves.

Anonymous · Answer

Sanjana Sangameshwar HI my question is :what is the difference between metonymy and synecdoche and also give some examples for both.

Metonymy see: http://grammar.about.com/od/mo/g/metonymy.htm

Synecdoche: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synecdoche

Anonymous · Answer

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Anonymous · Answer

The pen is mightier than the sword

Difference between Metonymy and Synecdoche

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