Metonymy - what is it? Metonymy: examples from literature. What is metonymy? Spatial metonymy

Metonymy and synecdoche... Not everyone can even put the emphasis correctly in these tricky words, while the applicant should easily and naturally recognize them in the text when taking the Unified State Exam.

Metonymy, like metaphor, refers to tropes. What is a trope? This is a word used figuratively.

Old city spread out on the banks of the Oka.

The word "city" is used here in its literal meaning - "a large populated area, an administrative, commercial, industrial and cultural center."

All city I was alarmed: the president had arrived.

“City” in this sentence is used in a figurative (metonymic) meaning and means “the inhabitants of this city.”

Let's figure out what is transferred where and why the meaning is called portable.

Transferred Name from one subject to another. In our example, the name of a large settlement was transferred to its inhabitants, because the city and residents are connected or, as they also say, adjacent.

The vessel is also connected with its contents - which means we can transfer the name of the vessel to the name of what is in it.

There were three on the table stack ana(direct meaning is ‘type of vessel’).

He drank three glasses (figurative metonymic meaning - ‘drink’).

Note!

The meaning of words is usually written in special (semantic) quotation marks: ‘ ’.

Now let's give a scientific definition of metonymy.

Metonymy(from the Greek metonymia - renaming) is the transfer of a name from one object to another based on their contiguity or real connection.

Two objects are connected in our minds - we can call them by one name. The figurative meaning itself, which arose in this way, is also called metonymy.

If similarity is important in the formation of a metaphor: similar objects or phenomena receive the same name, then for metonymy everything is determined by the contiguity of objects.

What is contiguity?

It could be spatial connection: people live in a city, so they can be called a city; causal relationship: a tornado causes horror, so it can be called horror (Horror was approaching); logical connection (Ate it all pan ) and etc.

Metonymic types

Metonymy has stable hyphenation types and always acts in large groups of words (therefore, unlike metaphor, it is called regular transfer). This means that not only “city” will have the metonymic meaning “residents”, but also other words of the thematic group “settlement”: village, capital, village etc., as well as all proper names - names of settlements: Moscow, Tula, Kaluga and etc.:

Village began to harvest.

Tula proud of its history.

You already know about the first metonymic type. See how it is recorded:

‘Settlement’ → ‘residents of this settlement’.

We read this entry as follows: transfer of the name from the locality to its inhabitants. The arrow indicates the transfer of the name.

By the way, this type can be presented more generally by including here the names of countries and parts of the world:

‘Settlement / country / part of the world’ → ‘residents of this settlement / country / part of the world’.

I want everyone to read me Russia.

You need to be a revolutionary in everything... Everything is on you Europe looks...(Zoshchenko)

There are a lot of metonymic types, and different researchers identify different numbers of them. Some textbooks describe 6 types, and in my dissertation there are 47. Here are just a few of them.

1. ‘Container’ → ‘those who are located or function in it’.

"The whole house knew my desire to read"(Pushkin).

"Soon all hut snored..."(Pushkin)

1. ‘Place’ → ‘those who are in it’.

« Gallery comes into indescribable delight"(Kuprin).

1. ‘Place’ → ‘event associated with it’.

Borodino(‘battle on the Borodino field’).

1. ‘Institution’ → ‘those who work in it’.

« Department lazy. No movement of papers"(Kuprin).

1. ‘Vessel’ → ‘contents of the vessel’.

"I'm three dishes ate"(Krylov).

1. ‘Material’ → ‘product made from this material’.

"You're in the throat steel stuck it in him"(Pushkin).

"The shine of the tiles, porcelain, the water rang like crystal"(Brodsky).

1. ‘Author’ → ‘the works of this author’.

“I read with pleasure Apuleius» (Pushkin).

1. ‘An item of clothing or footwear’ → ‘a person wearing this clothing or footwear’.

“It’s true that it’s expensive,” they sigh red trousers» (Chekhov)

"The next moment with a dozen leather jackets with revolvers, in high boots, they flew out like a storm from the semi-darkness of the hallway ... "(Zaitsev).

1. ‘Musical instrument’ → ‘musician playing it’.

"This cello knows the notes, but doesn’t want to know the soul!”(Chekhov)

1. ‘Property’ → ‘carrier of property’.

«… youth And resourcefulness firmly defend their lives"(Kuprin).

1. ‘State’ → ‘state source’.

«— Joy you are ours! God will create such kindness!”(Chekhov)

Child- grief (Blake)

1. ‘Animal’ → ‘fur or meat of an animal’.

She bought mink (mink fur coat).

1. ‘Plant’ → ‘the fruit of this plant’.

Ate three plums and four pears.

"...women raspberries collected."

1. ‘Tree’ → ‘its wood’.

Wardrobe from birch trees.

Examples of metonymy

— I call such cases “cases on one handset».
- That is?
— While you smoke a pipe, you manage to find the solution(from the film about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson)

Drunk shop and Isaac who ate the snack bar...(Dovlatov)

It's in his pocket Sart R…(Grebenshchikov)

Her name was Dream… (Ramadanova)

Foundry flooded blouses And caps (Mayakovsky).

Synecdoche

A type of metonymy is synecdoche. It is sometimes seen as a trope in its own right. Synecdoche is a transfer from a part to a whole.

1. ‘Body part’ → ‘person’.

“What a romantic you are, brother,” she muttered quietly back "(Pelevin).

1. ‘Part of an object’ → ‘object’.

...return under roofing parental(Pushkin). The roof refers to the house.

Take it motor and go to this address...(Dovlatov)

In fiction there is also individual author's metonymy:

I - road (Shevchuk),

I am a girl- scandal (Ramadanova),

Let's roll eyes doggy golden stars in the snow(Yesenin).

In such cases it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the metaphor (link) and metonymy.

Try your hand at the exercise.

Determine the type of metonymy or synecdoche

• We're in a hurry, beard!(Dovlatov)
• He will start asking questions about the smoking compartment / About my past and present...(Lvovsky)
• They were especially afraid of Yaik’s relations with Don(Pushkin).
• He can outrage Poltava(Pushkin).
• The swamp began to croak.
• Men's hands were valued.
• Mosfilm came to listen to me. I sang "Demon".
• ...will drool at the sight of the first skirt he comes across.
• My neighbor Lyuba, nicknamed Pryad, helped. She dyed one strand of hair above her forehead in the opposite color. I wanted to stand out from the rest. And stood out(Tokareva).
• Scolded Homer, Theocritus; / But I read Adam Smith...(Pushkin).
• “You ruined me, black eyes!”
• So blazing with willfulness, Daring youth murmured... But old age walks cautiously / And looks suspiciously(Pushkin).
• “Congratulations, he says, you are already famous and are beginning to gain fame.”(Chekhov).
• - You are my hope... an anchor of salvation! (Chekhov).
• ...two musicians - a violin and a harp - played a waltz...(Kuprin)
• I saw bronze, velvet, lace. And everything was filled with pink light. One and a half fathoms from my face stood a vat (Chekhov).
• “We beg your pardon,” said the sunken nose in a rotten voice.(Bulgakov).
• Along the ravine / Walked a cap, / Two scarves, / Three baskets, / And behind them walked stubbornly / A snow-white Panama hat. / How many children were there in total? /Answer quickly!/

The replacement word is used in a figurative sense. This person did not take into account that to guard the door meant in this case to protect the room located behind the door (that is, metonymy was used when formulating the order). METONYMY (Greek Μετονυμία, renaming) - is usually defined as a type of trope based on association by contiguity.

A special case of metonymy is synecdoche. Like metaphor, metaphor is inherent in language in general, but it has a special meaning in artistic and literary creativity, receiving its own class saturation and use in each specific case. At 11 vol.; M.: Publishing House of the Communist Academy, Soviet Encyclopedia, Fiction. Edited by V. M. Fritsche, A. V. Lunacharsky. 1929-1939.

From this point of view, attempts have been made to establish a different order of distinction between metonymy and its related synecdoche. And this is why, if metaphor is sometimes defined as a compressed comparison, then metonymy could be defined as a kind of compressed description. On metonymy, see the general works on stylistics and poetics indicated in the article “tropes”. M. Petrovsky. Literary encyclopedia: Dictionary of literary terms: In 2 volumes / Edited by N. Brodsky, A. Lavretsky, E. Lunin, V. Lvov-Rogachevsky, M. Rozanov, V. Cheshikhin-Vetrinsky.

See what “Metonymy” is in other dictionaries:

METONYMY - (Greek). This fascinating tale about the native language and its vocabulary, at the end of which “culinary and language recipes” are given, will not only appeal to the children - it will be very useful for them.

The presenter, talking on the phone with a friend, will use the metonymy “I’ll sit for Chekhov.” But she does not mean Chekhov himself, but his wonderful plays. Vasilisa Nikolaevna simply used a common phenomenon of literature in the conversation. Metonymy is a phrase in which one word is replaced by another word associated with it in space or time. After all, she cannot sit behind the real Chekhov - the man. Here are examples of metonymy in literature.

We ate what was in it - soup, fish soup. Or, if we don’t know the person’s name, we can call him by some distinctive feature. There is another interesting type of metonymy, which is responsible for quantitative relationships between words.

An example of such a metonymy in literature is Gogol’s “Dead Souls,” where the father teaches Chichikov: “Most of all, take care of the penny.” Of course, he didn’t mean just one penny or coin, but money in general. The pear is a metaphor. Metaphor is the transfer of the meaning of one word to another based on some similarity between objects or phenomena.

The mechanism of metaphor formation is best depicted in the form of a table. The table shows that if we make the comparison incomplete, that is, we remove “what is being compared” and the comparative conjunction, then what remains is “what is being compared with.” This is a metaphor. In September there are frosts, and the puddles are covered with fragile ice. You go to school, and the saucers are fragile, crunchy under your feet. Metonymy is formed differently.

This is metonymy, because between the author and his works there is a connection, contiguity, a point of intersection, they are not similar to each other, like a pear and a light bulb, they are simply always connected. Metonymy is the transfer of meaning from one word to another by contiguity or connection. In the table you see the main ways of forming metonymy. I forgot your Tolstoy on the train. I have one “Ogonyok” and two “Murzilkas”. A detachment of a thousand sabers (the same thing).

In task B8 (expressive means of vocabulary and syntax), metonymy is rare. This is both good and bad. It's good because there's less room for error. And the second reason is that you need to know metonymy, if only so that, when solving Q8, you know for sure: there is no metonymy here, but there is something else.

Preparation in Zelenograd

Synecdoche is a very easy trope to understand. This is a type of metonymy based on the fact that a part is called instead of a whole, or less often, a whole instead of a part. For example: there are no bears in this forest. This means that there is not a single bear, and in general there is no such type of animal in this forest. The berry was born this year. We are not talking about just cherries, but about all berries in general: cherries, currants, strawberries, etc.

This does not mean just one student, but the entire student body. You can name a person by one of his things, part of his body, etc. For example: I am standing behind a red coat, that is, behind a person in a red coat. Not one ear fell in the field, but all the ears were cut off. Metonymy is the replacement of an object or phenomenon with other objects or phenomena. Bypassing the taboo, sacred objects could be designated through other objects that were directly related to the first.

Fictional persons also serve as metonymy. Due to the typicality of Gogol’s creations, a boastful person is called Khlestakov, a stingy person is called Plyushkin, an empty dreamer is called Manilov. In Tsarist Russia, first and second class carriages were painted yellow and blue, and third class carriages were painted green.

Metonymy, like metaphor, can be extended to all poems. Here is a metonymy, based on the forest, that came from the pen of S. Marshak: “What are we planting when we plant forests? Light wings - fly to the skies. What are we planting when we plant forests? The leaf on which dew falls, the freshness of the forest, and moisture, and shadow - this is what we are planting today.” The metonymy has retained its original meaning.

Meanwhile, in literary dictionaries, personification is interpreted as animation, which is a distortion of this literary term. Comparison - As a poetic trope, comparison appears in its pure form only when both compared sides are present in speech. Comparison does not change the meaning of the compared concepts, which is why it differs from metaphor. Metonymy is significantly different from metaphor.

That is, we say one thing and mean another. But, unlike allegory, metonymy is based not on cultural codes and attitudes, but on completely objective connections. The characteristics contain objective facts. Lomonosov, originally from Arkhangelsk, from a simple fishing family (commoner by origin), became the founder of Moscow University.

Metonymy is also used in poetry and prose. In prose mainly to avoid repetition of words. And in poetry, of course, first of all, for imagery. There are many varieties of metonymy. 5) The name of the material from which the thing is made, instead of the thing itself: “Porcelain and bronze on the table.” This is also a type of metonymy.

RUSSIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

This means that the Swedes and Russians are fighting, many people on each side, and not one Swede and one Russian. Even in everyday life, we often use the phrase: “I’ve already told you a thousand times,” without realizing that we are using synecdoche. It is possible and necessary to use the figurative meaning of words. This way you can achieve greater imagery and expressiveness. Give your poem depth through allegory and metonymy.

The poem must, first of all, be understandable. A trope is the use of a word in a figurative sense. Comparison, metaphor, periphrase, hyperbole - all these are tropes. S.V. talks about one of the interesting varieties of tropes - metonymy, as always accessible and fascinating. Volkov.

One student, after visiting the museum-reserve A.S. Pushkin in Mikhailovsky wrote in an essay: “Pushkin loved Byron very much, that’s why he hung him over the table.” Thus, metonymy is transformed into metaphor. Due to a misunderstanding of the phenomenon of metonymy, various funny situations can arise.

Often there is a problem with defining certain tropes that are found mainly in poetic texts. This article will be devoted to this problem. We will analyze, define the term and consider in detail the cases of use in the literature.

What is metonymy?

So, let's look at the meaning of the word "metonymy". Metonymy is the transfer of a word by contiguity (relatedness of concepts). The famous ancient Greek philosopher Marcus Quintilian said, defining this concept, that the essence of metonymy is manifested in the replacement of what is described by its cause. That is, there is a replacement of related concepts.

Here is an example of metonymy:

• “All flags will come to visit us” (A.S. Pushkin), flags mean different countries, and if you replace the word “flags” with “states”, the meaning of the line will not change at all.
• “Bronze Age” - implies that the age was not made of bronze, but that this time was famous for the beginning of the use of this material.
• “Applicant for director’s portfolio,” that is, an applicant for the position of director, whose attribute is the portfolio.

Metonymy is used to enhance the expressiveness and richness of language. This technique is widespread in poetics, lexicology, stylistics, and rhetoric. With its help you can influence the public for a long time.

Connection in metonymy

Metonymy in Russian has the property of establishing an adjacent connection between two objects. Actually, this is its main essence and purpose. So, there are the following metonymic connections:

• Name not the thing itself, but the material from which it was made: “I walked in gold” instead of “I walked in gold jewelry.”
• A concrete noun is replaced by an abstract one. “My beauty is indescribable,” says the lover about the object of his desire.
• The content is replaced with content or the owner is indicated instead of ownership: “I’ll have another glass” instead of the name of a specific drink.
• The item's name is replaced by its attribute: "The Man in Black" instead of giving a clear description of his clothing.
• Replacing the action with the instrument with which it is usually performed: “His pen breathes vengeance” (A. Tolstoy) instead of “His poetry breathes mysticism.”
• Naming works after the author: “I read Chekhov” instead of “I read Chekhov’s works.”
• Substitution between a person and the place where he is: “It was quiet in the house” instead of “No one made noise in the house.”

All metonymic connections are divided into types.

Types of metonymy

Metonymy is divided into three main types, which are determined depending on the contiguity of concepts, objects, and actions:

• Spatial.
• Temporary.
• Logical.

Let's analyze each of these types separately in order to understand the specifics of use and not make mistakes in the future in practice.

Spatial

This metonymic transfer is based on the physical, spatial arrangement of phenomena or objects.

The most common example of metonymy of this type is the transfer of the name of a premises (institution, etc.) or part of it to persons working or living in a given house or enterprise. For example: a spacious workshop, a dark hut, a cramped editorial office, a multi-story building. In these cases, the words “workshop”, “hut”, “edition” and “house” are used in their literal meaning. Now let’s look at the following phrases: “the entire editorial staff went out for a subbotnik”, “the whole house was asleep”, “all the huts took part in the competition”, “the whole workshop was in favor”. Here these same words acquire a metonymic meaning and are perceived in a figurative meaning.

Also, spatial metonymy is the transfer of the name of a container or vessel to its contents. For example, “the kettle is boiling,” that is, the liquid poured into the kettle is boiling.

Temporary

This type of metonymic connection occurs when compared objects come into contact with each other within a time frame.

An example of metonymy: when the name of an action, which is a noun, is transferred to its result (what should arise in the process of action). So, the action will be “publishing a book”, and the result of the action will be “a wonderful gift edition”; “the artist had difficulty depicting details” - “images of dragons are carved on the bas-relief” (that is, the result of drawing).

Also, examples of a temporary type of transfer would be “shirt with embroidery”, “bring in the transfer on time”, “decorate with carvings”, “ancient embroidery”, “collector’s coinage”, “polishing has worn off”.

Logical

Logical metonymy is widespread. Examples in Russian of this type are not only extensive, but also differ in the specifics of transfer:

• Transferring the name of a container or vessel to the volume of the substance contained in this item. Consider the phrases: “break the plate”, “find a spoon”, “wash the pan”, “untie the bag”. All nouns are used in their literal meaning and are called containers. Compare these examples with such usages as “taste a spoonful of jam”, “eat two plates”, “buy a bag of sugar”. Now the same nouns are used in a figurative meaning and serve to designate the volume of substance they contain.
• Transferring the name of a material or substance to what is made from it. This type of metonymy is used as follows: “to win silver” (that is, a silver medal), “to wear furs” (fur clothing), “to collect ceramics” (ceramic products), “to rearrange papers” (documents), “to write watercolors” ( paint with watercolors).
• Transferring the author's name to the creation he created. For example: “reread Pushkin” (Pushkin’s books), “love Shishkin” (Shishkin’s paintings), “use Dahl” (a dictionary edited by Dahl).
• Transferring the name of an action to the people or object with the help of which it is carried out. For example: “pendant” (decoration), “putty” (a substance for eliminating defects), “shift” (people who make up a certain group).
• Transferring the name of the action to the place where it is performed. For example, signs with the words “exit”, “entrance”, “stop”, “detour”, “crossing”, “crossing”, “turn”, “passage”, etc.
• Transferring the name of a quality (property) to something that has this property or quality. Let's consider the phrases “tactlessness of words”, “mediocrity of a person”, “tactless behavior”, “caustic expressions”, “banality of assessments”. The words used indicate abstract qualities and properties. Now let’s compare: “commit tactlessness”, “talk nonsense”, “she was surrounded by mediocrity”, “speak banalities”, “make barbs”. Here a metonymic transfer of meaning already occurs.
• Transferring the name of an area to the material or substance that is mined or produced there. For example: "harbour", "Gzhel".

Types of metonymy

Now we list the main types of metonymy:

• General language.
• General poetic.
• General newspaper.
• Individually authored.

Let's look at each type in more detail.

General language

Various types of tropes are used everywhere in the Russian language, and metonymy is one of the most common. Often people use it without even noticing it. This is especially true for this species.

So, what will relate to general linguistic metonymies:

• The words “silver”, “casting”, “crystal”, “porcelain” when they designate products. For example, a “porcelain collector,” that is, a collector of porcelain products.
• The words “impregnation”, “putty” and others denoting a substance.
• The words “factory”, “shift”, “factory”, “attack”, “defense”, when they indicate people. For example: “The plant took part in the competition,” that is, the plant employees took part in the competition.
• The words “turn”, “exit”, “entry”, “crossing” when denoting the location of the action.
• The words “hare”, “mink”, “fox”, “squirrel” and others when used instead of the name of the product. For example: “Dressed in mink,” that is, in a product made from mink fur.

General poetic

Perhaps the most expressive type is general poetic metonymy. Examples from fiction belong specifically to this group:

• “A cloud / You alone rush across the clear azure” (Pushkin). The word "azure", meaning blue sky, is a metonymy here.
• “Transparent and cold day” (Kuprin). “In the transparent cold” (Yesenin). The word "transparent" is a metonymy.
• “In duels... Meeting disastrous lead” (Pushkin). “Deadly lead tore the poet’s heart apart” (Tyutchev). The word "lead" is a metonymy.
• “The blue wind whispers” (Yesenin). “On such a blue day” (A. Tolstoy). The word "blue" is a metonymy.

Thus, general poetic metonymy is a type of metonymy that is typical for use in artistic (usually poetic) texts.

General newspaper

Such metonymies include the following words: “fast” (“fast seconds”, “fast water”), “green” (“green harvest”, “green patrol”), “golden” (“golden flight”, “golden jump” ). That is, these are the techniques of metonymy that are most often used in journalistic texts.

Individually-authored

The types of tropes have a huge variety, this is due to the fact that most of them have several types and types, and metonymy, as we see, is no exception.

Individual author's metonymies are those metonymies that are characteristic of the work of a single writer and are not used everywhere. For example: “I’ll put you to sleep with a quiet tale... I’ll tell you a sleepy tale” (Blok); “From the cool wooden purity of the house” (V. Solovyov).

Synecdoche

Another frequently encountered problem is the question of how synecdoche and metonymy relate to each other. Often these two concepts are mistakenly perceived as completely separate, but this is not the case. Synecdoche is a type of metonymy and denotes the transfer of a name (title) from a part of an object (substance, action) to its whole. Typically, this subtype is used when it is necessary to highlight a specific aspect or function of an object. For example, let’s take the words “figure”, “person”, “personality” and apply them to a person: “historical figure”, “legally responsible person”, “the role of the individual in our victory”.

But the main function of synecdoche is its ability to identify an object using indications of its distinctive feature or a detail peculiar only to it. Therefore, this trope usually includes a definition. If we talk about the structure of sentences, then synecdoche will occupy the role of nominal members, that is, object, subject or address. For example: “Hey, beard! How do you get from here to Plyushkin?” (Gogol). The word "beard" is a synecdoche. Knowing this feature can help in cases where you need to find a synecdoche in a text.

The use of synecdoche in a text is always contextual or situational (pragmatic): most often it will be about an object that either comes directly into the speaker’s field of vision, or its characteristics were given earlier in the text. For example, if a person is called a “hat”, “cap” or “bowler hat”, then the addressee is first given a description of his headdress: “An old man in a Panama sat opposite me, and across from me sat a woman in a flirty hat. Panama was dozing, and the flirty hat was chattering about something with the young man...” Thus, as we could see, synecdoche is always context-oriented, that is, anaphoric. Therefore, its use in all kinds of existential sentences (they introduce readers to characters for the first time) is unacceptable. Let us illustrate this error with the following example: we begin the fairy tale with the words: “Once upon a time there was a Little Red Riding Hood.” Such a beginning would mislead the reader, since the main character would not be the girl in the red cap, but the object itself, that is, the cap painted red.

Metaphor and metonymy

Questions also arise in cases where it is necessary to distinguish in the text such tropes as metaphor, metonymy, epithet. And if the situation with epithets is quite easy - this is an adjective that enhances the expressiveness of a word, then it is much more difficult to deal with metaphor and metonymy.

So, let's look at what a metaphor is. It serves as a connecting link not for adjacent concepts that have common structural connections in the real world (like metonymy), but for the correlation of completely different objects, united only by association, function or characteristic. Let's look at the example of two sentences: “Lera is meek” and “Doe is meek,” from this we conclude that “Lera is as meek as the doe,” the final metaphor will be: “Lera-doe.”

The structures of constructing metaphor and metonymy are similar: two objects are taken in which a common semantic element is identified, which makes it possible to reduce some elements of the description, but at the same time preserve the semantics. But in the case of metonymy, the connection (semantic element) is always materialized and can only be perceived with the help of the senses. When creating a metaphor, the semantic element is synthesized in our minds on the basis of associations and memory.

Metaphors, by their very nature, are a collapsed comparison that can be expanded when done. For example, a “family tree”: if you graphically depict family ties, they will look like a tree.

A metaphor is created based on a comparison, but not every comparison is suitable for creating it. Only logical structures that serve to unite heterogeneous (foreign, heterogeneous) phenomena can be used.

To clarify, let’s give an example: “Katya is as wise as Veronica.” A metaphor in this case cannot be created, since objects of the same kind are taken as a basis: a girl is compared with a girl (the action would not work if a person were compared with a person). But if you construct the sentence like this: “Katya is as wise as a snake,” then a metaphor would work, since the objects being compared are heterogeneous (animal and a person).

Despite the fact that metaphor has a very abstract meaning, the basis (comparison) of transfer is just as easy to determine as in the case of metonymy.

Thus, metonymy, in comparison with metaphor, always has a more real connection between the concept and the object that replaces it, and it also eliminates or significantly limits features that are unimportant for the phenomenon (object) being described.

Metonymy in literature

Metonymy is very common in this area. Examples from fiction are full of all kinds of this trope. As noted above, metonymy is widespread in all types of speech, including everyday speech. However, nowhere does it play such a significant role as in a literary work.

The trope was especially popular among writers of the first half of the twentieth century. Especially among those of its representatives who were engaged in constructivism and created poetry based on this teaching. Metonymy and metaphor in their works were opposed to each other, and preference was given to the first. They believed that only the text has the main meaning, and the reader should not interfere with its content with his associations and memory, and therefore, metaphorical images could not be created.

Metonymy is a combination of words when one word or phenomenon is replaced by another, which is in one form or another connection with the object/phenomenon that is being replaced. The term is borrowed and literally translated from Greek (metonymia) as “renaming”.

The difference between metonymy and .

Metonymy differs from metaphor in that the replacement of words in it occurs not due to similarity, but due to the contiguity of concepts.

In metonymy, the following types of connections between words are assumed:

• the material from which the item is made, and the item itself (“ate two plates” - meaning the contents of the plates);
• the contents of something and containing (“the hissing of glasses” instead of the champagne that is in them);
• the name of any action and the result of this action (“exchange” - currency exchange);
• the author instead of the work (“Have you read Pushkin?” – texts, “I went to see Konchalovsky” – films);
• people located in some place, and the place itself (“The northern capital woke up”, “the conference made a decision”).

Main types of metonymy.

This literary trope has several varieties:

• linguistic, which is used and understood by all native speakers (“beautiful faience” - meaning products made of faience; “the meeting decided - members of the meeting named earlier in the text);
• poetic, often used in poetic texts;
• media is widely used in the media (“golden pen” is the best journalist of the publication);
• secondary and creative metonymy (“azure sea”).

Examples of metonymy.

Usually metonymy used to achieve imagery of speech, duration of speech impact on others, enrichment of interdisciplinary connections. Examples from literature contribute to a better understanding of this linguistic phenomenon.

Let's look at how it's used metonymy in literature:

• connection between the content and the containing: “Well, eat another plate, my dear!”;
• the author instead of the work: “I read Apuleius willingly, but did not read Cicero”;
• people and their location: “But our open bivouac was quiet.”

Sentences with metonymy we unconsciously use it in speech, without even knowing the meaning of this concept.

Examples of metonymy in the Russian language and literature emphasize its influence on enhancing speech expressiveness and enriching lexical content. Metonymy is used in such sections of language as poetics, rhetoric, stylistics, and lexicology.

Metonymy (from the Greek metonymia - “renaming”) is the transfer of a name by contiguity, as well as the figurative meaning itself, which arose due to such a transfer. In contrast to metaphorical transfer, which necessarily presupposes the similarity of objects, actions, properties, metonymy is based on juxtaposition, contiguity of objects, concepts, actions, which are in no way similar to each other. For example, such different “subjects” as an industrial enterprise and the workers of this enterprise can be called by the same word factory(cf.: "a new one is being built factory" And " factory fulfilled the plan "); in one word we refer to the country, state and government of the country, state (cf.: "people France" And " France entered into an agreement"), etc.

Depending on the specific contiguity between objects (concepts) and actions, metonymy is distinguished between spatial, temporal and logical*.

* The term “logical metonymy” is largely conditional, since to a certain extent it applies to all types of metonymy.

1) Spatial metonymy is based on the spatial, physical juxtaposition of objects and phenomena. The most common case of spatial metonymy is the transfer of the name of a room (part of a room), institution, etc. on people living, working, etc. in this room, in this enterprise. Compare, for example, "multi-story house", "spacious hut", "huge shop", "tight editorial office", "student dormitory" etc., where the words house, hut, workshop, editorial office, dormitory used in the literal sense to name premises, enterprises, and “the whole house went out for cleanup day," " huts slept", " shop joined the competition", "all editorial office was in favor, " dormitory plunged into sleep ", where the same words, naming people, appear in a metonymic meaning. Spatial metonymy is also represented by examples of transferring the name of a vessel, container to its contents. Thus, saying " kettle is already boiling," " samovar bubbling", " pan hisses,” we mean, of course, not a kettle, samovar, frying pan, but what is poured into the kettle, samovar, what is fried (stewed) in a frying pan.

2) With temporal metonymy, objects and phenomena are adjacent, “in touch” in the time of their existence, “appearance”. Such metonymy is the transfer of the name of an action (expressed by a noun) to the result - to what arises in the process of action. For example: " edition books" (action) - "luxurious, gift edition"(result of action); "the artist was difficult image details" (action) - "carved on the rock Images animals" (i.e. drawings, and therefore the result of an action); similar metonymic figurative meanings, which appeared on the basis of temporal contiguity, also have words embroidery("dress with embroidery"), kit("have kit instruments"), slicing("slicing erased"), translation("pass translation during"), correspondence("include in publication correspondence writer"), polishing("polishing scratched"), editorial office("text of the last editorial staff stories"), thread("decorate carving"), minting("collect Georgian coinage"), sewing("Old Russian sewing") and many others.

3) Logical metonymy is also very common. Logical metonymy includes:

a) transferring the name of the vessel, container to the volume of what is contained in the vessel, container. Wed. "break cup, plate, glass, jug", "lose spoon", "smoke pan", "tie up bag" etc., where the words cup, plate, glass, jug, spoon, pan, bag used in the literal sense as names of containers, and “to try spoon jam", "drink two cups(tea)", "eat a whole plate porridge ( pan soup)", "use up bag potatoes" etc., where the same words have a figurative metonymic meaning, naming the volume, amount of the corresponding substance, content;

b) transferring the name of a substance or material to a product made from it: “exhibition” porcelain", "won gold, bronze" (i.e. gold, bronze medals), "collect ceramics", "transfer the necessary paper" (i.e. documents), "break glass", "write watercolors", "canvas brushes by Levitan" (" canvas Surikov"), "to go to caprone, V furs" etc.;

c) transferring the name of the author, the creator of something to his creation: “to love Levitan"(Levitan's paintings), "reread Gogol", "use Ushakov"(dictionary edited by D.N. Ushakov), etc.;

d) transferring the name of the action to the substance (object) or to the people with the help of which this action is carried out. For example: putty, impregnation(a substance used to putty or impregnate something), pendant, clamp(device for hanging, clamping something), defense, attack, change(a group of people carrying out an action - defense, attack, change), etc.;

e) transferring the name of the action to the place where it occurs. For example: entrance, exit, detour, stop, transition, turn, passage, crossing(place of entry, exit, detour, stop, transition, turn, passage, crossing, i.e. the place where these actions are performed);

f) transferring the name of a property, quality to something or something that or who discovers has this property, quality. Wed: " tactlessness, rudeness words", " stupidity person", " mediocrity project", " tactlessness behavior", " barb replicas", " banality remarks" etc. (the highlighted words denote an abstract property, quality) and "commit tactlessness"(tactless act), "say rudeness, stupidity"(rude, stupid words, phrases), "he is surrounded mediocrity"(mediocre people), "allow tactlessness" (tactless act or tactless remark), "allow oneself barbs" (caustic words, remarks), "pronounce platitudes" (banal words, phrases), "all of them talents, they are all poets" (B.Ok.);

g) transferring the name of a geographical point or locality to what is produced in them, cf. tsinandali, saperavi, havana, gzhel etc.

The contiguity of objects and concepts can also cause a transfer of the name of a feature expressed by an adjective. Thus, many qualitative adjectives, in addition to the direct meaning “possessing some quality,” relate directly to a living being (cf. “ silly Human", " insidious enemy", " brave rider", " smart woman" etc.), also have figurative, metonymic meanings. An illustration of the use of an adjective in a metonymic meaning can be, for example, a combination such as " stupid physiognomy" (i.e. the physiognomy of a stupid person). The contiguity of the objects "person" and "physiognomy" served as the basis for the transfer of the attribute silly from a person to a physiognomy, as if as a result of the abbreviation of the combination: “the physiognomy of a stupid person” - “stupid physiognomy”. Examples of metonymic use can be given for other qualitative adjectives: " insidious smile" (the smile of a treacherous person), " brave response, deed" (response, deed of a brave person), " smart advice" (advice from an intelligent person), etc. In a similar way, i.e. due to the transfer of definition based on the contiguity of objects, metonymic meanings appeared for adjectives azure –"azure morning" (i.e. morning with a clear azure sky)*, crazy -"crazy house" (i.e. a house for crazy people)**, etc.

* Direct meaning of the adjective azure –"light blue" – appears in combinations " azure sea", " azure sky".

** Direct meaning of the adjective crazy - suffering from a mental disorder: " crazy sick".

The metonymic meaning of adjectives can appear in another way, not by transferring the definition.

Consider adjectives in combinations such as " spring vacation" (holidays that occur in the spring), " road suit" (suit intended for the road); " winter hibernation" (hibernation, which one goes into in winter), " sad meeting "* (meeting that causes sadness). It cannot be said about these adjectives that in the given combinations they are a definition transferred from one related subject to another, since it is quite obvious that such combinations are not an abbreviation of the combinations "vacation of spring days", " suit of travel time", "hibernation of winter", "meeting of sad people" or the like (such combinations clearly do not exist in reality). Therefore, about adjectives spring, road, winter, as well as many others (cf. acorn in combination " acorn coffee", gold V " gold glasses", " gold ring" etc.) we can say that these adjectives in the metonymic meaning arose as if anew, secondary (secondary in comparison with the same adjectives in their direct meanings) from that noun that names one of the adjacent objects, from which in its time was formed direct meaning. Compare: " spring"vacations" - vacations that occur in the spring (related subjects and concepts are highlighted), " road suit" (suit intended for the road), " acorn coffee" (coffee made from acorns), etc.**

* The direct meanings of these adjectives appear in such combinations as “spring days”, “ road dust", " winter it's time" "to appear sad".

** Sometimes the authors of works directly show how such adjective meanings appear. Compare, for example, in B. Zakhoder’s children’s book “Visiting Winnie the Pooh”: “But she didn’t let me go for a walk, because I seemed to be coughing. But it was biscuit cough - I was eating a biscuit and coughed!" In the translation of the book by the English author A. Milne "Winnie-the-Pooh and Everything-All-Everything", made by Zakhoder, there is only the combination "biscuit cough", so in the above passage B. Zakhoder clearly demonstrated the process of the emergence of the metonymic meaning of an adjective, explained why this adjective was used in this way. In another, also a children's book ("The Wizard of the Emerald City" by A.M. Volkov), it is said that the family of the main character had " hurricane cellar,” and it is explained that the family holed up there during hurricanes.

Finally, there is another rather peculiar type of formation of the figurative, metonymic meaning of adjectives (qualitative). Let's look at the example again first. M. Zoshchenko has it. story "Weak container". Weak in this name - not “done by weak hands or a weak person”, weak here – “one that is loosely tightened, fastened, etc.” That is, an adjective weak turns out to be associated not with a noun, but with an adverb (“weakly”). And if we talk about contiguity, then it is found between concepts, one of which is expressed by a noun (in the given example it is “container”), the other by a verb or participle (in our example it is “tightened”, “fastened”).

In a similar way, such combinations characteristic of the language of a modern newspaper were formed as " fast water", " fast track", " fast route", " fast routes" (where fast -"one on which you can quickly swim, run, drive"), " fast seconds" ( fast here – “one that shows an athlete running, swimming, etc. quickly”). And in these cases, the contiguity of concepts expressed by a noun ("water", "path", "second", etc.), on the one hand, and a verb or participle, on the other ("swim", "run", " shows" etc.), and the adjective fast in the metonymic meaning, its formation is clearly related to the adverb*.

* All these different ways of forming metonymic meanings of adjectives are shown not so much to remember the types of these meanings, but to help understand the essence of contiguity in relation to such a complex phenomenon as the metonymy of adjectives.

Metonymic transfer of names is also characteristic of verbs. It can be based on the contiguity of objects (as in the two previous cases). Wed: " beat out carpet" (the carpet absorbs dust, which is knocked out), " pour out statue" (metal is poured from which the statue is made); other examples: " boil underwear", " forge sword (nails)", " string necklace" (made of beads, shells, etc.), " sweep snowdrift", etc. Metonymic meaning can also arise due to the contiguity of actions. For example: "shop opens(=trade begins) at 8 o'clock" (the opening of the doors serves as a signal for the store to begin operating).

Like metaphors, metonymies vary in their degree of prevalence and expressiveness. From this point of view, among metonymies one can distinguish general linguistic inexpressive, general poetic (general literary) expressive, general newspaper expressive (as a rule) and individual (author's) expressive.

Metonymies are common language casting, silver, porcelain, crystal(meaning “product”), Job(what is done) putty, impregnation(substance), defense, attack, plant, factory, shift(when people are called with these words), entrance, exit, crossing, crossing, turn and so on. (meaning place of action), fox, mink, hare, squirrel and so on. (as a sign, product) and much more*. Like general linguistic metaphors, metonymies themselves are absolutely inexpressive and are sometimes not perceived as figurative meanings.

* Such metonymies are listed in explanatory dictionaries under the numbers 2, 3, etc. or are given after the sign // in any meaning of the word without a mark trans.

General poetic (general literary) expressive metonymies are azure(about the cloudless blue sky): “The last cloud of a scattered storm! You alone rush across the clear azure" (P.); "Under peaceful azure, stands and grows alone on a bright hill" (Tutch.); transparent: “It was a sunny, clear and cold day” (Kupr.); "IN transparent the valleys turned blue in the cold" (Ec.); lead: “A slave of merciless honor, he saw his end close. In duels, firm, cold, / Meeting the disastrous lead" (P.); "From whose hand lead deadly / Torn the poet’s heart..?” (Tutch.); blue: "Let him sometimes whisper to me blue evening, that you were a song and a dream" (Es.); "Crowds of beggars - and they were melted in such blue day on the porch with the bells ringing" (A.N.T.); youth: "Let youth growing up cheerfully, carefree and happily, let her have one concern: to study and develop creative powers in herself" (A.N.T.); "In front of him sat youth, a little rude, straightforward, somewhat offensively simple” (I. and P.) * etc.

* Some metonymies of this group are noted in explanatory dictionaries, such as, youth(meaning “youth”), others are absent from them, like blue(its meaning can be formulated approximately as follows: “the kind when the sky or sea, etc. is blue”). For what blue in this meaning is not an individual use, as evidenced by the data of the pre-revolutionary (1913) dictionary “Epithets of Literary Russian Speech” by A. Zelenetsky, where the combinations “ blue morning" (Kupr.), " blue evening" (Bun.), etc. Compare also according to this model" blue calm" by K.G. Paustovsky in "Black Sea Sun".

General newspaper metonymies include words such as white(cf. " white suffering", " white Olympics"), fast("fast track", " fast water", " fast seconds", etc.), green("green patrol", "green harvest"), gold(cf. " gold jump", " gold flight", " gold blade" where golden –“the kind that is valued with a gold medal”, or “the kind with which a gold medal is won”), etc.

Examples of individual (author's) metonymies: “Only the troika rushes with a ringing sound snowy white oblivion" (Bl.); "I'll put you to sleep with a quiet fairy tale, Fairy tale sleepy I'll say" (Bl.); "And in diamond in his dreams, even his deceased mother-in-law seemed sweeter to him" (I. and P.); "Among green In the silence of the surging summer, not all issues have been resolved. Not all answers are given" (Ac.); "From the cool wooden cleanliness of the house, we reluctantly went out into the street" (V. Sol.); "After all, their menu You can’t put it in your mouth" (Ginryary); "And a strange stem that is embedded in a tubular blade of grass up to the shoulders... with a whistle silk extract" (Matv.); "Our neighbors keys angry" (B.Akhm.); "Leaves twenty fifth to battle. Stepped into the fire twenty-sixth. Frozen at the edge of mine - seventh" (N. Pozd.) (about conscripts born in 1925, 1926 and 1927); "It was a pleasure to dashingly and accurately compose a sophisticated document, answer, for example, some starry Excellency" (V. Savch.).