|
|
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 273
enthusiast
|
OP
enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 273 |
Is the expression "The White House" as commonly heard in the media an example of synecdoche?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
Yes. It is being used representatively for "the President" or more generally for "the agents of government" or some such phrase, presumably.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055 |
Is it just me or does anyone else here find this term, in a landscape of precise rhetorical meta-language, to be very general?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
Yes. Which helps me, since I can actually *remember this one! and therefore get to use it rather than confuse it with 73 other Greek terms that I used to know once upon a time 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055 |
> Yes. Which helps me, since I can actually *remember this one!Yes, you've got a point there. Vernon, in case you didn't know, THE resourse for Greek meta-terminology is 'The Forest of Rhetoric' located at the following addy: http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htmThere you'll find a far more indepth look at 'synecdoche' and related terms than any dictionary will provide... good question, by the way :-)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 273
enthusiast
|
|
OP
enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 273 |
In reply to:
http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm
Thank you for the link, belligerentyouth. I think I found an error in the section on synecdoche.
The rustler bragged he'd absconded with five hundred head of longhorns.
Both "head" and "longhorns" are parts of cattle that represent them as wholes
Am I mistaken in thinking that, since "longhorn" is a specific breed of cattle, the rustler may not have been using two instances of synecdoche? I read the statement as defining the type of cattle he stole, "longhorns", as opposed to Charolais, Angus, Hereford or Guernsey.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
yeahbut. 
long·horn (lông'hôrn', lŏng'-)
n.
1. Any of a breed of cattle with long horns, formerly bred in great numbers in the southwest United States.
2. A variety of Cheddar cheese molded into a long cylinder.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.So I don't reckon it does describe a breed as such, just a general description of type. After all, we used to have dairy shorthorn, beef shorthorn... But I love the way that the second definition gives a further example of the migration of meaning via synecdoche (cow to cheese).
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
The synecdoche of a cynic duck.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
than a toilet duck
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
A duck that works out at the White Dog Gym?
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,809
Members9,187
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
465
guests, and
2
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
