methonyms

A metonyms is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept. For instance, "Westminster", a borough of London in the United Kingdom, could be used as a metonym for the country's government.

 One of the four master tropes, metonyms have traditionally been associated with methapors. Like metaphors, metonyms are figures of speech used in everyday conversation as well as in literature and rethorical texts. But whereas a metaphor offers an implicit comparison, a metonym is a part or attribute of a thing that represents the thing itself.

  metonymy also comes in a compound-word form. While the compound metaphor makes a fanciful figurative comparison between two unlike realms ('snail mail'), a compound metonym, in distinction, characterizes a single domain by using an associated literal attribute as a characterizing adjective, for example, coffee-table book: a (usually expensive) large-format book that is too big to fit on a bookshelf, thus it's displayed on a table--effect for the cause. A compound metonym--usually two or three words--can be readily distinguished from a compound metaphor by a definition that always begins one that, one who, those which, and is followed by a significant quality or attribute

Examples and Observations

"The part that is chosen to be a metonym of its whole is not arbitrary. Such a part must be in some sense outstanding, easily recognizable, and play a unique role in the whole. . . . A steering wheel would be a good metonym for driving, a violin a good metonym for a classical orchestra, bread a good metonym for a baker's shop, a file folder a good metonym for organizing documents in a computer.

"Metonyms provide the basis for a human-centered theory of signs. Traffic signs, for examples, might employ pictograms of the road, a car, bicycle, or pedestrian, but they do not represent anything beyond the part-whole relationship."


 References:
 Traugott, Elizabeth Closs; Dasher, Richard B. (2002).regularity in semantic change . Cambridge University Press.ISBN 9781-139-43115-6. Retrieved 6 August 2013.