Metaphor

It is a transfer of the meaning on the basis of comparison. Herman Paul points out that metaphor can be based on different types of similarity: a) similarity of shape, e.g. head (of a cabbage), bottleneck, teeth (of a saw, a comb); b) similarity of position, e.g. foot (of a page, of a mountain), head (of a procession); c) similarity of function, behaviour e.g. a whip (an official in the British Parliament whose duty is to see that members were present at the voting); d) similarity of colour, e.g. orange, hazel, chestnut etc.

In some cases we have a complex similarity, e.g. the leg of a table has a similarity to a human leg in its shape, position and function. Many metaphors are based on parts of a human body, e.g. an eye of a needle, arms and mouth of a river, head of an army. A special type of metaphor is when Proper names become common nouns, e.g. philistine - a mercenary person, vandals - destructive people, a Don Juan - a lover of many women etc.

Metonymy. It is a transfer of the meaning on the basis of contiguity. There are different types of metonymy: a) the material of which an object is made may become the name of the object, e.g. a glass, boards, iron etc; b) the name of the place may become the name of the people or of an object placed there, e.g. the House - members of Parliament, Fleet Street - bourgeois press, the White House - the Administration of the USA etc; c) names of musical instruments may become names of musicians, e.g. the violin, the saxophone; d) the name of some person may become a common noun, e.g. «boycott» was originally the name of an Irish family who were so much disliked by their neighbours that they did not mix with them, «sandwich» was named after Lord Sandwich who was a gambler. He did not want to interrupt his game and had his food brought to him while he was playing cards between two slices of bread not to soil his fingers. e) names of inventors very often become terms to denote things they invented, e.g. «watt», «om», «rentgen» etc f) some geographical names can also become common nouns through metonymy, e.g. holland (linen fabrics), Brussels (a special kind of carpets), china (porcelain), astrachan (a sheep fur) etc.

The results can be observed

- in the denotational meaning of the word (restriction (names for classes of animals:“deer” – earlier included all wild animals now only deer, “fowl” – earlier - birds in general now – poultry & wild fowl (дичь), a number of Anglo-Saxon words shrunk under the influence of Norman words: “pond” – from Latin “pontus” (sea or large stretch of water Due to its confrontation with word “lake” “pond” changed its meaning to “пруд” )) and extension meaning It happens as a result of chance situations. The word “вокзал’ came to Russian from English word “Vauxhall” as the general name of all main railway stations. Now – автовокзал, ж/д вокзал, м/р вокзал ) Changes in the denotational meaning may also result in the application of the word to a wider variety of referents: girl (ME) – child of either sex then the word underwent the process of transference based on continuity and developed the meaning – child of female the sex

- in the alteration of connotational component (amelioration knight – man servant – noble, courageous, accident (happened by chance) – accidental(“-“) and deterioration of meaning gossip – good parent – the one who talks scandals, silly-happy-foolish The second meaning developed “-“ evaluative connotation, which was absent in the first meaning).

Поиск по сайту: