43. What can you tell about the Nature of Semantic Changes: Metonymy and Metaphor?

A metaphor is a transfer of the meaning on the basis of comparison. Metaphor can be based on different types of similarity:

a) similarity of shape: head (of a cabbage), bottleneck, teeth (of a saw, a comb);

b) similarity of position: foot (of a page, of a mountain), head (of procession);

c) similarity of function, behaviour: a whip (an official in the British Parliament whose duty is to see that members were present at the voting), a bookworm (a person who is fond of books);

d) similarity of colour: orange, hazel, chestnut.

A special type of metaphor is when proper names become common nouns, e.g. philistine – a mercenary person, vandals – destructive people.

Examples: The detective listened to her tales with a wooden face. She was fairly certain that life was a fashion show. The typical teenage boy’s room is a disaster area.

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.

With the growth of computer technology, we need words to describe many new objects and activities – and most of these words have been produced metaphorically (surfing, mouse, page, virus).

A metonymy 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 examples below include both the metonymy and the possible words for which the metonymy would fill in:

Crown - in place of a royal person

The White House - in place of the President or others who work there

The suits - in place of business people

Dish - for an entire plate of food

Ears - for giving attention ("Lend me your ears!" from Mark Antony inJulius Caesar)

Eyes - for sight

Hand - for help