What is a synecdoche?

A synecdoche is a figure of speech in which the one of the following (or its reverse) is expressed:

• A part stands for a whole
• An individual stands for a class
• A material stands for a thing

• Fifty head referring to 50 head of cattle
• Cat referring to a lion

• What is metonymy?

Lakoff, G. and Johnson 1980 36

Mish 1991 1197

Neufeldt 1991 1358

Context for this page:

• Concept module: synecdoche
• In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): S
• In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
• In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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