Metonymy is that without which our language will lose expressiveness.

Graphic and expressive means of languageare widely used not only in poetic texts, but also in prose. Many of them have become firmly established in our everyday life, from the category of explicit ones have passed into hidden metaphors, impersonations, and so on. One of the most interesting linguistic phenomena is metonymy.

Definition and examples

The emergence of tropes is based on associativeconnections of objects, phenomena, properties, qualities. By the same principle was formed metonymy. The term originates from the Greek language and means "renaming." That is, metonymy is a replacement, substitution, use of one object or phenomenon instead of another. For example, Pushkin is called the Sun of Russian poetry, recognizing his great role in art and literature. This comparison has grown so much in our mind with the image of the poet that when we hear or read these words, we automatically understand who we are talking about. Or, when we say “Hollywood”, we mean not so much a geographical object as the famous American “Star Factory”.

Понятно, что метонимия – это употребление слов or phrases in a figurative sense. The roots of this phenomenon lie in the deep past of mankind. At the dawn of his childhood (also metonymy), the ancient man believed that his life completely depended on evil and good forces. Trying to deceive evil spirits, he gave double names to himself and children — one present, and it was kept secret, and the other was deceitful, and it could be said loudly. Thus, all those who could harm the child were misled, and the people themselves, from their point of view, found themselves in safety. Consequently, initially metonymy is a kind of amulet, taboo, secret knowledge about the true essence of things and its careful concealment.

Replacing the names of some phenomena with others closethem, firmly entered the consciousness and language practice of all subsequent generations of human society. So, in the Middle Ages, they were afraid to pronounce the main name of the devil and replaced it with others: unclean, horned, damn. That is, metonymy is the replacement of the names of some concepts by the names of others, similar to the first.

Metonymy around us

The first samples of metonymy in speech, as well asthe term given to us by the Greeks and taken from Greek culture. The embodiment of her was Homer. And therefore, when we hear: “I am going to a country sung by Homer,” it is clear that we are talking about Greece. Here it is, a vivid example of metonymy!

Метонимия, как яркое образное языковое средство, distributed in the widest possible way. Many phraseological units, proverbs and sayings, aphorisms are built on it. A modern native speaker can hear nothing about the real Kroes, the king of Lydia, about his enormous wealth. But he heard the expression “rich as a Creuse,” knows what it means, and successfully uses the place in his speech. Or, Moscow. It is often called the “first capital”, using this word as the middle name of the city. A hundred dollar bill is called the "Franklin" in the president depicted on it.

Like every means of expression,metonymy enriches our speech, makes it more vivid, emotionally rich, figurative. It is widely used in the media, journalism and many areas of activity that are associated with an impact on human consciousness. So the metonymy in advertising can be presented in the form of speaking slogans.

Summary

Like any artistic trail, metonymy is designed to give our language figurativeness, poetry, expressiveness, beauty. Its quality is determined by the accuracy of the transfer of the desired thoughts and images.