Figurative language

From Jesse's seminar 1-17

• materialism as metonymy (Freedgood 2006)
  • synecdoche: part standing for whole, "all hands on deck," even more proximate than metonymy
  • metaphor: comparison based on implied resemblance (I got "bulldozed")
  • simile: comparison based on stated resemblance using "like" or "as"
  • metonymy - proximate association, "re-naming"
    • the White House is not a part of the presidency
    • it can be arbitrary, proximity doesn't need to be literal: "Madonna": "the 80s," "Like a Prayer," "Virgin Mary" all conceptually proximate
    • Dickens loves metonymy, loves association
    • slippery: can be an infinite set of associations
    • use can vary too: stream of consciousness can model metonymy but the difference is, are you using it to contain meaning (metonymy doesn't do containment)
    • free association can disrupt meaning, using "crown" for sovereignty but you hear "dental crown"
      • Eliot hates losing control this way; Dickens loves this play
    • metonymy is good at adding but not at taking away
    • metonym is produced by proximity not necessarily resemblance
    • Barthes: a lot of objects are not there to produce metonymic effects except with "the real world" (The Reality Effect)