part II Diction(3)

As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. ---- Proverbs. 25, the Bible

In the above three examples, people and things of different categories are compared: a woman and a rose, records and ripe apples, cold waters and news. But each pair has one similarity: loveliness, falling quickly, and urgent need. The discrepancy between the two things compared makes their similarity all the more striking.

2. Metaphor Like a simile, it also makes a comparison between two unlike elements, but unlike a simile, this comparison is implied rather than stated. In a simile, the words like, as, as…so are used to make the comparison, as in

1) Jim was as cunning as a fox. 2) The world is like a stage.

In a metaphor, however, the comparison would appear simply as

1) Jim was a fox.

2) The world is a stage.

A metaphor, then, is in a sense, a condensed simile, different from the latter only in form and artistry.

Metaphors have three main uses: descriptive, illuminative and illustrative, can be seen from the following examples:

1. The hallway was zebra-striped with darkness and moonlight.

---- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (A description of the alternate bands of light and shade in the hall, like a zebra’s stripes.)

2. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure. ---- Thomas Jefferson

(The suggestion here is that liberty cannot be achieved or defended without bloodshed ---- the shedding of the blood of both the defenders and the oppressors of liberty in a violent struggle.)

An important form of the metaphor, and one often used by writers when they wish to describe or explain something in detail is the many-aspect extended or branching metaphor. In a branching metaphor, there is usually a basic comparison which is developed in such a way that every new stage of its elaboration throws new and related light on the subject. For example:

All the world?s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances. And one man in his time plays many parts,

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His acts being seven ages …

---- Shakespeare

The basic comparison in this famous passage is “The world is like a stage.”

A metaphor or a simile has to be fresh to be effective. One that has been frequently used over a long period of time will become dull and stale, and cease to function as a metaphor or simile. “The leg of a table” must have been a metaphor when it was first used, but today we feel that leg is used in its literal sense.

3. Personification it is a figure of speech that gives human form or feelings to animals, or life and personal attributes to inanimate objects, or to ideas and abstractions, e.g.

1. The wind whistled through the trees.

2. If not always in a hot mood to smash, the sea is always stealthily ready for a drowning.

---- Joseph Conrad

In these two examples, natural phenomena, the wind and the sea, are personified.

Personification is a simple enough figure to recognize and to understand. It is easy enough to use, too, except for one problem ---- gender, or the grammatical classification of the thing personified as masculine or feminine. Should it be male or female, he or she? There is no problem with animals, where the sex is known, but objects and ideas would present difficulties.

There is no guide to usage here unless custom and personal taste could be considered guidelines. It is customary, for example, to call ships she. Sometimes wind storms are given women’s names, e.g. Hurricane Katrina, Typhoon Alice. Poets and writers tend, too, to characterize various natural phenomena as male or female according to cetain idealistic or romantic conceptions, e.g.

Feminine

1. Nature ---- Mother Nature

2. Earth ---- Mother Earth

3. morning ---- Aurora; daughter of the dawn (Homer); mild blushing goddess (Logan P. Smith)

4. evening ---- the pale child, Eve

5. night ---- empress of silence, and the queen of sleep (Christopher Marlowe);

the pale child, Eve, leading her mother, night (Alexander Smith) 6. the moon ---- Diana, Luna, Phoebe; Queen of heaven, queen of night (Shakespeare); queen and huntress, chaste and fair (B. Jonson) Masculine

1. the sun ---- Helios, Apollo, Hyperion; the god of life and poesy and light

(Byron)

2. rivers ---- the Father of Waters (of the Mississippi and the Irrawaddy, for

example)

3. time ---- Father Time;

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Time, you old gypsy man,

Will you not stay, Put up your caravan Just for one day?

---- Ralph Hodgson

4. Metonymy It is a figure of speech that has to do with the substitution of the name of one thing for that of another. This substituted name may be an attribute of that other thing or be closely associated with it. In other words, it involves a “change of name”, the substituted name suggesting the thing meant.

Metonymy is a very useful and effective rhetorical device, for it compresses much into a single word or short noun phrase. Most of us may be familiar with the following examples:

1. pen: what is written by the pen; books, articles, etc. 2. sword: instrument of force and destruction;

e.g. The pen is mightier than the sword.

3. table: source or supply of food;

e.g. She sets a good (poor) table.

(= She provides good (poor) food.)

4. bottle: liquor, wine, alcohol;

e.g. He took to the bottle. (= He took too drinking.)

5. Synecdoche has often been confused with Metonymy. This is not surprising, as both involve substitution. Only metonymy involves substitution of the name of one thing for that of another closely associated with it, whereas synecdoche involves the substitution of the part for the whole, or the whole for the part. For instance, in the sentence: “They counted fifty sails in the harbor”, sails really means ships, and is an example of the part representing the whole.

Below is a list of familiar examples of synecdoche:

A. The part for the whole

1. hand: a) member of a ship’s crew ---- All hands on deck.

b) worker, labourer, helper ---- They were short of hands at harvest time. 2. head: person

---- He paid the workers $5 per head. 3. heart: brave fellow

---- Yet there were some stout hearts who attempted resistance. (C. S. Forester) 4. legs: (coll.) persons on foot, the infantry

---- The legs could hardly keep up with the tanks. 5. bread: food, esp. staple food

---- Give us this day our daily bread. (Prayer) ---- They say there’s bread and work for all, And the sun shines always there: But I’ll not forget old Ireland,

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Were it fifty times as fair. (Helen S. Blackwood) B. The whole for the part

1. Name of country for group of people of that country ---- Australia beat Canada at cricket.

(= the Australian team beat the Canadian team.)

2. Vehicle for engine, machine for mechanism of machine itself; etc. ---- The car conked out. ---- The plane’s flamed out! 3. Person for part of his body

---- Then he cut me open and took out the appendix and stitched me up again. (= cut

his abdomen open)

6. Euphemism Euphemism is defined in the New Edition of the Oxford Concise Dictionary as “Substitution of mild or vague or roundabout expression for harsh or direct one; expression thus substituted”. In Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, the definition reads, “Substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant”.

The urge to speak euphemistically is a universal trait, but varying in scope and motive with different individuals in different circumstances. The great complexity of scope and motive can be seen from the following list of “true words” and their euphemisms, the “gilded words”:

A. Death, Illness, Old Age, etc. 1. to die

To pass away; to depart; to go to sleep; to go to heaven 2. old age, senility

getting on (in years); past one’s prime; feeling one’s age; second childhood 3. old people

senior citizens

4. mad; feeble-minded

not all there; soft in the head; of unsound mind; simple-minded 5. stupid pupil

a slow learner; under-achiever 6. fat people

weight-watchers

(The motive for the euphemism in this case seems to be to avoid hurting people’s

feelings.) B. Toilet Habits, etc.

1. to urinate or to defecate go to the bathroom, etc.; do their business; answer nature’s call;

(infants) sit on the potty; 2. men’s lavatory

Gent’s; the john; the washroom; head (Navy); water closet (W. C. )

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3. women’s lavatory

Ladies’; the powder room; Mrs. Jones

(The motive here, obviously, is to avoid using the true words which are considered crude

and indecent in polite conversation.) C. Poverty and Unemployment 1. dismiss, sack

lay off, ease out, give (get) the walking stick, pink slip 2. penniless

out of pocket; hard up; in reduced circumstances; badly off 3. in debt

in difficulties; in embarrassing obligation to… 4. the poor

+ the have-nots; the underprivileged; the disadvantaged 5. unemployed mother + welfare mother 6. living on dole

on relief; on welfare benefits 7. slums

+ substandard housing

(The euphemism used by the poor themselves are to “soften” harsh reality, but the terms

marked + often used by government personnel seem more to cover up governmental inability to solve social and economic problems ---- “cosmetic” words, so to say.) D. Menial jobs or professions of low social standing 1. a maid, housekeeper, etc.

domestic help; day-help; live-in help 2. chief waiter, waitress captain; hostess 3. real estate agent realtor 4. hairdresser beautician 5. janitor

superintendent; custodian 6. undertaker mortician 7. rat-catcher

exterminating engineer; pest control operator

(The motive here is plainly to “uplift” these professions by names, if not by status. It

reflects a sense of inferiority as well as a striving for “better things”.) E. Political and Military activities 1. lies

terminological inexactitude; 2. aggression

pre-emptive action; police action

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