Synechdoche, NY (and its cousins)
The trailer is out for Charlie Kaufman’s new film, Synechdoche, NY. (If that sounds familiar, it’s a play on the real-life location Schenechtady, NY.)
After watching the trailer, I had to go remind myself just what a synechdoche is. It’s a grammatical term for a metaphorical phrase in which a part stands for a whole, such as “wheels” for a car or “all hands” for the crew of a ship.
The real treat (as if reading about nuances of the English language wasn’t scintillating enough) came at the end of the Wikipedia article, under the See Also section. Here’s what I found:
* Conceptual metaphor
* Figure of speech
* Metonymy
* Pars pro toto
* Totum pro parte
* Hendiadys
If that was the guest list of a dinner party, I would totally bring the chips.
Related: Sarah’s words on Wordie.
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