What Is the Function of Metonymy in Literature?

The function of metonymy in literature is to replace a noun with a figure of speech. This means replacing a word with another one. The replacing word is usually known within the culture, but may not be immediately obvious to second language speakers. Metonymy is used in rhetoric, literature and news reporting. An example of metonymy is the use of ‘Westminster’ to mean the British government.

Metonymy is closely related to other phenomenon. This includes polysemy, kennings and synecdoche. Polysemy occurs when a word or phrase can have more than one meaning. Synecdoche occurs when a word meaning a part of something is used to mean the whole. An example of synecdoche is the use of keel to mean a whole boat or wheels to mean car.

Kennings are an old Anglo-Nordic literary device often found in old poetry. A kenning performs a similar function to the metonymy in literature. Instead of replacing word for word, the kenning replaces a noun with two words. Like metonymy, the kenning is a circumlocution, which uses words as tools. Examples of kennings include using ‘whale road’ to mean ‘sea’ and ‘wave steed’ to mean ‘ship.’

Both fiction and non-fiction make uses of metonymy in literature. Non-fiction includes rhetoric, articles and letters. They are a common occurrence in finance where ‘Wall Street’ is used to describe America’s financial center. ‘Fleet Street’ is used to mean Britain’s journalism center even though most newspaper companies have moved elsewhere. It is very commonly used for political reporting where the ‘White House’ means the President and ‘the Capitol’ means both the House of Representatives and the senate.

Non-fiction also uses metonymy in literature to represent national governments and associate particular industries with particular locations. Instead of referring to the Australian Government, a newspaper might refer to ‘Canberra’ and the European Union’s various commissions and parliaments are simply called ‘Brussels.’ Similarly, the American auto industry is known as ‘Detroit’ and its innovative computer industry as ‘Silicon Valley.’

Metonymy can be found throughout fiction in poetry, plays and novels. William Shakespeare made use of metonymy in many plays such as when in “Macbeth” a character ‘brandished steel.’ Steel is obviously used to mean a sword. In “Beowulf,” a character used ‘iron’ to mean a sword. Other metonymies for sword include blade and edge.

Purple prose specialist Edward Bulwer-Lytton created a famous metonymy in literature with the line ‘the pen is mightier than the sword.’ This is a double metonymy with the pen meaning words and the sword meaning violence. In Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” the eponymous character asks his ‘friends, Romans, countrymen’ to ‘lend me your ears.’ Ears mean attention. Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein’s Monster" itself became a metonymy where the term ‘Frankenstein’ is used to mean a man-made monstrosity.