different between meronymy vs synecdoche

English

Etymology

From mero- +? -onymy (from Ancient Greek ????? (méros, “part”) + ????? (ónoma, “name”)); compare meronym.

Noun

meronymy (countable and uncountable, plural meronymies)

1. (semantics) The relationship of being a constituent part or member of something; a system of meronyms.

   Antonym: holonymy

   • 1995, Jürgen Handke, The Structure of the Lexicon: Human Versus Machine, page 90,

     This relationship of meronymy is controversial for various reasons. First, there are several types of meronymy, such as functional meronymy, where one concept is a functional part of another (e.g. FINGER-HAND) or more general part-whole relations, where the part and the whole exist as a continuous entity (e.g. FLAME-FIRE). Secondly, there are diverging opinions as to whether meronymy should be treated as a semantic primitive in the sense of [syn]onymy, antonymy, and hyponymy.

   • 1999, Sylvia Adamson, 7: Literary Language, Roger Lass (editor), The Cambridge History of the English Language: Volume III: 1476-1776, page 564,

     But whereas hyponymy is a member—class relation, reflecting a taxonomy or conceptual hierarchy, meronymy is a part—whole relation, reflecting the existence of complex structures in concrete reality.

   • 2003, M. Lynne Murphy, Semantic Relations and the Lexicon: Antonymy, Synonymy and Other Paradigms, pages 233-234,

     Possession, like meronymy, is described in English (and equivelently in other languages) with the verb to have (A millionaire has money) and the line between possession and part-having is fuzzy at best. […] Priss (1998) suggests that meronymy might be formalized as an attribution relation, such that HAS-A-HANDLE-FOR-A-PART would be an attribute of hammer and cup. Thus, the case for separating attribution and possession from meronymy is not strong.

Related terms

• semantics
• synonymy
• antonymy
• homonymy
• polysemy
• paronymy
• hypernymy
• hyponymy
• metonymy
• holonymy
• exocentric
• endocentric

Translations

Further reading

• meronymy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Alternative forms

• syndoche
• synechdoche

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin synecdoch?, from Ancient Greek ????????? (sunekdokh?, “receiving together”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s??n?k.d?.ki/, /s??n?k.do?.ki/

Noun

synecdoche (countable and uncountable, plural synecdoches)

1. (rhetoric) A figure of speech that uses the name of a part of something to represent the whole, or the whole to represent a part.

   Hyponyms: pars pro toto, totum pro parte

   Hypernym: metonymy

   • 2002, Christopher Hitchens, "Martin Amis: Lightness at Midnight", The Atlantic, Sep 2002:

     "Holocaust" can become a tired synecdoche for war crimes in general.
2. (rhetoric) The use of this figure of speech.

   Synonym: synecdochy

Usage notes

Technically, a synecdoche is a part of the referent while a metonym is connected or associated but not necessarily a part of it.

Derived terms

Related terms

• docetism
• meronymy

Translations

See also

• metaphor
• metonymy

Further reading

• synecdoche on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Dutch

Etymology

From Latin synecdoche, from Ancient Greek ????????? (sunekdokh?, “receiving together”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sin?k?do?x?/

Noun

synecdoche f (plural synecdoches, diminutive synecdochetje n)

1. (literature) synecdoche

See also

• metonymia