metonymy and synecdoche

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Metonymy

Definition of Metonymy

Metonymy is a figure of speech in which something is called by a new name that is related in meaning to the original thing or concept. For example, it’s common practice to refer to celebrity life and culture in the United States as “Hollywood,” as in “Hollywood is obsessed with this new diet.” The meaning of this statement is not that the place itself has any obsession, of course, but instead refers to the celebrities and wannabe celebrities who reside there.

Common Examples of Metonymy

As noted above, “Hollywood” can act as a metonym for celebrity culture. There are many other place names that act metonymically in the same way, such as “Wall Street” for the financial sector and “Washington” for the United States government. However, there are many more words in common usage that are metonyms. Here are more examples of metonymy:

• The big house—Refers to prison
• The pen—Can refer to prison or to the act of writing
• Stuffed shirts—People in positions of authority, especially in a business setting
• The crown—a royal person
• The Yankees/The Red Sox/The Cowboys, etc.—any team name is regularly used as a metonym for the players on the team. This is a less obvious metonym because often the team name is a group of people (the Cowboys, for instance), yet of course the football players who make up the Dallas Cowboys are not, in fact, cowboys.
• The New York Times/Morgan Stanley/Wells Fargo, etc.—any organization or company name is often used to stand in for the people who work there, such as “The New York Times stated that…” or “Wells Fargo has decided….”

Difference Between Metonymy and Synecdoche

Metonymy and synecdoche are very similar figures of speech, and some consider synecdoche to be a specific type of metonymy. Synecdoche occurs when the name of a part is used to refer to the whole, such as in “There are hungry mouths to feed.” The mouths stand in for the hungry people. The definition of metonymy is more expansive, including concepts that are merely associated in meaning and not necessarily parts of the original thing or concept.

Synecdoche: Parts and Wholes

Let's talk about synecdoche and metonymy, two very particular types of metaphorical expression in which one word is representative for another word or concept. But before we start, let me ask you: Have you ever checked out someone's wheels? Put on a Band-Aid after getting a cut? Cheered on New York during a football game? Even if you haven't, I bet you perfectly understand what each of those sentences mean: That when I say 'wheels' I mean 'car,' when I say 'Band-Aid' I mean an adhesive bandage and when I say 'New York,' I mean whichever team from New York happens to be playing.

These are all examples of synecdoche. In synecdoche, a part of something is used to refer to the whole entity, or a whole entity is used to refer to part of something. Some examples? This happens every time someone refers to 'Americans' when what they really mean is the citizens of the United States of America. 'Americans' is a synecdoche for the USA and does not include every member of the entire continents of North or South America (sorry, Canada!). Another synecdoche in everyday usage is when someone asks for your number. You know what they are really asking you for is your phone number and not just a collection of random digits. Here are a couple more examples:

• 'Hey man, nice threads.' Threads, here, refers to clothes (part of something referring to the whole).
• 'The stage was nearly set up, but the conductor didn't have enough space for the strings.' Here, 'strings' is synecdoche for a single unit: the 'string section.'

Synecdoche: Materials and Containers

Sometimes the material an item is made of can be used as synecdoche in place of the actual object. When a sword is referred to as 'steel,' for instance, this is synecdoche, since the entire sword is probably not made of steel. Moreover, the sword could be made of another metal altogether, but the historical connection between 'steel' and 'sword' is powerful enough to make it synecdoche nonetheless.

Likewise, if someone asks, 'Are you wearing Kevlar?' you might know from watching enough action movies that this is synecdoche for a bulletproof vest, while using 'plastic' at the grocery store means putting the bill on your credit card because credit cards are made of plastic. As with materials, containers can sometimes come to refer to the objects they contain - another form of synecdoche. As in, 'Nazie drank the cup,' which doesn't literally mean that Nazie swallowed a small cup, but rather that she drank the contents of the cup. Likewise, 'The bartender is giving away the bar,' means that he or she is giving out too many free drinks, which is the stuff the bar contains.

 References : 

http://study.com/academy/lesson/synecdoche-vs-metonymy-definitions-examples.html

http://www.literarydevices.com/metonymy/