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Re: Fwd: Re: Nabokov's imagery/'tropes'/thanks
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Huge thanks to Jansy and Ashlee for their clarifications on this. I
don't know why I could not work out that it was a general category, but
I've certainly been given something to contemplate as regards 'figures
of speech' and 'the figurative use of a word or expression'.
Best
Brian Howell
recommendatins and
On Fri, 3 Sep 2004 11:45:03 -0700, "Donald B. Johnson"
<chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu> said:
> Dear Brian Howell
> My name has disappeared from the posting about "tropes": Jansy Mello.
> I will dare write down a little about tropes, since I´ve always
> enjoyed
> Terence Hawkes book " Metaphor" ( Thre Critical Idiom, Ed.Methuen & Co.
> Ltd.) as well as Borges´s theories.
> "Language which means what it says (...) is literal. Figurative
> language
> deliberately interferes with the system of literal usage by its
> assumption
> that terms literally connected with one object can be transferred to
> another
> object (...)" . Tropes or figures of speech are
> "turnings" of language away from literal meanings and towards figurative
> meanings. Metaphor is generally considered to manifest the basic pattern
> of
> transference involved and so can be thought as the fundamental 'figure'
> of
> speech. The other figures tend to be versions of metaphor´s prototype,
> particularly the three manin tradicional categories:
> (a) simile: " this piece of steel convers the car´s engine as if it were
> a
> bonnet covering a woman´s head" ; ' I saw the ruddy moon lean over a
> hedge/Like a red-faced farmer" ; "The yellow fog that rubs its back upon
> the
> window-panes"; " Voici le soir charmant, ami du criminel/ il vient comme
> un
> complice, à pas de loup" ; " the holy time is quiet as a Nun".
> (b) synedoche: "twenty summers" for twenty years; "ten hands" for "ten
> men",
> "blind mouths" for "corrupt priests"
> (c) metonimy: "The White House" for the President of the US, "The Crown"
> for
> the Monarch. Old English "kenning" are a form of metonimy.
> And Hawkes adds: " something in the mind withers at the propsect of
> unfolding the mysteries of Antonomasia, Hyperbaton, Metalepsis and the
> rest,
> and in ant case these categories were designed principally as standard
> formulae to help with composition, not critical response..."
>
> And I´ll dare a little longer. I think that VN´s complaint about James
> Joyce´s being " too verbal" is linked to this definition of tropes as the
> "dreams of speech" ( by the way, this is quite a psychoanalytic way of
> considering them!) .
> It seems that for VN Joyce never allowed speech to dream .
> Jansy Mello.
>
>
> --- Original Message -----
> From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2004 12:02 PM
> Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Nabokov's imagery/'tropes'
>
>
> > I'm not sure who posted the message with the 'tropes', quote but it was
> > fascinating. Now I have a question:
> >
> > Can someone give me a decent definition of 'trope', and possibly an
> > example, because it's a word I've never been comfortable with no matter
> > how often I look it up.
> >
> > Brian Howell
> >
> > ----- End forwarded message -----
> >
> >
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
----- End forwarded message -----
don't know why I could not work out that it was a general category, but
I've certainly been given something to contemplate as regards 'figures
of speech' and 'the figurative use of a word or expression'.
Best
Brian Howell
recommendatins and
On Fri, 3 Sep 2004 11:45:03 -0700, "Donald B. Johnson"
<chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu> said:
> Dear Brian Howell
> My name has disappeared from the posting about "tropes": Jansy Mello.
> I will dare write down a little about tropes, since I´ve always
> enjoyed
> Terence Hawkes book " Metaphor" ( Thre Critical Idiom, Ed.Methuen & Co.
> Ltd.) as well as Borges´s theories.
> "Language which means what it says (...) is literal. Figurative
> language
> deliberately interferes with the system of literal usage by its
> assumption
> that terms literally connected with one object can be transferred to
> another
> object (...)" . Tropes or figures of speech are
> "turnings" of language away from literal meanings and towards figurative
> meanings. Metaphor is generally considered to manifest the basic pattern
> of
> transference involved and so can be thought as the fundamental 'figure'
> of
> speech. The other figures tend to be versions of metaphor´s prototype,
> particularly the three manin tradicional categories:
> (a) simile: " this piece of steel convers the car´s engine as if it were
> a
> bonnet covering a woman´s head" ; ' I saw the ruddy moon lean over a
> hedge/Like a red-faced farmer" ; "The yellow fog that rubs its back upon
> the
> window-panes"; " Voici le soir charmant, ami du criminel/ il vient comme
> un
> complice, à pas de loup" ; " the holy time is quiet as a Nun".
> (b) synedoche: "twenty summers" for twenty years; "ten hands" for "ten
> men",
> "blind mouths" for "corrupt priests"
> (c) metonimy: "The White House" for the President of the US, "The Crown"
> for
> the Monarch. Old English "kenning" are a form of metonimy.
> And Hawkes adds: " something in the mind withers at the propsect of
> unfolding the mysteries of Antonomasia, Hyperbaton, Metalepsis and the
> rest,
> and in ant case these categories were designed principally as standard
> formulae to help with composition, not critical response..."
>
> And I´ll dare a little longer. I think that VN´s complaint about James
> Joyce´s being " too verbal" is linked to this definition of tropes as the
> "dreams of speech" ( by the way, this is quite a psychoanalytic way of
> considering them!) .
> It seems that for VN Joyce never allowed speech to dream .
> Jansy Mello.
>
>
> --- Original Message -----
> From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2004 12:02 PM
> Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Nabokov's imagery/'tropes'
>
>
> > I'm not sure who posted the message with the 'tropes', quote but it was
> > fascinating. Now I have a question:
> >
> > Can someone give me a decent definition of 'trope', and possibly an
> > example, because it's a word I've never been comfortable with no matter
> > how often I look it up.
> >
> > Brian Howell
> >
> > ----- End forwarded message -----
> >
> >
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
----- End forwarded message -----