July 9, 1999

synecdoche

I am engaged in a transatlantic logomachy with an Irish inamorata. A recent word of choice was "synecdoche," but my Celtic princess was not satisfied with my sample of usage. I said that "Schindler's List" was a cinematic synecdoche for the Holocaust. I like this word and would like to see it get more exposure. She claims it's utterly hopeless and that it is merely a technical word. Have you seen any interesting uses of this word, or is she right?

She is probably right all-around; at the very least she is right on the first count.

The word synecdoche, pronounced "sin-EK-doh-kee," is a rhetorical term naming a common figure of speech. Synecdoche is, most broadly, the figurative device of using any subcategory for a larger category, or vice versa. Synecdoche can be using the part for the whole ("two hundred head" meaning "two hundred cows"), the whole for the part ("New York won the World Series," for "The New York Yankees won the World Series"), the special for the general ("a Croesus" for "a rich man," or "three souls" for "three lives"), the general for the special ("a lovely creature" for "a lovely woman"), or the like.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean when you say that Schindler's List is a cinematic synecdoche for the Holocaust, but I don't think it can be right. There is an extended use of metaphor that could apply. Metaphor normally refers to a figure of speech where a word is applied to an object or concept it does not literally denote, implying a comparison between the two, such as "a mighty fortress is our God." But the word has developed an extended use, 'something used or regarded as being used to represent something else; a symbol', as in "The memoir in the '90s is a metaphor for our self-absorbtion."

The word synecdoche, however, does not have such an extended sense, so it can't apply here. One could come up with uses that could be labelled "synecdoche," using "Auschwitz" to refer to the horrors of Nazidom, or "Schindler" to refer to a person who does noble deeds, but you can't refer to a movie as a synecdoche for the events it partly portrays. So in this case your lassie is on the mark.

I'd say she's probably right in the second case, too; that is, synecdoche, though a great and useful word, is probably too obscure to expect it to succeed. Things like metaphor and simile are hard enough. Granted, it's not as hard as aposiopesis or paralipsis, two personal faves, but we have to be realistic.

The word synecdoche, is, obviously, from Greek, with elements meaning 'together' and 'interpretation; sense'. It is first found in English in the fifteenth century.