Metaphor, Metonymy, Synecdoche and Irony

For Roman Jakobson, metaphor and metonymy can be regarded as the fundamental structures of language. Both the literary devices are associational or linkage devices. While metaphor links similar things, a metonymy links things through its contiguity which links the representative to its represented. A big thing like kingdom could be represented by the word “crown”. Clearly, this contiguity is a link between two things of different temporal or spatial expanse, belonging to the same category. A metaphor feels the need to relate two things belonging to two different categories without the usage of words like and as. A similar figure of speech is synecdoche which substitutes the part for the whole whereas an irony juxtaposes the reality against appearance.

Metaphor, Metonymy, Synecdoche and Irony are four major tropes whose usage make possibility of meanings in a variety of discourses. Of these, metaphor is associational, while metonymy and synecdoche are substitutional. Irony is juxtaposition.