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:[[Fr]]. ''''métonymie]]''
=====Definition=====
[[Metonymy]] is usually defined as a trope in which a term is used to denote an [[object]] which it does not literally refer to, but with which it is closely linked.
This link may be one of physical contiguity, but not necessarily.
=====Roman Jakobson=====
However, [[Lacan]]'s use of the term owes little to this definition apart from the notion of contiguity, since it is inspired by the work of [[Roman Jakobson]], who established an opposition between [[metonymy]] and [[metaphor]].<ref>Jakobson 1956</ref>
Following [[Jakobson]], [[Lacan]] links [[metonymy]] to the combinatorial axis of [[language]], as opposed to the substitutive axis.<ref>(For example, in the sentence 'I am happy,' the relation between the words 'I' and 'am' is a metonymic relation, whereas the possibility of substituting 'sad' for 'happy' depends on the metaphoric relation between these two terms.)</ref>
==Metonymy and Metaphor===Diachronic Chain of Signifiers=====
In his most detailed work on the subject, [[Lacan]] defines [[metonymy]] as the [[diachrony|diachronic]] relation between one [[signifier]] and another in the [[signifying chain]].
=====Metonymy and Metaphor=====[[Metonymy]] thus concerns the ways in which [[signifier]]s can be combined/linked in a single [[signifying chain ]] ('"horizontal' " relations), whereas [[metaphor]] concerns the ways in which a [[signifier]] in one [[signifying chain]] may be substituted for a [[signifier]] in another [[chain ]] ('"vertical' " relations).
Together, [[metaphor]] and [[metonymy]] constitute the way in which [[signification]]s is produced.
=====Formula for Metonymy=====
[[Lacan]] provides a formula for [[metonymy]].<ref>{{E}} p.164</ref>
[[Image:Lacan-metonymy.jpg|center]]
This formula is to be read as follows.:
On the lefthand side of the equation, outside the brackets, [[Lacan]] writes '''<i>f</i>''' '''S''', the [[paternal funciton|signifying function]], which is to say the effect of [[signification]].
Inside the brackets he writes '''S . . . S'''', the link between one [[signifier]] and another in a [[signifying chain]].
On the righthand side of the equation there is '''S''', -- the [[signifier]], -- and ( '''---''' ), -- the [[bar]] of the [[Saussure]]ean [[sign|algorithm]].
The [[sign]] '''= ''' is to be read "is congruent with."
=====Formula for Metonymy - Summary=====
Thus the whole formula reads:
<blockquote>"the The signifying function of the connection of the signifier with the signifier is congruent with maintenance of the bar."</blockquote>
The formula is meant to illustrate [[Lacan]]'s thesis that in [[metonymy]] the [[resistance]] of [[signification]] is maintained, the [[bar]] is not crossed, no new [[signified]] is produced.
=====Contexts=====
[[Lacan]] puts his concept of [[metonymy]] to use in a variety of contexts.
===== Metonymy and Desire=====
[[Lacan]] presents [[metonymy]] as a [[diachrony|diachronic]] movement from one [[signifier]] to another along the [[signifying chain]], as one [[signifier]] constantly refer sto another in a perpetual deferral of meaning.
[[Desire]] is also characterized by exactly the same never-ending process of continual deferral; since [[desire]] is always "Desire desire for something else,"<ref>{{E}} p.167</ref> as soon as the [[object]] of [[desire]] is attained, it is no longer desirable, and the [[subject]]'s [[desire]] fixes on another [[object]].
Thus [[Lacan]] writes that "desire ''is'' a metonymy."<ref>{{E}} p.175</ref>
===== Metonymy and Displacement=====
[[Lacan]] also follows [[Jakobson]] in linking the [[metaphor]]-[[metonymy]] distinction to the mechanisms of the [[dream work]] described by [[Freud]].
Just as [[displacement]] is logically prior to [[condensation]], so [[metonymy]] is the condition for [[metaphor]], because "the coordination of signifiers has to be possible before transferences of the signified are able to take place."<ref>{{S3}} p.229</ref>
== See Also ==
== References ==
<references/>
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Linguistics]]
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Symbolic]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Terms]]
[[Category:OK]]
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