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:[[Fr]]. ''''métonymie]]''
=====Linguistic 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.
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>
=====Metonymic Axis of Language=====
Following [[Jakobson]], [[Lacan]] links [[metonymy]] to the combinatorial axis of [[language]], as opposed to the substitutive axis.
=====Diachronic Dimension of Signifying 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 Versus 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]] is produced.
=====Formula for Metonymy=====
This formula is to be read as follows:
On the lefthand side of the [[algebra|equation]], outside the brackets, [[Lacan]] writes '''<i>f</i>''' '''S''', the [[paternal funcitonfunction|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 [[algebra|equation ]] there is '''S''' -- , the [[signifier]] -- , and ('''---''' ) -- , the [[bar]] of the [[Saussure]]ean [[sign|algorithm]].
The [[sign]] '''<b>=''' </b> is to be read "is congruent with."
=====Formula for Metonymy - Summary=====
=====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 refers to another in a perpetual [[deferred action|deferral ]] of [[signification|meaning]].
[[Desire]] is also characterized by exactly the same never-ending process of continual [[deferred action|deferral]]; since [[desire]] is always "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>
