ANALISI ESTRATTO DA NICE WORK "METAPHOR AND METONYMY":

This extract is taken from David Lodge's "Nice Work" and is about the dialogue between Vic Wilcox and Robyn Penrose: the goal is to explain the different function of metaphor and metonymy in communication. To make it the narrator uses the dialogue after the introduction of the two characters: Robyn is a lecturer at the university and her routine is to explain everything to everyone; Vic, indeed, represents the common man. The scene is set in the car and the two characters are discussing about publicity posters and their meaning: according to Vic Wilcox a poster with a cigarette is just a poster with a cigarette. He thinks that "people" like Robyn, intellectuals, scholars are always trying to find hidden meanings in things. But according to Robyn advertisement has a lot of meanings and explanations, for instance a poster could be related to the female body and to sexual desires of men.

"Metaphor" is a figure of speech based on similarity, whereas "metonymy" is based on contiguity: In metaphor you substitute something like the thing you mean for the thing itself, whereas in metonymy you substitute some attribute or cause or effect of the thing for the thing itself.