Metalepsis - denten-courses/metaphor-media GitHub Wiki
Synthesis
Metalepsis is generally accepted as a metaphorical expression resulting from a substitution in the composition of figurative rhetoric. As it often happens, metalepsis is the result of a metaphor substituted metonymically for another word which is, itself, part of an encompassing metonymy. However, the term metalepsis can also be used more broadly to identify other related examples of progressively figurative substitutions.
In rhetoric and writing, metalepsis often functions as a transitional device, which seems most consistently cited as a way of preparing either the author or audience for increasingly figurative uses of language.
Virtually all available definitions for the term metalepsis are contingent on an understanding of at least one other trope. Generally, in these definitions, the prescribed effect of metalepsis is sandwiched between descriptions of those belonging to at least one other trope. The basic qualifiers of metalepsis therefore derive from its similarities to a range of terms including but not limited to catachresis (Erasmus), metonymy (Dictionary), and synecdoche (Creighton).
In order to establish a comprehensive grasp of metalepsis from these slightly varied definitions and their examples, focus can be directed to the points that are either consistent or not prohibitively contradicted among them. The distilled understanding is that metalepsis is affixed to two definitional axes. On one hand, it can be a device defined by its syntactical composition and on the other by its elicitation of mood. With regard to the former, a metalepsis appears to function as a meta-synecdoche in the sense that its construction bears fractional resemblance to more pronounced constructions of figurative language in its immediate proximity.
In the latter framework of understanding, metalepsis functions with less syntactical relevance and a correspondingly heightened metonymic effect. Specifically, metalepsis in this sense relates to an unexpected substitution in deductive terminology and therefore acts more as a “metonymy squared.” The effect of this use seems intended almost exclusively to suspend the constraints of literal interpretation.
Moreover, the metaleptic capacity to introduce a more gradual acceptance of figurative language affords insight into why Quintilian gave singular exception to its use in comedy. This is to say, the metalepsis facilitates the suspension of reality on which comedy often depends.
In either variation of its understood purpose, metalepsis gives direction to increasingly figurative emphasis. In this vein, the device is fundamentally transitional and thus invariably tethered to the effects of proximate tropes.
Quotes
There is but one of the tropes involving change of meaning which remains to be discussed, namely, metalepsis or transumptio, which provides a transition from one trope to another. It is (if we except comedy) but rarely used in Latin and is by no means to be commended, though it is not infrequently employed by the Greeks
Quintilian, The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian, trans. H. E. Butler (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953): Book VIII; VI, 323.
It is the nature of metalsepsis to form a kind of intermediate step between the term transferred and the thing to which it is transferred, having no meaning in itself, but merely providing a transition. It is a trope with which to claim acquaintance rather than one which we are ever likely to require to use.
Quintilian, The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian, trans. H. E. Butler (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953): Book VIII; VI, 323.
We need not waste any more time over it. I can see no use in it except, as I have already said, in comedy.
Quintilian, The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian, trans. H. E. Butler (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953): Book VIII; VI, 323.
Very similar to catachresis is metalepsis, in Latin transumptio 'transition.' > In this we move by stages towards our meaning.
Erasmus. De Copia. Toronto, Canadá: University of Toronto, 1973: 339.
The rhetorical figure consisting in the metonymical substitution of one word for another which is itself a metonym; (more generally) any metaphorical usage resulting from a series or succession of figurative substitutions.
"Metalepsis," Oxford Dictionaries | English, 2018, https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/metalepsis.
It is argued that the concept of metalepsis inevitably depends on a mimetic understanding of narrative and on a neat distinction between story and discourse.
Fludernik, Monika. "Scene Shift, Metalepsis, and the Metaleptic Mode." Style 37, no. 4 (2003).
The metalepsis is a change more of mood than of meaning, namely the transition without proof from a supposition to an assertion. But in truth no single figure of the ancient teachers suits this modern instance. We require at least two. Metalepsis carries us so far, but synecdoche must supplement it.
Charles Creighton, A History of Epidemies in Britain: Vol. 2 (Cambridge: University Press, 1891).
Examples
The Greeks, for example, called ‘Chiron the Centaur’ ‘inferior’ and substitute the epithet ‘swift’ for ‘sharp’ in referring to sharp-pointed islands.
Quintilian, The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian, trans. H. E. Butler (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953): Book VIII;VI, 323.
The commonest example is the following: cano is a synonym for canto and canto for dico, therefore cano is a synonym for dico, the intermediate step being provided by canto.
Quintilian, The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian, trans. H. E. Butler (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953): Book VIII, 323.
Transsumpcion, is when by degrees we go to yt that is shewed as: he hyd hym selfe in the blacke dennes. By blacke, is vnder stand ful of darkenes & consequently stepe downe, and verye depe. [Margin] Metalepsis.
Sherry, R. Treat. Schemes & Tropes (1550): sig. Cv.
The figure Metalepsis, which I call the farfet, as when we had rather fetch a word a great way off then to vse one nerer hand to expresse the matter aswel & plainer.
Puttenham, G. Arte Eng. Poesie (1589): III. xvii. 152.
'hid in lustreless caverns'; lustreless implies black, black implies dark, dark finally black implies dropping away into vast depths.
Erasmus. De Copia. Toronto, Canadá: University of Toronto, 1973: 339.
The Greeks call something 'sharp-pointed' when they mean 'swift.'
Erasmus. De Copia. Toronto, Canadá: University of Toronto, 1973: 339.
The term variolae vaccinae is a synecdoche in that it names the cause from the effect; it is a metalepsis in that it passes abruptly from the hypothetical mood to the categorical
Charles Creighton, A History of Epidemies in Britain: Vol. 2 (Cambridge: University Press, 1891).
Works Cited
Creighton, Charles. A History of Epidemies in Britain: Volume 2. Cambridge: University Press, 1891.
Erasmus. De Copia. Toronto, Canadá: University of Toronto, 1973.
Fludernik, Monika. "Scene Shift, Metalepsis, and the Metaleptic Mode." Style 37, no. 4 (2003): 382-400. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/style.37.4.382.
"Metalepsis." Oxford Dictionaries | English. 2018. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/metalepsis.
Puttenham, G. Arte Eng. Poesie. III. Xvii., 1589.
Quintilian. The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian. Translated by H. E. Butler. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953.
Sherry, R. Treat. Schemes & Tropes sig Cv, 1550.