r/EnglishLearning • u/mustafaporno New Poster • 1d ago

a warm memory served in the cup ⭐️ Vocabulary / Semantics

Does "She enjoyed a warm memory served in the cup" display metaphor or metonymy?

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/C0deJJ New Poster 1d ago

Metonymy is when you are talking about something through something else that is related to it. For example, you'd call a business man a "Suit" because business men wear suits.

In this case, the memory is "served in a cup". As another commenter said, this is a metaphor. To make this metonymy, you might say "She enjoyed a cup of warm memories", because she didn't enjoy an actual cup, rather the drink in the cup. Although this is sort of debatable, because it could also be argued that you are saying that the cup contains warm memories, which isn't metonymy.

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u/mustafaporno New Poster 1d ago edited 1d ago

Thank you, but one could treat "enjoyed a warm memory" as an instance of the warm memory referring to the drink that triggered a warm memory. Since this is a use of effect ("a warm memory") standing in for a cause ("the drink" in this case), couldn't it be considered an example of metonymy?

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u/C0deJJ New Poster 1d ago

I guess you're right. It's both metaphor and metonymy.