The tenor - vehicle relationship in metonymy

Metonymy (Gk. metonymia, 'changing of name') is a trope in which the name of a thing is replaced by the name of an associated, contiguous thing. Unlike metaphor where the interaction between the tenor and the vehicle is based on resemblance, metonymy reflects the actually existing relations between the tenor and the vehicle whose interaction is thus based on their contiguity.

The vehicle of metonymy (sometimes called "metonym") is expressed by nouns. It is intended to strike the imagination more vividly than what it stands for (the tenor). Since the types of relations between the tenor and vehicle are finite in metonymy, most cases of this trope are familiar.

1 A part is put for the whole (including an individual for a class, or singular for plural). The metonymy with this type of relations between tenor and vehicle is called synecdосhe.

Do you think, О blue-eyed banditti,
Because you have scaled the wall,
Such an old moustache as I am

Is not a match for you all! (Longfellow)

2 The symbol is put for the person or thing symbolized

He succeded to the crown (-royal-office).

From the cradle to the grave (-from childhood to death). Brought to (under) the hammer (-put up to auction).

3 The instrument is put for the agent:— The pen is mightier than the sword

Give thy thoughts no tongue. (Shakespeare)

The pen is mightier than the sword

4 The container is put for the thing contained: He drank the cup (-the contents of the cup)

He drank the cup (-the contents of the cup)

He is too fond of the bottle (-the liquor in the bottle)

5 The effect is put for the cause:— A favourable speed Ruffle thy mirrored mast. (Tennyson) Here speed is put for wind, the cause of speed

6 The maker for the thing made:— Familiar cases:—I have never read Homer.

7 The name of a passion is put for the object of passion:— (i) She is coming, my life, my fate.

8 The material is put for the thing made:— sonorous metal (=trumpets) blowing martial sound.

9 The abstract is put for the concrete:—It was not only writers, you know, it was a thoroughly representative gathering — science, politics, business, art, the world. (Maugham).

10 the concrete is put for the abstract

A healthy lad, and carried in his cheeks

Two steady roses that were five years old.

(Wordsworth)