名人教你讲英文：联想式之词藻 Figures by Association of Ideas

名人教英文：联想式之词藻 figures by association of ideas

本人谨此 恭贺所有读者蛇年健康快乐！愿你看得更远，登得更高∶学业进步，前程锦绣！

a happy and healthy chinese new year of the snake to all my readers!
may you have vision and achieve advancement in life: in pursuit of academic excellence and a good future!

it will come as no surprise to anyone that chinese new year greetings are rich in figures of speech.

just as "the year of the snake" is itself a figure of speech, so i shall start this new year series of articles today by discussing figures of speech based on an association of ideas. specifically, there are two such figures of speech, namely: metonymy and synecdoche which are commonly used to enhance one's writing skills and to reduce verbosity (赘言).

metonymy 换喻
metonymy is a word derived from greek to mean a change of name. this figure of speech uses a vivid name for something less effective or interesting.
examples of metonymy abound:

a press conference - a meeting to talk to the media

eg the secretary held a press conference to announce his plans.
beijing - chinese government

eg it is now up to beijing to accept the offer.
the pen - a piece of writing or being a writer

eg the pen is mightier than the sword.
to take silk - to be a barrister-at-law

eg after he had taken silk, he represented the government in prosecution.
whitehall - british government