Trope (linguistics)
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In linguistics, trope is a rhetorical figure of speech that consists of a play on words, i.e., using a word in a way other than what is considered its literal or normal form. The other major category of figures of speech is the scheme, which involves changing the pattern of words in a sentence.
Trope comes from the Greek word, tropos, which means a "turn". We can imagine a trope as a way of turning a word away from its normal meaning, or turning it into something else.
[edit] Types
- metonymy — a trope through proximity or correspondence, for example referring to actions of the US President as "actions of the White House".
- irony — creating a trope through implying the opposite of the standard meaning, such as describing poverty as "good times".
- metaphor — an explanation of an object or idea through juxaposition of disparate things with a similar characteristic, such as describing a courageous person as having a "heart of oak".
- synecdoche — related to metonymy and metaphor, creates a play on words by referring to something with a related concept: for example, referring to the whole with the name of a part, such as "hired hands" for workers; a part with the name of the whole, such as "the law" for police officers; the general with the specific, such as "bread" for food; the specific with the general, such as "cat" for a lion; or an object with the material it is made from, such as "bricks and mortar" for a building.
- antanaclasis — is the stylistic trope of repeating a single word, but with a different meaning each time. Antanaclasis a common type of pun, and like other kinds of pun, it is often found in slogans.
