David Auerbach wrote:
Another way to look at Patricia's remark is as a
certain kind of figure of speech which she, and not I, will know the
name of.
I assume David is referring to synecdoche, defined by Fowler as
"'inclusive extended acceptation'. The mention of a part when the
whole is to be understood, as in `A fleet of fifty sail' (i.e.,
ships), or vice versa as in `England (i.e., the English cricket XI) won'."
When, however, I indulge in such expressions as "Redmond rubbish,"
"Gates' garbage," and "the Bully of Redmond," I am employing metonymy,
or name-change: the use of attributive or other suggestive words for
the name of the thing meant.
Look, I don't HATE Bill Gates (I'm forbidden, on peril of damnation,
to hate anyone--not even Hitler, Stalin, or Idi Amin). I pray for
him--mostly, that he will see the error of his ways. But I am
permitted to disapprove of his actions if I find them worth
disapproval. And I do, because his determination to control the
industry, and his conviction that he knows how people want to work and
what they want to do better than they do, as shown by the operation of
the software his company sells, have had very unfortunate effects on
economic productivity and the comfort of the workers who have to use it.
But the real question we should be discussing here is can one or can
one not get a full screen DOS prompt in Vista? And if so, under what
conditions or circumstances. If my animadversions on billg got us off
on this tangent, I apologize and will hereafter, like British MPs
being oh so politely insulting, refer to him as our honourable
colleague from Redmond. (But 'billg', I am reliably informed, is how
he signs his e-mails; obviously, neither he nor any of his relatives
ever went to sea, or he would know what that will inevitably suggest.)
--
Patricia M. Godfrey
PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx