What’s the difference between “借喻” and ”借代”?

Question

As we know, “借喻” (metonymy) is a kind of analogy while “借代” (synecdoche) is not. They look very alike in most cases, but they are different rhetoric. In the following sentence, is “借喻” or “借代” used? 黑帽子一言不发，把趴在桌子睡觉的懒虫拉了起来。Can you tell me?

Answer 1

In fact, the difference between 借喻 and 借代 lies in the relation between the subjects and objects. The relation between the 本体(ontology) and 借体 (vehicle) of a 借喻 sentence is resemblance while that of 借代 is just some correlation.

In the above sentence, 黑帽子is not like a person but a feature of his wear, so 黑帽子is a usage of 借代. But there’s no correlation between the 懒虫 and the person, the reason that the person is called “懒虫” is that he sleeps on the desk instead of working, in which way he acts like a 懒虫.

In other words, we can say the person is like a 懒虫 but can’t say the other person is like a 黑帽子. A metonymy can be transformed into a semile(明喻) but a synecdoche can’t. So 黑帽子 is an example of 借代 and 懒虫 is 借喻.

Answer 2

If you take a closer look at the sentence structures between 借喻 and 借代, the differences could be easily told.

We use 借喻 to describe the object ''like something else''. The key indicators of 借喻 are 1. Whether we mention the subject clearly. 2. Whether there is any:像是, 像, 跟...一樣... etc in the sentence.

On another hand, 借代 is to describe an object without clearly mentioning the name of it, but replace it with another thing that the object looks like.

The sentence: 黑帽子一言不发，把趴在桌子睡觉的懒虫拉了起来。 Q: Is there any 像是, 像, 跟...一樣... in the sentence? A: No Q: Does the sentence clearly mentioned who's sleeping on the desk? A: No, it used ''lazy worm'' instead of the person's name or identification. Therefore, it uses 借代 in the sentence.

Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have further questions like this! I'm happy to explain more in class!