Now I want to show you the scheme about metonymy and its subtypes. This scheme was created by me. I used the definitions and examples from the manual "English stylistics" by Gafiatulina Y.O.
The examples below include both the metonymy and the possible words for which the metonymy would fill in:
- Crown - in place of a royal person
- The White House - in place of the President or others who work there
- The suits - in place of business people
- Dish - for an entire plate of food
- Cup - for a mug
- The Pentagon - to refer to the staff
- The restaurant - to refer to the staff
- Ears - for giving attention ("Lend me your ears!" from Mark Antony in Julius Caesar)
- Eyes - for sight
- The library - for the staff or the books
- Pen - for the written word
- Sword - for military might
- Silver fox - for an attractive older man
- Hand - for help
- The name of a country - used in place of the government, economy, etc.
- The name of a church - used in place of its individual members
- The name of a sports team - used in place of its individual members
While these word examples provide a good example of what a metonymy is and how it functions, sentence examples will further help to explain the use of this figure of speech.(http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples/examples-of-metonymy.html)
Good luck in using of metonymy!