Metaphore and metonymy

Metaphor (drawing a similarity between two things) and metonymy (drawing a continuity between two things), are two fundamental opposite poles along which a discourse with human language is developed.^[1] It has been argued that the two poles of similarity and continuity are fundamental ones along which the human brain is structured; in the study of human language the two poles have been called metaphor and metonymy, while in the study of the unconscious they ave been called condensation and displacement.^[2]

In the uncounscious: condensation and displacement

In Freud's work (1900), condensation and displacement (from German Verdichtung and Verschiebung) are two closely linked concepts.^[3] In 1957, Jacques Lacan, inspired by an article by linguist Roman Jakobson, argued that the uncounscious has the same structure of a language, and that condensation and displacement are equivalent to the poetic functions of metaphor and metonomy.^[1][2][4]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Roman Jakobson and Halle, Morris (1956) Two Aspects of Language and Two Types of Aphasic Disturbances in Fundamentals of Language. The Hague & Paris: Mouton, section The Metaphoric and Metonymic Poles
2. ^ ^{a b} Grigg, Russell () Lacan, language, and philosophy, chapter 11 Lacan and Jakobson - Metaphor and Metonymy pp.151-2, 160
3. ^ [1]
4. ^ Lacan [1957] The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious or Reason Since Freud. French original available here