Classical and medieval Latin metonymy in relation to contemporary figurative theory. (Volumes I and II)

This study traces a detailed history of Latin metonymy from classical rhetoric to late medieval poetic in an effort to demonstrate the specific relevance of rhetorical history to contemporary figurative theory.;The structuralist project to restate classical rhetoric in structural terms--formulated by Gerard Genette and Roland Barthes in the early sixties, and given its most potent realization by Groupe mu in the late sixties--offered the possibility of a profound encounter between ancient and modern theory. Unfortunately, this encounter did not take place, largely because structuralism, and later, semiotics, presupposed a complete rupture between ancient and modern linguistics. Thus, despite important criticisms of structuralist preconceptions in the hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur, rhetorical history has tended to remain outside the sphere of contemporary semiotic inquiry. Brian Vickers has shown that historians of rhetoric are not without fault in this regard, for they often consider the specifics of traditional figurative theory to be too impractical and tedious to merit serious historical consideration.;The work therefore begins with two introductory chapters. Chapter 1 constructs a domain for contemporary theory through a critical review of French structuralism and semiotics. Chapter 2 reviews traditional histories of rhetoric in an effort to pinpoint their value to a specific investigation of figuration. The historical review concludes with a brief presentation of a context for each of the primary sources upon which the history of metonymy is based.;Chapters 3 and 4 contain specific investigations of classical and medieval Latin names, definitions, species, and examples of metonymy. Each chapter concludes with a relation to the contemporary domain; chapter 3 compares ancient and semiotic definitions of metonymy, and chapter 4 finds a precedent for contemporary confusion of metonymic and synecdochic species in works of the late medieval period.;Chapter 5 concludes the study with an overview of historical periodization, a synopsis of the linguistic philosophies represented by classical and medieval Latin metonymy, and a brief statement of the synthetic theory of metonymy that was developed in the course of the work.