# Name for literary device: parts of a thing referred to as separate things? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 16, 2005, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-literary-device-parts-of-a-thing-referred-to-as-separate-things/335901 "2005-12-16T11:21:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brianmelendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2005, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-literary-device-parts-of-a-thing-referred-to-as-separate-things/335901/1 "2005-12-16T11:21:44Z")
Is there a name for the literary device by which two parts or aspects of the same whole are referred to as separate wholes? For example: > [@](#): > > Friday morning broke over the Atlantic seaboard – snowing and blustery in Boston, sunny and calm in New York, and the two mornings could hardly have been more different. > [@](#): > > He moved through the crowd, stopping and chatting with nobility and commoners alike, but the deferential face with which he greeted the powerful contrasted with the condescending gaze that he cast upon the rest, and revealed his two-faced nature. There is only one morning in the first example, and one “face” in the second example, but we talk as if there were two of each. Does this device have a specific name? And are there prominent examples that illustrate its use? ---
**Author:** ![Tevildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Tevildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tevildo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2005, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-literary-device-parts-of-a-thing-referred-to-as-separate-things/335901/2 "2005-12-16T11:27:22Z")
The term is [Synecdoche](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synecdoche) (pronounced “sin-ek-doe-kee”, not “sin-ek-doshe”, incidentally. 🙂 ). Examples in the Wikipedia article linked above. ---
**Author:** ![brianmelendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2005, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-literary-device-parts-of-a-thing-referred-to-as-separate-things/335901/3 "2005-12-16T13:21:01Z")
> [@Tevildo](#): > > The term is [Synecdoche](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synecdoche) (pronounced “sin-ek-doe-kee”, not “sin-ek-doshe”, incidentally. 🙂 ). Examples in the Wikipedia article linked above. The figure of speech that I am describing is an example of synecdoche. But synecdoche usually involves a part standing for the whole. I am wondering if there is a more specific term when different parts or aspects of the same whole are referred to as if they were each an independent whole. ---
**Author:** ![Tevildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Tevildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tevildo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2005, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-literary-device-parts-of-a-thing-referred-to-as-separate-things/335901/4 "2005-12-16T13:47:49Z")
Ahh, I see what you mean. I don’t think there’s a more specific term than synecdoche for this particular device, although the two examples you give can also be described as [syncrisis](http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/S/syncrisis.htm). “syncritical synecdoche”, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2005, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-literary-device-parts-of-a-thing-referred-to-as-separate-things/335901/5 "2005-12-16T13:53:20Z")
My understanding has always been that “synecdoche” refers to either the part standing for the whole (“I’m gonna get some wheels”) or the whole standing for the part (“Washington announced today…”). ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2005, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-literary-device-parts-of-a-thing-referred-to-as-separate-things/335901/6 "2005-12-16T13:57:54Z")
It is not the same thing you are talking about, but when a poem is written about something by describing each of its parts in turn (especially if the thing is a woman, and the poem is affectionate) it is called a blazon. ---
**Author:** ![Tevildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Tevildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tevildo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2005, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-literary-device-parts-of-a-thing-referred-to-as-separate-things/335901/7 "2005-12-16T13:58:37Z")
Yes, the OP’s examples are synecdoche; in the first one, the weather in Boston and New York are parts of the whole “morning”, in the second, “face” and “gaze” are parts of the whole demeanour/character of the person described. The question is: is there a specific name for the figure of speech when two seperate synecdochies (synechdochia? Don’t know Greek grammar that well, I’m afraid) are used to contrast two aspects of the whole they refer to? ---
**Author:** ![Tevildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Tevildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tevildo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2005, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-for-literary-device-parts-of-a-thing-referred-to-as-separate-things/335901/8 "2005-12-16T14:08:22Z")
Incidentally, there’s a very good example of it, whatever it’s called, in “Hamlet”, Scene 2, Lines 12-14: Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,– **With an auspicious and a dropping eye** , With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage, In equal scale weighing delight and dole,– Taken to wife: