STRATEGY FIFTEEN
Synecdoche as Design Device

Some Background

Synecdoche (Se-NEK-doh-KEY), one of the four master tropes, is a figure of reduction that substitutes the part for the whole or the whole for the part. It acts as a kind of verbal shorthand: The sportscaster reports, “The Dodgers need a strong arm in center”—arm, in this instance, the most significant part of the outfielder, substitutes for the whole person. A newspaper headline announces, “America is collapsing and buckling.” Well, not exactly. Its bridges are collapsing and its highways are buckling. America substitutes the whole for its parts—bridges and highways. Synecdoche can produce an eye-catching headline. It can also produce memorable lyric lines and hit song titles.

The Left-Brain Trope

Synecdochic (SYN-ek-DOCK-ic) thinking draws on left-brain functions: being specific, detailed, concrete, and separating into parts. It's the dominant trope of the ST and is readily used by J-types who like brevity. After getting the hang of how it works, substituting the part for the whole can come easily to all.

The Types of Synecdoche

Here are the main forms of synecdoche's part-for-whole substitutions along with an example of each:

• Part for whole: Two heads are better than one

• Species for genus: Her favorite shopping is at Cartier and Tiffany

• Raw material for finished product: “Where the rubber meets the road”

• Trade name/producer for generic product: Got a Kleenex?

• Nickname for person/thing: I like Ike

• Place for event: Watergate

• Initialism for the whole name/phrase: U.S.A., J.F.K., T.L.C.

• Acronym, a pronounceable abbreviation: AIDS, snafu, NATO

• Compounding two or more words into one: whatshisname, fuhgeddaboudit

• Clipping (from the end of a word): doin', celeb

• Numbernym for sound-alike word/syllable: 4 (for-); 8 (-ate)

• Letternym for sound-alike word: B (be); C (see); U (you)

Synecdoche in One-Liners: An Exercise

In addition to its use both as a title device and an occasional design strategy, synecdoche abounds in one-liners. Read the following examples of lyric lines, enjoying the wordplay. Then, purposefully switch to your analytical thinking function to pinpoint the particular category from those just cited which the lyricist used:

“Your girlish glands revive there” (Gershwin)

“Where the crowds at El Morocco punish the parquet ” (Porter)

“With a Schlitz in her mitts” (Sondheim)

“There's oil all over your address ” (Loesser)

“Diamond bracelets Woolworth's doesn't sell” (Fields)

“The canvas can do miracles” (Cross)

“Bottles full of bubbles for your troubles” (Gershwin)

“Clicking heels on steel and cement ” (Sondheim)

“Tell him to Hollanderize it for some other dame” (Loesser)

“One day when I was twelve and three.” (Lerner)

“The M.P. makes you K.P. on the Q.T.” (Mercer)

“Girls don't all wear specs ” (Gershwin)

(Answers on WrapUp.)

Perhaps that exercise made you aware that you've unconsciously used synecdoche in some form in your own lyrics. Perhaps it's even your favorite figure.

Ira Gershwin and Synecdoche

A reading of Ira Gershwin's memoirs Lyrics On Several Occasions suggests he was an ISTJ—an introverted/sensate/thinking/judgment type. A close analysis of his lyrics confirms that he favored synecdoche in its many forms over the other three master tropes.

As synecdoche functions to reduce a thing to some inherent part, a contraction is considered a subtype of synecdoche. Gershwin's typewriter keyboard must've had a busy apostrophe key. Hardly a lyric went by without a contraction or two. Sometimes he'd playfully shrink a word—sassafrass to “sass,” governor to “gov,” emotion to “emosh.” Often he used contraction to even out the meter—heav'nly, awf'ly, 'round, shriv'ling, or in service to rhyme—bewild'rin/children;a-struttin'/nuttin', gospel/pos'ple, hapless/Minneap'lis, country/effront'ry. Naturally his song titles featured contractions: “ 'S Wonderful,” (which included “ 's marvelous … 's awful nice … 's paradise”), “I'm Bidin' My Time,” and “I Got Plenty o' Nuthin'.”

Synecdoche and Song Design

Because synedoche substitutes part of a word for the whole, it tends to appear solely in single-word instances in a lyric. Yet two successful theater songs are synecdochic in their lyric design—both written by Ira Gershwin! “A Man of High Degree” from Strike Up the Band, features a playful string of sixteen initials (F.F.V., G.O.P., K.C.B., etc.); “Tschaikowsky” consists solely of a rhymed list of the last names of forty-nine Russian composers (!) which, with music by Kurt Weill, was a show-stopper for Danny Kaye in the musical Lady in the Dark.

Partitio: Using a Series of Parts for the Whole

A modified type of synecdochic song design features partitio (par-TEESCH-io)—substituting a series of parts for the name of the whole. Two of the most striking examples of the technique are “The Physician” (Cole Porter) and “Bobby and Jackie and Jack” (Stephen Sondheim):

• The female singer of “The Physician” complains—tongue in cheek—that though her doctor, on his house calls, would give high praise to each of her anatomical parts—larynx, lymphatics, medulla oblongata, umbilicus, etc.—“He never said he loved me.”

• “Bobby and Jackie and Jack,” sung by a trio in Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along, chats about the various members of the extensive Kennedy clan using their first-name monikers only—from Eunice and Peter and Jean and Joan to Joe and Rose—without even a recourse to the surname.

In this student lyric, partitio emphasizes the singer's case of terminal inertia.

Synecdochic: Example No. 1 (AABABA)
BUT NOT JUST YET

I'm planning to go on a diet
To acquire a slim silhouette
I'll forgo chocolate bars,
Ice cream cones, Mallomars—
BUT NOT JUST YET.

I'm thinking of joining a health club,
To work up a nice, healthy sweat—
Doing weightlifts, and rowing,
And stretching, and throwing—
BUT NOT JUST YET.

Some remodeling
Would be helpful.
(This is certainly open-and-shut.)
But improvement
fCalls for movement—
And I'd have to get out of my nice, cozy rut.

Signing up for assertiveness training
Is something I'd never regret.
When I gain all that clout,
Everybody, look out!
BUT NOT JUST YET.

Though my options
Lie before me,
And go on and on without end,
I'm half-hearted
Getting started,
When I think of the effort I'd have to expend.

Well, one of these days I'll get to it.
I'll relinquish my snug safety net.
I'll be radiant and trim,
Full of vigor and vim,
And I'll know what to say
Anytime—night or day.
Yes, the world will then see
A resplendent new me—
A me it will not soon forget!
BUT, please, NOT JUST YET.
^© 1991 Rebecca Holtzman. Used with permission.

Comment

In both the first and second A sections, Rebecca replaced a general category—sweets and exercise respectively—with a series of particular kinds. Introducing the partitio device in the first two verses establishes a style for the song. It's not required to impose “a series of parts” throughout subsequent verses. The writer, trusting her instinct to know when enough was enough, let go of the device to write a perhaps more fully realized, feeling song. You'll note that her two series of related ideas were kept consistently literal. Rebecca, a left-brain dominant (ST), is a writer for whom consistency and synecdoche come naturally.

Employing the Strategy

Now that you've seen some of the ways synecdoche can contribute to both the design and content of your lyrics, why not look over some works-in-progress to see if there's a spot where the substitution of a significant part for the whole—perhaps a brand name—would enliven a line. Consider too if there's a subject you've been wanting to tackle that would lend itself to a series of parts, especially if the theme suggests a lighthearted or playful attitude like “But Not Just Yet.”

Here's a student's inventive use of initialism—the device that Johnny Mercer employed to such effect in “G.I. Jive.”

Synecdoche: Example No. 2 (Verse/Chorus/Bridge)
LFS

Comment

A fresh and original lyric that sprang from the concept of initials. The writer, who obviously did some prewriting SJ-mode list-making, developed his plot by associating the title with other common three- and four-letter abbreviations. This lyric is also notable for its duet feature—another underutilized device we take up in Strategy No. 23.

WrapUp

I encourage you to get over whatever hesitancy you may be experiencing in pronouncing synecdoche and synecdochic. They're both easier than “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” and that was a hit! Repeat Se-NEK-doh-KEY and SYN-ek-DOCK-ic a few times so that they roll off your tongue as easily as metaphor and metaphoric. There's a Latin axiom nomen est numen—to name is to know. I add: To pronounce is to master. Now to metonym and symbol.