Re: On the subject of idioms ...

Quoting João Ricardo de Mendonça <somnicorvus@...>:

> This reminds me of the kenningar (sg. kenning), fixed metaphors used
> in the ancient literature of Germanic languages. It may not be the
> term you're looking for, but may be worth a look anyway.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenning
I'm quite familiar with kenningar, thank you - being a Scandinavian with
interest in history tends to do that to you! :)

But kenningar, as you say, are metaphors. These Meghean constructions are not.

                                                  Andreas

> João Ricardo de Mendonça
>
>
>
> On 11/14/05, Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> wrote:
> > In Meghean it's considered nifty and sophisticated to refer to abstract
> concepts
> > by mentioning two related concrete things instead. So, one might say
> _conich oa
> > teoa_ "spear and fire" for "war", or _inde oa mañha_ "coin and ship" for
> trade.
> >
> > Is there a name for this sort of idiom? It's a case of pars pro toto
> (partes pro
> > toto?), but is there something more specific?
> >
> >                                                 Andreas
> >
>

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