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Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Quote of the Day
The winner is Phil Poulton, headteacher of Ludlow School, who told the Shropshire Star:
This is what we call a metonymical extension - where a word extends its meaning to something contiguous with its original meaning (and may or may not eventually abandon its original meaning) e.g. "glass" means both the substance and something such as a drinking vessel made of glass. In German the word Stunde has long meant both "hour" and "any limited period of time devoted to some specific activity". "Maths lesson" translates as Mathematikstunde. So I can foresee a day when a statement such as the one you quote would not be a joke.
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This is what we call a metonymical extension - where a word extends its meaning to something contiguous with its original meaning (and may or may not eventually abandon its original meaning) e.g. "glass" means both the substance and something such as a drinking vessel made of glass. In German the word Stunde has long meant both "hour" and "any limited period of time devoted to some specific activity". "Maths lesson" translates as Mathematikstunde. So I can foresee a day when a statement such as the one you quote would not be a joke.
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