trope

T0377900 (trōp)n.1. A figure of speech using words in nonliteral ways, such as a metaphor.2. A word or phrase interpolated as an embellishment in the sung parts of certain medieval liturgies.

[Latin tropus, from Greek tropos, turn, figure of speech; see trep- in Indo-European roots.]

trop′i·cal (trō′pĭ-kəl) adj.

trope

(trəʊp) n1. (Rhetoric) rhetoric a word or expression used in a figurative sense2. (Music, other) an interpolation of words or music into the plainsong settings of the Roman Catholic liturgy[C16: from Latin tropus figurative use of a word, from Greek tropos style, turn; related to trepein to turn]

trope

(troʊp)

n. 1. a. any literary or rhetorical device, as metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony, that consists in the use of words in other than their literal sense. b. an instance of this. 2. a phrase, sentence, or verse formerly interpolated in a liturgical text to amplify or embellish. [1525–35; < Latin tropus figure in rhetoric < Greek trópos turn, turn or figure of speech, akin to trépein to turn]

-trope

a combining form meaning “one turned toward” that specified by the initial element (heliotrope); also occurring in concrete nouns that correspond to abstract nouns ending in -tropy or -tropism: allotrope. [< Greek -tropos; see trope, tropo-]

trope

- A figurative or metaphorical use of a word or phrase.See also related terms for metaphor.

Thesaurus

Noun

trope - language used in a figurative or nonliteral sensefigure of speech, image, figurecakewalk - an easy accomplishment; "winning the tournament was a cakewalk for him"; "invading Iraq won't be a cakewalk"blind alley - (figurative) a course of action that is unproductive and offers no hope of improvement; "all the clues led the police into blind alleys"; "so far every road that we've been down has turned out to be a blind alley"megahit, smash hit, blockbuster - an unusually successful hit with widespread popularity and huge sales (especially a movie or play or recording or novel)sleeper - an unexpected hit; "that movie was the sleeper of the summer"home run, bell ringer, bull's eye, mark - something that exactly succeeds in achieving its goal; "the new advertising campaign was a bell ringer"; "scored a bull's eye"; "hit the mark"; "the president's speech was a home run"housecleaning - (figurative) the act of reforming by the removal of unwanted personnel or practices or conditions; "more housecleaning is in store at other accounting firms"; "many employees were discharged in a general housecleaning by the new owners"goldbrick - anything that is supposed to be valuable but turns out to be worthlesslens - (metaphor) a channel through which something can be seen or understood; "the writer is the lens through which history can be seen"rhetorical device - a use of language that creates a literary effect (but often without regard for literal significance)conceit - an elaborate poetic image or a far-fetched comparison of very dissimilar thingsirony - a trope that involves incongruity between what is expected and what occursexaggeration, hyperbole - extravagant exaggerationkenning - conventional metaphoric name for something, used especially in Old English and Old Norse poetrymetaphor - a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similaritymetonymy - substituting the name of an attribute or feature for the name of the thing itself (as in `they counted heads')oxymoron - conjoining contradictory terms (as in `deafening silence')prosopopoeia, personification - representing an abstract quality or idea as a person or creaturesimile - a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with `like' or `as')synecdoche - substituting a more inclusive term for a less inclusive one or vice versazeugma - use of a word to govern two or more words though appropriate to only one; "`Mr. Pickwick took his hat and his leave' is an example of zeugma"domino effect - the consequence of one event setting off a chain of similar events (like a falling domino causing a whole row of upended dominos to fall)flip side - a different aspect of something (especially the opposite aspect); "the flip side of your positive qualities sometimes get out of control"; "on the flip side of partnerships he talked about their competition"period - the end or completion of something; "death put a period to his endeavors"; "a change soon put a period to my tranquility"summer - the period of finest development, happiness, or beauty; "the golden summer of his life"dawn - an opening time period; "it was the dawn of the Roman Empire"evening - a later concluding time period; "it was the evening of the Roman Empire"rainy day - a (future) time of financial need; "I am saving for a rainy day"

Translations

tropegebruikentroopvoorzien

trope

an interpolation of words or music into the plainsong settings of the Roman Catholic liturgy

Trope

(1) In stylistics and poetics, a word or word group used in a figurative rather than a literal sense. More narrowly, a trope may be defined as a way of transferring a word’s meaning in order to achieve an aesthetically expressive effect in literary, rhetorical, and publicist language, as well as in everyday, scientific, and scholarly language and in advertisements. The aesthetically expressive effect achieved by the trope is the result of the use of imagery, of the functional and stylistic aptness of the elements of a given work, and of the profundity of the writer’s depiction. The writer’s relationship to tropes varies during different epochs, among different genres, and even in different parts of a single work. An abundance or scarcity of tropes in a work does not in itself testify to the work’s literary merit. However, by determining the linguistic form of an expression, a trope always gives form to a work’s content.

Both tropes and figures (figures of speech) were analyzed in works of classical and medieval poetics and rhetoric. In these works, tropes were regarded as reinterpreted figures, alongside the traditional figures of augmentation (repetition and its variants), reduction (ellipsis), and transposition (inversion).

Tropes have two levels of meaning, one literal and one figurative, or allegorical. However, it is impossible to make a clear-cut distinction between tropes and figures, since augmentation of meaning is also typical of figures, which are intonational and syntactic variants of word combinations. Such tropes as metonymy, metaphor, personification, symbol, and (occasionally) synecdoche, catachresis, and paronomasia have constituted a common feature of the works of outstanding authors and are also typical of the historical development of a common national language.

The highly detailed medieval works on poetics listed more than 200 types of tropes and figures. Many of the names that designated these tropes and figures are still used in modern literary studies. It would be impossible to define conclusively each type of trope and figure; the same is true of synonyms and homonyms when these are used to designate tropes. For example, the meanings of the words and expressions “verbal image, ” “allegory, ” “trope, ” “figurative meaning, ” “metaphor, ” and “symbol” are insufficiently delimited. The distinctions made between the trope and the figure are inconsistent, and consequently the two terms are often used synonymously. However, it is extremely difficult to develop a consistent system of relationships among the highly varied types of transferred meaning in words.

The traditional approach to tropes, which adheres to the method of detailed classification, does not take into account the actual and potential interaction of tropes and figures in literary works. This approach classifies similes and epithets as figures and consequently cannot specify the resemblances and differences between the metaphor-simile “the ruddy fists of apples” (E. Bagritskii) and its possible variations. These include “apples like ruddy fists” (simile), “the apples became ruddy fists” (metamorphosis), “ruddy fists” (that is, the apples—a typical metaphor), and “apples, [those] ruddy fists” (metaphoric periphrasis). Moreover, certain linguistic innovations of 20th-century literature are best described as examples of word formation and not as previously unknown and unused types of tropes and figures; an example is the visual trope.

Another approach to tropes and figures, developed in the 1960’s, is associated with structural linguistics and semiotics. This approach seeks to establish general principles whose application will make it possible to describe any contextual transformation of a word’s sound, meaning, or syntactic position. The new approach attempts to define precisely the meaning of each trope and to provide a complete listing of tropes. It seeks to establish a syntactic system of tropes that will specify existing and possible combinations of tropes. The new approach to tropes and figures also aims to describe the types of words and syntactic positions that provide the foundation for tropes and their combinations; without such a description it is impossible to create a pragmatic system of tropes, that is, to define their content in terms of social and ideological value judgments.

A uniform description of the varied functions of tropes would facilitate progress from an empirical analysis of tropes to the construction of a modern theory of tropes and figures as literary devices. Such a uniform description would also make it possible to trace the history of the trope as a subsystem of poetic language. The semiotic approach to art, which is valuable if only for its establishment of a general framework encompassing all types of art, has broadened the significance and applicability of many previously arbitrary definitions of tropes. For example, the concepts of metaphor and metonymy have been applied to the field of motion pictures. The theory of tropes and figures in its philological aspect is thus becoming of great importance in art studies.

In aesthetics, the association of the trope with the writer’s world view within the context of literary language has been insufficiently studied. It is clear, however, that differing authorial world views may be revealed in the choice of tropes, in the preference accorded to some tropes, in the relative frequency of tropes in different works, and in the absence or paucity of tropes.

(2) In religious hymnody a trope, or troparion, is a verse interpolated into a liturgical song. The term also refers to a melody used to embellish psalms or chorales. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, tropes were used beginning in the fifth century; in the Catholic Church they were used beginning in the ninth century. Tropes were originally short verses that introduced melodic phrases; they later became lengthy melodic sequences, often in the form of a dialogue. These sequences were the source of the liturgical drama. Tropes were associated with popular songs and were a means of introducing elements of such songs into church music. In the mid-16th century, the Council of Trent prohibited the use of tropes in Catholic church services.

(3) In the theory of musical composition developed by the Austrian composer M. J. Hauer, a trope is a twelve-tone group divided into two sections of six notes each. According to Hauer, there are 44 tropes in all; each differs in terms of its intervallic structure. The trope is used in 20th-century twelve-tone musical composition.

REFERENCES

Antichnye teorii iazyka i stilia. Moscow-Leningrad, 1936.
Potebnia, A. A. “Iz zapisok po teorii slovesnosti.” In Estetika i poetika. Moscow, 1976.
Bally, C. Frantsuzskaia stilistika. Moscow, 1961. (Translated from French.)
Belyi, A. “Magiia slov.” In Simvolizm. Moscow, 1910.
Khlebnikov, V. Nasha osnova. In Sobr. proizv., vol. 5. Leningrad, 1933.
Jakobson, R. O. Noveishaia russkaia poeziia. Nabrosok pervyi: Viktor Khlebnikov. Prague,1921.
Jakobson, R. O. “Lingvistika i poetika.” In the collection Strukturalizm: “za” i “protiv.” Moscow, 1975. (Translated from English.)
Tomashevskii, B. V. Stilistika i stikhoslozhenie. Leningrad, 1959.
Kviatkovskii, A. P. Poeticheskiislovar’’. Moscow, 1966.
Gasparov, M. L. “Tsitseron i antichnaia ritorika.” In M. T. Cicero, Tri traktata ob oratorskom iskusstve. Moscow, 1972.
Poet i slovo: Opyt slovaria. Moscow, 1973.
Slovar’ literaturovedcheskikh terminov. Moscow, 1974.
Korol’kov, V. I. “K teorii figur.” In Sbornik nauchnykh trudov Mosk. gos. ped. in-ta inostr. iaz., fase. 78. Moscow, 1974.
Staiger, E. Grundbegriffe der Poetik, 8th ed. Zürich-Freiburg, 1968.
Style in Language. Edited by T. Sebeok. Cambridge, Mass., 1971.
Lausberg, H. Handbuch der literarischen Rhetorik, 2nd ed., vols. 1–2. Munich, 1973.
Uiriam, J. Rhetoric in Shakespeare’s Time. New York, 1962.
Todorov, T. “Tropes et figures.” In the collection To Honor R. Jakobson, vol. 3. The Hague, 1967.
Langages, 1968, no. 12.
Rhétorique générale. Paris, 1970.
Ihwe, J., ed. Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik, vols. 1–3. Frankfurt am Main, 1971–72.
Bonheim, H. “Bringing Classical Rhetoric Up-to-date.” Semiótica, 1975, vol. 13, no. 4.

V. P. GRIGOR’EV (tropes in stylistics and poetics)

trope

trope

trope

trope

-trope

trope

trope

trope

Trope

REFERENCES

TROPE

trope

Synonyms for trope

noun language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense

Synonyms

Related Words