metonymy-TRY

Mark A. Mandel mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU
Fri May 25 18:54:11 UTC 2007


James C Stalker <stalker at MSU.EDU> said:
>>>

Another aspect of weather report speak I've noticed, at least on The
Weather Channel, is the "identification with listener" ploy.  "Here in
Topeka/Madison/New York/Miami/Bend/wherever, we are experiencing heavy
rains, dense fog."  However, the reporter is in Atlanta, and we viewers know
that.
 <<<

I think of that kind of line as being uttered while pointing to, zooming in
on, or otherwise indexing Topeka/.../wherever on the map: "here" meaning not
'where I am now' but 'in the place I am referencing', and so not any kind of
ploy at all.

Or do you see them actually speaking as if they were in that place?

m a m

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