metonymy-TRY

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On May 23, 2007, at 9:04 AM, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:

> The example that I notice most frequently is TRY in the context of
> weather,
> e.g., (made-up example), "The storm is trying to push on further
> south, but we
> can't say at this time whether it will be successful or not."

i've always thought of this one as personification rather than metonymy.

and though TRY is frequent, other verbs (HOPE, INTEND, AIM,
PROPOSE,...) sound odd in this context, but are fine in the artistic-
creation context.

arnold

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