Metonymy into metaphor

Were all metaphors originally metonomies? This is at least what some deconstructivists argue. Watergate was originally the name of a building, and was then used metonymically to refer to a political scandal which was associated with that building. Since then, part of the word, gate, has come to be used to refer to other scandals such as Irangate. In the future, gate might become completely dissociated from the building and from the original scandal and become a metaphor for scandal. (Schwarz, Daniel R.: James Joyce: The Dead. Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1994: 212-3)

 

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