Daniel Chandler's Questions:
Chandler's notes on rhetorical tropes
Sign systems rely on metaphors and metonymy, comparisons between things. These range from the obvious, like the Absolut Vodka ads, to the subtle, like editing in film, which implies a relationship between things.
Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (as in drowning in money)
Metonymy: a figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated (as "crown" in "lands belonging to the crown")
Synecdoche: a figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole (as "fifty sail" for "fifty ships"), the whole for a part (as "society" for "high society"), the species for the genus (as "cutthroat" for "assassin"), the genus for the species (as a "creature" for a "man"), or the name of the material for the thing made (as "boards" for "stage").
This can be as simple as a close-up, where a part of a person (say, their hands) are supposed to represent the person. Indeed, most fiction is synecdoche, since it often tries to say something about a larger reality based on a specific case.
Irony: the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning.
In irony, there is a double sign. The literal statement draws its meaning from outside of it. So, if someone says "Oh, he's real cute", it is possible that the meaning is the opposite, and we know that from a cue, such as the context or situation, a visual cue such as a facial expression, or something else.
Examples: