|
| Trope of a different order |
fullofnothing - 2/6/2009 09:54 |
If you take Buffalo Wings on face value, what you have is more of a potential nonsense phrase rather than an oxymoron. Yes, the terms are incongruous in the widest sense of the word, but they are not contradictory or paradoxical. A true oxymoron has to have an ironic or paradoxical ring to it from one term to another. Buffalos don't have wings -- that's just a disconnect. Nothing deeper or more opposite or unexpected in conception or meaning of the word Buffalo happens when you place the word wings after it. If this were an oxymoron, then wood shoes and rubber chicken are also oxymorons.
What you have here is are a couple of of other things going on. To begin with, Buffalo can be seen to be a metonymy, wherein the word Buffalo is used in place of the entire phrase "city of Buffalo" or "buffalo NY,". The word wings may be a synecdoche, wherein the the word "wings," being a part of the chicken that contains the meat you're eating, is indicated for the whole chicken -- it's implied that one understands what is meant more specifically when using the word wings in this context to indicate the wings of certain bird cooked a certain way.
|
|
|
