Explanation
Trope is a rhetorical umbrella term for figures of meaning in which an expression is used not solely in its ordinary or expected sense but shifted into a transferred relation. Classical taxonomies include metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, or irony, although their scope and classification vary. A trope is therefore not one conceptual movement but a family of operations: similarity, contiguity, part-whole relation, or pragmatic reversal can reorganise meaning. Transferred use need not be merely ornamental; it can shape perception, categories, and argument. The boundary with conventional vocabulary is fluid because formerly conspicuous transfers may become lexically ordinary. The conceptual movement leads from an expected sense through relational displacement to a new meaning recoverable in context.
Movement of thought
1. An expression first activates a conventional semantic domain and an expectation about its ordinary use. 2. Context blocks or exceeds a purely ordinary reading and activates a relation to another domain. 3. Hearers infer the kind of shift, such as similarity, contiguity, part relation, or ironic stance. 4. A counter-test asks whether transfer is active or whether the case is polysemy, technical meaning, error, or literal use. 5. The expression returns with altered meaning and may newly organise, evaluate, or render the target domain perceptible.
Scientific use case
Rhetoric, semantics, pragmatics, and cognitive linguistics compare trope taxonomies, contextual inference, and conventionalisation. Analysis should name the specific relation rather than collect every non-literal use under a vague label.
Example
In “The city is still asleep,” a human state is transferred to an urban space. The trope organises low activity as bodily rest and changes how the morning is perceived.
Counterexample
The word “mouse” denotes the established input device in a computer manual. Although historically metaphorically motivated, this sense is synchronically lexicalised and need not function as an active trope in context.
Distinction
Distinguish trope from figure as a wider category, literal meaning, polysemy, idiom, mere error, and allegory. Identify source sense, target sense, relation, and degree of conventionalisation in each case.
Effect on thought and perception
Tropes extend naming, condense evaluation, and create new perspectives. Their familiarity may conceal how transferred categories foreground some aspects while suppressing others.
Resonance
A word leaves its familiar place and touches another domain. In that displacement, a connection arises that briefly makes both semantic spaces sound anew.
Cite this entry
Reich, Michael (Hrsg./ed.): „Trope“. Atlas der Sprache, AT-METZ5-0007. ATLAS 260, data model 1.6.0. https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-METZ5-0007The address remains stable; editorial content may evolve. Editorial reading state: 2026-10-15. Include your access date for precise references.
Historical background
Smith's 1665 handbook distinguishes meaning-changing tropes from figures involving the arrangement of words. His four principal species are metonymy, irony, metaphor and synecdoche, with further categories treated as their qualities or as less strictly named tropes. This organization witnesses one early modern teaching system rather than a universal consensus or the first occurrence of the German lemma Trope.
How conceptual history changes the analysis
Classification must remain tied to the particular historical teaching system.
References for the historical section
- John Smith, The Mysterie of Rhetorique Unveild, London: E. Cotes for George Eversden, 1665; EEBO-TCP A59234 transcription · Pre-ambular classification of tropes, printed pp. 1–3
Selected historical witness, not a complete genealogy or a first English attestation. Atlas comparisons and applications are original editorial interpretations. TCP transcription of the 1665 edition; unreadable Greek and transcription gaps remain. Smith’s religious and normative judgments are attributed, not adopted.