Boil the kettle! literary device

[atabitaraf]

1. As a literary device can I say 'Please boil the kettle!' instead of 'Please boil the water in the kettle!'?

2. What is the name of this literary device in literature?

 

[emsr2d2]

1. As a literary device can I say 'Please boil the kettle!' instead of 'Please boil the water in the kettle!'?

2. What is the name of this literary device in literature?

I don't know why you want it to be a "literary device". In the UK, we always say "to boil the kettle" - it's idiomatic (even though of course most of us recognise that we are not actually putting the kettle into water and heating it up!)

 

[atabitaraf]

I don't know why you want it to be a "literary device". In the UK, we always say "to boil the kettle" - it's idiomatic (even though of course most of us recognise that we are not actually putting the kettle into water and heating it up!)

Actually it was because of the literary device we have in Farsi, upon it you can use the container instead of the content and sometimes the content instead of the container. For example instead of 'Please boil the water' you say 'Please boil the kettle.' In Farsi literature it is considered to be a literary device.

 

[MikeNewYork]

1. As a literary device can I say 'Please boil the kettle!' instead of 'Please boil the water in the kettle!'?

2. What is the name of this literary device in literature?

We also say "Fire up the grill" when barbecuing, even though it is charcoal or gas being burned. I don't know if there is a name for this, but if you have the time, you can check here: Glossary of rhetorical terms - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[probus]

Is "put the kettle on" the usual phrase in England, as opposed to "boil the kettle", or am I deluded or ancient?

 

[Rover_KE]

Is "put the kettle on" the usual phrase in England, as opposed to "boil the kettle"?

It certainly is, in my experience, though as most people now have electric kettles, 'Switch the kettle on' comes close.

Rover

 

[emsr2d2]

I use "Boil the kettle" and "Put the kettle on" interchangeably. I rarely use "Switch the kettle on" but I have no good reason why not!

 

[atabitaraf]

Maybe I should have written a more usual example. However would you please give me the name of this literary device if there is any? With some good examples.

 

[JMurray]

not a teacher

"boil the kettle"

I don't think it is a literary device, in English it's simply a common way of describing a common action.

 

[SoothingDave]

We also say "Fire up the grill" when barbecuing, even though it is charcoal or gas being burned. I don't know if there is a name for this, but if you have the time, you can check here: Glossary of rhetorical terms - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Well, if you consider the "grill" to be the entire device, you are not firing it up. But if the "grill" is the grate upon which the food is to be cooked, then it is indeed being "fired." Fire is being applied to heat up the grill.

 

[Raymott]

It could be a type of metonymy - referring to something (water) by using a word for something closely related (kettle).

Speaking of grills, it seems the phrase "light the fire" is not correct either, because if there was a fire there to be lit, it wouldn't need lighting. I'm sure there are numerous phrases like this that could be quibbled over.