For example, “Washington” (US), “Brussels” (EU), “Moscow” (Russia).
I guess it’s a short hand for writing “US government”, “Russian government”, etc. but why? And what happens when you’re referring to a country with multiple capitals like South Africa?
We do that in Arabic too. It’s called “badal”, a figure of speech where you replace “the whole” with “the part” to emphasize that part’s importance in the context; in this case that would be either where the government is located in the country or where the report originated from.
For example when Arabic news agencies want to refer to the USA’s government they say Washington or the white house. Since that’s usually where the news come from.
As mentioned using a metonym makes the article more engaging by avoiding repetition. But I want to point out that it is often not the Capital per se that is being referenced but the city parliament is seated in.
For instance, the Netherlands’ parliament is based out of The Hague, so it would be odd to reference to Amsterdam (the capital) when referencing it’s government as there is no clear link with that city. Similarly, you don’t often see London referenced in this regard, more likely Westminster, an area within London.
- “Westminster” specifically for Parliament.
- “Downing Street” for the prime minister and the cabinet.
- “Whitehall” for central government as a whole, ministries and departments.
ahh that makes sense
Yes, it’s metonymy, as people have said. You also get it in similar contexts where people will name a building such as ‘the White House’ or ‘[10] Downing Street’ to refer to the governments of the US or the UK.
Or specifically the parts of government that reside there. I see it especially used when there may be dissent in other parts of government.
Yes, very useful for subtle distinctions like this!
It’s Synecdoche, a figure of speech where a part of something is used to refer to the whole.
It’s a type of figure of speech, called a metonym.
South Africa has three capitals but they have different roles: Pretoria is the executive/administrative capital, and this branch of the government is run by the head of state. The other roles are the legislative (Cape Town) and judicial (Bloemfontein) capitals. I would assume depending on which branch of the government is delivering news they would use the appropriate capital, but it’s most likely to be Pretoria.
Feel free to correct me I am not an expert or South African.
Sources: Wiki Executive power
I think it just makes the article more engaging, less mechanical, more human. It places the article geographically rather than these things happening in an aloof intangible other place. Remember that the article has an audience both within, and outside, the borders of the country it’s describing.
For example, I live in the south west corner of Western Australia. Our political capital is Canberra, not far from Sydney, which must be at least 3,500 km from here. It may as well be several countries away. The landscape is different, the flora and fauna are different, the people are concerned with different things.
It’s quite common for people to refer to “Canberra” in lieu of “the government” to emphasize that geographic and cultural separation.
For example, like most countries I guess we have an app that you need to use to identify yourself to government websites. In the course of my work I often find myself helping people through the process of installing it and setting it up. It’s common enough for someone to complain “I guess this seemed like a good idea to someone in Canberra”, instead of saying “the government is out of touch if they thought everyone could do this”.
As regards South Africa, I didn’t know the branches of government had different capitals there. I guess you’d just refer to whichever one was responsible for the particular action you’re discussing? Or maybe you just wouldn’t use this phrase.
In general, I have seen mentioning the country after a city name quite often in American publications, and not only with capitals. Maybe this is because of the famous geographical knowledge of Americans?
The US has a huge number of cities named after cities/regions in other parts of the world, e.g.:
- Moscow, Idaho
- Ottawa, Illinois
- Brussels, Wisconsin
- Ontario, California
- Paris, Texas
- etc!
Adding the country or state designation after one of these names is helpful for clarity.
Side note, Paris, Texas is a pretty great movie.
Seconded, brilliant film.
who knows
it is a figure of English speech
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/synecdoche-metonymy-usage-differences
