what figure of speech is this?

[wayneb]

What are the names for these figures of speech:
1. Where a described individual stands for a group or class. For example, the soccer mom, the taxpayer, the voter, the liberated woman, etc.?
2. Where a series of individuals holds the same office over many years, as for example, the president, the king, the pope.

I am sure that such terms exist, but I have searched for them in vain.
Wayneb

[JCrawf]

Originally Posted by wayneb

What are the names for these figures of speech:
1. Where a described individual stands for a group or class. For example, the soccer mom, the taxpayer, the voter, the liberated woman, etc.?
2. Where a series of individuals holds the same office over many years, as for example, the president, the king, the pope.

I am sure that such terms exist, but I have searched for them in vain.
Wayneb

Hello, Wayneb,
How about "poster child" or "generic" for number 1? She is the poster child for liberated women. Alice is a generic soccer mom.

I don't understand number 2. Are you looking for a name for the people who hold an established office?

Regards

[wayneb]

Originally Posted by JCrawf

Hello, Wayneb,
How about "poster child" or "generic" for number 1? She is the poster child for liberated women. Alice is a generic soccer mom.

I don't understand number 2. Are you looking for a name for the people who hold an established office?

Regards

I guess I didn’t make myself clear. I’m looking for a figure of speech, such as metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, simile, personification......... However, none of these describes the relationship for either #1 or #2. Examples of these in a sentence:
Example #1. All of the political attack ads are likely to confuse the voter.
Here "the voter" stands for any one of a large group of people–or it can be taken to represent all of them.
Example #2. In many cultures, the king had the power of life or death over his subjects.
Here "the king" stands for anyone who held that office over the years.
Neither of the above examples is metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, but they can be described by words that are similar rhetorical terms......
What are they???