While cognitive linguists are essentially in agreement on both the conceptual nature and the fundamental importance of metonymy, there remain disagreements on a number of specific but, nevertheless, crucial issues. Research questions include: Is metonymy a relationship between entities or domains? Is it necessarily referential? What is meant by the claim that metonymy is a stand-for relationship? Can metonymy be considered a mapping? How can it be distinguished from active zones or facets? Is it a prototype category? The ten contributions of the present volume address such core issues on the basis of the latest research results. The volume is unique in being devoted exclusively to the delimitation of the notion of metonymy without ignoring points of divergence among the various contributors, thus paving the way towards a consensual conception of metonymy.
Author(s): Réka Benczes (Editor); Antonio Barcelona (Editor); Francisco José Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez (Editor)
Series: Human Cognitive Processing
Publisher: John Benjamins
Year: 2011
Language: English
Pages: 284
Defining Metonymy in Cognitive Linguistics
Editorial page
Title page
LCC data
Table of contents
List of contributors
Introduction
1. Background
2. Aim and structure of the volume
References
Reviewing the properties and prototype structure of metonymy
1. Introduction
2. Problematic properties affecting the standard cognitive-linguistic notion of metonymy
2.1 “Entities” or “domains”?
2.2 Is metonymy necessarily connected to an act of reference?
2.3 What is meant by saying that metonymy is a “stand-for” relationship?
2.4 Mapping, “domain highlighting”, activation, and directionality in metonymy
2.5 whole for part metonymies, degrees in metonymicity and prototype-based vs. unitary definitions of metonymy
2.6 Metonymic and non-metonymic “reference point phenomena”
2.7 Is there any difference between metonymy and such phenomena as “contextual modulation”, “facets”, and active-zone / profile discrepancy?
2.8 The conventionalization of metonymy
3. Problematic properties affecting the standard criteria in the distinction between metaphor and metonymy
3.1 Problems derived from the notion of “domain”
3.2 A linguistic expression may sometimes be interpreted, on the basis of context, background knowledge or the interpreter’s choice, as metaphorical, metonymic, or as a combination of both
3.3 Interaction of metaphor and metonymy
4. Summary and conclusions. Revised general definitions of metonymy and metaphor
4.1 Revised definitions of schematic metonymy and of metaphor
References
Part I. Metonymy and related cognitive, semantic, and rhetorical phenomena
Metonymization: A key mechanism in semantic change
1. Introduction
2. Lexical Meaning as Ontologies and Construals (LOC)
3. Metonymization and zone activation
4. Metonymization and change
5. From contentful to contentful meanings
6. From contentful to configurational meanings
7. Conclusion
References
Zones, facets, and prototype-based metonymy
1. Introduction
2. Dogs and cigarettes
3. Kettles and telephones
4. Books and trumpets
4.1 Pragmatics
4.2 Syntax
4.3 Semantics
5. Conclusions
References
Metonymy and cognitive operations
1. Introduction
2. Types of cognitive operation
2.1 Formal operations
2.2 Content operations
3. Conclusion
References
Metonymy, category broadening and narrowing, and vertical polysemy
1. Introduction
2. Vertical polysemy
3. Metonymy
4. Metonymy and vertical polysemy in encyclopedic semantics
4.1 Metonymy in encyclopedic semantics
4.2 Vertical relations in encyclopedic semantics
5. Vertical polysemy and metonymy: Discussion
6. Conclusion
References
Metonymy at the crossroads: A case of euphemisms and dysphemisms
1. Introduction
2. Metonymy in euphemisms and dysphemisms
3. Case studies
3.1 The euphemism body count
3.2 The dysphemism chickenhawk
4. A glance at conceptual and linguistic borrowing
5. Conclusion
References
The role of metonymy in complex tropes: Cognitive operations and pragmatic implications
1. Introduction
2. icms and tropes
3. The role of metonymy in complex tropes
3.1 Irony
3.1 Irony
3.2 Oxymoron
3.3 Overstatement
3.4 Understatement
3.5 Euphemism and dysphemism
4. Conclusion
References
Part II. Metonymy and metonymic chains as mappings or processes within domain matrices/networks
Putting the notion of “domain” back into metonymy: Evidence from compounds
1. The single domain-based approach to metonymy
What do metonymic chains reveal about the nature of metonymy?
2. Why domains are indeed necessary:Evidence from noun–noun compounds
3. Metonymy as a domain network of conceptual relationships
4. Contiguity or association?
5. Domains: Tentative evidence from psycholinguistics
6. Conclusion
References
Metonymic matrix domains and multiple formations in indirect speech acts
1. Introduction
2. Ruiz de Mendoza’s double metonymy
3. Matrix domains and multiple formations
3.1 Matrix domains with one source and various possible target domains
3.2 Matrix domain with various sources and one target
4. Conclusion
References
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Authors’ biodata
Metaphor and metonymy index
Name index
Subject index
