What do metonymic chains reveal about the nature of metonymy?
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Rita Brdar-Szabó
Abstract
The central issue that concerns us in this chapter is whether metonymy should be conceived as a mapping. The way metonymies function in authentic discourse indicates that we have two-way traffic. The initial conceptual substrate is designated by the source concept, but it is plastic and flexible enough to allow considerable customizing, often within complex metonymic networks. The inferences that steer the customizing are guided by the information based on text (i.e., cotext) and context (circumstances). It is argued that metonymy should best be approached as an inference-based domain elaboration (either expansion or reduction) of the metonymic source, in the course of which domains are tailored to an optimal conceptual measure with regard to their function.
Abstract
The central issue that concerns us in this chapter is whether metonymy should be conceived as a mapping. The way metonymies function in authentic discourse indicates that we have two-way traffic. The initial conceptual substrate is designated by the source concept, but it is plastic and flexible enough to allow considerable customizing, often within complex metonymic networks. The inferences that steer the customizing are guided by the information based on text (i.e., cotext) and context (circumstances). It is argued that metonymy should best be approached as an inference-based domain elaboration (either expansion or reduction) of the metonymic source, in the course of which domains are tailored to an optimal conceptual measure with regard to their function.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Introduction 1
- Reviewing the properties and prototype structure of metonymy 7
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Part I. Metonymy and related cognitive, semantic, and rhetorical phenomena
- Metonymization 61
- Zones, facets, and prototype-based metonymy 89
- Metonymy and cognitive operations 103
- Metonymy, category broadening and narrowing, and vertical polysemy 125
- Metonymy at the crossroads 147
- The role of metonymy in complex tropes 167
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Part II. Metonymy and metonymic chains as mappings or processes within domain matrices/networks
- Putting the notion of “domain” back into metonymy 197
- What do metonymic chains reveal about the nature of metonymy? 217
- Metonymic matrix domains and multiple formations in indirect speech acts 249
- Authors’ biodata 269
- Metaphor and metonymy index 275
- Name index 277
- Subject index 281
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Introduction 1
- Reviewing the properties and prototype structure of metonymy 7
-
Part I. Metonymy and related cognitive, semantic, and rhetorical phenomena
- Metonymization 61
- Zones, facets, and prototype-based metonymy 89
- Metonymy and cognitive operations 103
- Metonymy, category broadening and narrowing, and vertical polysemy 125
- Metonymy at the crossroads 147
- The role of metonymy in complex tropes 167
-
Part II. Metonymy and metonymic chains as mappings or processes within domain matrices/networks
- Putting the notion of “domain” back into metonymy 197
- What do metonymic chains reveal about the nature of metonymy? 217
- Metonymic matrix domains and multiple formations in indirect speech acts 249
- Authors’ biodata 269
- Metaphor and metonymy index 275
- Name index 277
- Subject index 281
