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Article published In:
Lexical semantics towards the big-data era
Edited by Meichun Liu and Chunyu Kit
[Chinese Language and Discourse 14:1] 2023
► pp. 100–120

Meaning construal and meaning conventionalization of Chinese [X+body part] metonymic compounds from the perspective of cognitive pragmatics

| Peking University

It is common for “body part” nouns to refer to other concepts through metonymy operations in a specific context to produce new meanings in many languages. Some compound words formed by body part nouns as morphemes can also refer to other concepts through metonymy operations, and the degree of conventionalization varies. This study firstly defines the degrees of conventionalization of the target compound words–Chinese [X+body part] metonymic compounds, and divides them into three types: conventionalized, half-conventionalized, and inconventionalized. Then, from the perspective of cognitive pragmatics, this study uses an integrated analysis model of cognitive linguistics and Relevance Theory to analyze the meaning inferential process of metonymic compounds with different degrees of conventionalization. This study has found similarities and differences among them. The similarity is that both speakers and hearers need to achieve “optimal relevance” in the process and the difference is that the lower degree of conventionalization of the compound, the more complicated the meaning inferential process is. Lastly, on the basis of the inferential process, this study summarizes four factors that affect the conventionalization of metonymic compounds: time of word formation, salience of metonymy, clarity of word-forming motivation and contextual support, among which contextual support is the most crucial factor.

Keywords: meaning inference, “body part” nouns, conventionalization, metonymic compounds, relevance theory
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The integrated analysis model of cognitive linguistics and relevance theory
  • 3.Meaning inference of metonymic compounds based on relevance theory
    • 3.1Three types of metonymic compounds with different degrees of conventionalization
    • 3.2Inferential process for compounds of different conventionalization degrees
      • 3.2.1Inferential process of conventionalized compounds
      • 3.2.2Inferential process of half-conventionalized compounds
      • 3.2.3Inferential process of inconventionalized compounds
  • 4.Factors influencing the conventionalization of metonymic compounds
    • 4.1The time when the metonymic compounds are formed
    • 4.2Salience of metonymy
    • 4.3Clarity of word-forming motivations
    • 4.4Contextual support
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 31 May 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.21014.li
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