Article published In:
Cognitive Linguistic StudiesVol. 6:2 (2019) ► pp.247–270
Cognitive principles underlying predicational metonymy
Metonymic preference of aspect of predicates in Japanese intermediary causative constructions
Metonymy of a predicate, in which the source event implies the target event, is called predicational
metonymy. This paper focused on a Japanese productive predicational metonymy, action for causation, and
described its linguistic preference in terms of aspectual construal based on a corpus-driven quantitative investigation. The
results revealed that an event that is bounded and durative is preferred as the metonymic vehicle in action for causation
metonymy. The two cognitive principles, bounded over unbounded and durative over punctual, were proposed to
explain the linguistic preference. It was suggested that the two principles can be subsumed under the fundamental cognitive
principle of good Gestalt over poor Gestalt, and that this general principle governs metonymic
preference of both predicates and nominal phrases.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Methodology
- 2.1Phenomenon
- 2.2Identification
- 2.3Data
- 2.4Framework of analysis
- 3.Results
- 4.Discussion
- 4.1The principle of boundedness
- 4.2The principle of duration
- 4.3The Gestalt principle
- 5.Conclusion
- Notes
-
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