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Part of
Figurative Thought and Language in Action
Edited by Mario Brdar and Rita Brdar-Szabó
[Figurative Thought and Language 16] 2022
► pp. 37–58

A Cognitive Grammar approach to ‘metonymy’

This chapter builds on Broccias’s (2017) critique of recent cognitive linguistic approaches to metonymy, which tend to neglect form and the substitutive relation built into the traditional x for y formula. By bringing back to the fore the tropical characterization of metonymy (Matzner 2016), which instead relies heavily on form and abrasiveness, this chapter develops a Cognitive Grammar approach to metonymy which rests on the reference point ability and conceptual integration. It shows how this approach can handle a variety of cases, from ‘straightforward’ metonymies to ‘metonymic association’. Crucially, it is argued that the multifaceted examples taken into consideration do not necessarily cohere into a ‘Platonic’ category.

Keywords: metonymy, reference point ability, conceptual integration, active zones, facets, conversion
Article outline
  • 1.The cognitive approach to metonymy
  • 2.The tropical approach to metonymy
    • 2.1Index metonymy
    • 2.2Amplification metonymy
    • 2.3Metonymic association
    • 2.4Interim summary
  • 3.A Cognitive Grammar approach to metonymy
    • 3.1The reference-point ability
    • 3.2‘Straightforward’ metonymy in CG
    • 3.3Active zones and part-whole relations
    • 3.4Facets
  • 4.Less ‘straightforward’ examples of metonymy in CG
    • 4.1Amplification metonymy
    • 4.2Noun-to-verb conversion
    • 4.3Metonymic association
    • 4.4Sound metonymies?
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 28 July 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.16.02bro
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Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Brdar-Szabó, Rita & Mario Brdar
2022. Metonymy in multimodal discourse, or. In Figurativity and Human Ecology [Figurative Thought and Language, 17], ► pp. 209 ff. DOI logo
Paradis, Carita
2023. Cognitive Grammar. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

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