Chapter published in:
Changes in Meaning and Function: Studies in historical linguistics with a focus on Spanish
Edited by Jorge Fernández Jaén and Herminia Provencio Garrigós
[IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 25] 2020
► pp. 109–116

A note on the relative diachronic productivity of metaphor and metonymy

| University of Leuven
| University of Leuven
The assumption that the progress of culture is characterized by an increase in abstract thinking (in terms of the Vygotskyan model of cognitive development) suggests that the proportion of productive metaphor compared to metonymy increases over time. However, a large-scale investigation of metonymical and metaphoric shifts recorded in Buck’s dictionary of Indo-European synonyms does not support that suggestion.
Keywords: diachronic productivity, metaphor, metonymy, Indo-European, Vygotsky, synonymy
Published online: 02 April 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/ivitra.25.05gee
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