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Article published In:
Review of Cognitive Linguistics
Vol. 13:1 (2015) ► pp.220–256

Cross-linguistic variation in metonymies for PERSON

A Chinese-English contrastive study

| Shanghai International Studies University & University of Leuven
| University of Leuven
| University of Leuven

This paper investigates metonymies for person in Chinese and English in the framework of Cognitive Linguistics with an emphasis on cross-linguistic variation. Our central goal is to highlight the important role of cultural elements on the use of metonymy. Three main types of cross-linguistic variation were found at different degrees of granularities of metonymies: variation in metonymic patterns for the general target category person, variation in metonymic patterns for a specific kind of person, and variation in metonymic sources in a specific pattern. The variation was examined against its cultural background, and we conclude that some cross-linguistic differences are to a large extent rooted in culturally relevant factors. The findings suggest that although bodily experience as the general cognitive basis for metonymic pattern/source selection implies the universality of metonymies across different languages, cultural elements contribute to the language-specific preferences for metonymies of a given target.

Keywords: Chinese-English, metonymy, embodiment, cultural influences, contrastive, person
Published online: 23 June 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.13.1.09zha
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