Publications

Publication details [#4105]

Díez Velasco, Olga Isabel. 2002. Body part metonymies in action and perception frames: A cognitive analysis. British and American Studies 18 : 309–323. 15 pp.

Abstract

This paper offers a study of body part metonymies exploiting the action and perception frames in English. With respect to the action frame, the author discusses the role of the high-level metonymies ACTION FOR PROCESS and INSTRUMENT FOR AGENT, as postulated by Ruiz de Mendoza and Pérez (2001). Then, she proposes the high-level metonymy PERCEPTION FOR EXPERIENTIAL EVENT, which accounts for cases in which the experiencer is not overtly expressed (e.g. Her chest felt as if frantic hands were hammering it). This last metonymy is studied in terms of three different realization patterns. In this connection, the author argues that the metonymic mapping motivates the syntactic operation whereby the affected entities are raised to the syntactically most prominent place in the clause, i.e. the subject position. Thus, the study is ultimately intended to give evidence that the high-level metonymies under scrutiny are relevant for linguistic description and explanation not only at the conceptual but also at the grammatical level. (Noelia Jiménez Martínez-Losa and Francisco Ruiz de Mendoza)