In cognitive linguistics, metonymy is seen as a fundamental cognitive process where one conceptual entity affords access to another closely related one. Cases of vertical polysemy have also often been treated as instances of metonymy (see e.g., Radden and Kövecses 1999). In vertical polysemy, a lexical form designates two or more senses that are in a relationship of categorical inclusion - e.g. dog 'canine', 'male canine'. In this paper I present an account of cases of vertical polysemy from the point of view of domain-based encyclopaedic semantics as described in Langacker (1987). I claim that the domain configurations which underlie the broader and narrower meanings of vertical polysemes differ significantly from those involved in cases of metonymy and hence vertical polysemy should not be treated as metonymic. (Anu Koskela)