JOSIP JURAJ STROSSMAYER UNIVERSITY, OSIJEK • FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
How metonymy and grammar interact:
Effects and constraints in the
cross-linguistic perspective
Mario Brdar
Josip Juraj Strossmayer University
Osijek
Rita Brdar-Szabó
ELTE
Budapest
JOSIP JURAJ STROSSMAYER UNIVERSITY, OSIJEK • FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
1. Introduction
• there are two opposed views on the role of metonymy in
grammar in contemporary linguistics
• on the one hand, there is the view that metonymic shifts
primarily affect the lexical meaning
• in other words, what gets shifted is the meaning of individual
words, most commonly of nouns
• consequently, one may expect that metonymy plays hardly
any significant role outside the lexicon, and is thus largely
irrelevant to grammar
• it has actually often been explicitly noted that, unlike
metaphor, metonymy has hardly any impact on grammar (cf.
Nunberg 1979, 1995, Copestake & Briscoe 1995)
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• the point of view that, metaphor and metonymy play very
different roles in the organization of the grammatical
component, although they are both recognized in cognitive
linguistics as basic processes, is tacitly held even by many
linguists working within the cognitive framework
• metaphorical shifts are extensively assumed to have taken
place in almost all areas of grammar, making it possible to
account for scores of phenomena in an intuitively appealing
way, but the role of metonymy is still underestimated
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•Waltereit,
thereR.is,
however,
growing
body of inliterature
that
(1998).
Metonymie a
undrapidly
Grammatik.
Kontiguitätsphänomene
der französischen
Satzsemantik.
Tübingen:shows
Max Niemeyer..
convincingly
that metonymic processes are crucially
Panther, Klaus-Uwe & Linda Thornburg. 1999. The potentiality for actuality metonymy in English and
involved
inPanther
shaping
a number
of central
areas
of grammar
Hungarian.
In K.-U.
& G. Radden,
eds., Metonymy
in Language
and Thought,
333-357.
Amsterdam
- Philadelphia:
John Benjamins.
• cf. Waltereit
1999,
Panther and Thornburg 1999, 2000,, as
Panther, Klaus-Uwe & Linda Thornburg. 2000. The EFFECT FOR CAUSE metonymy in English grammar. In
as ed.,
works
byand
Ruiz
de Mendoza
and
his collaborators
A. well
Barcelona,
Metaphor
Metonymy
at the Crossroads.
A Cognitive
Perspective, 215-231. Berlin
- New
York: de
Mouton
de Gruyter. 1999, Ruiz de Mendoza and Peña Cervel
(Ruiz
Mendoza
Panther, Klaus-Uwe & Linda Thornburg. 1999. The potentiality for actuality metonymy in English and
2002,InRuiz
de Mendoza
andMetonymy
Pérezin Hernández
2001),
Hungarian.
K.-U. Panther
& G. Radden, eds.,
Language and Thought
[Human Cognitive
Processing
4], 333-357.
Amsterdam
John Benjamins.
Barcelona
(2004),
as- Philadelphia:
well as Dirven
and Radden (2007)
Panther, Klaus-Uwe & Linda Thornburg. 2000. The EFFECT FOR CAUSE metonymy in English grammar. In
A. Barcelona, ed., Metaphor and Metonymy at the Crossroads. A Cognitive Perspective , 215-231. Berlin
- New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, Francisco José. 1999. Introducción a la teoría cognitiva de la metonimia. [Serie
Granada Lingvistica]. Granada: Método Editiones.
Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, Francisco José & Sandra Peña Cervel. 2002. Cognitive operations and
projection processes. Jezikoslovlje 3(1-2): 131-158.
Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, Francisco José & Lorena Pérez Hernández. 2001. Metonymymy and the
grammar: motivation, constraints and interaction. Language and Communication 21: 321-357.
Barcelona, A. (2004). Metonymy behind grammar: The motivation of the seemingly "irregular"
grammatical behavior of English paragon names. In G. Radden & K.-U. Panther (Eds.), Studies in
Linguistic Motivation (pp. 321-355.). Berlin - New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Radden, G, R. Dirven. 2007. Cognitive English Grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins
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• we note of course Langacker’s claim (2009: 46) that:
Grammar, in other words, is basically metonymic, in the sense that the
information explicitly provided by conventional means does not itself
establish the precise connections apprehended by the speaker and hearer
in using an expression.
• it is obvious that we must be aware that when talking about
the nature of grammar, what Langacker has in mind is the
wide sense of metonymy as a property characterizing
grammar in general.(metonymic processing of language,
Gibbs 1999)
Langacker, R. W. (2009). Metonymic grammar. In K.-U. Panther, L. L. Thornburg &
A. Barcelona (Eds.), Metonymy and Metaphor in Grammar (pp. 45-71).
Amsterdam - Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
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• nevertheless, if we take metonymy in its more narrow sense
(the view that is prevalent in the contemporary cognitive
linguistic research),a whole series of metynmic effects in
grammar may be discovered
• It appears that the impact of metonymy on grammar is most
conspicuous against the background of functional effects that
metonymic mappings produce in the grammatical system
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• in other words, metonymy makes it possible to express
certain grammatical distinctions without any explicit marking
on the lexical items functioning as the metonymic vehicle, but
the grammatical, i.e. morphosyntactic, effects of this may be
observable in a wider context, e.g. in the presence or
absence of the indefinite article and/or plural marker:
(1) We raise our own pork, beef and lamb but haven't tried
chicken yet.
(2) It’s not often our ears will prick up at the sound of a new
beer being launched.
(3) Crack open an Achel and I will make my decision then on
the Saaz or more Styrian goldings.
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• this simplified way of looking at things might imply that the
relationship between metonymy and grammar is one-way
traffic, grammar being infinitely plastic and therefore easily
formed by metonymic processes
• we aim to demonstrate in this presentation that things are
more complex than that and that their interaction practically
always involves some two-way traffic
• we demonstrate that:
i. whether a certain type of metonymy is available in a given
area in a given language is dependent on the ecological
conditions present in the system (as envisaged in a usagebased model)
ii. metonymy and certain grammatical devices may also be
in a sort of complementary distribution
8
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• in other words, grammar may constrain the application of a
metonymy (which might be otherwise considered to be nearuniversal), so that the metonymy in question is underused or
even downright unavailable in a given language
• we demonstrate this by applying a cross-linguistic perspective
in studying grammatical effects of metonymy in just two micro
case studies
• 2.1. metonymy-based collective readings and anti-associative
plurals,
• 2.2. complex metonymies
• needless, to say, these micro case studies can be easily
extended to show that the observed distributions are not
random but fairly systematic, and that they therefore prove
our main point
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2.1. Metonymy-based collective readings and antiassociative plurals
• some types of metonymies, particularly those of the active
zone and facetization type are so common that they are
virtually inconspicuous, and this also explains why they are
also frequently so inconspicuous in a cross-linguistic
situation
• in the following example the noun boat is metonymically
understood as referrring to its crew, more specifically, we get
a collective reading:
(4) But after forty days without a fish the boy’s parents had
told him that the old man was now definitely and finally
salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had
gone at their orders in another boat which caught three
good fish the first week.
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• this collective reading based on metonymy is found in
language after language (cf. German (5) and Hungarian (6)):
(5) … was die schlimmste Form von Pechhaben ist,
which DEF worst
form of
bad luck
is
und der Junge war auf ihr Geheiß in einem andern
and DEF boy
was on their order
in another
Boot mitgefahren, das in der ersten Woche drei
boat ridden
which in DEF first
week three
gute Fische gefangen hatte.
good fish
caught
had
(6) … úgyhogy a
fiú parancsukra
ettől fogva
so that DEF boy order-POSS-3PL-on from-then-om
egy másik hajóval ment halászni, és fogtak
one other boat-with went fishing and caught-3PL
is mindjárt
az első héten
három nagy halat.
too immediately DEF first week-on hree big fish-ACC
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• note that this collective reading based on metonymy obtains
without any formal change visible on the non-personal noun,
i.e. the noun is in the singular
• however, although this type of shift might be wide-spread it
does not work in all languages
• there is at least one language in which a singular nonpersonal noun cannot get such an interpretation, rather a
comparable effect is found with the non-personal noun
marked as a plural
12
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• discussing special uses of plural forms of nouns, Corbett
(2000: 241), notes an unusual form in West Greenlandic or
Kalaallisut (a member of Eskimo-Aleut family):
Corbett, G. 2000. Number. Cambridge: Cambridge
(7) umiarsuit
University Press
ship.PL
‘a ship plus its crew’ or ‘ship’
• similarly:
(8) siikilit (lit. bicycles)
‘bicycle plus rider’ or ‘bicycles’
• it appears that this ambiguity applies to all means of transport
in West Greenlandic and other Eskimo languages
13
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• in order to distinguish this phenomenon from the more widespread associative plural, which typically involves human
referents as both the focal member and the associates, and
may have a dedicated nominal affix used specifically for
associative plurals (as a matter of fact, available in West
Greenlandic: -kkut ‘and family/companions’ (as in palasi-kkut
‘the priest and his family’), Corbett terms forms like (7-8) antiassociative plural
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• so what is going on here?
• it seems at first sight that a metonymy is operative in Eskimo
languages here, and that it is marked/triggered/facilitated by a
grammatical marker
• in other words, grammar can be said to make a metonymy
possible
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• however, there are several puzzling, or at least interesting,
elements in this story that do not quite square with each other
• 1. metonymic vehicles are typically formally identical
regardless of whether they are used literally or metonymically,
here the noun is nevertheless pluralized
• 2. it is odd that the metonymic reading is coupled with
anti-associative plural, not with the default associative plural
(expressed by a dedicated affix)
• 3. we do not get the plural variant of the metonymic/antiassociative reading (something like ‘the boats and their
crews’)
• 4. the phenomeon seems to be tied to a lexically defined set
of nouns (i.e. means of transport)
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• taking a closer look at this lexical set we realize how the
phenomenon arose
• Corbett notes that Fortescue suggests the origin for this use
is to be found with the word for sledge, but neither of them
elaborates on this
• following Fortescueʼs lead, we checked in his1980 grammar:
(9) qamutit ataatsi-t
sledge one-PL.
‘one sledge'
• Fortescue’s comment on this is (1980: 247):
Observe too the possibility of the plural form of ataasiq 'one' with
nominal stems indicating single objects that are grammatically plural
(mostly names of vehicles)
• apparently, qamutit can be followed by ataatsit to get a single
object meaning
17
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• in effect, this noun behaves like a whole series of English
nouns that are morphologically invariable in that they always
appear in the plural, such as pliers, tongs, trousers, pincers,
scissors, etc.
• these can also be singularized by expressions such as a pair
of
• most of these consist of two, more or less identical, parts that
are joined and used together
• the most salient parts of sledge, of course, are two runners
• other nouns denoting means of transport in West
Greenlandic exhibit both singulars and plurals (regardless of
whether they have two salient parts or not), but qamutit
apparently appears only in this form, and must be followed
by a singularizing expression in case of reference to a
singular vehicle
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• we assume that a metonymic shift occurred here, extending
the reference of the noun so as to include its
rider/passengers in addition to the vehicle itself, as has
happened in many other cases in other languages with
nouns in the singular (cf. They shot two planes ‘machines
and the pilots’, or They destroyed five enemy tanks
‘destroyed the machines and killed their espective crews)
• the suit was followed by other nouns which could have both
singular and plural forms, i.e. we witness an analogical
development in West Greenlandic
• if our analysis is correct, the role of grammar in the rise of
metonymy, and the interplay of the two is slightly different
from what we have assumed above
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• it may be pure coincidence or not that qamutit is both (antiassociative) plural and that it exhibits a meaning which is
apparently the result of a metonymic extension
• we are inclined to think that it is nevertheless very important,
and that it had a crucial role in further developments
• 1. once the plural affix on this noun was associated with the
metonymic anti-associative meaning, it pre-empted or
blocked a comparable development in other singular nouns
in the set or outside the set (in contradistinction to English,
German, Hungarian, etc.)
• 2. it blocked the development of plural "anti-associative”
meanings (possible in English, German and Hungarian (cf.
boats – crews of boats)
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• in sum, we have seen that the presence of a grammatical
feature, or its marker, may facilitate the application of a
conceptual metonymy to one member of a wider inflectional
paradigm,but block its application to the other member
• this caused analogical changes (singular→ plural) making
the nouns in question suitable as metonymic vehicles
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• there appears to be a cross-linguistic evidence that collective
and plural forms of nouns, either variable or invariable ones,
tend to undergo semantic enrichment or shifts that are based
on conceptual metonymies producing effects similar to antiassociative plurals, joining two ontological disparate but
contiguous concepts
• let us demonstrate this briefly on some examples
• as demonstrated in Brdar (2009) and Brdar & Szabó (2014) a
group of trees (cove, grove or woods) denoted by the
collective suffix serves as a natural source concept that is
metonymically expanded (PART FOR WHOLE) into a unit
consisting of the tree group and the plot of land underneath it
• the metonymic goal is a complex concept including the plot
of land and trees
• such a metonymic shift is amply supported by synchronic
and diachronic data from a wide variety of languages
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• a comparable phenomenon in English is described in Brdar
(2009: 75): the noun wood as well as names of most trees can
be used metonymically in the plural
• the metonymic mapping of the type PART-FOR-WHOLE takes
place again between a plant, or more properly speaking a
number of instances of a plant, as the metonymic source and
an area covered by these plants:
(10) a. The switch back in the oaks below Highlands Ridge
has apparently burned.
b. Annoying gnats were still present in part of the trail,
especially near Dorr Canyon in the oaks.
c. The historic log Pioneer Cabins are nestled in the
pines.
e. “Alice respected the dignity and spirituality of being in
the redwoods and felt this grove should be
preserved.”
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4.3. Some complex metonymies
• it has been noted that multiple conceptual shifts are possible,
breaking up “complex conceptual mappings into simple, wellmotivated mappings with a strong experiential basis” (Hilpert
2007: 80)
• these are cases of metonymic operations stacked onto each
other, producing double or even triple metonymies (Ruiz de
Mendoza and Mairal 2007)
• such metonymic chains were referred to as multi-level
metonymies (cf. Barcelona 2007), or as metonymic tiers in
Brdar and Brdar-Szabó (2007)
• such complex metonymies may be in actual fact much more
common than is usually supposed:
(11) The first violin has the flu.
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• a sentence like (12) is a clear example of the expression in
question referring to the musician (note the feminine personal
pronoun as anaphor):
(12) ... and then a moment later I realized that the first violin
was playing it with an intensity that had her practically
flying out of her chair.
• the expression “the first violin” could also be used to refer to
the section of the orchestra
• the same expression could in (13), be construed as referring
to something more abstract, viz. the function or the role of the
instrument in the orchestra:
(13) Of course, I adore playing the first violin again,
particularly live, but I…
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• similarly, black belt in (14) below qualifies as a double-tiered
metonymy here because we first have an object which in
karate or judo stands metonymically for a certain level of
expertise and skill in these martial arts
• on top of this first tier, we have an object standing for its
possessor, i.e. the belt stands for the person having it, thus
linking the skill with the person
(14) A lot of people used to think I was a black belt just
because I was a professional athlete…
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• such complex metonymies may also sometimes be reduced
in a cross-linguistic perspective to a single metonymy
• Cf. the following Croatian equivalent of the English example
above:
(15) Puno ljudi je mislilo
da
imam crni pojas
many people AUX
thought
that have
black belt
• the second metonymic tier, where the object stands for the
possessor, is missing in the Croatian counterpart, the
expression in question cannot normally be used in the
predicative position following the subject and the copula verb
• rather, the same idea is expressed by means of the verb of
possession followed by a simple metonymy, literally ‘that I
have a black belt’
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• note that a suffixation with the relational suffix –s is found as
the counterpart of black belt in Hungarian (it is mostly used
attributively, i.e. it is followed by a nominal head identifying
the target concept):
(16) Ki
is
az
a
Fekete
Öves?
who really that the
black
belt-SUFF
• in other words, the person as the metonymic target is made
as good as impossible, and complex metonymies are
effectively pre-empted by the implementation of this word
formation strategy
• Hungarian, as a matter of fact, happens to systematically
avoid metonymic bahuvrihi compounds, relying on the same
mechanism
• the same strategy is employed in the case of ‘first violin’
• in (17), it is clear that the metonymic target is the function or
role:
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(17) Ez után az első hegedű veszi át
a dallamot,…
after that the first violin
takes over the melody
however, there is a divison of labour in Hungarian between this
expression and the noun derived by means of the suffix
-s, and is therefore not used metonymically:
(18) Takács
1989
óta
a
Finn Rádió
Takács
1989
since
the
Finnish Radio
Szimfonikus Zenekarában első hegedűs.
Symphonic
orchestra-in first violin
(19)Öt perc múlva az
első hegedűs
ismét
five minutes later the
first violin-SUFF again
leteszi
a hangszert,…
puts-downthe instrument
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4. Summing it up all
• it seems that here we have uncovered cases of interaction
between metonymy as a basic cognitive process and the
structural properties of a language
• they are interesting because this is not the usual sort of
interaction whereby a cognitive process shapes the surface
grammar of a language
• It is just the opposite of this: here the surface grammar seems
to constrain the use of metonymy
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• whether a given language employs metonymic processes
or not in order to achieve specific communicative goals
may have to do with how other areas of the language in
question are structured, i.e. with the shape of its current
grammar (Mithun, 1991: 160)
• in other words, it is in part shaped and constrained by the
givens of the system at a given point in time, e.g. by
analogical tendencies
• this is also in line with Lakoff’s (1987: 537f) characterization
of motivation in terms of, among other things, global
ecological location within a grammatical system
• we think that cognitive linguistics should also take clue from
functional linguistics in this respect and consider the role of
the existing linguistic system if it does not want to doom
itself to the status of a partial model
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