Metonymy as a
Prototypical Category
Dirk Geeraerts
Yves Peirsman
University of Leuven
RU Quantitative Lexicology and Variational Linguistics
Purpose
CL has tended to define metonymy with a unitary definition:
metaphor = a semantic shift across domains
metonymy = a semantic shift within a domain (matrix)
as against the older definition:
metaphor = a semantic shift based on similarity
metonymy= a semantic shift based on contiguity
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Purpose
but since CL provides an alternative, non-unitary model
of definition, there is another CL approach to metonymy
that needs to be explored:
can metonymy be defined as a prototypically structured
concept ?
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Approach
what does it mean to define metonymy ?
- provide an extensional demarcation:
what are the things that we call 'metonymy' ?
- provide an intensional description:
what do these things have in common ?
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Approach 1: Extension
metonymy is not a natural kind, it is a theoretical construct,
i.e. we do not necessarily talk about what happens in the
head of speakers but rather about what happens in the
head of linguists
 what is it that made linguists group together a certain set
of semantic phenomena ?
 which phenomena did they actually group together ?
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Approach 1: Extension
 check the literature on metonymy, i.e. check the literature
that is descriptively most rich (and that is to be found
predominantly in the prestructuralist era):
•
•
•
•
•
Hermann Paul (1880) Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte
Kristoffer Nyrop (1913) Grammaire historique de la langue française
Albert Waag (1901) Bedeutungsentwicklung unseres Wortschatzes
Gaston Esnault (1925) Métaphores occidentales
Neal R. Norrick (1981) Semiotic Principles in Semantic Theory
 an inventory of metonymical patterns
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Approach 1. Extension
spatial part & whole (P) (W) (Ny) (E) (No) - Tony Blair is the Prime Minister of England
temporal part & whole (W) - Dutch and German morgen ‘morning’ for ‘tomorrow’
location & located (P) (W) (Ny) (E) (No) – the house woke up for the people in the house’
antecedent & consequent (P) (W) (Ny) (E) - Greek phobos ‘flight’ for ‘fear’
subevent & complex event (P) (W) (No) - Mother is cooking potatoes
characteristic & entity (P) (W) (Ny) (E) - French beauté ‘beauty’
producer & product (P) (W) (Ny) (E) (No) - I’m reading Shakespeare
controller & controlled (W) (Ny) - Schwarzkopf defeated Iraq
container & contained (W) (Ny) (E) (No)- French aimer la bouteille ‘love the bottle’
material & object (Ny) (E) - French carton ‘cardboard’ for ‘cardboard box’
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Approach 1. Extension
cause & effect (Ny) (E) (No) - unlock the prisons for ‘let the prisoners free’
place & product (Ny) (E) - china
possessor & possessed (E) (No) - the long straw starts for ‘the person with the straw’
action & participant (P) (W) (Ny) (No) - to author a book
participant & participant (E) (No) - the pen is mightier than the sword for ‘the writer is
mightier than the soldier’
piece of clothing & person (P) (W) (Ny) (E) (No) - French une vielle perruque ‘an old wig’
for ‘an old person’
piece of clothing & body part (P) (W) - German Sohle ‘sole (of a shoe)’ for ‘sole (of a foot)’
single entity & collection (W) - German Imme ‘swarm of bees’ for ‘bee’
time & entity (E) - French un mardi-gras ‘a Shrove Tuesday’ for ‘a disguised man’
object & quantity (E) - French un quart ‘a quarter’ for ‘a tin of sardines in oil’
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Approach 2. Intension
a core concept: spatial partonomy
three dimensions defining extensions
- strength of contact: part/whole > contact > adjacency
- boundedness: entities > unbounded masses
- domain: space > time > action/events/processes >
functional assemblies
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Approach 2. Intension
some restrictions on the discussion:
- the directionality of the metonymical patterns will not be
taken into account
- the examples (taken predominantly from the quoted
sources) will be not be discussed thoroughly
- in general, only the skeleton of the prototype-based
structure will be presented
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Space
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Space
part & whole
fill up the car
we need some good heads
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Space
container & contained
a glass of wine
the milk tipped over
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Space
location & located
the whole town panicked
meet me at the registry
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Space
entity & adjacent entity
Germ. Tafelrunde 'round
table' > people sitting there
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Space
entity & adjacent entity
Germ. Tafelrunde 'round
table' > people sitting there
difference with "location"
(±contact) may be small –
not a crucial distinction
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Space
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Space
material & object
(unbounded whole - bounded entity)
Fr. carton 'cardboard' >
'cardboard box'
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Space
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Space
x
(unbounded whole unbounded entity)
chocolate
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Space
x
(unbounded whole - contained
bounded entity)
bubbles 'champagne'
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Time
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Time
temporal part & whole
Germ. Mittag
'noon' > 'afternoon'
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Time
time & entity
the nineties were boring
9-11 will never be forgotten
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Time
antecedent & consequent
Gr. phobos 'flight' > 'fear'
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Action / Event / Process
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Action / Event / Process
i.e. temporally
characterized entities →
difference with "time"
domain may be small;
overlaps are to be
expected
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Action / Event / Process
complex event & subevent
lead a girl to the altar 'marry'
grade papers 'read and
evaluate'
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Action / Event / Process
event & participant
i.e. relations based on frame
semantics: participants etc. as
elements contained in actions etc.;
common subtypes:
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Action / Event / Process
action & agent
government
'the act of governing' > 'the
governing agency'
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Action / Event / Process
action & patient
painting
'the act of painting' > 'the
painted object'
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Action / Event / Process
action & location
Fr. sortie
'the act of leaving' > 'the way
out'
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Action / Event / Process
action & instrument
Ger. Nahrung
'the act of feeding' > 'food'
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Action / Event / Process
cause & effect
Fr. lumiére
'light' > 'lamp'
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Action / Event / Process
participant & participant
i.e. "lateral" relations in a frame:
participants etc. as elements
contained in actions etc.;
common subtypes:
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Action / Event / Process
possessor & possessed
to marry money
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Action / Event / Process
producer & product
I am reading Shakespeare
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Action / Event / Process
location & product
camembert
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Action / Event / Process
actual & potential
she speaks Spanish
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Assemblies & Collections
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Assemblies & Collections
i.e. entities that are functional
wholes (rather than spatial,
temporal, action-related
wholes) – allowing for vague
boundaries between domains
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Assemblies & Collections
characteristic part &
functional assembly
the press 'the publishing
media'
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Assemblies & Collections
characteristic feature & entity
youth / a youth
genius / a genius
beauty / a beauty
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Assemblies & Collections
countable collection &
member of the collection
MHGer imme 'swarm' > 'bee'
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Assemblies & Collections
uncountable collection &
member of the collection
Ger Frauenzimmer
'womanhood' > 'woman'
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Overview
part/whole
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Overview
part/whole
containment
contact
adjacency
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Overview
part/whole
containment
contact
adjacency
bounded
unbounded
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Overview
time
space
part/whole
containment
contact
adjacency
bounded
unbounded
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Overview
action/event/process
time
space
part/whole
containment
contact
adjacency
bounded
unbounded
ICLC IX. Seoul, 22.07.2005
Overview
assemblies & collections
action/event/process
time
space
part/whole
containment
contact
adjacency
bounded
unbounded
ICLC IX. Seoul, 22.07.2005
Overview
assemblies & collections
action/event/process
time
space
part/whole
containment
contact
adjacency
bounded
unbounded
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Conclusions
the category of metonymy may be reconstructed as
possessing internal structure, in terms of
- material part/whole relations as prototypical centre
- a multidimensional set of extensions
depending on how one evaluates the definition of
metonymy in terms of the notion 'domain matrix',
the prototype-based analysis may
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Conclusions
either replace the domain matrix definition
(if the latter turns out to be insufficient for independent
reasons)
or provide a network-like expansion of the domain matrix
definition, i.e. complement the schematic domain matrix
definition
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for further information:
http://wwwling.arts.kuleuven.be/qlvl
dirk.geeraerts@arts.kuleuven.be