Notes on Metonymy
A "device enabling an idea or object to be indicated by a term whose meaning includes that of the original term or is included in it. The singular replaces the plural, the type the species, the abstract the concrete — or the other way round." note
From Kovecses
THE PRODUCER FOR THE PRODUCT (THE AUTHOR FOR THE WORK)
I'm reading Shakespeare.
She loves Picasso.
Does he own any Hemingway
T H E P L A C E F O R T H E E V E N T
America doesn't want another Pearl Harbor.
Let's not let El Salvador become another Vietnam.
Watergate changed our politics.
THE PLACE FOR THE INSTITUTION
Washington is negotiating with Moscow.
:The White House isn't saying anything
Wall Sireei is in a panic.
Hollywood is putting out terrible movies.
iTHE CONTROLLER FOR THE CONTROLLED
Nixon bombed Hanoi.
Ozawa gave a terrible co'ncert last night:
OBJECT USED FOR THE USER
We need a better glove at third base.
The sax has the flu today.
And metaphor
Metaphor involves bringing tother two domains (rose - love), and works on similarity. Metonymy involves concepts within one domain (sax player - saxophone :: operator - instrument ), and works on contiguity:
'The two concepts participating in metaphor stand typically in the relationship of similarity. ... It may emerge from a real similarity but also from a perceived similarity. ... Metonomy contrasts with metaphor in that it is based on the relationship of contiguity.... 174
'The two concepts participating in metaphor stand typically in the relationship of similarity. ... It may emerge from a real similarity but also from a perceived similarity. ... Metonymy contrasts with metaphor in that it is based on the relationship of contiguity.... 174
Conceptually close
'It is a basic feature of metonymically related vehicle and target entities that they are "close" to each other in conceptual space. Thus, the producer is conceptually close to the product (because he is the one who makes it), the place of an institution is conceptually "close" to the institution itself (because most institutions are located in particular physical places), gloves are conceptually close to baseball players (because some baseball players wear gloves), and so on. In the traditional view of metonymy, this feature of metonymy is expressed by the claim that the two entities are contiguously related, or that the two entities are in each other's proximity. In the cognitive linguistic view, this claim is accepted and maintained but given a more precise formulation; namely, it is suggested that a vehicle entity can provide mental access to a target entity when the two entities belong to the same domain, or as Lakoff puts it, the same idealized cognitive model. (p 174 )
examples - images
