Conceptual metonymy and emotive-affective meaning at the interface: Examples from online medical consultations

Abstract

By adopting a cognitive-pragmatic approach, this study investigates the link between conceptual metonymies and emotive-affective meaning in online medical consultations. Little appears to be known about the metonymic-emotive connection. Drawing on 100 cases of highly-rated online medical consultations conducted in Chinese, this project identifies the conceptual metonymies in such consultations: part for whole, cause for effect, obligation for action, potentiality for action,conditional for unknown/future and manner for action. This paper suggests two styles whereby the metonymic-emotive link is generated: (i) explicit expressions of emotion and affection (e.g., empathy or reassurance) that are supported by relevant medical information built on metonymic reasoning; (ii) the delivery of relevant medical information using conceptual metonymies, leading to the relief of doubt and reduction of anxiety, and evoking a satisfactory response. The former is referred to as emotion-integrating-into-metonymic-discourse and the latter as emotion-emerging-from-metonymic-discourse. This study suggests that the link is located in discourse where the doctor’s response fills the patient’s knowledge gap and where the medical expert’s health information lends emotional support to the health seeker.