Lexical synecdoche in Croatian

Abstract

The three key mechanisms in deriving the secondary meaning of polysemous lexemes are lexical metaphor, lexical metonymy and lexical synecdoche. Considering that lexical synecdoche has not received much attention so far, this paper will explore its role in creating the polysemous structure of Croatian lexemes. In this paper, lexical synecdoche is viewed as a predictable mechanism with several reversible transfers in its core: part for whole and whole for part, general for individual and individual for general, singular for plural and plural for singular, species for genus and genus for species. The formulas of these transfers are at the same time notations for conceptual metonymies which we consider the starting point for the creativity of lexical synecdoches. We do so because the metonymy and the synecdoche operate within a single conceptual domain, where one entity stands for another on the basis of their spatial, temporal, functional or causal relation. This common relation is why the synecdoche is usually considered a subcategory of metonymy. On the other hand, the metonymy and the synecdoche can be seen as separate lexical mechanisms because they are motivated by different types of relations between entities involved in the transfer. While the metonymic transfer is based on the closeness of entities in conceptual proximity as parts of the same domain, the transfer in synecdoche occurs between the domain itself and its integral part and turns from proximity to inclusion.