The interplay of metaphor and metonymy in English noun+noun compounds

Abstract

The present chapter aims at comparing two different methodologies that can be used to explain the intricacies of the interplay between metaphor and metonymy in noun+noun compounds in English. The meaning of such compounds may be motivated by the mechanisms of conceptual metaphor or metonymy, and sometimes by both of them in a process called metaphtonymy. First, the chapter presents Benczes’s analysis (2006) of the metaphorical and metonymical semantics of noun+noun compounds, which is based on the Langackerian distinction between the profile determinant and the modifier, and on Fauconnier and Turner’s (2002) theory of conceptual blending. Second, the chapter offers an analysis of the interaction between metaphor and metonymy in selected English noun+noun compounds, based on the typology of metaphtonymical patterns suggested by Ruiz de Mendoza and Diez (2002).