Conceptual Metonymy Research Articles

A Review of Social Semiotics in the Interaction of Text and Image

As the major form of anti-epidemic promotion in network media, anti-epidemic promotion picture applies diversified multi-modal symbol resources in the construction of meaning. By exploring the interactive relationship between visual grammar and conceptual metaphor/metonymy, a joint multimodal research framework is created to clarify the meaning construction and mechanism contained in anti-epidemic pictures. The research shows that conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy not only provide cognitive motivation for the realization of visual grammar, but also inspire the associations of images to the real world. Visual Grammar highlights the cognitive meaning expression of conceptual metaphor and metonymy, stimulates readers’ interpretation of conceptual metaphor and metonymy. The research explores the combination of two mainstream multimodal research paths, and provides a new perspective for multimodal discourse analysis practice.

Multimodal Meaning Construction of Anti-Pandemic Promotion Picture from the Semiotic-Congnitive Perspective

As the major form of anti-epidemic promotion in network media, anti-epidemic promotion picture applies diversified multi-modal symbol resources in the construction of meaning. By exploring the interactive relationship between visual grammar and conceptual metaphor/metonymy, a joint multimodal research framework is created to clarify the meaning construction and mechanism contained in anti-epidemic pictures. The research shows that conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy not only provide cognitive motivation for the realization of visual grammar, but also inspire the associations of images to the real world. Visual Grammar highlights the cognitive meaning expression of conceptual metaphor and metonymy, stimulates readers’ interpretation of conceptual metaphor and metonymy. The research explores the combination of two mainstream multimodal research paths, and provides a new perspective for multimodal discourse analysis practice.

Conceptual Metonymy of COVID-19 Pandemic in Vietnam’s Online Newspapers

Conceptual metonymy which is based on the contingent relationship between a source concept and a target concept helps people perceive the world. The article discusses the concept and principles of conceptual metonymy and analyses the conceptual metonymy of COVID-19 pandemic used in official online newspapers published in Vietnam. 100 articles were selected for analysis. The study focuses on the "PLACE FOR EVENT" metonymy with the aim of shedding light on the Vietnamese’s cognitive ways of thinking. Vietnamese people tend to use the geographical location where the COVID-19 pandemic occurs as a substitute for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trends in cognitive-linguistic research on metonymy

Abstract This article is a brief introduction to the theory of conceptual metonymy and a brief survey of research on this area. The first section presents the cognitive-linguistic notion of metonymy, including a discussion of the various problematic aspects of this notion. This is followed by a longer section illustrating some of the main types of metonymies. The section devoted to the ubiquity of metonymy surveys research on its involvement in cognition, grammatical meaning and form, pragmatic inferencing and discourse, linguistic change, and non-linguistic areas like art and gesture; it ends with a brief note on metonymic triggers and chains, and on its multilevel operation. The chapter ends with a reflection on future directions.

“All women are like that”: an overview of linguistic deindividualization and dehumanization of women in the incelosphere

Abstract This article provides an overview of linguistic strategies used in the incel community to deindividualize and dehumanize women. Among the most common ways of referring to women there is the use of generic labels (Stacy, Becky), conceptual metaphor (warpig, landwhale) including creative metaphorical morphology (foid, femoid), conceptual metonymy (hole, extrahole), and conceptual metaphtonymy (roastie). The consistent use of such terms within the incelosphere contributes to perpetuating harmful attitudes and potentially even justifying violent and abusive conduct towards women. For this reason, the language of dehumanization in general, and the misogynist discourse of incels in particular, warrants closer attention. This study is carried out within the methodological framework of cognitive semantics and adds to the expanding research on the discourse of the manosphere and the incelosphere.

METAPHORS AND METONYMIES IN LATVIAN AND ENGLISH PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS WITH THE KEYWORD HEAD

Phraseology, often considered a supplementary discipline in the past, now occupies a central place in many fields as an object of interdisciplinary research for cross-cultural and cross-linguistic studies in general and cognitive linguistics, pedagogy, translation, corpus and computational linguistics, lexicography, and psychology. Two databases in Latvian and English are used to extract phraseological units (PUs) with the keyword “head”. The article aims to identify, compare and contrast metaphorical and metonymic Latvian and English phraseological units, discussing the similarities and differences in meanings of the base form of a phraseological unit (PU) and its use in every analysed case. Since metaphor and metonymy are central thought patterns in cognitive linguistics, testing their function in PUs is crucial. Metaphorical and metonymic Latvian PUs and their English counterparts are examined in the cognitive linguistic framework, analysing conceptual metaphors and conceptual metonymies. Corresponding pairs of PUs are studied as one set to establish if they will function similarly. It can be concluded that pairs of PUs in both languages have the same structure, convey equivalent meanings and even have the same type of conceptual metonymy: a part stands for the whole, for instance, divas galvas (ir[1]) gudrākas nekā viena (two heads (are) smarter than one) and its English counterpart: “two heads are better than one”.

METONIMIJA TIPA ’PREDMET ZA RADNjU’ FORMALIZOVANA INSTRUMENTALOM S PREDLOGOM „ZA“

The paper analyzes examples of compact structures with spatial meaning, formalized by a preposition za (i.e. at / behind, next to) and a noun in the instrumental (eg. On je za volanom i.e. he is behind the wheel, on je za knjigom, i.e. he is always behind the book, etc.). The aim of the paper is to examine the inventory and range of such nouns, their semantics and indicators for possessing the ability to perform the function of the transferor in the metonymic relation- ship SUBJECT FOR ACTION, as well as the meaning of the preposition za in this structure in the light of cognitive postulates. The basis for the analysis are modern cognitive-linguistic theories about conceptual metonymy, which are based on the research of A. Barcelona, G. Radden, Z. Köveczes and others. The research is carried out in order to establish the following: (a) peculiarities of the actions that are in the background of the highlighted object and their semantic diffusion and, accordingly, (b) meaning categories of structures that are condensed with the form za + instrumental (qualification, temporality, spatiality, etc.), and (c) contex- tual conditioning of the understanding of these structures depending on predicate, adver- bial clauses and other sentence explicit and implied constituents. The assumption is that the broader semantics of the noun will condition the existence of a wider range of meanings of condensed units (e.g. she avoids conversations at the table: her friends find her at the table, but bent over the paper; she doesn’t like being at the stove all the time; she is at the plow all day, etc.). The question of the productivity of this structure will be shown by the semantics of nouns of recent origin in this structure (cf. he works at the loom : he is always at the computer).

Metonymic Uses of Body Parts Hand in the English Language and Ruka and Šaka in the Bosnian Language

This paper explores metonymic uses of the body part “hand” in the English language and „ruka” and „šaka” in the Bosnian language. The paper aims to establish similarities and differences between the languages in terms of conceptual metonymies exploiting these body parts. The paper also tries to determine to what extent conceptual metonymy interacts with or exploits other processes of cognitive thinking, namely chained metonymies and metaphors. The methodological framework of corpus analysis is by the taxonomies of metonymy types developed by Radden and Kövecses (1999) and Kövecses (2002) and patterns of conceptual interaction (Diez Velasco 2000, 2002). The study will show that body-part metonymies can form chained metonymies and that they often serve as a basis for metaphorical mapping.

A Cognitive Topological Analysis of Metonymy Translation

In the view of cognitive linguistics influenced by embodied philosophy, metonymy is defined as a fundamental cognitive mechanism, and translation is a cognitive activity. Conceptual metonymy exists in the entire process of cross-language transformation, and is the basic thinking mechanism to understand language metonymies. Looking at metonymy translation from the perspective of cognitive topology enlarges the interdisciplinary research vision of cognitive linguistics theory. It reveals that language also has features of topological equivalence and topological connectivity. Through the three main topological relations which are topological adjacency, topological association and topological inclusion, the connection between different parts of an Idealized Cognitive Model (ICM) and the referential relationships between a whole ICM and its parts can be clearly interpreted. These help us recognize the translator's cognitive operations in metonymy translation.

Lexical synecdoche in Croatian

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.

‘Narrative structure’, ‘rhetorical structure’, ‘text structure’

Abstract The paper seeks to provide a cognitive-linguistic re-interpretation of the centuries-old notion of whole-text structure. The investigation presented here draws on 317 data sources selected through a scoping literature review. The paper demonstrates how text structure, narrative structure, rhetorical structure, etc. all represent metonymically one and the same multi-faceted underlying concept. That concept is argued to result from the amalgamated operation of conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy combined with the simultaneous and dynamic operation of (what are known in gestalt psychology as) profiling shifts. The paper further demonstrates how such shifts in profiling operate on text-worlds and discourse-worlds to bring about perceptions of a text’s ‘progression’ and of whole-text structure.

The Metaphorical and Metonymical Conceptualizations of the Term Sea (Hai) in the Four-Character Chinese Idioms

This paper investigates the term “sea” (hai) in the four-character Chinese idioms according to conceptual metaphor and metonymy theory, attempting to illustrate their conceptualization, determine their possible underlying motivations, and explore Chinese maritime thought and culture. Based on idiomatic expressions, three types of conceptual metaphors are identified: abstract qualities of concrete entities are the sea, abstract entity is sea, and a certain aspect of a human being is sea. Moreover, the four types of conceptual metonymies are the part for the whole, the whole for the part, the place for the product, and the place for the responsible deities or goddesses. They are motivated by a culture of worship of and accordance with nature, the pursuit of achievements in traditional Chinese literature, “man paid, nature made” as the attitude towards the ups and downs of life, and a self-centered conceptualization of the world. The maritime culture represented in these conceptualizations comprises fear of and respect for the sea, harmony between humans and the sea, and static–dynamic integrations of river, land, and sea. The findings show that the motivations of these conceptualizations do not only originate from the embodiment and Chinese philosophy of the unity of heaven and humanity but are also constrained by the most influential talent selection mechanism, the Imperial Examination System, as well as by agriculture, the foundation of the economy in ancient China.

How to Point with Language: English Source-Based Language to Describe Taste Qualities

Western languages notoriously lack specific, abstract vocabulary to describe sensory perception. Despite the paucity of specific lexical items, descriptions of sensory characteristics of food abound in English. One of the most common strategies is source-based language (e.g., creamy), which allows speakers to evaluate and communicate a current sensory experience with respect to a prototypical source of the sensation. The aim of this paper is to review the different morphosyntactic patterns used to convey source-based information to describe flavour, and to provide a taxonomy of the constructions involved. The three types of source-based language discussed are organised along a cline from more analytical (i.e., X tastes like Y), to more synthetic (i.e., adjectival suffixes), with a medial stage in which the source of the sensation is morphologically free, but syntactically embedded in constructions following the pattern N1 of N2 (e.g., a splash of chilli). Previous literature has accounted for this phenomenon either as motivated by conceptual metonymy, or as a case of “pointing structures”. I argue that the two different theoretical accounts need not be in stark opposition, rather they both contribute to our understanding of the figurative usage of concrete items in language. Data were retrieved online from a collection of gin Tasting Notes, created by expert tasters to evaluate the flavour profile of the liquor.

A Cognitive Study on Naming Mechanisms of QQ Nicknames

Language is the carriage of ideas. Social reality pushes the advancement of language, and language reflects social reality. As the world has entered into the Age of Information, people are exposed to digital screens and online social media. Nowadays, people, especially young people, lay great emphasis on not only their real-life individuality but also their online images. Among all the social media apps, QQ is favored by Chinese people for a long time with over 530 million accounts. With fewer requirements in making nicknames, the naming mechanisms of QQ nicknames provide an interesting perspective for cognitive and linguistic study. Nicknames on social media are regarded as a mutation of people’s traditional names, allowing people to extend their creativity and project their personalities on the nicknames. This research chooses the QQ nicknames of the Grade 2020 undergraduates at Hohai University as research objectives. To find out the feature of the nicknames of the target group and explore the naming mechanisms underlying the nicknames, first, the essay goes through previous studies on the naming mechanisms and absorbs related research experience, and second, establishes a theoretical framework that includes three models: Event-domain Cognitive Model (ECM), the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CM₁), and the Conceptual Metonymy Theory (CM₂). After collecting 255 QQ nicknames and establishing a closed corpus of the nicknames, this paper makes reasonable categorization for further study. To solve the rest of the research problems, a thorough analysis is made and two compound models are established. Results show that the QQNE+CM₁ Model is the most commonly seen naming mechanism of the target group. At the end of the paper, a discussion and evaluation of the entire research are done. This essay provides a new aspect for understanding the naming mechanisms of the young generation and may be conducive to further related studies.

Hypallage is a rare bird. Not.

Hypallage, a “marginal” rhetorical trope, is defined as a combination of seemingly incompatible features and has been exploited since antiquity in poetic and narrative discourse, e.g., angry crowns of kings (Odes of Horace). Here the hypallactic incompatibility arises from the position of angry as a prenominal modifier of crowns rather than of kings. We deny that hypallage is a rare phenomenon restricted to belles-lettres; rather, we claim that hypallage is a highly entrenched mechanism in ordinary language. We demonstrate that structural and semantic parallelisms exist between prototypical hypallactic transpositions and the marked placement of constituents in clausal, morphological, and speech act constructions, as well as quantifier and adverbial placement. Hypallactic expressions constitute a violation of the Iconic Proximity Principle. Nevertheless, they are a means for a speaker to convey complex meanings at any level of grammar and discourse with a minimum of coding effort. The exploitation of hypallactic anti-iconicity by a speaker and its resolution by a hearer are made possible by shared conceptual models, the conceptual metonymies and/or metaphors operating on them, and pragmatic inferencing. We conclude that the prioritizing of figurative motivation at the expense of iconicity is a pervasive cognitive mechanism in language.

Cognitive mechanisms of the formation of new words in German media

The article is devoted to the study of the discourse of the German mass media, addressed to the topic of the coronavirus pandemic. Using the examples of magazine articles, television broadcasts and blogs in social networks, a conceptual analysis of the ways of word-formation activity of the German language in the era of coronavirus restrictions is carried out. The subject of the study is the cognitive mechanisms of word formation of the German language and their pragmatic features. The object of the study was the coronavirus discourse of the German-speaking language space. The aim of the work was to reconstruct some concepts of the discursive field "Coronavirus infection", as well as to describe the cognitive mechanisms underlying their formation on the basis of linguistic data. The methods of conceptual and prototypical analysis, as well as cognitive modeling and contextual analysis were used in the study of cognitive mechanisms of word formation. The relevance and novelty of the research lies in the study and description of the latest word-formation phenomena and trends in German-speaking social discourse. As a result of the research, the regularities of the functioning of the main cognitive mechanisms of concept formation were deduced and formulated. The analysis of the German media discourse during the coronavirus pandemic revealed new basic concepts and concepts-components that form conceptual fields. The basic concepts we attributed, for example, such as "Corona", "Mundnasenschutz", "Distanz", "Lockdown", "Panick". As a result of the study, it was concluded that the basic concepts form conceptual fields, including component concepts, the methods of language verbalization of which imply the presence of emotive and evaluative components. The studied and described language material allows us to conclude that the main cognitive mechanisms of concept formation are profiling, conceptual metaphor, conceptual metonymy and contamination.

Conceptual Representations in Sherko Bekas’ Gray: A Cognitive Stylistic Study

The present paper aims to examine Bekas’ worldview (mind style) in the selected poem Gray from a cognitive stylistic perspective. The concept of mind style, which refers to any particular linguistic representation of an individual’s mental self, encompasses the process of “reality formation” in one’s mind. In cognitive stylistics, the worldview (mind style) of the poet, narrator and character is formed from and displayed through the linguistic structure of the text. Therefore, the highlighted research question is: How is Bekas’ worldview constructed and represented in the selected poem? This study is essential for readers and listeners because it will assist them in interpreting poetic texts so they can comprehend the poet’s worldview. To achieve the main aim, the researchers will apply the cognitive linguistic theories of schema, conceptual metaphor, and conceptual metonymy, all of which are concerned with the representation of conceptual structures. These cognitive theories are considered strong and dynamic theories in accounting for cognitive processes that underpin the production and interpretation of various types of discourse, whether factual or fictional, by forming mental representations in the mind. More specifically, schema theory can be used to explain how text worlds are created and processed during discourse processing, primarily when reading poetry. Additionally, schema theory involves researching mental models, which entails analysing how poets think about the world in contrast to readers. To examine the poet’s worldview, the researchers also use perspective and foregrounding in construal dimensions. Since the study is qualitative, the study’s data will be limited to the analysis of Bekas’ Gray. The study has concluded that Bekas views the world pessimistically and hopelessly.

Exploration of River Names in China

As a subtype of toponym, hydronyms reflect people’s perception, understanding, and contemplation of waterbodies. With data collected from authoritative gazetteers, this study classifies the names of 189 major rivers distributed across Mainland China into seven categories to extrapolate general rules governing river-naming in China. The results show that descriptive names comprise the biggest share. Based on this study’s research findings, this article also discusses the complex cognitive processes, including conceptual metonymy, conceptual metaphor, and conceptual blending involved in river-naming in China. Specifically, based on the principles of proximity and prominence, the most frequently employed types were the following metonymies: PLACE FOR RIVER, PROPERTY FOR RIVER, PERSON FOR RIVER, EVENT FOR RIVER, and FUNCTION FOR RIVER. As this research shows, river naming in China is not arbitrary, but highly motivated.

The Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying the Concept of سرعة (Speed) in Arabic

Despite the wide range of studies on how students’ past knowledge influences their understanding of scientific terminology, few studies were conducted to compare non-scientific language with scientific language, or rather everyday language with scientific language, from a cognitive linguistic perspective. The present paper aims to determine the cognitive mechanisms, i.e., image schemas, conceptual metaphor, and conceptual metonymy, which underpin the conceptualisation of the Arabic term سرعة (speed), using a conceptual metaphor theory framework. Thus, the research question guiding this study is: What cognitive mechanisms underlie the concept of سرعة (speed) in Arabic? The findings of this study will shed light on how Arab speakers conceptualise this term, demonstrating their background knowledge of the term compared to its scientific meaning. The article adds to the growing body of cognitive linguistics research on the conceptual processes behind physics terms. The data was collected from the Arabic Web Corpus (arTenTen) using the Sketch Engine. The findings demonstrated that VERTICATLITY and SCALE schemas are the most dominant image schemas that anchor the conceptual meaning in Arab speakers’ perceptions of the term under investigation and the discourse in which it is employed, as well as offer the concrete basis for conceptual metaphors. The conceptual metaphor CHANGE IS MOTION (LOCATION) was also shown to be active in motivating the conception of SPEED in Arabic.

The Conceptualization of anger through Metaphors, Metonymies and Metaphtonymies in Jordanian Arabic and English: A Contrastive Study

Abstract This study aims to examine the metaphors, metonymies and their interaction in Jordanian Arabic (ja) to conceptualize anger. It also investigates the differences/similarities in the conceptualization of anger in ja and English to determine if culture has a role in its metaphorical and metonymical conceptualization. The study adopts Conceptual Metaphor Theory (cmt) and Cultural Linguistics (cl) as theoretical frameworks to identify and analyze the target metaphors and metonymies. The ja data was collected from two sources: 20 female and male ja native-speaker informants and a Jordanian comedy show called ‘Female’. The English anger metaphors and metonymies were collected from Lakoff and Kövecses’s (1987) study. The qualitative data analysis has revealed that anger is conceptualized in ja through conceptual metaphors with a metonymic basis, pure conceptual metaphors, pure conceptual metonymies and conceptual metonymies with a metaphorical interpretation. The results show that similarities were found in the conceptualization of anger through metaphor and metonymy in both languages which were ascribed to universal embodied cognition. Differences were also detected between the two languages, especially in the use of culture-specific source domains and in the use of metaphtonymies (conceptual metonymies with metaphorical interpretation) that may reflect cultural beliefs related to anger.