Metonymic Processes Research Articles

COLOUR TERMS IN ASTROPHYSICAL TEXTS: A CORPUS STUDY

The aim of this paper is to present colour terms used by scientists in the field of astrophysics. We take into consideration both basic and non-basic colour terms – as understood by Berlin and Kay (1969). The research material, compiled in a corpus with AntConc, consists of abstracts published in selected astrophysical journals. The corpus size is 2,319,787 words. The most frequent basic colour term found in the abstracts is black (612 occurrences), followed by white (167), red (160), blue (111) and green (98). It appears that the frequent word combinations in which these and other colour words are used happen to be specialized terms whose formation involved metaphorical or metonymic processes, e.g. red giant, white dwarf, red planet, red noise and blue straggler.

Metaphorization and Metonimization as Tools of Semantic Derivation (Based on English Economics Textbooks)

This paper studies two types of indirect (secondary) nomination: simulative and indicative, taken extracts from English economics textbooks. The similative nomination is actualized through functional transfer, which is interpreted as a separate kind of metaphor termed “actional metaphor”. The analysis of indicative nomination is focused on metonymy and synecdoche (as a closely related device), which is conditioned by the same transfer principle on the basis of an essential attribute. The semantic derivates are considered in sentences representing such a logical form of thought as definition, which reveals the metaphoric and metonymic processes in the field of English economic terminology.Our analysis reveals the interrelations between models of terms and their functions as designators of target and source domains on the one hand, and types of cognitive metaphor (ontological and conceptual), on the other. The author comes to the conclusion that both types can have either simple or complex structures. Similarly, there are simple and complex metonymies. These are the peculiarities of this type of economic discourse from the point of view of semantic derivation. Another feature of economic discourse is the tendency towards the uniform secondary semiotic code when describing metaphorized terms.With regard to indicative secondary nomination, the main findings are as follows: the metonymic lexis is organized as a chain of oppositions: terms and nomens – terms – terms and common lexis – common lexis. The mechanism of forming “mixed” kinds of indirect nominations, i.e. metaphtonymy and synecdoche-metonymy, is revealed in the course of the contextual analysis. This leads the author to a hypothetical argument that it is the actional metaphor that underlies these mixed types of semantic derivatives.Both types of the secondary nomination have a systemic nature: metaphor is described in other system units; metonymies have a field structure and are actualised through specific oppositions. Transl.: Anokhina S.P. 2021. Metaphorization and Metonimization as Tools of Semantic Derivation (Based on English Economics Textbooks). Professional Discourse & Communication. 3(3). P. 65–82. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24833/2687-0126-2021-3-3-65-82

Дометрические меры длины в произведениях русских и немецких писателей и их перевод

The aim of the study is to typologize the translation of the names of pre-metric units of length in Russian and German fiction by identifying common semantic transformations. The scientific novelty of the study lies in examining pre-metric units of length in the genetic, semantic and functional aspects. At the genetic level, the role of the anthropometric factor in the formation of such names is confirmed. At the semantic level, the commonality of transformational processes in the history of education and functioning of the vocabulary under consideration is investigated. At the functional level, translation techniques are analyzed in relation to the words selected for analysis in a broad literary context. A comprehensive study of this kind, combining the importance and mutual influence of all these levels, is being carried out for the first time. As a result, the commonality of semantic transformations in the sphere of the vocabulary in question (from the metonymic process, which virtually forms this lexical group, to the metaphorical process defining their new, abstract meaning) and, in particular, its inclusion in the processes of phraseologization are confirmed. The study also reveals how and to what extent the variety of translation modes reflects the semantic nuances of the vocabulary under consideration.

Bisexuality and ambiguity: metaphoric relations and metonymic processes in discursive productions on bisexuality

Resumo A ausência de pesquisas sobre a bissexualidade no século XX somada às preocupações em torno da epidemia da AIDS possibilitou a construção de narrativas especulativas sobre a população bissexual, sendo comumente descrita como uma categoria ambígua. Mediante uma análise antropológica, propõe-se refletir sobre os complexos simbólicos que produzem a bissexualidade como uma categoria ambígua, relacionando-a com a produção discursiva sobre as ficções de contágios, essencialmente metonímicas.

Code Red for Humanity: Multimodal Metaphor and Metonymy in Noncommercial Advertisements on Environmental Awareness and Activism

ABSTRACT Concern for global warming, climate change and pollution has grown in recent years, with countries across the world facing natural disasters on unprecedented scales. The communication of environmental protection is therefore a necessary area of enquiry, especially from a Conceptual Metaphor Theory perspective. The present article explores (1) how the themes of global warming, climate change, pollution and activism are conceptualized in a corpus of 51 noncommercial advertisements, (2) the interaction of metonymy with metaphor, (3) the distribution across verbal and visual modes of metaphoric source and target domains, and (4) how value is evoked. Findings show that half of the corpus frames environmental themes through source domains such as weapons, predators and natural disasters. The other half triggers incongruous mappings, such as between concrete entities, and relies on metonymic processes of inference to access the main rhetorical message. Among the most frequent metonymies, CAUSE-EFFECT and CATEGORY FOR SALIENT PROPERTY highlight the negative effects of the represented phenomena. Multimodality usually occurs within source and/or target domains rather than across the metaphoric mapping. Most of the campaigns project mixed value, where a negative evaluation of a theme is accompanied by a positive message, inviting the audience to take action.

Paragon and antonomasia: Similar but/and different?

Paragon and antonomasia share identical constructional devices, namely, proper names that participate in an exchange relation with other entities, or proper names that are modified by various constructional devices, such as definite or indefinite articles, of-phrases, determining adjectives, or epithets. The present paper focuses on two main objectives. The first of these is to unveil the conceptual tools required for the expression of paragon and antonomasia, and determine whether or not these two figures are explained exclusively by means of metaphoric and/or metonymic processes, as has been suggested in previous studies. The second objective is to explore the role of constructional devices that account for instances of paragon and antonomasia. In the present study, it is claimed that proper names modified and enriched by constructional devices activate frames which allow for the emergence of intensified and even hyperbolic interpretations. The difference between the two mechanisms lies in the quality and the function of conceptual frames.

An empirical study of incorporating syntactic constraints into BERT-based location metonymy resolution

AbstractMetonymy resolution (MR) is a challenging task in the field of natural language processing. The task of MR aims to identify the metonymic usage of a word that employs an entity name to refer to another target entity. Recent BERT-based methods yield state-of-the-art performances. However, they neither make full use of the entity information nor explicitly consider syntactic structure. In contrast, in this paper, we argue that the metonymic process should be completed in a collaborative manner, relying on both lexical semantics and syntactic structure (syntax). This paper proposes a novel approach to enhancing BERT-based MR models with hard and soft syntactic constraints by using different types of convolutional neural networks to model dependency parse trees. Experimental results on benchmark datasets (e.g., ReLocaR, SemEval 2007 and WiMCor) confirm that leveraging syntactic information into fine pre-trained language models benefits MR tasks.

Metonymy in the Korean internally headed relative clause construction

Abstract This article aims to analyze the Korean internally headed relative clause (IHRC) construction from a Cognitive Grammar perspective. The primary issue concerning the Korean IHRC construction is the mismatch between the syntactic object and the semantic head. While the whole embedded clause headed by kes functions as a grammatical object, the semantic head may acquire the object status. I demonstrate that the mismatch is nothing but a metonymic process, just like the mismatch we observe in the loon in the water; even when only the loon’s feet are in the water, the expression is felicitously understood without identifying the particular portion of the loon under water. Just like the speaker accesses the loon’s feet through the loon, she accesses the semantic head through the reified embedded clause in the IHRC construction. I show that adopting this general human cognitive process helps us reach a broader generalization and sheds new light on hitherto neglected examples.

The Maternal Covenant role and function of the mother in the social field

ABSTRACT Juliet Mitchell suggested the need for a principle to intervene at the level of sibling murderousness and called it the law of the mother in reference to Jacques Lacan’s law of the father. While binding the mother and the child to an agreement, this principle does not possess all the properties of a Law. This type of formal agreement has existed in legal thinking since the highest antiquity and is called a covenant. The covenant is not universal, it is valid only for the two parties who commit to it and its transgression is not penalised by a third party representative of the Other. I have called this regulatory principle the Maternal Covenant. It’s power rests on a metonymic process, in which the mother invokes kinship while hiding the unconscious object of her desire. I call this process the Maternal Metonymy. The concepts of Maternal Covenant and Maternal Metonymy are useful tools for the understanding and treatment of issues such as the pathological use of violence, unbearable rivalry both within the family and in the social group, failure or dysfunctional socialisation and the consequences of indecent or shameful behaviours.

Transformational models formation of metonymic nicknames in the English picture of the world

In the linguistic picture of the world anthroponyms occupy a unique position, because man’s perception of himself as the center of the universe is manifested in the creation of many nominations, where the substantial nature of the human essence comes to the fore. The nomination of anthroponyms is an integral part of the nominative system of language, which follows all its laws and norms. The formation of new human names is carried out as a result of changes in the morpheme of the word, but most often through semantic changes in the word. The article is devoted to the analysis of nominative metonymic processes and lexical changes that took place in English nicknames at the end of the XX – beginning of the XXI century. Metonymic nicknames, formed on adjacency, are focused on the function of pointing up the characteristic feature of the object. Metonymy is a way of indirectly characterizing an object by highlighting one of its constant, variable or random features, which in this situation seems significant to the subject. The largest number of metonymic nicknames, according to our observations, is formed by metonymic transposition, where the whole is replaced by a part. The cognitive mechanism of metonymy creates a conceptual “shift”, and thus metonymy directly indicates the presence in the depths of human cognition on a larger-scale relative to the “parts” of conceptual units, knowledge of the world. Numerous nickname examples in the investigation testify to the fact that metonymy is one of the most productive ways of nickname formation and the meanings of new nominations give the exclusive material to the scientists for further linguistic, sociological, and psychological research.

Metaphorisation and Metonimisation as Tools of Semantic Derivation (Based on English Coursebooks on Economics)

The paper studies two types of indirect (secondary) nomination: simulative and indicative ones, exemplified by extracts from English coursebooks on economics. The similative nomination is actualised through functional transfer, which is interpreted as a separate kind of metaphor termed “actional metaphor”. The analysis of indicative nomination is focused on metonymy and synecdoche (as its closely related device), which is conditioned by the same transfer principle on the basis of an essential attribute. The semantic derivates are considered in sentences representing such logic thought form as definition, which allows to reveal the metaphoric and metonymic processes in the field of English economic terminology.The research discloses the interrelations between the analysed term models and their functions as designators for target and source domains on the one hand, and cognitive metaphor types (ontological and conceptual), on the other hand. The author comes to the conclusion that both types can have either simple or complicated structure. Similarly, there are simple and complicated metonymies. These phenomena make the peculiarities of the given economic discourse when considered from the angle of semantic derivation. The tendency to the uniform secondary semiotic code in term metaphor description can be viewed as another valid peculiarity of economic discourse.With regard to the indicative secondary nomination, the main findings are as follows: the metonymic lexis is organized as a chain opposition: terms and nomens – terms – terms and common lexis – common lexis. The mechanism of forming “mixed” kinds of the indirect nomination, i.e. metaphtonymy and synecdoche-metonymy, is revealed in the course of the context analysis. This leads the author to a hypothetical argument that it is the actional metaphor that underlies these mixed types of semantic derivatives.Both types of the secondary nomination have a systemic nature: metaphor is described in other system units; metonymies have field structure and are actualised through specific oppositions.

The Role of Metonymy in Teaching the Spanish Verbal System to L2/FL Learners of Spanish

This paper explores the application of conceptual metonymy (Lakoff, 1987; Ruiz de Mendoza, 2000; Langacker, 2009; Panther, Thornburg and Barcelona, 2009; Barcelona, 2013) in the development of pedagogical resources for the teaching of the Spanish verbal system to L2/FL learners. To this end, a description is given of the advantages of introducing inferential reasoning using metonymy based on certain principles taken from the Cognitive Grammar model (Langacker, 1987, 1991, 2000, 2001, 2008, 2009) in grammar teaching materials — both descriptions and activities. We focus on tense uses that involve metonymic processes, particularly, the meaning extensions in two Spanish past tenses: (1) the actional meaning of stative verbs when conveyed in pretérito indefinido (preterit), as in Pudimos comprar la casa 'We could buy the house', metonymically extended to Compramos la casa 'We bought the house'; and (2) the distancing use (uso citativo) of pretérito imperfecto (imperfect) when referring to current facts, as in ¿Cómo te llamabas? (How PRO.REFL.2SG call.IPFV.PST.2SG?) 'What was your name again?', which is metonymically extended to (Se me ha dicho/No recuerdo/No he oído) cómo te llamas [('I have been told/I can't recall/I couldn't hear') how PRO.REFL.2SG call.PRES.2SG]. In order to discuss the kind of contribution that this conceptual standpoint can make to the teaching of the Spanish verbal system, the pedagogical potential of some techniques and resources is explored in terms of (a) metonymic and metaphorical reasoning in pedagogical grammar descriptions, (b) consciousness-raising paraphrase exercises focused on meaning indeterminacy, and (c) network building and the use of (dynamic) images to show variable construals in grammatical meaning

THE STUDY OF THE MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF WORDS WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF COGNITIVE MORPHOLOGY

The article considers the basics of the cognitive approach to the analysis of language units. The purposeof the article is to establish the basic principles of cognitive morphology, which are based on the principles ofcognitive grammar and which can be used for the analysis of the morphological structure of any word. Theyare the following: morphological units should be investigated in the light of human experience, cognitiveprocesses of man and his/her vision; morphological units have prototype structures; the morphological structureof a word from a certain language depends on the peculiarities of this language; grammatical rules dependpartially on semantic properties of lexical units; semantic structures should be characterized with the referenceto the ways of interiorisation of reality; conventional links among morphological structures are identifiedthrough metaphoric and metonymic processes; cognitive morphology is of imaginary character. It is proposedto use the technique of frame patterning to analyze the morphological structure of the word. The choice of themorphological structure of a word depends on the type of a frame pattern. This study will be useful for thosewho are in line with a new approach to the analysis of language units - cognitive morphology.

A Post-Soviet Eco-Digital Nation? Metonymic Processes of Nation-Building and Estonia’s High-Tech Dreams in the 2010s

How do Estonians imagine themselves as a nation? According to a popular Estonian essayist, a proper Estonian digs his garden on Mondays and mines his bitcoins on Tuesdays. This article focuses on Estonian imaginaries to study the grounding structures of Estonian identity-creation in the 2010s and it articulates the core of a canonized understanding of Estonian identity as “eco-digital nationhood.” The article explores Estonia’s eco-digital national model as produced by an aesthetic screening, supported by a Western gaze adapted for local purposes of positive identity creation. In Estonia, international approval (for its reputation as a digital nation) has fostered a national self-image of living in a digital state. Technological advancement combined with idealizations of natural environments have sometimes produced “eco-ambiguous” results, as in efforts to encounter nonhuman life-worlds without leaving one’s own comfort zone. In other instances, the eco and the digital function as two alternating modes of selfhood, the eco-part sometimes finding expression in the narratives of ethnic particularism, the digital part figuring Estonia as a herald of western modernism prudently adapting itself to the digital future. Discrepancies between the eco-digital imaginary and the many less flattering elements of Estonian actuality highlight selective (self-)representative strategies in narratives of national success. Nation building here emerges as a metonymic process, wherein certain parts of culture are foregrounded to represent the whole—while other parts, including substantial parts of the Soviet heritage (material, demographic, social, psychological) languish as unsuitable to be framed.

OS PROCESSOS METONÍMICOS EM PUBLICIDADE VERBO-VISUAL SOB ENFOQUE DA LINGUÍSTICA CRÍTICA E DA MULTIMODALIDADE

RESUMO A publicidade tem sido representada como um continuum de funções, flutuando entre informação e manipulação, frequentemente recorrendo à comunicação implícita. Pesquisas mostram que, nesse domínio, é crucial a orientação em direção ao leitor para assegurar objetivos retóricos de persuasão. Assim, diferentes pesquisas dedicam-se à linguagem e à comunicação na publicidade, analisando o uso de estratégias de comunicação, tais como, a personificação por meio de pronomes, a intertextualidade e estratégias persuasivas de suavização por meio da modalização (hedges). Em termos do discurso publicitário, faz-se necessário ir além do uso de adjetivos e expressões explícitas, para entender que a persuasão age também na subjacência do texto e por meio de recursos imagéticos. O objetivo deste artigo é examinar, anúncios de grandes instituições financeiras veiculados em diferentes mídias, como televisão, jornais, revistas e internet para identificar a contribuição dos processos metonímicos na persuasão que percorre o gênero publicitário. Para que os objetivos sejam alcançados, as análises partem dos microelementos até atingir os macroaspectos, onde as formas linguísticas e os atos de imagem agem em conjunto para transmissão de aspectos ideológicos e hegemônicos. Além disso, as análises contam com as teorias de Halliday (1994), Kress e van Leeuwen (1996; 2006), Feng (2017) e Fairclough (1994; 1995). Os resultados indicam que, os anúncios apresentam um alto nível de informalidade e situações rotineiras. Por outro lado, as análises baseadas nos processos metonímicos demonstram os caminhos e técnicas usadas na produção dos anúncios na busca de persuadir e vender os produtos.

Bridging, Tunneling, and Towering: How Human Interaction with Artifacts Influences the Meanings of Converted Verbs

What determines the meaning of a converted verb? Why do some verbs that have been converted from nouns that refer to artifacts mean making the artifact, and others not? How come some of them, but not others, are connected with motion? And how do speakers’ experiences of the artifacts involved influence the meanings of the verbs? Noun-to-verb conversion has been dealt with at phonological, grammatical and word semantic levels, and explained in terms of metonymic processes and event schema. Yet few studies, if any, have looked into why and how converted verbs acquire the meanings that they do. This article is a corpus linguistic investigation of the converted verbs bridge, tunnel, and tower. Our aim is to find out how speakers’ experiences of the artifacts that the corresponding nouns refer to influence the meanings of the converted verbs.

The Synecdoche in Ivo Andrić’s Novel The Bridge on the Drina: A Contrastive Analysis of Structure and Use

This article is based on the analysis of semantic, syntactic and stylistic characteristics of synecdoche in Ivo Andric’s novel The Bridge on the Drina , in Serbian and its translation into French. This is a lexeme-based study where parts of the body are used to represent the whole through the synecdochic process, sometimes metonymic. The aim of this article is to prove that by using a part of the body (with a precise motivation) the author refers to its whole, which leads to a wider view of reality. The obtained results from the contrastive and descriptive analysis have to demonstrate that synecdoche is an independent figure of speech, that the mechanisms of its formation are similar in these languages, but opposed to the metonymic processes, and that the change of the synecdoche form in the context of translation influences the stylistic effect of the text.

Fatores semânticos, sociointeracionais e cognitivos da construção modalizadora com ficar de + infinitivo

Neste artigo, discutimos aspectos funcionais da construção modalizadora com ficar de + infinitivo. O objetivo é analisar fatores semânticos, sociointeracionais e cognitivos implicados nas instâncias dessa construção. Para tanto, ancoramo-nos nos pressupostos da Linguística Funcional Centrada no Uso, conjugados aos da Gramática de Construções. O banco de dados é composto de ocorrências retiradas do site Reclame Aqui. Os achados da pesquisa revelam não haver restrição quanto aos tipos de verbo recrutados para ocupar o slot infinitivo da construção e seu uso está ligado às noções de modalidade em seus aspectos deôntico e/ou epistêmico. No tocante aos aspectos sociointeracionais e cognitivos, observamos que os usos de ficar de + infinitivo se relacionam a questões de (inter)subjetividade, negociação de sentidos e a projeções metafóricas e metonímicas.

Metonymy triggers syntactic argument alternation:vehicleforconductormetonymy as a constraint on lexical-constructional integration

AbstractThis paper explores the role of metonymy in determining a syntactic argument alternation (“conductor-vehiclealternation”) which occurs in English and Portuguese:o piloto acelerou a Ferrari“the driver speeded up the Ferrari”/a Ferrari acelerou“the Ferrari speeded up/sped away”. Since the verbs in theconductor-vehiclealternation haveconductorandvehiclearguments (controller and controlled entities), a metonymic process can occur, allowing thevehicleexpression to provide access to theconductorparticipant. To explain how metonymy allows a verb with two participants to be integrated into a construction with a single argument, we assume that metonymy gathers information about both entities involved; thevehicleexpression provides mental access to bothvehicleandconductor(“fusion”). We also discuss cognitive and pragmatic factors involving the choice of a construction over another. Constructions withvehicleexpressions as subject are used when thevehicleis salient or theconductoris unknown. This also explains whydirigir“drive” does not alternate in Portuguese, contrarily to prediction and differently from Englishdrive. We provide a comparative account of the behavior of this verb in both languages.Dirigir, differently fromdrive, conceptualizes semantic components incompatible with a situation in which the agent/conductoris not salient or is unknown. This research adds to the ongoing body of literature on the role of metonymy in grammar and is a contribution to the understanding of the metonymic process, as a fusion, and also to argument alternation processes and lexical-constructional integration.

Andando de zoca en colodra: las unidades fraseológicas con verbos de movimiento en la obra de Cervante

The aim of this paper is the analysis of the locutions used by Cervantes, which include verbs of movement such as andar, caer, ir, venir or volver (volver las riendas, caer de su burra, andar de zoca en colodra, venir a las manos…). The reason for choosing these verbs is that, very frequently, they may give rise to metaphorical and metonymic processes. After defining the concept of locution and setting the corpus of locutions, we undertake their formal analysis (related to structure, level of fixation, potential variation, formal evolution…), their semantic study (meaning, semantic changes, metaphorical and metonymic processes) and we also analyze their contexts of occurrence and the registers in which they are used.