Metonymic Relationship Research Articles

Sent from the Heavens, Received in Budapest

Abstract The paper examines heavenly letters by combining folkloristic, historical, and anthropological perspectives. First, it analyses and compares variations collected by Hungarian folklorists, critically evaluating their findings. Secondly, to reframe these interpretations and explore the character and late modern uses of the letters, the paper traces the origins of this tradition, and looks at the early medieval counterparts of the letters. Based on this brief review of their original form and function, the paper offers an anthropological reading of the communicative role of the letters. My central argument is that through the mere act of copying the metonymic relationship between the letter and the divine power is metaphorically altered, and that the act of copying gradually became an expressive, rather than a technical action. As a result, the changes in their character, the various protective functions incorporated into them or associated with their possession, can be understood as part of a process in which heavenly letters shifted from being indexes to signals.

The potential of creative uses of metonymy for climate protest

This paper develops the notion of metonymy scenarios by exploring the social and cognitive dimensions of various creative uses of metonymy in a collection of digital banners created for the Global Climate Strike movement. The paper argues that the banners exploit existing metonymic relationships to activate dominant anthropocentric discourses in society, and to subvert them via processes of recontextualisation and reappropriation, in order to challenge system conventions and normative attitudes regarding climate change. The literature to date has not adequately considered metonymy as a dynamic and scenario-activating cognitive operation, nor has it thoroughly investigated the relationship between metonymy and irony. However, the data analysed here show that several creative uses of metonymy, including twice-true metonymy, metonymy in combination with metaphor, and the juxtaposition of different metonymies are markers of what this paper posits as metonymic mininarratives or scenarios.

Le populisme de Podemos et l’image de son leader charismatique, Pablo Iglesias (2014-2019) : de la construction à l’érosion d’un signe iconique

After reviewing the principles of the populist articulation of the discourses that have guided the Podemos party’s strategy since 2014, this article proposes a semiotic analysis of the elements that have contributed to making the leader of the Spanish party, Pablo Iglesias, the empty signifier of this strategy. We thus observe how this media figure became an iconic sign of the political project, from the establishment of an ethos of a normal man that was supposed to allow the leader to maintain a metonymic relationship with the people that was expressed during the 15M movement in 2011, to the enhancement of his image as a presidential candidate for the 2015 general elections. But this hyper-incarnation went together with a major disappointment as soon as the leader's image no longer quite matched the myth that had been built up around him, as he was not elected President of the government in 2015 and internal tensions increased between 2016 and 2019.

How can transforming representation of mathematical entities help us employ more cognitive resources?

This article discusses the cognitive process of transforming one representation of mathematical entities into another representation. This process, which has been called mathematical metaphor, allows us to understand and embody a difficult-to-understand mathematical entity in terms of an easy-to-understand entity. When one representation of a mathematical entity is transformed into another representation, more cognitive resources such as the visual and motor systems can come into play to understand the target entity. Because of their nature, some curves, which are one group of visual representations, may have a great motor strength. It is suggested that directedness, straightness, length, and thinness are some possible features that determine degree of motor strength of a curve. Another possible factor that can determine motor strength of a curve is the strength of association between shape of the curve and past experiences of the observer (and her/his prior knowledge). If an individual has had the repetitive experience of observing objects moving along a certain curve, the shape of the curve may have a great motor strength for her/him. In fact, it can be said that some kind of metonymic relationship may be formed between the shapes of some curves and movement experiences.

Arab American Women: Representation and Refusal

Arab American Women: Representation and Refusal

Metonymical noun-noun nominal compounds in Persian

ABSTRACT This study investigates patterns in metonymical noun-noun compounds in Persian and examines similarities and differences between metonymical compounds in Persian and in English. A detailed analysis of 435 metonymical compounds reveals the following patterns of metonymy-based compounds in Persian: i) metonymical modifier, ii) metonymical head, iii) metonymical head and modifier, iv) compound as a metonymical whole, and v) a whole-part/part-whole metonymic relationship between the components of the compound. The quantitative analysis shows that compounds with a whole-part/part-whole metonymical relationship and compounds with metonymical modifier are by far the most frequent patterns, a result that may be explained by the ease of processing of these two compound types resulting from the transparency of their head element. Comparing patterns of metonymical compounds in Persian with those described in English shows that the first four patterns are observable in both English and Persian whereas the two languages differ to some extent in the last pattern. While Persian compounds with compound-internal metonymic relationships instantiate either whole-part or part-whole metonymies, English compounds with internal metonymic relationship instantiate part-part metonymy as well as whole-part and part-whole metonymies.

Theorizing the Player-Playable Figure Relationship

The paper revisits a central question in the study of characters in digital games: Do players of, for example, a racing game steer the virtual car directly themselves, or are they controlling the body of a virtual driver? This seemingly technical question is shown to be primarily cognitive and conceptual: players draw on their real-life and fictional frames of reference in an ongoing epistemological process of situating themselves vis-à-vis gameworld and playable figure. The traditional metaphor for this relationship, that of a cyborg, neither captures the variety of relationships suggested by games, nor the range of interpretations open to players. To overcome this limitation, I propose six conceptual types, based on the significance that tools and vehicles have for the playable figure. I ask: is there a co-dependence between equipment and user, is it permanent, and do they have a metonymic relationship to each other? These abstract categories are shown to be connected to archetypical proto-narratives epitomized by characters from mythology and popular culture, which players implicitly refer to in conceptualizing their relationship to the gameworld. The essay, then, offers a framework for the conceptual variety of player-playable figure-relations, which, in drawing on cultural history, should be equally transparent to scholars of game studies and narratology.

Towards Post-Phenomenology and Posthumanism

The paper revisits a central question in the study of characters in digital games: Do players of, for example, a racing game steer the virtual car directly themselves, or are they controlling the body of a virtual driver? This seemingly technical question is shown to be primarily cognitive and conceptual: players draw on their real-life and fictional frames of reference in an ongoing epistemological process of situating themselves vis-à-vis gameworld and playable figure. The traditional metaphor for this relationship, that of a cyborg, neither captures the variety of relationships suggested by games, nor the range of interpretations open to players. To overcome this limitation, I propose six conceptual types, based on the significance that tools and vehicles have for the playable figure. I ask: is there a co-dependence between equipment and user, is it permanent, and do they have a metonymic relationship to each other? These abstract categories are shown to be connected to archetypical proto-narratives epitomized by characters from mythology and popular culture, which players implicitly refer to in conceptualizing their relationship to the gameworld. The essay, then, offers a framework for the conceptual variety of player-playable figure-relations, which, in drawing on cultural history, should be equally transparent to scholars of game studies and narratology.

Response: Composite Avatars and the Epistemology of the Playable Figure

The paper revisits a central question in the study of characters in digital games: Do players of, for example, a racing game steer the virtual car directly themselves, or are they controlling the body of a virtual driver? This seemingly technical question is shown to be primarily cognitive and conceptual: players draw on their real-life and fictional frames of reference in an ongoing epistemological process of situating themselves vis-à-vis gameworld and playable figure. The traditional metaphor for this relationship, that of a cyborg, neither captures the variety of relationships suggested by games, nor the range of interpretations open to players. To overcome this limitation, I propose six conceptual types, based on the significance that tools and vehicles have for the playable figure. I ask: is there a co-dependence between equipment and user, is it permanent, and do they have a metonymic relationship to each other? These abstract categories are shown to be connected to archetypical proto-narratives epitomized by characters from mythology and popular culture, which players implicitly refer to in conceptualizing their relationship to the gameworld. The essay, then, offers a framework for the conceptual variety of player-playable figure-relations, which, in drawing on cultural history, should be equally transparent to scholars of game studies and narratology.

Centaurs and Horsemen: Composite Avatars and the Epistemology of the Playable Figure

The paper revisits a central question in the study of characters in digital games: Do players of, for example, a racing game steer the virtual car directly themselves, or are they controlling the body of a virtual driver? This seemingly technical question is shown to be primarily cognitive and conceptual: players draw on their real-life and fictional frames of reference in an ongoing epistemological process of situating themselves vis-à-vis gameworld and playable figure. The traditional metaphor for this relationship, that of a cyborg, neither captures the variety of relationships suggested by games, nor the range of interpretations open to players. To overcome this limitation, I propose six conceptual types, based on the significance that tools and vehicles have for the playable figure. I ask: is there a co-dependence between equipment and user, is it permanent, and do they have a metonymic relationship to each other? These abstract categories are shown to be connected to archetypical proto-narratives epitomized by characters from mythology and popular culture, which players implicitly refer to in conceptualizing their relationship to the gameworld. The essay, then, offers a framework for the conceptual variety of player-playable figure-relations, which, in drawing on cultural history, should be equally transparent to scholars of game studies and narratology.

Metonymie in der Gedichtübersetzung

Abstract This study represents a contrastive analysis of Michael Ende’s poem “Der Lindwurm und der Schmetterling oder Der seltsame Tausch” and its Serbian translation by Spomenka Krajčević titled “Zmaj i Leptir ili Neobična zamena” based on the cognitive-linguistic theory of conceptual metonymy. The purpose of the analysis is to determine in what way the mechanisms of conceptual metonymy may be utilized for the purposes of poetry translation. For this reason, those passages of the translated poem will be analyzed which deviate from the original in such a way that the semantic material of the deviating passages exhibits the characteristics of metonymy, namely a specific conceptual configuration between an Idealized Cognitive Model (Frame) and its parts. The analysis revealed 61 metonymic relationships between the target- and the source text, of which 46 in total (75.4%) reveal a contiguous relationship between two parts of an ICM, indicating that this metonymic principle of configuration may present a considerably more flexible translation strategy for poetry translation than the substitution of an entire ICM with one of its parts or vice versa.

Homonimia w mikrotoponimii południowo-wschodniej części powiatu krośnieńskiego – geneza i typologia

The paper deals with the problems of homonymy in onomastics, which are quite rarely addressed in linguistic works. On the basis of microtoponyms collected during research in south-eastern Poland, the mechanisms of formation and functioning of naming homonymy are presented. The onymic material extracted for the research has been presented in two groups containing appellative-onymic, and onymic-onymic homonyms. The first part of the article focuses on the characteristics of referential homonyms, i.e. repeated field names referring to different denotates (referents, objects), but functioning within the same category of microtoponyms (e.g. names of mountains, fields, forests, streams). The second part presents metonymic homonyms, names with the same form (but pointing to different denotatives) that remain in a metonymic relationship. The focus here is mainly on the description of reified denotations, formed by the transposition of a name from one object to another (adjacent to it).

Feeding extinction: navigating the metonyms and misanthropy of palm oil boycotts

Among UK-based orangutan conservation supporters, palm oil consumption boycotts are widespread, due to the ecological impacts of oil palm cultivation on orangutan habitat. Yet these boycotts are largely at odds with the stances of orangutan charities. Drawing on interviews with orangutan supporters, this article explores why some Global North consumers are so consumed by palm oil. Palm oil is viewed by orangutan supporters as insidious, invasive and cheap, and forces a bodily complicity with orangutan suffering. It is mobilized as a metonym for human greed and capitalist destruction. This metonymic relationship mirrors broader Anthropocentric framings of human-nature relations, which emphasize humanity as a universal actor. Yet the practices of 'species guilt' associated with these framings largely mitigate against a decolonizing model of conservation, as they have the potential to deny agency to workers and villagers enmeshed within the oil palm economy. Despite these unpromising circumstances, this article explores the unintended value of palm oil boycotts in terms of agency and ecological consciousness and addresses the potential to align such boycotts with a decolonial analysis, through centering the human dimensions of orangutan conservation.

Metaphoric and Metonymic Relationships Related to the Verb of YE- in Kutadgu Bilig

Metaphoric and Metonymic Relationships Related to the Verb of YE- in Kutadgu Bilig

КОГНИТИВНЫЕ МОДЕЛИ МЕТОНИМИИ С КОНЦЕПТОМ «HOLLYWOOD» (КОРПУСНЫЙ АНАЛИЗ)

Within the framework of cognitive linguistics metonymy exists only between concepts belonging to the same Idealized Cognitive Model (ICM). Metonymic relationships between concepts are not chaotic but regulated by a set of cognitive and communicative principles. They dictate the choice of metonymic source and metonymic target. Cognitive linguistics also assume, that we think in terms of metaphor and metonymy, so they are not examples of our creativity in figurative language, but regular, standard and default. This fact is proven by numerous data from text corpora. The case study of the article is the ICM ‘Hollywood’ and its metonymic models.

Metonymy, metaphor, Patroklos, Achilles

This paper proposes an analysis of the relationship between tenor and vehicle in the simile that Achilles speaks to the weeping Patroklos at Iliad 16.5-11. Conceiving metaphor as based on resemblance (and, inevitably, difference) between tenor and vehicle and metonymy as based on attachment or connection between them, the simile is interpreted as a metaphor for the fused relationship between Achilles and Patroklos (the tenor) whose vehicle is the metonymic relationship between a mother fleeing both the catastrophic, violent consequences of war on women and at the same time her very own child who is desperately trying to stay connected to her mother by grasping at her clothing. The analysis invokes as a striking parallel the research of the pediatric psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott on the birth of metaphor (in the form of a so-called transitional object) that results from the process of a child’s detachment at weaning from her mother.

Hospitality's Prowess: Performing Sahrāwī Sovereignty in Refugee Camps

AbstractThe Sahrāwī movement for national liberation—known as the Polisario Front—has been organizing into the Sahrāwī Arab Democratic Republic in refugee camps since 1976. This article describes rhetorical and administrative strategies that muster the labor of hospitality carried out in Sahrāwī households to advance the legitimacy of the Polisario Front. The khayma (tent, household, or family), a customary domain of female power and symbol of hospitality among the Sahrāwī (and beyond), bears a metonymic relationship with the project of a Sahrāwī revolutionary nationalism. Examining how hospitality serves as a nexus of articulation between different orders of the political, it argues that practices of hospitality among Sahrāwī refugees constitute the expression of a form of popular sovereignty and revolutionary practice.

‘Rule Number 1 – It is Possible that Your Only Nation is Imagination’

May a country be a work of art? In Belgian Rules/Belgium Rules Jan Fabre sets out to invent Belgium beyond current separatist nationalism, claiming a metonymic relationship between Belgium and theatre, since Belgium was born on the stage of Brussels’s Opera house in 1830. He theatricalizes the institution of the nation by taking up the movement of Belgian carnival parades, in order to historicize it again thanks to his theatricality of repetition, whose agent is the theatrical image in-the-making. The piece is approached as a site of collision between theatrical and historical temporalities. The way Fabre releases the historical/political potential of theatre is explored through Merleau-Ponty’s existential philosophy, Badiou’s invented real and Foucault’s relations of power in institutions. It is concluded that Fabre’s theatre becomes an image itself. Thanks to the metonymic relationship, Belgium is also invented as an image, as an image-nation. Fabre changes the politics of time by disrupting the linear causality of history through his theatricality of repetition. The image-nation becomes a theatrical/political manifest of what is possible in an era challenged by nationalisms.

Pointing to the body

AbstractKinship plays a central role in organizing interaction and other social behaviors in Indigenous Australia. The spoken lexicon of kinship has been the target of extensive consideration by anthropologists and linguists alike. Less well explored, however, are the kin categories expressed through sign languages (notwithstanding the pioneering work of Adam Kendon). This paper examines the relational categories codified by the kin signs of four language-speaking groups from different parts of the Australian continent: the Anmatyerr from Central Australia; the Yolŋu from North East Arnhem Land; the Kuuk Thaayorre from Cape York and theNgaatjatjarra/​Ngaanyatjarrafrom the Western Desert. The purpose of this examination is twofold. Firstly, we compare the etic kin relationships expressed by kin signs with their spoken equivalents. In all cases, categorical distinctions made in the spoken system are systematically merged in the sign system. Secondly, we consider the metonymic relationships between the kin categories expressed in sign and the various parts of the body at which those signs are articulated.

Proyectos sociales deportivos, carreras de deportistas y ex-deportistas y el don entre extraños

En este artí­culo, propongo analizar los cambios ocurridos desde 1994 en las representaciones colectivas sobre la selección brasileña de fútbol. Argumento que el aumento extraordinario de la mercantilización del fútbol profesional, en especial en Europa, transformó a los jugadores en multimillonarios que residen en el exterior, condición que dificulta la relación metoní­mica establecida, anteriormente, entre la selección nacional brasileña y el pueblo de Brasil. Establezco una conexión entre esas representaciones y el gran número de proyectos sociales deportivos emprendidos en Brasil por atletas de alto rendimiento, entre ellos jugadores que fueron parte de la selección brasileña de fútbol en las Copas del Mundo de la Federación Internacional de Fútbol Asociado (FIFA), en especial a partir de 1994. Estos datos son interpretados a partir de la teorí­a del don de Marcel Mauss. Además, se realizó una comparación con datos argentinos sobre proyectos sociales deportivos que, arrojó luz sobre el caso brasileño.