metonymy as a prototypical category metonymy as a prototypical category dirk geeraerts yves peirsman...

Metonymy as aMetonymy as aPrototypical CategoryPrototypical Category

Dirk GeeraertsDirk GeeraertsYves PeirsmanYves Peirsman

University of LeuvenUniversity of Leuven

RU Quantitative Lexicology and Variational RU Quantitative Lexicology and Variational LinguisticsLinguistics

ICLC IX. Seoul, 22.07.2005

Purpose

CL has tended to define metonymy with a unitary definition:

metaphor = a semantic shift across domainsmetonymy = a semantic shift within a domain

(matrix) as against the older definition:metaphor = a semantic shift based on similaritymetonymy= a semantic shift based on contiguity


Purpose

but since CL provides an alternative, non-unitary model

of definition, there is another CL approach to metonymy

that needs to be explored:

can metonymy be defined as a prototypically structured

concept ?


Approach

what does it mean to define metonymy ?- provide an extensional demarcation:

what are the things that we call 'metonymy' ?- provide an intensional description:

what do these things have in common ?


Approach 1: Extension

metonymy is not a natural kind, it is a theoretical construct,i.e. we do not necessarily talk about what happens in thehead of speakers but rather about what happens in thehead of linguists

what is it that made linguists group together a certain setof semantic phenomena ?

which phenomena did they actually group together ?


Approach 1: Extension

check the literature on metonymy, i.e. check the literature

that is descriptively most rich (and that is to be found

predominantly in the prestructuralist era):

• Hermann Paul (1880) Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte• Kristoffer Nyrop (1913) Grammaire historique de la langue française • Albert Waag (1901) Bedeutungsentwicklung unseres Wortschatzes • Gaston Esnault (1925) Métaphores occidentales• Neal R. Norrick (1981) Semiotic Principles in Semantic Theory

an inventory of metonymical patterns


Approach 1. Extension

spatial part & whole (P) (W) (Ny) (E) (No) - Tony Blair is the Prime Minister of England

temporal part & whole (W) - Dutch and German morgen ‘morning’ for ‘tomorrow’

location & located (P) (W) (Ny) (E) (No) – the house woke up for the people in the house’

antecedent & consequent (P) (W) (Ny) (E) - Greek phobos ‘flight’ for ‘fear’

subevent & complex event (P) (W) (No) - Mother is cooking potatoes

characteristic & entity (P) (W) (Ny) (E) - French beauté ‘beauty’

producer & product (P) (W) (Ny) (E) (No) - I’m reading Shakespeare

controller & controlled (W) (Ny) - Schwarzkopf defeated Iraq

container & contained (W) (Ny) (E) (No)- French aimer la bouteille ‘love the bottle’

material & object (Ny) (E) - French carton ‘cardboard’ for ‘cardboard box’


Approach 1. Extension

cause & effect (Ny) (E) (No) - unlock the prisons for ‘let the prisoners free’

place & product (Ny) (E) - china

possessor & possessed (E) (No) - the long straw starts for ‘the person with the straw’

action & participant (P) (W) (Ny) (No) - to author a book

participant & participant (E) (No) - the pen is mightier than the sword for ‘the writer is mightier than the soldier’

piece of clothing & person (P) (W) (Ny) (E) (No) - French une vielle perruque ‘an old wig’ for ‘an old person’

piece of clothing & body part (P) (W) - German Sohle ‘sole (of a shoe)’ for ‘sole (of a foot)’

single entity & collection (W) - German Imme ‘swarm of bees’ for ‘bee’

time & entity (E) - French un mardi-gras ‘a Shrove Tuesday’ for ‘a disguised man’

object & quantity (E) - French un quart ‘a quarter’ for ‘a tin of sardines in oil’


Approach 2. Intension

a core concept: spatial partonomythree dimensions defining extensions- strength of contact: part/whole > contact >

adjacency- boundedness: entities > unbounded masses- domain: space > time > action/events/processes

> functional assemblies


Approach 2. Intension

some restrictions on the discussion:- the directionality of the metonymical patterns will

not betaken into account- the examples (taken predominantly from the

quotedsources) will be not be discussed thoroughly- in general, only the skeleton of the prototype-

basedstructure will be presented


Space


Space

part & whole

fill up the carwe need some good

heads


Space

container & contained

a glass of winethe milk tipped over


Space

location & located

the whole town panicked

meet me at the registry


Space

entity & adjacent entity

Germ. Tafelrunde 'round table' > people sitting

there


Space

entity & adjacent entity

Germ. Tafelrunde 'round table' > people sitting

theredifference with "location" (±contact) may be small – not a crucial distinction


Space


Space

material & object(unbounded whole - bounded entity)

Fr. carton 'cardboard' > 'cardboard box'


Space


Space

x(unbounded whole - unbounded entity)

chocolate


Space

x(unbounded whole -

contained bounded entity)

bubbles 'champagne'


Time


Time

temporal part & whole

Germ. Mittag'noon' > 'afternoon'


Time

time & entity

the nineties were boring9-11 will never be

forgotten


Time

antecedent & consequent

Gr. phobos 'flight' > 'fear'


Action / Event / Process



i.e. temporally characterized entities → difference with "time" domain may be small; overlaps are to be expected



complex event & subevent

lead a girl to the altar 'marry'

grade papers 'read and evaluate'



event & participant

i.e. relations based on frame semantics: participants etc. as elements contained in actions

etc.;common subtypes:



action & agent

government'the act of governing' > 'the governing agency'



action & patient

painting'the act of painting' > 'the

painted object'



action & location

Fr. sortie'the act of leaving' > 'the

way out'



action & instrument

Ger. Nahrung'the act of feeding' >

'food'



cause & effect

Fr. lumiére'light' > 'lamp'



participant & participant

i.e. "lateral" relations in a frame: participants etc. as elements

contained in actions etc.;common subtypes:



possessor & possessed

to marry money



producer & product

I am reading Shakespeare



location & product

camembert



actual & potential

she speaks Spanish


Assemblies & Collections



i.e. entities that are functional wholes (rather than spatial, temporal, action-related wholes) – allowing for vague boundaries between domains



characteristic part & functional assembly

the press 'the publishing media'



characteristic feature & entity

youth / a youthgenius / a geniusbeauty / a beauty



countable collection & member of the collection

MHGer imme 'swarm' > 'bee'



uncountable collection & member of the collection

Ger Frauenzimmer 'womanhood' > 'woman'


Overview

part/whole


Overview

part/whole

containment

contact

adjacency


Overview

part/whole

containment

contact

adjacency

bounded unbounded


Overview

part/whole

containment

contact

adjacency

bounded unbounded

space

time


Overview

part/whole

containment

contact

adjacency

bounded unbounded

space

time

action/event/process


Overview

part/whole

containment

contact

adjacency

bounded unbounded

space

time

action/event/process

assemblies & collections


Conclusions

the category of metonymy may be reconstructed as possessing internal structure, in terms of- material part/whole relations as prototypical

centre- a multidimensional set of extensions

depending on how one evaluates the definition ofmetonymy in terms of the notion 'domain matrix',the prototype-based analysis may


Conclusions

either replace the domain matrix definition(if the latter turns out to be insufficient for

independentreasons)

or provide a network-like expansion of the domain matrix

definition, i.e. complement the schematic domain matrix

definition

for further information:http://wwwling.arts.kuleuven.be/qlvl

[email protected]

metonymy as a prototypical category metonymy as a prototypical category dirk geeraerts yves peirsman...

Documents

extension metonymy

w dutch

p w german sohle

extension cause effect

domains metonymy

similarity metonymy

semantic shift

prototypical category