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Part of
Studies in Figurative Thought and Language
Edited by Angeliki Athanasiadou
[Human Cognitive Processing 56] 2017
► pp. 200–229

Chapter 8
Shakespeare on the shelf, Blue Helmets on the move

Human-related metonymic conceptualization in English and Serbian

| University of Belgrade

This chapter explores human-related conceptual metonymies in English and Serbian. Highlighting the shared metonymic mappings involving human beings as targets (x for human) and vehicles (human for x) and the similarities/differences in their lexical and grammatical realization in the two languages, the analysis shows that concepts from the human domain are readily recruited both as targets and as vehicles of metonymic mappings, whereby preferences towards particular kinds of human-related concepts as vehicles or targets outweigh language-specific differences, yielding a rather consistent metonymic portrayal of humans in English and Serbian. The analysis is followed by a discussion of the diagnostic potential of human-related metonymies for content-based cross-linguistic study of conceptual metonymy.

Keywords: conceptual metonymy, cross-linguistic, humans as metonymic targets, humans as metonymic vehicles, metonymic portrayal of humans
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1The cognitive linguistic view(s) of metonymy
    • 2.2Humans as metonymic vehicles and targets
  • 3.Data and approach
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Metonymic vehicles affording mental access to humans as desired targets
      • 4.1.1 body part for person
      • 4.1.2 piece of clothing/uniform for person
      • 4.1.3 salient object for person
      • 4.1.4 salient property for person
      • 4.1.5 place for people
      • 4.1.6 institution for people
    • 4.2Target concepts accessed via humans as metonymic vehicles
      • 4.2.1 producer for product
      • 4.2.2 controller for controlled
      • 4.2.3 possessor for possessed
    • 4.3Language-specific aspects of the realization of human-related metonymies
      • 4.3.1Lexical aspects
      • 4.3.2Grammatical aspects
    • 4.4The metonymic portrayal of humans in English and Serbian
    • 4.5Human-related metonymies within a broader picture of metonymy
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 26 April 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.56.08ras
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