A frame-semantic approach to logical metonymy

Pustejovsky’s well-known analysis of so-called logical metonymy, such as she began the book (= ‘reading’ or ‘writing’ the book), fails in several respects (cf. e.g. Godard & Jayez 1993, Lascarides & Copestake 1998, Verspoor 1997). The main problem is that his account is based on just a few prototypical examples of logical metonymy. When more examples with other verbs and other objects are analysed, his theory runs into problems. Since verb-concrete object combinations diverge widely in their interpretations, one can even ask to which extent metonymy is actually involved. With the help of FrameNet, this article analyses the semantics of these verbs and their combinations with metonymical objects. On this basis, a new analysis of logical metonymy is proposed.