Cover not available

In:What makes a Figure: Rethinking figurativity
Edited by Herbert L. Colston
[Figurative Thought and Language 19] 2025
► pp. 160–193

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Chapter 6
Metonymy typologies revisited

Adding cumulativity to the picture

Published online: 28 October 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.19.06brd
Abstract
This chapter is a plea for the addition of new dimensions along which metonymies may be typologized. Taking Dirven’s (2002) literalness-figurativity continuum, with several types of metonymies on it, we argue for a typology of metonymies in terms of their complexity. In sketching this typology, we use the notion of cumulative metonymy as our centrepiece while replacing the idea of metonymic chains with the concept of metonymic tiers. The inclusion of syntagmatic cumulativity means that a discoursal or textual subdimension is added, too. Integrating these distinctions with existing typologies makes it possible to study how metonymic meanings are dynamically constructed (how they emerge, how they are modulated, and how metonymies interact) as the discourse evolves.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Typologies of metonymies: The past and the present
    • 2.1Types of typologies of metonymy
    • 2.2Metonymy typologies: Some desiderata for the (future) research
  • 3.A new perspective on metonymy and metonymy typology
    • 3.1Defining metonymy as a dynamic phenomenon
    • 3.2Types of metonymy: Adding interactional and integrational aspects
      • 3.2.1Simple vs. complex metonymies vs. metonymic complexes
      • 3.2.2Metonymic chains vs. tiers
      • 3.2.3Complex metonymies
      • 3.2.4Paradigmatically cumulative metonymies
      • 3.2.5Syntagmatically cumulative metonymies
  • 4.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
References (72)
References
Athanasiadou, A. (2017). Irony has a metonymic basis. In A. Athanasiadou & H. L. Colston (Eds.), Irony in Language Use and Communication (pp. 201–216): John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barcelona, A. (2005). The multilevel operation of metonymy in grammar and discourse, with particular attention to metonymic chains. In F. J. Ruiz de Mendoza & S. Peńa Cervel (Eds.), Cognitive Linguistics: Internal Dynamics and Interdisciplinary Interaction (pp. 313–352). Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2007). The role of metonymy in meaning construction at discourse level: A case study. In G. Radden, K.-M. Köpcke, T. Berg, & P. Siemund (Eds.), Aspects of Meaning Construction (pp. 51–75). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011). Reviewing the properties and prototype structure of metonymy. In R. Benczes, A. Barcelona, & F. Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez (Eds.), Defining metonymy in cognitive linguistics: Towards a consensus view (pp. 7–57). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2022). Purely inferential metonymies. Plenary talk at AELCO 12, June 27–29, Logroño, University of La Rioja.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barnden, J. A. (2010). Metaphor and metonymy: Making their connections more slippery. Cognitive Linguistics, 21(1), 1–34. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Benczes, R., Barcelona, A., & Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, F. (Eds.). (2011). Defining metonymy in cognitive linguistics: Towards a consensus view. John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bierwiaczonek, B. (2013). Metonymy in Language, Thought and Brain. Equinox. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blanco-Carrión, O., Barcelona, A., & Pannain, R. (Eds.). (2018). Conceptual Metonymy: Methodological, theoretical, and descriptive issues. John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brdar, M. (2007). Metonymy in grammar: Towards motivating extensions of grammatical categories and constructions. Faculty of Philosophy, University of Osijek.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2017). Metonymy and word-formation: Their Interactions and Complementation. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2020). Now you see me, now you don’t: Metonymic mirages and myopia. In G. Buljan, L. Matek, B. Oklopčić, J. Poljak-Rehlicki, S. Runtić, & J. Zlomislić (Eds.), Essays in Honour of Boris Berić’s Sixty-Fifth Birthday: “What’s Past Is Prologue” (pp. 257–276). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2019). On the regularity of metonymy across languages (exemplified on some metonymies in medical discourse). ExELL. Explorations in English Language and Linguistics, 7(1), 52–69. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brdar, M., & Brdar-Szabó, R. (2007). When Zidane is not simply Zidane, and Bill Gates is not just Bill Gates: Or, Some thoughts on online construction of metaphtonymic meanings of proper names. In G. Radden, K.-M. Köpcke, T. Berg, & P. Siemund (Eds.), Aspects of meaning construction (pp. 125–142). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2014). Where does metonymy begin? Some comments on Janda (2011). Cognitive Linguistics, 25(2), 313–340. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brdar-Szabó, R., & Brdar, M. (2010). “Mummy, I love you like a thousand ladybirds”: Reflections on the emergence of hyperbolic effects and the truth of hyperboles. In A. Burkhardt & B. Nerlich (Eds.), Tropical Truth(s). The Epistemology of Metaphor and Other Tropes (pp. 383–427). Walter de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011). What do metonymic chains reveal about the nature of metonymy? In R. Benczes, A. Barcelona & F. Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez (Eds.), Defining metonymy in cognitive linguistics: Towards a consensus view (pp. 217–248). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2021). Metonymic indeterminacy and metalepsis: Getting two (or more) targets for the price of one vehicle. In A. Soares da Silva (Ed.), Figurative Language — Intersubjectivity and Usage (pp. 211–247). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brdar, M., & Brdar-Szabó, R. (2022). Targetting metonymic targets. In M. Brdar & R. Brdar-Szabó (Eds.), Figurative Thought and Language in Action (pp. 59–86). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brdar-Szabo, R., & Brdar, M. (2022). Metonymy in multimodal discourse, or: How metonymies get piggybacked across modalities by other metonymies and metaphors. In A. Bagasheva, B. Hristov, & N. Tincheva (Eds.), Figurativity and Human Ecology (pp. 209–250). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Broccias, C. (2017). A radical approach to metonymy. Textus, 30(1), 185–196. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2022). A Cognitive Grammar approach to ‘metonymy’. In M. Brdar & R. Brdar-Szabó (Eds.), Figurative Thought and Language in Action (pp. 37–57). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cameron, L., & Low, G. (2004). Figurative variation in episodes of educational talk and text. European Journal of English Studies, 8(3), 355–373. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cameron, L., & Stelma, J. H. (2004). Metaphor clusters in discourse. Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1(2), 107–136. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Croft, W., & Cruse, D. A. (2004). Cognitive linguistics. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cruse, A. (2004). Lexical facets and metonymy. Ilha do Desterro, 47, 73–96. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cummings, B. (2007). Metalepsis. In S. Adamson, G. Alexander, & K. Ettenhuber (Eds.), Renaissance figures of speech (pp. 217–233). Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
David, O., Lakoff, G., & Stickles, E. (2016). Cascades in metaphor and grammar: A case study of metaphors in the gun debate. Constructions and Frames, 8(2), 214–253. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Denroche, C. (2015). Metonymy and Language: A New Theory of Linguistic Processing. Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dirven, R. (2002). Metonymy and metaphor: Different mental strategies of conceptualisation. In R. Dirven & R. Pörings (Eds.), Metaphor and Metonymy in Comparison and Contrast (pp. 75–111). Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fass, D. (1991). met*: a method for discriminating metonymy and metaphor by computer. Computational Linguistics, 17(1), 49–90.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fass, D. C. (1997). Processing Metonymy and Metaphor. Ablex.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fauconnier, G. (1994). Mental spaces: Aspects of meaning construction in natural language. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gibbs, R. W. (1994). The Poetics of Mind: Figurative Thought, Language, and Understanding. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goatly, A. (1997). The Language of Metaphors. Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grady, J. (1997a). Foundations of Meaning: Primary Metaphors and Primary Scenes. (PhD), University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1997b). theories are buildings revisited. Cognitive Linguistics, 8(4), 267–290. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grady, J., Taub, S., & Morgan, P. (1996). Primitive and compound metaphors. In Adele E. Goldberg (Ed.), Conceptual structure, discourse and language (pp. 177–180). CSLI Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hilpert, M. (2007). Chained metonymies in lexicon and grammar: A cross-linguistic perspective on body-part terms. In G. Radden, K.-M. Köpcke, Th. Berg, & P. Siemund (Eds.), Aspects of meaning construction (pp. 77–98). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2010). Chained metonymies. In J. Newman & S. Rice (Eds.), Experimental and empirical methods in cognitive/functional research (pp. 181–194). CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koch, P. (1999). Frame and contiguity: On the cognitive bases of metonymy and certain types of word formation. In K.-U. Panther & G. Radden (eds.), Metonymy in language and thought, 139–167. John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2001). Metonymy: Unity in diversity. Journal of Historical Pragmatics, 2(2), 201–244. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kövecses, Z. (2012). Ten lectures on figurative meaning-making: The role of body and context. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kövecses, Z, & Radden, G. (1998). Metonymy: Developing a cognitive linguistic view. Cognitive Linguistics, 9(1), 37–77. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Turner, M. (1989). More than cool reason: A field guide to poetic metaphor. University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Littlemore, J. (2015). Metonymy: Hidden shortcuts in language, thought and communication. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matzner, S. (2016). Rethinking metonymy: Literary theory and poetic practice from Pindar to Jakobson. Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nerlich, B., & Clarke, D. D. (2001). Serial metonymy: A study of reference-based polysemisation. Journal of Historical Pragmatics, 2(2), 245–272. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nerlich, B., Clarke, D. D., & Todd, Z. (1999). Mummy, I like being a sandwich. In K.-U. Panther & G. Radden (Eds.), Metonymy in language and thought (pp. 361–383). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Panther, K.-U. (2005). The role of conceptual metonymy in meaning construction. In F. J. Ruiz de Mendoza & S. Peńa Cervel (Eds.), Cognitive Linguistics: Internal Dynamics and Interdisciplinary Interaction (pp. 353-386). Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Panther, K.-U., & Thornburg, L. (1998). A cognitive approach to inferencing in conversation. Journal of Pragmatics, 30(6), 755–769. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1999). The potentiality for actuality metonymy in English and Hungarian. In K.-U. Panther & G. Radden (Eds.), Metonymy in language and thought (pp. 333–357). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2003). Introduction: On the nature of conceptual metonymy. In K.-U. Panther & L. Thornburg (Eds.), Metonymy and Pragmatic Inferencing (pp. 1–20). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2007). Metonymy. In D. Geeraerts & H. Cuyckens (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics (pp. 236–263). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Panther, K.-U., & Thornburg, L. L. (2009). Introduction. In K.-U. Panther, L. L. Thornburg & A. Barcelona (Eds.), Metonymy and metaphor in grammar (pp. 1–44). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paradis, C. (2004). Where does metonymy stop? Senses, facets, and active zones. Metaphor and Symbol, 19(4), 245–264. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Radden, G., & Kövecses, Z. (1999). Towards a theory of metonymy. In K.-U. Panther & G. Radden (Eds.), Metonymy in language and thought (pp. 17–59). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reddy, M. J. (1979). The conduit metaphor: A case of frame conflict in our language about language. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and Thought (pp. 284–324). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J. (1999). Introducción a la Teoría Cognitiva de la Metonímia. Método Ediciones.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J., & Díez Velasco, O. I. (2002). Patterns of conceptual interaction. In R. Dirven & R. Pörings (Eds.), Metaphor and metonymy in comparison and contrast (pp. 489–532). Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, F. J., & Mairal Usón, R. (2007). High-level metaphor and metonymy in meaning construction. In G. Radden, K.-M. Köpcke, T. Berg, & P. Siemund (Eds.), Aspects of Meaning Construction (pp. 33–49). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J., & Otal Campo, J. L. (2002). Metonymy, grammar, and communication. Editorial Comares.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Semino, E. (2008). Metaphor in Discourse. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Seto, Ken-ichi. (1999). Distinguishing metonymy from synecdoche. In K.-U. Panther & G. Radden (Eds.), Metonymy in language and thought (pp. 91–120). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stadler, M. W. (2020). The ontological nature of part-whole oscillations: An interdisciplinary determination. Austrian Academy of Sciences. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stern, Gustaf. (1931). Meaning and change of meaning. With special reference to the English language. Indiana University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thornburg, L., & Panther, K.-U. (1997). Speech act metonymies. In W.-A. Liebert, G. Redeker, & L. R. Waugh (Eds.), Discourse and perspective in cognitive linguistics (pp. 205–219). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tóth, M. (2018). Linguistic metonymy: Implicitness and co-activation of mental content. Peter Lang. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ullmann, S. (1962). Semantics: An introduction to the science of meaning. Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue