Cover not available

In:Studies in Figurative Thought and Language
Edited by Angeliki Athanasiadou
[Human Cognitive Processing 56] 2017
► pp. 75–104

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

Chapter 3
How to do things with metonymy in discourse

 | University of Pavia
Published online: 26 April 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.56.03bai
Abstract
This chapter addresses the role of figurative thought at the level of discourse and investigates the metonymic grounding of interpersonal communication. With the focus placed upon illocutionary constructions realized through the interrogative sentence type, it aims to delineate the way in which conceptual metonymy contributes to moulding indirect illocutions. The research is conducted under the umbrella of the Cost-Benefit Cognitive Model, which conceives of illocutions as entrenched, productive and replicable form-function pairings. The qualitative analysis of attested corpus data retrieved from the bnc, the coca, and the WebCorp provides a depiction of the variety and complexity of some constructional procedures along with the socio-cultural variables licensing them, and it prompts the proposal of a Thinking-for-Metonymic-Speaking (TFMS) process that motivates illocutionary indirectness.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Illocution and conceptual metonymy
  • 3.The Cost-Benefit Cognitive Model
  • 4.Interrogative sentence type and illocutionary constructions
    • 4.1Can You X?
    • 4.2Could You X?
    • 4.3Can’t You X?
    • 4.4Couldn’t You X?
    • 4.5Can I X?
    • 4.6Could I X?
    • 4.7May I X?
    • 4.8Might I X?
    • 4.9Will You X?
    • 4.10Won’t You X?
    • 4.11Would You X?
    • 4.12Will You Let Me X?
    • 4.13Would You Like X?
    • 4.14Wouldn’t You Like X?
    • 4.15Would you Like Me to X?
  • 5.The Thinking-for-Metonymic-Speaking process
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
References (45)
References
Baicchi, A. 2009. The AUX-NP Requestive Construction and its metonymic grounding within the Lexical Constructional Model. Lecture delivered at the International CRAL Conference 2009. University of La Rioja.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2012. On acting and thinking. Studies bridging between speech acts and cognition. Pisa, ETS.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2014. Speech acts as high-level situational cognitive models. In M. E. Schulze-Busacker & V. Fortunati (Eds.), Par les siècles et par les genres (23–50). Paris: Classiques Garnier.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baicchi, A., & Ruiz de Mendoza Ibánéz, F. J. 2010. The cognitive grounding of illocutionary constructions. Textus, XXIII(3), 543–563.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Butler C. S. 1996. On the concept of an interpersonal metafunction in English. In M. Berry, C. S. Butler, R. Fawcett & G. Huang (Eds.), Meaning and form: Systemic functional interpretations. Norwood, N.J. Ablex: 151–182.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Butler, C. S., & Gonzálves-García, F. 2014. Exploring functional-cognitive space. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Del Campo, N. 2013. Illocutionary constructions in English: Cognitive motivation and linguistic realization. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dik, S. 1997. The theory of functional grammar: Complex and derived constructions. Berlin & New York, Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dirven, R. (2005). Major strands in Cognitive Linguistics. In A. Baicchi et al. (Eds.), Modeling thought and constructing meaning. Cognitive models in interactions. (pp. 11–40). Milan, Franco Angeli.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Givón, T. 1990. Syntax. A functional-typological introduction. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gibbs, R. 1999. Speaking and thinking with metonymy. In K.U Panther & G. Radden (Eds.), Metonymy in language and thought (61–76), Amsterdam, John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2005. Embodiment and cognitive science. Cambridge, MA, Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldberg, A. E. 1995. A construction grammar approach to argument structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2006. Constructions at work: The nature of generalization in language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday M. A. K., & Matthiessen C. 2004. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. 3rd edition. London: Arnold.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. 1987. Women, fire, and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Langacker, R. (1987). Foundations of Cognitive Grammar. Vol. 1: Theoretical prerequisites . Stanford, Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leech, G. 1983. Principles of pragmatics. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leech G. 1990. Semantics. The Study of Meaning. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mairal Usón, R., & Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J. 2009. Levels of description and explanation in meaning construction. In C. S. Butler & J. Martin Arista (Eds.), Deconstructing constructions (153–198). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 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, 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 (333–357). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Panther, K-U., and Thornburg. Eds. 2003. Metonymy and pragmatic inferencing. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peirce, C. S. 1965. Collected Papers. C. Hartshorne and P. Weiss, eds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pérez-Hernández, L. 2009. Análisis léxico-construccional de verbos de habla. Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a la Comunicación, 40, 62–93.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2012. Saying something for a particular purpose: Constructional compatibility and constructional families. RESLA, ,, 189–210.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2013. Illocutionary constructions: (multiple source)-in-target metonymies, illocutionary ICMs, and specification links. Language & Communication, 33, 128–149. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pérez-Hernández, L., Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J. 2002. Grounding, semantic motivation, and conceptual interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 34(3), 259–284. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
, 2011. A lexical-constructional model account of illocution. Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics 8, 99–138.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Radden, G., Köpcke, K.-M., Berg, T., & Siemund, P. 2007 (Eds.), Aspects of meaning construction. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J., & Baicchi, A. 2006. Illocutionary constructions. Linguistic LAUD Agency. Series A. General & Theoretical Papers. Essen, LAUD 2006. Paper no. 668.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2007. Illocutionary constructions: Cognitive motivation and linguistic realization. In I. Kecskes & L. Horn (Eds.), Explorations in pragmatics: Linguistic, cognitive, and intercultural aspects (95–128). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J., & Galera Masegosa, A. 2014. Cognitive modeling: A linguistic perspective. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J., & Gonzálvez-García, F. 2011. Constructional Integration in the Lexical Constructional Model. British and American Studies, XVII, 75–95.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J., & Mairal Usón, R. 2008. Levels of description and constraining factors in meaning construction: An introduction to the Lexical Constructional Model. Folia Linguistica, 42(2), 355–400.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sadock, J., & Zwicky, A. 1985. Speech act distinctions in syntax. In T. Shopen (Ed.), Language typology and syntactic description: Clause structure (155–196). Cambridge: Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Searle, J. 1969. Speech acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Slobin, D. 1996. From “thought and language” to “thinking for speaking”. In J. Gumperz & S. Levinson, (Eds.), Rethinking linguistic relativity (70–96). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spencer-Oatey, H. 1996. Reconsidering power and distance. Journal of Pragmatics, 26 (1), 1–24. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sperber, D., & Wilson, D. 1995. Relevance. Communication and Cognition. 2nd edition. Oxford, Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taylor, J. 1995. Linguistic Categorization: Prototypes in Linguistic Categorization. Oxford: Oxford 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. Waugh (Eds.), Discourse and perspective in cognitive linguistics (205–219). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Verschueren, J. 1985. What people say they do with words. Prolegomena to an empirical-conceptual approach to linguistic action. Norwood, N.J., Ablex Publishing Corporation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue