Discussion published In: Embodied, Social, and Creative Dimensions of Metonymy
Edited by Marlene Johansson Falck and Thomas Wiben Jensen
[Metaphor and the Social World 15:2] 2025
► pp. 196–204
Forum
The metonymic body
Published online: 17 October 2025
https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.24026.gib
https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.24026.gib
Abstract
This article outlines the significant role that metonymy plays in how we understand our bodies. A primary way we
experience our bodies is through enduring contiguous relations between bodily sensations and actions with various patterns of
cognitive appraisals. These contiguous relations between bodies and minds are dynamic, causal, and not merely correlational. The
links between bodily experiences and cognitive appraisals also suggest that metonymy is more relevant to understanding human
bodies than are metaphorical cross-domain mappings.
Keywords: contiguity, embodiment, metaphor, metonymy
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2Feeling metonymy
- 3.How metonymy arises in bodily experience
- 4.Conclusion
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