Cover not available

Article published In: Living Metaphors and Metonymies
Edited by Mario Brdar and Rita Brdar-Szabó
[Review of Cognitive Linguistics 20:1] 2022
► pp. 104–129

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

On the creative use of metonymy

ORCiD logo with link | University of Birmingham
Published online: 24 May 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00103.lit
Abstract
Antonio Barcelona’s work has advanced our understanding of the role played by pragmatics in the production and comprehension of metonymy. Much of his work has focused on playful uses of metonymy, which involve creative extensions of attested metonymic relationships, particularly in the pursuit of adversarial humour. Whilst there has been extensive work on the creative use of metaphor, very few studies have explored the range of ways in which metonymy is used creatively. In this article, I analyse creative uses of metonymy from a range of sources including film reviews, text messaging, art, advertising, cinema and literature in order to identify the different forms that creative uses of metonymy can take. In the process of analysing these different creative uses of metonymy, I address the following questions: What is the difference between ‘novelty’ and ‘creativity’ and what is the relationship between them, in the context of metaphor and metonymy? To what extent and in what ways are the principles underpinning the identification of creative metonymy, analogous to those used in the identification of creative metaphor? At what level of abstraction should the creativity be identified in each case? Can and should we distinguish between ‘creative metonymy per se, and creative uses of metonymy? At what point can we say that a new metonymic mapping has been created as opposed to a creative use of an existing mapping? What affordances does metonymy offer for creative use and how do these compare with the affordances that are offered by metaphor?
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The controversy: Is it the case that we can have a novel metaphor but not a novel metonym, and what is the difference between a ‘novel’ and a ‘creative metonym?
  • 3.Creative uses of metonymy
    • 3.1Meaning-based creativity
      • The juxtaposition of two established metonymic relationships
      • The extension or elaboration of an established metonymic relationship
      • Combination and/or juxtaposition with metaphor
      • ‘Twice-true’ metonymy
      • Possible personification
      • Discourse level creativity
    • 3.2Form-based creative uses of metonymy
    • 3.3Summary of creative metonymy types
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (29)
References
Barcelona, A. (2003). The case for a metonymic basis of pragmatic inferencing. Evidence from jokes and funny anecdotes. In K. U. Panther & L. Thornburg (Eds.) Metonymy and pragmatic inferencing (pp. 81–122). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2004). Metonymy behind grammar: The motivation of the seemingly “irregular” grammatical behavior of English paragon names. In G. Radden & K-U Panther (Eds.) Studies in Linguistic Motivation (pp. 357–374). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2008). The multilevel operation of metonymy in grammar and discourse, with particular attention to metonymic chains. In F. Ruiz de Mendoza & M. S. Peña (Eds.) Cognitive linguistics: Internal dynamics and interdisciplinary interaction (pp. 313–352). Berlin & New York: Mouton De Gruyter.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
(2015). Open-ended elaborations in creative metaphor. In T. R. Besold, M. Schorlemmer & A. Smaill (Eds.), Computational creativity research: Towards creative machines (pp. 217–242). Paris: Atlantis Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2016). Mixed metaphor: Its depth, its breadth, and a pretence-based approach. R. Gibbs (Ed.), Mixing metaphor (pp. 75–111). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barnden, J. A., Glasbey, S. R., Lee, M. G., & Wallington, A. M. (2003). Domain-transcending mappings in a system for metaphorical reasoning. In Conference Companion to the 10th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (EACL 2003), 57–61, Association for Computational Linguistics. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brdar, M. (2018). Novel metonymies, wine and wineskins, old and new ones. In S. Gudurić & B. Radić-Bojanić (Eds.), Jezici i kulture u vremenu i prostoru VII/1 (pp. 123–134). Novi Sad: Filozofski fakultet/Pedagoško društvo Vojvodine.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carter, R. (2015). Language and creativity: The art of common talk (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colston, H. L., & Gibbs, R. W. (2021). Figurative language communicates directly because it precisely demonstrates what we mean. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology/Revue canadienne de psychologie expérimentale. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Feng, W. D. (2017). Metonymy and visual representation: Towards a social semiotic framework of visual metonymy. Visual Communication, 16(4), 441–466. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frisson, S., & Pickering, M. J. (1999). The processing of metonymy: Evidence from eye movements. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 25(6), 1366.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2007). The processing of familiar and novel senses of a word: Why reading Dickens is easy but reading Needham can be hard. Language and Cognitive Processes, 22(4), 595–613. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fuoli, M., Littlemore, J., & Turner, S. (2022). Sunken ships and screaming banshees: metaphor and evaluation in film reviews. English Language and Linguistics, 26(1), 75–103. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Genovesi, C. (2020). Metaphor and what is meant: Metaphorical content, what is said, and contextualism. Journal of Pragmatics, 1571, 17–38. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grady, J. (1997). Foundations of meaning: Primary metaphors and primary scenes. Retrieved from [URL]
Hidalgo Downing, L. & Kraljevic Mujic, B. (2020). Performing metaphoric creativity across modes and contexts. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keskinen, M. (2002). Hearing voices in dreams: Freud’s tossing and turning with speech and writing. PsyArt: A Hyperlink Journal for Psychological Study of the Arts, 6(1).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Turner, M. (2009). More than cool reason: A field guide to poetic metaphor. Chicago: University of Chicago press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Littlemore, J. (2015). Metonymy: Hidden shortcuts in language, thought and communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Littlemore, J., & Tagg, C. (2018). Metonymy and text messaging: A framework for understanding creative uses of metonymy. Applied Linguistics, 391, 481–507.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Littlemore, J., Turner, S., & Tuck, P. (2022). Creative metaphor, emotion and evaluation in conversations about work. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pérez-Sobrino, P., Semino, E., Ibarretxe-Antuñano, I., Koller, V., & Olza, I. (2021). Acting like a hedgehog in times of pandemic: Metaphorical creativity in the #ReframeCovid collection. Metaphor and Symbol.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Radden, G., & Kövecses, Z. (1999). Towards a theory of metonymy. In K. Panther and G. Radden (Eds.), Metonymy in language and thought (pp. 17–60). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Runco, M. A., & Jaeger, G. J. (2012). The standard definition of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 24(1), 92–96. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Slabakova, R., Cabrelli Amaro, J., & Kang, S. K. (2013). Regular and novel metonymy in native Korean, Spanish, and English: Experimental evidence for various acceptability. Metaphor and Symbol, 28(4), 275–293. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Slabakova, R., Cabrelli Amaro, J., & Kyun Kang, S. (2016). Regular and novel metonymy: Can you curl up with a good Agatha Christie in your second language? Applied Linguistics, 37(2), 175–197. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Herwegen, J., Dimitriou, D., & Rundblad, G. (2013). Development of novel metaphor and metonymy comprehension in typically developing children and Williams syndrome. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 34(4), 1300–1311. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (8)

Cited by eight other publications

Bielova, Maryna A.
2025. STYLISTIC NEOLOGISMS IN ENGLISH-LANGUAGE CHICK LIT: MORPHOSEMANTIC ASPECT. Alfred Nobel University Journal of Philology 1:29 ► pp. 78 ff. DOI logo
Fuoli, Matteo & Samantha Ford
2025. One Hundred Ways to Resist Corporate Branding: Figurative Subversion in Visual and Multimodal Communication. Metaphor and Symbol 40:3 ► pp. 222 ff. DOI logo
Hidalgo-Downing, Laura
2025. Creative visual and multimodal metonymy in non-commercial advertisements on substance use. Metaphor and the Social World 15:2 ► pp. 288 ff. DOI logo
Leclercq, Benoît & Cameron Morin
2025. The Meaning of Constructions, DOI logo
Yang, Kaiwen & Ya Sun
2025. To change or not to change: Transformations of ecological metaphors in Chinese government microblogs. Discourse & Society 36:2 ► pp. 310 ff. DOI logo
O’Dowd, Niamh A
2024. The potential of creative uses of metonymy for climate protest. Discourse & Society 35:3 ► pp. 360 ff. DOI logo
Juzelėnienė, Saulė & Aistė Stvolaitė
2023. Multimodal Representations of Lithuanian Brands: The Case of “Džiugas”, “Rūta” and “Pieno žvaigždės”. Respectus Philologicus :44 (49) ► pp. 25 ff. DOI logo
Littlemore, Jeannette
2023. ‘You’ll find Jane Austen in the basement’ … or Will You? Metonymy and Second Language Learning. In Applying Cognitive Linguistics to Second Language Learning and Teaching, ► pp. 143 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue