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. 172–194

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

Forty years of metonymy

The time-measurement pseudo-partitive construction in English

ORCiD logo with link | University of Córdoba
Published online: 24 May 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00106.mun
Abstract
This study contributes to the existing body of research that aims at showing the impact of metonymy in grammar. In this case, new evidence will be provided by exploring the English pseudo-partitive construction of time measurement, illustrated by ten years of marriage. By using corpus data, it will be shown that metonymy is at work in many instantiations of this construction. The second noun in these expressions should prima facie be semantically eligible for time measurement, that is, a temporal entity or a second-order entity. However, this is not the only type of noun that appears in the second noun slot, which can also be occupied by first and third-order entities as well as places. The presence of an expression of time-measurement in the first part of the construction coerces different ontological categories into a second-order reading and can be regarded as a guide for the correct interpretation when the second noun includes several facets, illustrating the cognitive process of cueing.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1Cognitive operations: Metonymy, facetization, zone activation and parametrization
    • 2.2Semantic categories
  • 3.A case study: Facetization in the time-measurement pseudo-partitive construction
    • 3.1Methodology
    • 3.2What are pseudo-partitives?
    • 3.3Analysis and discussion
      • 3.3.1Numeral + Time-N1 of + N2 (Second-order entity, Time)
      • 3.3.2Numeral + Time-N1 of + N2 (First-order entity)
      • 3.3.3Numeral + Time-N1 of + N2 (Place)
      • 3.3.4Third-order entities
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (31)
References
Barcelona, A. (Ed.). (2000). Metaphor and metonymy at the crossroads: A pognitive perspective (Topics in English Linguistics, 30). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2002). On the ubiquity and multiple-level operation of metonymy. In B. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk & K. Turewicz (Eds.), Cognitive Linguistics today (Lódz Studies in Language, 6) (pp. 207–224). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2004). Metonymy behind grammar: The motivation of seemingly “irregular” grammatical behaviour of English paragon names. In G. Radden & K. U. Panther (Eds.), Motivation in grammar (Cognitive Linguistics Research, 28) (pp. 357–374). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011). Reviewing the properties and prototype structure of metonymy. In R. Benczes, A. Barcelona & F. J. Ruiz de Mendoza (Eds.), Defining metonymy in Cognitive Linguistics: Towards a consensus view (Human Cognitive Processing, 28) (pp. 7–57). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bell, M., & Portero-Muñoz, C. (2022). Time-measurement constructions in English: A corpus-based exploration. In L. Sommerer & E. Keizer (Eds.), English noun phrases from a functional-cognitive perspective: Current issues. (Studies in Language Companion Series, 221) (pp. 311–362). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brdar, M., & Brdar-Szabó, R. (2003). Metonymic coding of linguistic action in English, Croatian and Hungarian. In K. U. Panther & L. L. Thornburg (Eds.), Metonymy and pragmatic inferencing (pp. 241–266). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2007). When Zidane is not simply Zidane, and Bill Gates is not just Bill Gates. In G. Radden, K.-M. Köpcke, T. Berg & P. Siemund (Eds.), Aspects of meaning construction (pp. 125–142). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2009). The (non-)metonymic use of place names in English, German, Hungarian, and Croatian. In K. U. Panther, L. L. Thornburg & A. Barcelona (Eds.), Metonymy and metaphor in grammar (Human Cognitive Processing, 25) (pp. 229–257). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brdar-Szabó, R., & Brdar, M. (2011). What do metonymic chains reveal about the nature of metonymy? In R. Benczes, A. Barcelona & F. J. Ruiz de Mendoza (Eds.), Defining metonymy in Cognitive Linguistics: Towards a consensus view. (Human Cognitive Processing, 28) (pp. 217–248). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brdar, M., & Brdar-Szabó, R. (2017). How metonymy and grammar interact. In A. Athanasiadou (Ed.), Studies in figurative thought and language (Human Cognitive Processing, 56) (pp. 126–149). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dirven, R., & Pörings, R. (Eds.). (2002). Metaphor and metonymy in comparison and contrast. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldberg, A. E. (1995). Constructions. A Construction Grammar approach to argument structure. Chicago: Chicago University 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
Gonzálvez-García, F. (2020). Metonymy meets coercion: The case of the intensification of nouns in attributive and predicative constructions in Spanish. In A. Baicchi, (Ed), Figurative meaning construction in thought and language (Figurative Thought and Language, 9) (pp. 151–184). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hengeveld, K., & Mackenzie, J. L. (2008). Functional Discourse Grammar: A typologically-based theory of language structure. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keizer, E. (2007). The English noun phrase: The nature of linguistic categorization. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kövecses, Z., & Radden, G. (1998). Metonymy: Developing a cognitive linguistic view. Cognitive Linguistics, 91, 37–77. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G., & M. Jonhson. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Langacker, R. W. (1984). Active zones. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 101, 172–188. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1987). Foundations of cognitive grammar. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1999). Grammar and conceptualization. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lyons, J. (1977). Semantics. 21 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Panther, K. U., & Radden, G. (Eds.). (1999). Metonymy in language and thought. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Panther, K. U., & Thornburg, L. L. (2000). The effect for cause metonymy in English grammar. In A. Barcelona (Ed.), Metaphor and metonymy at the crossroads: A cognitive perspective (Topics in English Linguistics, 30) (pp. 215–231). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.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
Pustejovsky, J. (1995). The generative lexicon. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J. (2011). Metonymy and cognitive operations. In R. Benczes, A. Barcelona & F. J. Ruiz de Mendoza (Eds.), Defining metonymy in Cognitive Linguistics: Towards a consensus view. (Human Cognitive Processing, 28) (pp. 103–123). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J. & Pérez-Hernández, L. (2001). Metonymy and the grammar: Motivation, constraints and interaction. Language and Communication, 211, 321–357. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J. & Díez, O. I. (2002). Patterns of conceptual interaction. In R. Dirven & R. Pörings (Eds.), Metaphor and metonymy in comparison and contrast (pp. 489–532). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J. & Pérez-Hernández, L. (2003). Cognitive operations and pragmatic implications. In K. U. Panther & L. L. Thornburg (Eds.), Metonymy and pragmatic inferencing (pp. 23–49). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vos, R. (1999). A grammar of partitive constructions. PhD dissertation, Tilburg University.
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue