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The Power of Metonymy

The Power of Metonymy. Władysław Chłopicki Jagiellonian University . Poland Symposium ‘’Scala naturae” Ta l linn 18 August 2014. Little smart sister of metaphor. The little sister refers to close things to bring them even closer

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The Power of Metonymy

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  1. The Power of Metonymy Władysław Chłopicki JagiellonianUniversity. Poland Symposium ‘’Scala naturae” Tallinn 18 August 2014

  2. Little smart sister of metaphor • Thelittlesisterrefers to closethings to bringthemevencloser • Whilethe big sistermanagesbiggerthings, biggertransfers • Sheistheneckwhilemetaphoristhehead • Bothhavelargeeyes and thusimagisticcapacities

  3. Neck and headare part of… • ….the body [and arethusmetonymicthemselves] • Or moreaccuratelytheysteerthe body • Whichistheirco-text [linguistic] • the body moves, walks, runswithinsomesurroundingspace – thecon-text[extra-linguistic] • movements of the body (usuallygoal-oriented) aremeaningfulonlywithinthatclose and further-removedspace (closer and furthercontext)

  4. Meaningiscomplex and situational • Concepts just like situations are complex and consist of subconcepts or subevents • We think in terms of actions, scenarios, complex, chronologically developing, or potentially developing • We think vicariously, in terms of ‘’as if I was there” • Meaning is usage-based – connected with a specific event

  5. Definitions…. • Metonymyismorethantherelation of contiguity. Itisbased on associations, reference-pointrelations, situationalembedding, all of whichundergoinferencesin order to be interpretable by the speaker and hearer. (Thehamsandwichhaswonderinghands; cf. Evans and Green 2006: 167) • Metonymygives a (usuallyverbal) point of accessto a concept, thusmakingitsalient. This target conceptmaybemetaphoricalitself. • Metonymyoftengivesrise to blends, throughwhich extra meaningemerges.

  6. Metonymy as a reference point phenomenon (cf. Radden 2014) • E.g. schematic metonymy target target target target target metonymy Ref.Pt. Dominion Conceptualizer

  7. Situationalmetonymy as a network of concepts (Radden 2014) situation-internal ICM ICM manner means property cause situation- external situational core subevent thing thing relation situation situation type place time reality - potentiality

  8. Communicationismetonymic(Radden 2014) 1.People typicallyconceiveof a situationas a wholegestalt. 2.Anysituationcomprises a complexnetworkofassociatedconcepts. 3. In “thinkingforspeaking”, thespeakerdecides on howtocodethesituationshewantstocommunicate in a givenlanguage in accordancewithprinciplesofcooperation. 4. The communicativeactis (ofnecessity) metonymicandhencerequiresthespeakertogaugeitsadequacybyanticipatingthehearer’sinferentialtask. 5. The hearerconstructsthespeaker’sintendedmeaningvia metonymicinferences.

  9. Whole situation– subevents (Radden 2014) wholesituation co-present subevent successive subevents salient concomitant central final precondition initial end peripheral S

  10. Communicativeconstraints • Presence of thehearer as witness of thesituation • Reportingthesituation – familiarorunfamiliar to thehearer, specificallyorgenerally • Genre of speech – oralorwritten • Informationaloresthetic (literary) orpersuasive • Seriousorjocular • Presence of convention, degree of conventionality – helpsorhinders, but is a necessaryreference point

  11. Pervasivemetonymy • Humour – anyonecouldwrite a novelgivensixweeks , pen, paper, and no telephoneorwife (E. WaughChips ChannonDiary 16 Dec 1934)

  12. Information (crossword)- result of sixweeksoffinisolation, with pen, and ample paper, but no telephoneorfamily? • Information (science) – an experiment was carried out on 73 volunteers, men and women, whowereisolated for sixweekswith no access to phoneorfamily and friends and givenjust pen and paper. As a result 58% producedcompletenovels, 23% generatedsizableportionspossible to completelater, 12% wrotetheirmemoirs, whiletheremaining 7% wrotenothingat al, justscribbled and drew.

  13. Pervasivemetonymy • Persuasion – Ifonlyyoucouldgive me sixweeks , pen, paper, and cut me fromthetelephone and family, I will easilywrite a stunningnovel

  14. Poetry –Pen and paper, quietevenings, no phonerings nor naggingquestions, page by pagemy worldtranspires, and unveilsthethoughtcongestion. • Metaphor – Putting pen to paper inforcedisolationislikeconceiving a childthrough a hole intheprisonwall • Proverb – Pen to paper for sixweeksmakesyourreadersfallasleep

  15. Metonymicblending • CarolMattau to herhusband, whohadaskedtheage of a flirtatiousstarletwithnoticeablythicklegs: For God’s sake, Walter, whydon’tyouchopoffherlegs and readtherings? (T. Capote AnsweredPrayers(1986) • Metaphor, blending but metonymy-driven (legs for trees as well as legsaretrees) resultinginemergentmeaning • Askingtheage, choppingofflegs and readingreadingsarepostulated POTENTIAL subevents for the FLIRT event (POTENTIAL FOR ACTUAL)

  16. Blend ASKING AGE (of women) -judginglooks Sociallyawkward CHECKING AGE (of thicktrees) Blend Cuttree, checkrings CHECKING AGE OF (THICK) LEGS (no ringsinside) SIDE EFFECTS –counterproductive Asktheage ecological motivation • NEED TO CONFIRM • How old areyou? NEED TO INSPECT TO CONFIRM Whydon’tyoucutherlegs and checktherings? NEED TO INSPECT Cuttree, checktherings

  17. Anatomist for suicide • I findthen I am but a badanatomist (Oliver Knox in Wolfe Tone’sRebels and Informers1998, cutting his throatinprison, hesevered his windpipeinstead of his jugular and lingered for severaldays) • OPERATION FOR PROFESSION

  18. Salientsubevents • So basicallyyou’resayingmarriageisjust a way of getting out of an embarassingpauseinconversation? (Richard Curtis, FourWeddings and a Funeral1994) Pause as salientprecondition for marriage • If an Englishmangets run down by a truckheapologizes to thetruck (Jackie Mason) Apology as finalsubevent - salient for anyscenarios of Englishbehaviour

  19. Metonymy-drivenmetaphors • OftenDaddysatupverylateworking on a case of Scotch (Nathaniel BenchleyinRobert Benchley 1955) • Metaphoric double entendrebased on schematicmetonymy(repetitivemovementsscenario – reaching for drink, drinking and puttingthe drink down VS flippingpages, reading, writing, flippingpages, etc)

  20. Metonymy-drivenmetaphors • Advertisingistherattling of a stickinside a swillbucket (George Orwell) • Metonymyisthesalientspecificco-presentsubevent of Rattling for Making (unnecesary) noise (POTENTIAL FOR ACTUAL) • Metaphor – Advertisingismakingunnecessarynoise

  21. Salient element for concept • A littleinaccuracysometimessavestons of explanation (Saki, TheSquareEgg1924) - central subevent • One of thenicest old ladies I haveever met (William Faulkner on Henry James) LADIES FOR EFFEMINATE MEN • Waiting for the German verbissurelytheultimatethrill (FlanO’Brien, TheHair of theDogma 1977) VERB FOR LANGUAGE • Someweaseltookthecork out of my lunch (W.C. Fields YouCan’tCheat an Honest Man 1939 film) CORK FOR BOTTLE • Life is a sexuallytransmitteddisease - initialsubevent SEX FOR LIFE - LIFE IS A DiSEASE

  22. Associationmetonymy • A literaryman – with a wooden leg (Dickens – Our Mutual Friend(1865) WHOLE – SALIENT PART • What’stheuse of a book, thought Alice, withoutpictures and conversations? (Alice’sAdventuresinWonderland 1865) WHOLE – SALIENT PART, WHOLE – FINAL SUBEVENT

  23. SO WHAT ABOUT THIS METONYMY? • METONYMIES ARE IRRESISTIBLE and hencetheirpower • We want to find out whatisattheend of theneck, whatitisleading to… • Humourresultsiftheneckis long and winding and attached not quitewhereitbelongs – orperhaps

  24. In lieu of a conclusion • ‘’Theforegrounding of metonymy as an essentialconceptualtool of humour-makingisundoubtedlyinnovative, welcome and valuable, and caneventuallyinvalidatesomecomponents of script-basedtheories, becausemetonymyin not a between-domainorbetween-scriptrelation” (Krikmann 2009: 29)

  25. ‘’Blend-orientedanalysisarefascinating to read, but as theconceptualintegrationtheory as suchis an ultimately and comprehensive ‘’theory of everything’…, theanalysesthathavebeenperformed so far do not aim to tell usmoreexactlywhichblends do resultinhumour and whichones do not” (Krikmann 2009: 31) • ‘’Whatisneededissociallogicthatallows a theory to groundtheinterpretationinthespecificconcerns and prejudices of thelistener as social agent” (Krikmann 2009: 35)

  26. Bibliography • Evans, Vyvyan and Melanie Green. 2006. CognitiveLinguistics. An Introduction. EdinburghUniversity Press. • Evans, Vyvyan. 2007. A Glossary of CognitiveLinguistics. EdinburghUniversityPress. • Krikmann, Arvo. 2009. On thesimilarity and distinguishability of humour and figurative speech. Trames 13 (63/58), 1, 14-40. • Krikmann, Arvo. 2012. Estonian ‘three-nation’ jokes (1964-2012). A paper presentedat 24th ISHS Krakow, Poland. 26 June. • Sherrin, Ned. 2002. Oxford Book of HumorousQuotes. Oxford University Press. • Radden, Gunther. 2014. Situationmetonymies. First Figurative speech symposium, Thessaloniki. Unpublished.

  27. A newlydiscoveredur-joke • Threepassengersfrom Poland, Germany and Estonia areflyingover Russia in a smallkukuruzhnikplane. Suddenlybothengines of theplanefail, and trying to avoid a planecrash, they want to jump. Theyfind a parachute, a fireextinguisher and waterhose and areabout to jumpoffcrying ‘’Long live” theirnativecountries, but atthelast moment theyreflect and decide to show respect to theirmorepowerfulneighbours, so theEstonianshouts: ElaguPoola!, with a tearin his eye and jumpswith his parachute, The Pole shouts ‘’Niech zyja Niemcy! ‘’and criesrathermoreprofusely and jumps on thefireextinquisher, and thenthe German – whatishe to do? He shouts „Lang lebeEstland!”, crieslike a beaver and jumpswiththewaterhose. All of themobviously land safely.

  28. Youmightthinkthey will land on the White Sea and will be sailingwith a brownboat on it and will be indanger of beingkilled, but no! They land intheforest and andareaccosted by a nativeRussian and arechallenged to threetasksifthey want to escapealive: drinking a gallon of vodka, shakinghandswith a bear and raping a nun. Luckily for them, onlythreegallons of vodkaarefoundavailable on thepremises and afterhavingeasilygobbledthem, allthree of them (wellalmostallthree) havingcomefromvodkadrinkingcountries, theyareallowed to move on.

  29. On thewaytheyencounter a hugecatwhichdemandsmilkfromthem but sincetheyknowtheways of catstheyfeedhimmustard, knowingfullwellhow to, and hehappilyeatsall of it and letsthem go. On theway out of theforest, sinceevenin Russia theforestendssomewhere, theysee a pub and gladly enter it. Nowthe bar tender, havingrituallyexclaimed: Whatisit? Somekind of joke?, servesthemgallons and gallons of vodka.

  30. Followingthattheyengageinthebraggingcompetition on thesize of theirmembers, whichisnaturally won by the German, and amongalltheconfusionthe golden fishappears and asksthemtheirwishes. TheEstonianwishes his ownsaarel and slowlydissapearsthere, the German wishes his ownSchloss and dissapearsthere, and the Pole wants his friends back as hebecameveryemotional and attached to thetwoafteralltheyhavegonethrough, and hegets his wishtoo. So theyareall back drunk and happy.

  31. Theur-textends • Nowitis time to drink Bruderschaftwiththe bar tender afterallthesevodkas, but hesays ‘’OK. youcancall me by my first nameonlyafteryoumanage to shootthe target at 100 meters”, so theEstoniansays: I amArvoPaart and I cannotshoot, the German says I am Kaiser Wilhelm and I am a goodshooter and shootspreciselyinthemiddle of the target. Finally, the Pole shoots and thearrowtwists and turns so unluckily(orluckily as the story wouldhavecontinuedotherwise) thatitkillsthe bar tender, the German, theEstonian and thenhitshimself, whereuponthe Pole says : I am sorry.

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