Metaphor-metonymy interaction
We have seen that metaphor and metonymy are viewed by cognitive linguists as conceptual processes that contribute to providing structure to the human conceptual system. According to this view, metaphor and metonymy as they appear in language are reflections of the organisation of the underlying conceptual system. Given that metaphor and metonymy are both conceptual phenomena, and given that they may in principle both relate to the same conceptual domains, questions arise concerning the interaction of metaphor and metonymy within the conceptual system. We therefore conclude this chapter with a brief discussion of the ways in which metaphor and metonymy interact.
Metaphtonymy
In an important article, Goossens (1990) presented an analysis of the way in which metaphor and metonymy interact. He calls this phenomenon metaphtonymy. Goossens identified a number of logically possible ways in which metaphor and metonymy could potentially interact; however, he found that only two of these logically possible interactions were commonly attested.
The first way in which metaphor and metonymy interact is called metaphor from metonymy. In this form of interaction, a metaphor is grounded in a metonymic relationship. For example, the expression close-lipped can mean ‘silent’, which follows from metonymy: when one has one’s lips closed, one is (usually) silent, therefore to describe someone as close-lipped can stand metonymically for silence. However, close-lipped can also mean ‘speaking but giving little away’. This interpretation is metaphoric, because we understand the absence of meaningful information in terms of silence. Goossens argues that the metaphoric interpretation has a metonymic basis in that it is only because being closed-lipped can stand for silence that the metaphoric reading is possible: thus metaphor from metonymy.
The second common form of interaction is called metonymy within metaphor. Consider the following example adapted from Goossens (1990):
This example is licensed by the metaphor ATTENTION IS A MOVING PHYSICAL ENTITY, according to which ATTENTION is understood as a MOVING ENTITY that has to be ‘caught’ (the minister’s ear). However, within this metaphor there is also the metonymy EAR FOR ATTENTION, in which EAR is the body part that functions as the vehicle for the concept of ATTENTION in the metaphor. In this example, the metonym is ‘inside’ the metaphor.
The metonymic basis of metaphor
According to some cognitive semanticists (e.g. Barcelona 2003c; Taylor 2003), metonymy is an operation that may be more fundamental to the human conceptual system than metaphor. Barcelona (2003c: 31) goes so far as to suggest that ‘every metaphorical mapping presupposes a prior metonymic mapping.’ One obvious way in which metaphor might have a metonymic basis relates to the idea of experiential correlation that we discussed earlier. As we saw, primary metaphors are argued to be motivated by experiential correlation. Yet, as Radden (2003b) and Taylor (2003) have pointed out, correlation is fundamen tally metonymic in nature. For example, when height correlates with quantity, as when fluid is poured into a glass, greater height literally corresponds to an increase in quantity. When this correlation is applied to more abstract domains, such as HIGH PRICES, we have a metaphor from metonymy, in the sense of Goossens. Indeed, as Barcelona argues, given the claim that primary metaphors underpin more complex compound metaphors and the claim that primary metaphors have a metonymic basis, it follows that all metaphor is ultimately motivated by metonymy.
However, although Taylor (1995: 139) has observed that ‘It is tempting to see all metaphorical associations as being grounded in metonymy’, he observes some counter-examples to this thesis. These include so-called synaesthetic metaphors, in which one sensory domain is understood in terms of another, as in loud colour. Examples like these are problematic for the thesis that all metaphor is grounded in metonymy because there does not appear to be a tight correlation in experience between LOUDNESS and COLOUR that motivates the metaphor. Barcelona (2003c) argues that even metaphors like these can be shown to have a metonymic basis. He suggests that the metaphor that licenses expressions like loud colour relate not to the entire domain of SOUND as the source domain, but to a SUBDOMAIN which he calls DEVIANTSOUNDS. In this respect, Barcelona’s treatment of metonymy is con sonant with Croft’s. According to Barcelona, these sounds are deviant because they deviate from a norm and thus attract involuntary attention. This provides the metonymic basis of the metaphor: there is a tight correlation in experience between deviant (or loud) sounds and the attraction of attention, so that a deviant sound can metonymycally represent attraction of involuntary attention. For this reason, the subdomain of deviant sounds can be metaphorically employed to understand deviant colours which also attract involuntary attention.
