What is a conventional metonymy?

A conventional metonymy is a metonymy that is commonly used in everyday language in a culture to give structure to some portion of that culture’s conceptual system.

• The understanding of a reference to the face as standing for the whole person

  Example:

  We need some new faces around here.

• The understanding of a reference to the physiological response of increased body heat as standing for anger

  Example:

  Don’t gethot under the collar.

Lakoff, G. and Johnson 1980 35–36, 38, 66, 139

Context for this page:

• Concept module: conventional metonymy
• In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): C
• In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
• In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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