What is an institution-for-people-responsible metonymy?

A conventional metonymy in which reference to a whole organization is used to stand for the people who actually make a decision or perform an action.

Here are some examples in English:

• Exxon has raised its prices again.
• You'll never get the university to agree to that.
• The Army wants to reinstitute the draft.
• The Senate thinks abortion is immoral.

• Conventional metonymies in English

Lakoff, G. and Johnson 1980

• Concept module: institution-for-people-responsible metonymy
• In modular book: Metonymies in English, 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: Lexicon

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 2 July 1998

© 1999 SIL International