Metonymy

Hidden Shortcuts in Language, Thought and Communication

Jeannette Littlemore

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781316236369
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

'Metonymy' is a type of figurative language used in everyday conversation, a form of shorthand that allows us to use our shared knowledge to communicate with fewer words than we would otherwise need. 'I'll pencil you in' and 'let me give you a hand' are both examples of metonymic language. Metonymy serves a wide range of communicative functions, such as textual cohesion, humour, irony, euphemism and hyperbole - all of which play a key role in the development of language and discourse communities. Using authentic data throughout, this book shows how metonymy operates, not just in language, but also in gesture, sign language, art, music, film and advertising. It explores the role of metonymy in cross-cultural communication, along with the challenges it presents to language learners and translators. Ideal for researchers and students in linguistics and literature, as well as teachers and general readers interested in the art of communication.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Figures
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 ‘What those boys need is a good handbagging’ What is metonymy?
• 2 ‘He coughed and spluttered a lot and sneezed his lunch all over the place.’ Types of metonymy and their behaviour in real-world data
• 3 ‘He’s only bowin’ to his passport.’ Theoretical models of metonymy: uses and drawbacks
• 4 ‘“BBC”, her mother would have said.’ What do people use metonymy for?
• 5 ‘But what can we expect, after all, of a man who wears silk underpants?’ Playful, evaluative and creative functions of metonymy
• 6 ‘The Government of Britain is sort of there.’ How can we identify ‘metonymy’?
• 7 ‘I found Robbie Williams in the lounge.’ How is metonymy processed in the mind?
• 8 ‘He started as nobody from Austria.’ Cross-linguistic and cross-cultural variation in metonymy: implications for language learning and translation
• 9 ‘These huts did absolutely unbelievable work.’ What do we now know about metonymy?
• References
• Index