LIST OF TERMS

contiguity/metonymy

In diachronic cognitive onomasiology contiguity/metonymy is applied (e.g. Koch 2001, 2008, Blank 2001, Gévaudan 2007). The general definition - as cited many times on the web as well - "a contiguity is a continuous mass, or a series of things in contact or in proximity". Metonymy is identified among the imaginative capacities of cognition (Langacker 1993). Metonymy is responsible for a great proportion of the cases of regular polysemy (Cruse 2000: 211). There are two types of approach to metonymy: as a referential and/or pragmatic phenomenon or as a conceptual and cognitive phenomenon.

„Metonymy is a cognitive process in which one conceptual entity, the vehicle, provides mental access to another conceptual entity, the target, within the same idealized cognitive model.” (Radden – Kövecses 1999:21)

„Metonymy is an inferential relationship between two concepts: a source concept is overtly named and provides mental access to a target concept in a given context.” (Janda 2011: 360)

(1) a broader definition of metonymy facilitates more insightful generalizations; 

(2) there is no fixed boundary between lexical metonymy and word-formational metonymy since they coexist in the lexicon-grammar continuum; 

(3) context, whether it be a suffix or other cues, is always a factor in metonymy.

metonymic patterns

The term "metonymic pattern" is used here as the type of the relation between conceptual categories, such as Person, Object, Action, Instrument etc. I argue for that - following Janda (2011, 2014), Haselow (2011) and other - the word formation processes determines cognitive processes as well.

• Action for Characteristic

• Action for Instrument

• Action for Object

• Action for Object

• Age (Characteristic) for Category

• Animal for Occupation

• Animal for Tool

• Being for State

• Body part for Action

• Body part for Person

• Body part for Sense

• Category for Characteristic

• Change of State for Result (Property)

• Characteristic for Object.

• Characteristic for Person

• Contain for Container

• Form/Shape for Action

• Function for Person

• Goal/Result for Action

• Hear for Obey

• Hear for Understand

•  Identity for Characteristic

• Manner for Action

• Material for Action

• Material for Object

• Material for Property

• Object for (Change of) Property

• Object for Action

• Object for Category

• Object for Characteristic

• Object for Instrument (or Contain for Container)

• Object for Move

• Object for Place

• Object for Property

• Occupation for Action

• Occupation for Tool 

• Part for Whole

• Place for Category (Ethnicity)

• Possession for State

• Property for Manner

• Property for Material

• Property for Person

• Property for Result

• Property for Category

• Result for Action

• Result for Event/Action

• State for Action

• State for Possession

• Tool for Action

semantic domain

A semantic domain is described as a cognitive category.

• A category has a prototype: a mental representation, a cognitive reference point for that category.

• A category has attributes.

• A category has typical and a-typical members.

• There are not always fixed boundaries between different categories. 

• Categories may consist of more than one level of subcategories.

Semantic Domains are Semantic Fields, characterized by sets of domain words.