Metonymy And Discourse: A Semiotic-Cognitive Approach

Metonymy is a universal phenomenon in human language and thought. For a long time, research on metonymy has been conducted from different points of view, such as rhetoric, structural linguistics, cognitive linguistics and pragmatics. Although there are various approaches to metonymy, more concerns and efforts have been put on how metonymy operates at the level of lexicon, whereas the function of metonymy at the level of discourse has been neglected. There are not many scholars who attempt to integrate the study of metonymy with the study of discourse in one systematic and unified theory or elaborate how metonymy plays an important part in the production and comprehension of discourse communication. In other words, the study of metonymy at the level of discourse has not been given enough attention or thorough investigations in any schools of linguistics.This dissertation demonstrates that the phenomenon of metonymy can be studied and understood thoroughly within the framework of discourse analysis. So far, not much research on the relationship between metonymy and discourse has been done from a semiotic and cognitive point of view which is the starting point and the characteristic of this study. This dissertation argues that only a research with these two integrated approaches can reach the goal of achieving the successful production and comprehension of discourse communication.The theoretical framework of this study is presented in the process of a fairly detailed and comprehensive examination of the semiotic and cognitive nature of metonymy. Specifically, the interdisciplinary nature of this study is outlined in the following three aspects.First, this dissertation investigates Saussure's (1916/1983) and Peirce's (1931-58) theories of the sign, as well as the phenomenon of metonymy both as an index and as a reference in signification. The semiotic nature of metonymy exists in the representations of metonymic signification which involve the three domains of knowledge, i.e. the knowledge of things, the knowledge of concepts and the knowledge of (linguistic) forms.Second, this dissertation explores the phenomenon of metonymy from a cognitive perspective by interpreting the notion of ontology, Lakoff's (1987) theory of idealized cognitive model (ICM) of metonymy, and Radden & Kovecses'(1999) classification of metonymy. These theories imply that metonymy is both a conceptual phenomenon and a cognitive process, which operates within the same idealized cognitive model. The cognitive view of metonymy also involves identifying the ontological levels at which metonymic relationships occur and specifying the types of metonymic relationships that exist between entities.Third, Al-Sharafi's (2004) conception of textual metonymy, the model of textual metonymy and the model of knowledge structure are also analyzed and revised to help to construct the framework of this study.Such an interdisciplinary range of theoretical principles provides a sufficient and adequate explanation for establishing a semiotic-cognitive model of metonymy and discourse, particularly for the cohesion and coherence of discourse communication.This study adopts a qualitative research design which is oriented towards the description and explanation of the phenomenon of metonymy in naturally occurring social and cultural settings. This research mostly centers on the genuine data of Chinese discourse, and the data collection of the research is flexible. Research questions are general assumptions which become focused gradually with the progress of the study. The following hypotheses are put forward and demonstrated in order to develop a semiotic-cognitive model of metonymy and discourse.(1) The phenomenon of metonymy is semiotic and cognitive in nature;(2) The semiotic and cognitive nature of metonymy gives rise to the representations of metonymic signification that cut across the three realms of ontology, epistemology and language;(3) Based on the representations of metonymic signification, a semiotic-cognitive model of metonymy and discourse is developed;(4) The semiotic-cognitive model of metonymy and discourse helps to interpret the cohesion and coherence of discourse communication.These closely related hypotheses work together to provide plausible solutions to the question of how metonymy performs an important function in building cohesion and developing coherence in discourse communication. Naturally occurring linguistic data are indispensable and very important to the study of metonymy and discourse. The author provides and uses the genuine data of English and Chinese discourse which have been accumulated in her long-term reading of various materials to analyze how metonymy plays an important role in building cohesion and developing coherence in discourse communication. Because the Chinese language has not attracted much attention in this research field, the author chooses to use the genuine data of Chinese discourse in the discussion and analysis of the relationship between metonymy and discourse.This study can be of some theoretical value in the following three major aspects.First, this study which is conducted from the point of view of metonymy provides some further evidence to support Halliday's (1985) theory of the three metafunctions of language, i.e. the ideational, the interpersonal and the textual, particularly concentrating on the textual metafunction of metonymy.Second, this study demonstrates that metonymy, as a cognitive process of signification, exists not only at the level of lexicon, but also at the level of discourse. Metonymy works in a unique way to fulfill its function of building cohesion and developing coherence in discourse. This study thus supplements and improves Halliday and Hasan's (1976) theory which neglects cognitive factors in the dynamic process of discourse communication.Third, this study further develops Al-Sharafi's (2004) notion of textual metonymy by proposing a semiotic-cognitive model of metonymy and discourse. By using the genuine data of English and Chinese discourse, this study proves that metonymy, as a mechanism, plays an important role in the production and comprehension of discourse communication.To summarize, the exploration of the function of metonymy in discourse communication is a fairly new and challenging research question. In order to establish a more systematic and scientific framework of metonymy and discourse, this dissertation points out that more empirical research should be encouraged in the future to provide more theoretical evidence for the discourse function of metonymy. Other issues such as the conceptions of genre and register must also be considered in research.