Meaning Construal Of English Logical Metonymy From A Cognitive-Semantic Perspective

Logical metonymy is a special linguistic expression combined with an implicitevent verb in form and an unsaturated， polysemous feature in meaning. Thenon-correspondence between the syntactic structure and its semantic interpretationhas attracted linguists’attention.Reviewing the previous studies on logical metonymy, some follow the principleof compositionality but ignore the simplicity and creativity of language. Therefore,those studies become less acceptable and then more studies challenge thecompositionality rule and base their analysis on Generative Lexicon proposed byPustejovsky. The analysis with qualia semantic structure and type coercionmechanism really brings some valuable explanations about logical metonymy.However, the limitation of the approach cannot be neglected in terms of the range ofapplication and the depth of interpretation. As a result, it is necessary to explore thenature and the meaning of logical metonymy from other perspectives，such asneurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, pragmatics and so on. A cognitive perspective isalso a strand of the mainstream and in this field logical metonymy can be regarded asa cognitive phenomenon.The present study stresses on logical metonymy from a cognitive-semanticperspective. With introspection and data analysis, the study aims at exploring thecognitive nature of the meaning of logical metonymy, describing the dynamicmeaning construal process and answering the following research questions:(1) What semantic features does logical metonymy reflect based on the data fromBNC corpus?(2) What is the nature of the meaning of logical metonymy?(3) What factors in what manners are involved in meaning construal of logicalmetonymy? What process is conducted to construe the meaning of logical metonymy?(4) In what way does the meaning-construal process interpret the typicalexamples of logical metonymy from BNC?The cognitive-semantic framework for the present study is grounded on threetheoretical assumptions. First, language is usage-based. Syntactic form is only used toserve and to realize its corresponding meaning. Second, meaning is construed not only based on truth-conditions, but also related to subjective cognition and infiniteknowledge system. Metonymy, one of the most basic cognitive devices, provides aneffective approach to conceptual meaning. Third, contextual factors can influence ordetermine the meaning and the form of linguistic expressions. Without context, thereis no meaning at all.Based on the three points, the study explores the answers to research questionsand comes to the following conclusions.(1) Logical metonymy is a type of language use on the textual stratumdetermined by language itself and contextual factors. Specifically, due to the syntacticdefault and the corresponding semantic ambiguity, logical metonymy can beinterpreted as a meaning realization with the involvement of metonymic mechanism.(2) The meaning of logical metonymy is cognitive in nature. Logical metonymyis the result of metonymic operations to syntactic structures since the operationsdominate the semantic realization and identification of logical metonymy. This can betraced on the basis of the economic principle of language use, the modification ofinternal and external contextual elements, and the psychological reality of gestaltprinciple and information activation. Cognitive nature of meaning reflects the effectof conceptual metonymy on the syntactic form, satisfies coherent and cohesiverequirements in text, and also effectively creates a new way to express meaning andfill up meaning gaps. As a result, this metonymic process is necessary indisambiguating the polysemy caused by the syntactic structure. Only with thecognitive participation, can we easily identify the implicit meaning and better graspthe nature of the form.(3) The meaning-construal process involves many factors. Contextualenvironment in which logical metonymy exists and the metonymic mechanism areimportant among them. The detailed process can be described in this way: ametonymic operation is the core of meaning-construing process in which a sourcemeaning deriving from the concept of noun phrase (NP2) is contiguously related to agroup of potential meanings in the same cognitive model by means of a linguisticform which functions as a linguistic vehicle. With contextual triggers to the process,only one link is available and confirmed as the target meaning while the otherpotential links are not activated and then constrained. In this way, the implicit eventverb of logical metonymy is identified and the polysemous meaning is dissolved.(4) The analysis to typical examples of logical metonymy from BNC proves that the meaning-construal process is feasible and applicable. Metonymic skill of languageusers and contextual factors both contribute to the meaning construal of logicalmetonymy although they fulfill different functions in logical metonymy with differenttypes of eventual verbs.The study can be summarized as a theoretical investigation based on the real data.It consists of the exploration of the semantic nature of logical metonymy, theconstruction of a meaning-construal model and the verification of the model with realdata from BNC. In conclusion, the cognitive-semantic perspective adopted, themeaning-construal model constructed and the application to ananysis of corpus dataall contribute to the study of logical metontymy to some extent.