Life Of Metonymy

Metonymy studies in western countries have been another focus of cognitive research ensuing those of metapor, and have been fruitful so far, which is different from those in China that are yet to take off. Hence, this paper sets upon itselt the task to bridge the gap between the western metonymy studies and those in China by sorting systemically through the metonymy studies in both western countries and China. In doing this, we present to the reader the latest achiements in the fields concerned. We then go on to make a case study on the sinificance of metonymy in the creation of Chinese characters from the perspective of cognition.Metonymy has long been overshadowed by the all-encompassing metaphor ever since Aristotle listed it as a subcategory of metaphor. It is Jakobson that has brought metonymy back into our view and Lakoff that has revitalized it. And the Philosophy underlying the revival of the trope has undergone corresponding process: from objectivism to experientialism. In experientialism, metonymy is considered to be more than rhetoric and linguistic; it is conceptual, not only in that metonymy is a major form in which our concepts are stored (in form of ICM), but that it dictates to great extent grammatical structure and pragmatic inferencing. Metonymy and metaphor are symbiotic sharing the same embodiment, and it may become difficult to differentiate them when they get closer to each other with the increase of abstraction. But, partly owing to the accidental privilege metaphor enjoys, metonymy has long been unduly suppressed.Chapter 1-6 is a systemic review of cognitive metonymy with the intention of introducing the latest development in metonymy studies. Chapter 7 is a case study on the creation of Chinese characters in terms of cognition, and we find the significant role of metonymy in the Chinese thinking in the creation of Chinese characters.