A Study Of The VO Structure In Grammatical Metonymy

The researches on metonymy are one of the focuses of the cognitive metonymy. Thescholars at home and abroad have fulfilled many achievements. More and more people regard itas a way of thinking and behaving instead of rhetoric. Grammatical metonymy is to study themetonymy in sentences. In China, Shen Jiaxuan (1999) first introduced the term “grammaticalmetonymy”. Foreign researches like Ruiz de Mendoza&Pérez（2001）, Ruiz de Mendoza&Otal（2002）, Ruiz de Mendoza&Pe a（2007）have studied grammatical metonymy. There are nota few studies of VO structure especially “eat+object”. Most of the scholars like RenYing(2005), Yang Qin (2007), Yangchenghu (2011) regard it as a reflection of grammaticalmetonymy.The thesis tries to study grammatical metonymy of “eating and drinking verb+object” interms of economy in the cognitive process. On the basis of the triangular model proposed byYang Chenghu (2011), in accordance with the complexity of the cognitive process, the VOstructures can be divided into three categories—the normal collocation, the anomalouscollocation and the shift of metonymy. It is found that in the first category, the normalcollocation, the object of the VO structure is eatable or drinkable. There is almost no semanticconflict and it almost cannot be felt. In the second category, the anomalous collocation, theobject of the VO structure is uneatable or undrinkable like the location or the brand of a product.It is obvious that there is semantic conflict in the formal structure. However, the verb as thetrigger can find the target from the object as the source, though the conceptual structure is morecomplicated. In the third category, anomalous collocation, the object is uneatable or undrinkable.When we take the verb as the trigger, it is difficult to find its target from the source, for thetargets are too many to find one or no target. Therefore, the trigger should shift from the verb tothe object and it is easier to find its target from the verb as the source. The research mainly involves three questions. First, how does the normal collocationevolve to anomalous collocation? Second, how does the economy principle influence thecognition? Third, how does the grammatical metonymy reflect on the structure of "eating anddrinking verb+object"?The thesis has five chapters: Chapter One gives an introduction of the research, includingthe academic value, the purpose of the present study, the methodology adopted for the study andthe organization of the thesis. Chapter Two is literature review, which includes the previousstudies of metonymy and grammatical metonymy at home and abroad, and then attempts topropose the main research questions. Chapter Three is the framework, including grammaticalmodels, especially the triangular model proposed by Yang Chenghu (2011). In the end, it willpropose the shift of metonymy which is a result from the economy principle. Chapter Four is aclarification and cognitive analysis of "eating and drinking" verbs in Chinese and English in thetriangular model. Chapter Five is the conclusion, which includes main findings, implicationsand suggestions for further research.