Metonymic Mechanism In Fictional Narrative:a Study From The Perspective Of Construal Theory

While metonymy used to be seen as a mere matter of language,a rhetorical device used as an ornament to language in traditional metonymic research,the studies of cognitive linguistics have demonstrated that metonymy is an indispensable mode of thinking and cognitive tool for human beings essentially.In recent years,the research on the explanatory power of metonymy is no longer confined to the levels of vocabulary and syntax,but it also extends to the level of discourse,of which the research on the interface between conceptual metonymy in cognitive linguistics and fictional narrative mainly explores the relationship between conceptual metonymy and the macro-structure of narrative from the description of the three elements of narrative,namely,characters,settings and events for the purpose of manifesting the important role of metonymic mechanism in the construction and comprehension of fictional narrative.Construal,as the core concept in cognitive grammar,one of the cognitive linguistic theories,is referred to the alternative ways or angles when humans observe or describe a certain situation by cognitive linguists.Construal is based on human being’s experience,which can reflect their cognitive process,while the experientiality-based metonymy is a manifestation of cognitive device of human beings in the aspect of language.The proposal of dimensions of construal provides the possibility of theoretical explanation for the metonymic thinking in the course of narrative,providing a cognitive interpretation for the writer’s description of narrative.The author of this thesis attempts to systematically investigate into the cognitive motivation underlying the metonymic mechanism in fictional narrative from the angles of four dimensions,namely,prominence,focusing,specificity and perspective,by unifying the cognitive theories of conceptual metonymy and of construal.The current author firstly attempts to explain the feasibility of the combination of the theories of construal and metonymy,and then to summarize the types of conceptual metonymies employed by the writers of novels in depicting the characters,settings and events,and finally to analyze various metonymic modes of thinking from the angles of the four dimensions in detail by adopting a qualitative approach,further verifying the important role of metonymic thinking in constructing narrative and textual meanings and demonstrating the manipulating role of dimensions of construal in the construction of narrative by fictional writers.The basic conclusions of this study are summarized into the following five aspects: Firstly,writers’ ways of construal are the cognitive motivations underlying the various conceptual metonymies in the construction of fictional narrative.Secondly,the selection of metonymic vehicles in the description of characters and settings are often the result of the construal of prominence.Thirdly,the event metonymies and speech act metonymies involved in thedescription of events and speech acts of characters are usually the result of the dimension of focusing.Writers also highlight some actions from internal or external perspective,so the metonymies are sometimes the result of the dimension of perspective.Fourthly,metonymic inferencing is usually the result of dimension of specificity from the angle of narrative structure,the layout of narrative and narrative inferencing.Lastly,the metonymic description in fictional narrative is dependent on the four dimensions of construal,the latter affecting the former separately or cooperatively.The present study is a tentative attempt to unify the cognitive linguistic theories of construal and conceptual metonymy.Its result displays that construal theory provides a systematic framework for explaining conceptual metonymy existing in fictional narrative and its underlying cognitive mechanism.To some extent,this study promotes the research on the metonymic mechanism of narrative in the field of cognitive linguistics and it can also serve as an important complement to the study of construal theory.