Metonymic operations in proverbs with place names
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15584/slowo.2024.15.6Keywords:
metaphtonymy, metonymic chain, metonymy (internal, external), place names, proverbsAbstract
As far as the motivation of proverbs in cognitive semantics is concerned, there emerge two contrastive perspectives. On the one hand, proverbs are viewed as metaphorically conditioned – due to the working of the generic is specific metaphor and on the other, on account of their conceptual nature proverbs might be interpreted as metonymic – visualising the general conceptual metonymy specific for generic . The article scrutinizes metonymic conceptualisations embodied in proverbs from various linguo-cultures which contain place names. In the analysed linguistic occurrences the following types of metonymy are identified: place for inhabitants (e.g. It takes a whole village to bring up a child), place for institution (e.g. The nearer the church, the farther from God), place for event (e.g. Every man meets his Waterloo at last), place for activity performed at that place (e.g. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas), place for product made there (e.g. China and reputations are alike: easily cracked but not easily mended). Furthermore, the research material serves as a medium to expose the mechanism of both internal and external metonymy as well as other cognitive processes such as metonymic chain, metaphtonymy and orientational metaphor.
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