Metonymy and Semiotics

Abstract

The previous chapter discussed metonymy in modern figurative theory. The aim of this chapter is twofold. The first is to develop a semiotic approach to metonymy. In this connection I argue for a theory of motivatedness in linguistic signification based on the conceptualisation of metonymy as a mode of contiguous and causal signification. Metonymy is viewed essentially as a way of abstracting a relation between concepts, words and objects. This relation is fundamentally a relation of representation. As such metonymy resembles to a great extent the notion of a sign which is perceived as a three-dimensional entity covering the three modes of knowledge, i.e. of words, of concepts and of objects or things. This chapter aims to develop a semiotic approach to metonymy based on this rudimentary assumption. The second aim is to develop a textual model of metonymy based on this semiotic approach.

‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

Lewis Carroll, quoted in Aitchison (1995:91)