Metaphor and metonymy-a tentative research into modern cognitive linguistics

Abstract

Metonymy, as often treated as a subtype of metaphor by cognitive linguistics, has a different working mechanism; metaphor is based on perceived similarity between things while metonymy on the relationship within things themselves. Cognition and the use of language involve the access and manipulation of mental spaces, which are constructed from human perceptual experience and are extended through imaginative processes, within which metaphor and metonymy are the most significant ones. From the perspectives of construction, poetic and cognitive function and working mechanism, this paper makes a comprehensive analysis of metaphor and metonymy through comparing and contrasting these two important language phenomena, exploring their similarities and contiguities. © 2011 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland.