Metonymy and Euphemisms

In the previous chapter I presented the default cases of metonymy and how cognitive and communicatory principles govern the selection of a preferent metonymic vehicle. These principles enable us to understand why we choose certain(p) entities to inlet a tar modernise and why some vehicle-to-target routes have been stylised in the language. However, it sometimes occurs that cognitive and communicative principles be overridden because of the loudspeakers expressive needs or a token social situation. The violation of the principles in question may egress in the use of metonymy based euphemisms which I will chasten to explore in the following discussion. As it was mentioned before, there ar certain cognitive and communicative principles which account for the choice of preferred metonymic vehicles. Among cognitive principles we distinguish for example, the HUMAN OVER NON-HUMAN, the concrete OVER ABSTRACT, the GOOD GESTALT OVER POOR GESTALT or the particularised OVER GENERIC principle. Kovecses and Radden (1998: 45-50) notice that cognitive principles mainly render to human experience, perceptual selectivity and cultural preference. Most of the peoples conceptualizations is affected by our human experiences and perceptions.

Thus, we attach greater richness to things that we can easily perceive and interact with. Cultural preferences are also significant factors in determining our choice of certain vehicles in metonymy. Therefore, we often select the stereo common, ideal or typical members of a category to stand for that category. In the example He has a great heart the cognitive principle cover OVER ABSTRACT is applied. The attender encounters no difficulty in understanding the metonymy since we tend to refer to concrete physical fair game which are more salient than abstract entities. Thus the hearer knows that the speaker is talking about a person who is in truth kind and not about one whose heart has a large size. The default selection of a metonymic... If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay

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