Original scientific paper
Metaphor-based metonymies: Evidence from Croatian scientific medical discourse
Arijana Krišković
; Medicinski fakultet Sveučilišta u Rijeci
Abstract
Distinguishing between metaphor and metonymy remains a moot point both at the theoretical
level and in corpus studies. A metaphoric or metonymic interpretation of an utterance largely depends
on the domain/domains in which the mapping occurs. So, domain delimitations play a major
role in the definition of metaphor and metonymy. Schematic definitions of metaphor and metonymy
which are based on functional domains facilitate the determination of an utterance as a metaphor,
or metonymy or their interaction.
The aim of this paper is metaphor–based metonymy in scientific medical discourse. Authentic
cases of medical discourse in the Croatian language are presented. The analyses demonstrate that
metaphoric and metonymic mappings are active and included in the interpretation of expressions.
In most cases the metaphor is reduced by the metonymic mapping which activates a subdomain in
the metaphoric source or target. At the conceptual level, the interaction of a metaphor as a source
domain for a metonymy is classified as metaphor–based metonymy.
Keywords
metaphor; metonymy; cognitive linguistics; medical discourse
Hrčak ID:
38150
URI
Publication date:
19.6.2009.
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