Ju-Shik Kim. 2002. An Examination of Metonymy as Cognitive Process. Studies in Modern Grammar, 157-172. Metonymy as a cognitive process refers to a general cognitive ability that enables speakers to represent a specific object as a whole or its aspects by focusing upon a salient aspect of the object. The purpose of this study is to examine how this metonymical process is materialized in daily speech activities. As a preliminary step for the discussion, a brief review is made on the nature of metonymy in cognitive grammar. A comparative analysis is also made on the difference between metonymy and metaphor so as to give a better picture of the nature of metonymy. The most fundamental difference is that metaphor occurs in the association of source domain and target domain, whereas metonymy happens in a single domain. Based upon this discussion on the nature of metonymy, an attempt is made to explain polysemy in the framework of metonymy. Polysemy is a linguistic phenomenon in which a specific expression can be interpreted as denoting several related meanings. When approaching polysemy from the perspective of metonymy, it is important to note that metonymy occurs in a single domain. In addition, examples are discussed to demonstrate that mytonymy is at work even in the unconscious inference process of everyday speech. In particular, the problem of prototype effect, the problems of conversational implicature, and the problem of the conflict between the pronoun and antecedent are approached in the cognitive framework of metonymy.

• 김주식 | Ju Shik Kim