Abstract
This paper adopts the viewpoint of cognitive linguistics and argues that place is constructed through tropes. Currently, place is widely understood on the basis of linguistic construction. However, there have been few theoretical studies focusing on the roles of three types of tropes: metaphor; metonymy; and synecdoche.
The present paper defines place as a concept built on certain linguistic expressions and recognitions and discusses the cognitive processes of places with the emphasis on tropes. With recent developments in cognitive linguistics, tropes are not regarded simply as figures of speech but rather as important cognitive processes. The present paper emphasizes that tropes are related to the semantic construction of all phenomena, including place. Specifically, metaphor is defined as a semantic extension based on mapping from the source domain to the target domain; metonymy is defined as a semantic extension based on reference-point construction within the same domain; and synecdoche is defined as a semantic extension based on inclusive relations between categories.
Furthermore, to clarify the semantic formation of place, various expressions and recognitions pertaining to places, as well as the naming of places, are examined in detail from the perspective of how they are related to the three types of trope. As a result, we can identify the full range of tropes involved in the expression, recognition, and naming of a place, including ones previously unaccounted for. It is clear that the meanings of place extend in the form of a network through the three types of trope.
In addition, there are many examples of overlap on places between synecdoche and metonymy, and both metaphor and synecdoche pass through metonymy, which makes place differ from the other entities. Thus, tropes involved in place, which have been only separately discussed so far, are demonstrated in a unified manner in light of the properties of place.
A further statement on the function of tropes in constructions of place is that metonymy is related to the very concept of place. Metonymy was defined through reference-point constructions above, but it should not be simply understood that place is only a reference-point that interconnects everything. The point is that rather than adding the attributes of a reference-point to already existing places, we cannot imagine the existence of a place that is not a reference-point. In other words, it should be understood that place is constructed as a topos where objects exist as objects, since place is a reference-point that is the source of metonymy. Metonymy can therefore be regarded as a cognitive process that constructs place at a deeper level.
In this way, the present paper clarifies the following two points regarding tropes and the construction of place: the semantic formation of place through tropes; and the construction of place as a reference-point through the trope metonymy. One of the important roles played by tropes in the fundamental aspects of linguistic construction of place has therefore been elucidated.
