The Role of Metonymy in Collocational Choice

Abstract

When we know a language well we are likely to recognise (if only intuitively) that certain collocational associations are acceptable while others are not, yet we may not appreciate that the suitability of such partnerships depends, even now, upon where the words came from in the first place. When words move out of their original domains or habitats they often do so as metaphors or metonymies, and since at the heart of every metaphor lies a metonym, which will be related to fellow inhabitants of the original domain, this inter-relationship will continue to limit each term's freedom of association. Such terms are only likely to co-occur with fellow members of their original habitat, both presupposed and entailed, of which they are the representative metonymic agent. This was so when the terms were first coined and remains so even after usage may have led their surface meanings to undergo changes. The writer looks at four word-sets of ostensible synonyms which demonstrate the argument.