论转喻与隐喻的连续体关系

Continuum-the Conceptual Relationship Between Metonymy and Metaphor

转喻和隐喻二者之间构成连续体关系。其区别应是标量的而不是离散的,因此两个实体间的概念关系由于以下两种机制的作用而可能更接近于连续体的某一端。一个是转喻的经验基础对隐喻的源域及其映射选择的制约作用,另一个是抽象机制（本身就是转喻性的）。转喻与隐喻连续体理论不但关注连续体两端的类典型范畴,同时也关注模糊的中间地带;提出了在人类认识与思维过程中转喻不但是和隐喻同样重要的认知机制,而且可能是更基本的认知方式,为解决像high price中的high到底是直义（转喻的）还是隐喻的争论找到了共同的视点;修正了在一般定义下关于转喻和隐喻的一些概念和认识;揭示出并强调了概念映射的动态性质,弥补了Lakoff 概念隐喻理论中因过分强调概念映射而偏于静态所带来的理论解释上的缺陷——难以完整明确地解释实时在线生成的新颖隐喻的意义生成与认知过程。

Metonymy and metaphor form a continuum, whose distinctions are scalar rather than discrete. Therefore, the conceptual relationship between two entities may be more graded to one end of the continuum due to the role of the metonymic experiential base which constrains the choices of metaphorical source domain and its mapping, and that of generalization which is metonymic itself. The concept of the metonymy-metaphor continuum focuses not only on prototypical categories at each end, but also on the middle fuzzy areas, and advocates that metonymy, like metaphor, is also an equally important cognitive mechanism (possibly more basic than metaphor) which offers a common ground for the compatibility of both the cognitive semantics and the folk views on whether 'high' in 'high price' is literal (metonymic) or metaphorical. Moreover, it revises some conceptions and ideas of the general definitions of metaphor and metonymy, reveals and highlights the dynamic nature of conceptual projection, which makes up for the inadequacies of Lakoff's theory which fails to provide an satisfactory and convincing explanation for the process of meaning constructions and cognition of those novel metaphors created online.