engleski

On the role of high-level metonymy in grammatical constructions

This presentation explores the two related grammatical constructions: 'What's X doing Y?' (cf. Kay & Fillmore 1999) and 'Who's been V-ing Y?' in terms of the high-level metonymy ACTION FOR (ASSESSED) RESULT, which has a situational and a non-situational version (cf. Ruiz de Mendoza & Perez 2001). In its situational version, the action ICM takes the form of a generic scenario, where actions have beneficial or harmful results for one or more participants. Note that the greater the complexity of the Y element of the construction, the clearer the complaint value (e.g., What's John doing in the garden with my beautiful flowers?). The fact that the speaker is capable of supplying so much information about what is going on suggests that he already knows the answer to his own question. In 'Who's been V-ing Y?' (e.g.. Who's been reading my journal?), it is not the Y part of the construction but rather the presupposition it carries (i.e., that the action has taken place) that triggers the metonymic reading.

metonymy; action ICM; grammatical construction

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