engleski

The metonymic folk model of 'language'

The notion of 'language' is not a primary concept. There do not appear to be many languages, possibly not even a single language, that has a word exclusively reserved to denote 'language'. the notion of 'language' always seems to be historically or synchronically derived from more basic senses. These earlier or basic senses metonymically relate to speech organs such as the tongue, aspects of linguistic action such as speaking and basic linguistic units such as the word. All these elements form part of a "language frame". This paper assumes that the metonymic vehicles reflect a folk model of language. Like the expert model of language, the folk model comprises different levels. It includes, in particular, the levels of (i) phonetics, focusing on articulation and speech organs, (ii) speech (i.e. parole), focusing on various aspects of linguistic action, and (iii) language (i.e. langue), focusing on selected linguistic units. These folk-linguistic levels interact in such a way that one can metonymically shift from the level of phonetics to that of speech and from the level of speech to that of language, or, by skipping the level of speech, immediately from the level of phonetics to that of language. These metonymic shifts form a motivated, unidirectional chain, i.e. the reverse direction is hardly possible.

metonymy; metaphtonymy; metaphor; folk model of 'language'

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