Shortcomings of Metonymy Based on Conceptual Contiguity

Currently,scholars have focused on the cognitive study of metonymy from the perspective of conceptual contiguity,which is grounded on the traditional structuralist definition of metonymy and regarded as its extension.However,there exist three shortcomings in the study of metonymy from the conceptual contiguity’s perspective.It is unclear whether metonymy is a relationship between entities or between domains and whether metonymy is necessarily connected to an act of reference.Besides,the factors influencing the formation of conventionalized metonymies and novel metonymies remain unexplored.The impacts of cognitive principles and communicative principles on metonymy should not be ignored when metonymy is defined from the angle of conceptual contiguity.Therefore,it is still necessary to further the study of metonymy from this perspective.