UNIVERSITY OF RIJEKA

FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
Academic year: 2015 /2016

DARIJA TURKOVI
dturkovic@ffri.hr
ESSAY: METAPHOR AND METONYMY IN EVERYDAY LIFE

COURSE: SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS

COURSE INSTRUCTOR: M. BRALA-VUKANOVI

RIJEKA, 2016

Introduction
Both metaphor and metonymy were for a long a time considered to be crucial literary
devices known as tropes, figures engaged in emblematic use of language. In other words, they
were to be found only in symbolic language and studied only within the literary streams.1 That
kind of view was quite dominant and stable until the arrival of two prominent linguists
George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. These two scientists are cognitive linguists who came up
with the so called Conceptual Metaphor Theory and completely changed the traditional way
of looking at metaphor and metonymy. Their main thesis is that our conceptual system is
metaphorical in its nature, meaning that these two devices are present in almost each and
every aspect of our lives and that human beings use them on daily basis without even being
aware of it.2 In this essay, I will try to support their theory by showing different fields of our
everyday lives and thus prove that metaphor and metonymy truly are present in each of them.

Metaphor
Metaphor is often described as the interpretative stretching of the words meaning. In other
words, it is a transfer of semantic features of a certain word. 3 This transfer has to be based on
a similarity between two elements which enable us to compare the two of them. In order to
understand metaphor, one must be aware of the literal meaning of the word and posses some
basic knowledge about the world. According to Lakoff and Johnosn, metaphor is everywhere
around us, and in order to prove it, I have been analyzing various fields and came to
conclusion that they were right when claiming so.
Many interesting metaphors can be found in politics. After the elections have been held, for
example, it is very likely for you to hear that somebody is dark (black) horse, meaning that a
certain politician, after being neglected from the media and his opponent, ended up achieving
a great success. Lame duck is a metaphor used for a politician who is about to expire his or
1 Brala-Vukanovi, M. Perspectives on Meaning. Faculty of Humanities and Social Scinces, Rijeka,
2013. (page 131)
2 Lakoff G, Johnosn M., Metaphors we live by. The University of Chicago, 2003. (page 4)
3 Brala-Vukanovi, M. Perspectives on Meaning. Faculty of Humanities and Social Scinces, Rijeka,
2013. (page 100)

her term. Hard power, metaphor for a military attack certain country uses as a punishment for
their rivals. Politics is indeed an inexhaustible source of finding metaphors. When it comes to
sports, the situation is very much the same. Every type of sport has a range of unique
metaphors which had overcome the barrier of their origin and became part of our everyday
communication. So, for instance, when we say that somebody is off base, we dont refer to the
baseball position anymore, but mean that a certain person is simply wrong or mistaken. Or
when we say that somebody is as weak as a pawn, we dont necessarily refer to the game of
chess, but imply that they are manipulated by some other, more powerful individual. When it
comes to popular industry, such as music, metaphors also occur very often. One of the famous
exemplar is Elvis Presleys song known as Hound Dog, where he portrays his loyal and
devoted love to his beloved one. Another, more recent song is the one from Katy Perry, where
she, under the term of Firework, implies something special and unique. When mentioning
popular industry, advertising companies are another source of metaphors that cant go
unnoticed. Everybody is familiar with the commercial Nokia uses for selling their mobile
phones. Connecting people is what they have written on their every advertisement. Of course,
this line attracts people more than just writing something like Buy our phones; they will
enable you to communicate more successfully than usual. Another advertisement using
metaphor is the one form Comcast, company selling cable TV. What they had illustrated on
their poster is a giant potato lying on the sofa. Its not very hard to guess that they used this
image in order to indicate a couch potato. A number of these examples can be found in other
fields of our lives too, not to mention everyday communication where sentences like: He is a
chicken, Her heart is a rock, Life is a rollercoaster etc. can be found on daily basis.

Metonymy
Metonymy, similar to metaphor, can be defined as a substitution of words based on a certain
type of relation (material, casual or construal). It is a figure of speech where one entity is used
to refer to another that is related to it.4 One of the distinctiveness of metonymy is its relations.
There are several types of relations: part for whole (We need some new blood in company,
meaning new people), producer for product (I am reading Faulkner, meaning his books),
place for institution (The White House rejected the plan, meaning the President of the USA),
place for the event (Remember the Alamo, the battle, not the city), etc. Unlike a bit more
4 G, Johnosn M., Metaphors we live by. The University of Chicago, 2003. (page 35)

complex metaphor, metonymy encompasses only one domain between vehicle concept and
target concept.
Metonymy is equally present in all previously mentioned aspects of our lives. Lets begin
form politics once again. After winning the elections, President Obama said: I pledge
allegiance the flag of the US, meaning to the people living in the US. Another example in the
American politics is obvious. Traditionally, Republicans and Democrats have been marked as
red and blue states and this division is nothing else but a mere metonymy. Numerous
instances can be found in sports as well. Sports journalists tend to write lines like Dallas won
the yesterdays game, implying the team from Dallas and not the city itself. Sentences like
Lancaster Gate decided to call of the match can also be found quite frequently. The obvious
meaning is that the headquarters of the football association, which is set in the area of
Lancaster, has come to that decision. Advertising also uses this figure in order to leave a
stronger impression on their potential purchasers. For example, Nike, company selling sports
products, published a poster of Wayne Rooney, English footballer, during the World Cup few
years ago. On that poster, Wayne Rooney was painted in red and white and represented a
whole English national team. This is one of the examples which embodies both metaphor and
metonymy. Rooney presenting England with colours on his body is metaphor and he, as an
individual, representing a whole team is a clear case of metonymy. Metonymy is also an
inherent part of our everyday social interaction. By saying things like: The cup is very tasty,
The restaurant has been quite rude today, The Pentagon will reveal its decision later in the
morning etc, we are using it without even being aware of it.

Conclusion
All these examples clearly demonstrate massive and frequent usage of metaphor and
metonymy. They are everywhere around us and we definitely use them more often then we
think. This fact obviously serves to prove that Lakoff and Johnsons Conceptual Metaphor
Theory is by all means plausible and that time of traditional and old fashioned way of looking
at these crucial parts of our cognitions is far behind us.

Works cited:
1) Brala-Vukanovi, M. Perspectives on Meaning. Faculty of Humanities and Social Scinces,
Rijeka, 2013
2) G, Johnosn M., Metaphors we live by. The University of Chicago, 2003