Three ways to create metonymy : a study in locative readings of institution names

Abstract

The paper investigates polysemous words, and the rise of new readings for old words, which match the pattern of metonymy. According to a recent account of Dolling (Dolling, 1997), we can distinguish between lexical metonymy, fully productive metonymy and creative new coinages in context. Moreover, it is tacitly assumed that lexical metonymies arise through creative coinages. In the paper, I will present two other ways by which lexical metonymies can enter the lexicon. The first case are names for institutions which developed from names for buildings. Here, a fully productive pattern, in concert with the changing historical circumstances, will lead to accidentially-looking readings. The second case is made by the word history of German Praxis. It demonstrates that lexical metonymy can also arise through (history plus) general strategies of lexical acquisition, based on both syntactical and semantical knowledge. Having demonstrated that quite different linguistic abilities of speakers can lead to similar-looking results in meaning change, the paper is a plea in favour of a new classification of instances of meaning change according to mode of origin, rather than shape of result.