A Study Of The Pragmatic Inference Function Of Conceptual Metonymy

With the development of cognitive linguistics, metonymy is no more regarded as a mere rhetoric device, but as a conceptual phenomenon and a cognitive process which operates within an Idealized Cognitive Model. Metonymic concept plays an indispensable role in the way we think and act as well as talk in ordinary life. Pragmatic inference has always been an important part of pragmatic studies, which involves a lot of achievements, including Grice’s Cooperative Principle (1975), Levinson’s Neo-Gricean Pragmatic Inference Mechanism (1983) and Sperber and Wilson’s Relevance Theory (1995), etc. However, the fact that hearers usually draw the necessary inferences with ease and little effort is not satisfactorily explained and these accounts do not offer a systematic description of the inference patterns involved and their cognitive grounding. The author’s analysis of pragmatic inference is based primarily upon the cognitive theory of metonymy with the consideration that the deficiency of the traditional approach can be overcome by means of human metonymic thinking mode.This study is underpinned by the contiguity relationship theory, the theory of Langacker’s reference point (1993) and Idealized Cognitive Models (ICMs) proposed by Lakoff (1987), which will open the window for us to understand metonymy-producing relationships and the cognitive mechanisms of metonymy, setting theoretical foundations of the analysis of pragmatic inference function of metonymy. Considering the typicality of indirect speech acts, this thesis explores the role of metonymic inference in conversation, especially in the speech acts according to the theory of speech act metonymy proposed by Panther&Thornburg (1999). In their view, metonymies are "natural inference schemata" in indirect speech act and each component in the scenario can metonymically stand for other components, or for the whole scenario through which can better explain the indirect speech act. Furthermore, taking into account that language in communication is not static but dynamic; this study employs pragmatic parameters and illocutionary ICMs to complement Panther and Thornburg’s theory. In addition, the last part of this thesis tries to use Blended Space Theory to analysis the pragmatic inference function of metonymy, which can be regarded as the compensation of speech act metonymy. In summary, the application of metonymy in pragmatic inference can not only prove the primitivity of metonymic thought, but also provide a sound interpretation for pragmatic inference.The author’s analyses of pragmatic inference are grounded on the cognitive theory of metonymy with the findings that the deficiency of the traditional approach can be overcome by means of human metonymic thinking mode. Furthermore, it will be helpful to the application of metonymic thought and interactive English teaching. As this study explains pragmatic inference mechanism from the perspective of conceptual metonymy, there is no doubt that it will provide a new view for the study of pragmatic inference and inspires other scholars’applied research on metonymy.