Understanding Metonymies in Discourse

Understanding Metonymies in Discourse (2002)

• Presented by Mike O’Leary
• Linguistics 580 I: Lexical Ambiguity
• May 24, 2006

Katja Markert Language Technology Group Division of Informatics University of Edinburgh Edinburgh, U.K.

Udo Hahn Computational Linguistics Lab Freiburg University Freiburg, Germany

Outline

• Metonymy definitions, examples and characteristics
• Earlier computational approaches to detecting and interpreting metonymy
• Markert & Hahn’s criticism of the earlier computational approaches and proposed solutions to these problems
• Markert & Hahn’s computational model
• Conclusions

Metonymy: Definitions

• A non-literal figure of speech in which the name of one thing is substituted for that of another related to it. (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980)
• The use of a word or expression as a substitute for something with which it is closely associated. From Greek metonumia ‘change of name’. (Oxford English Dictionary)
• The use of a single characteristic to identify a more complex entity. It is also known as denominatio or pars pro toto (part for the whole).
• One of the basic characteristics of cognition. It is extremely common for people to take one well-understood or easy-to-perceive aspect of something and use that aspect to stand either for the thing as a whole or for some other aspect or part of it. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy)

Metonymy: Examples

• The ham sandwich is waiting for his check.
• Nixon bombed Hanoi.
• Which airlines fly from Boston to Denver?
• The Boston office called.
• Denise drank the bottle.
• The kettle is boiling.
• You’ll find better ideas than that in the library.
• John began a novel.
• Scotland beat Ireland.
• America did once try to ban alcohol.
• Ask seat 19 whether he wants to swap.
• Press-men hoisted their Kodaks.
• I liked the laser; its printouts were excellent.
• He read Shakespeare.
• I’m parked out back.
• The White House announced a preparedness plan that could include travel limitations should an outbreak of avian flu threaten the United States.