The Metaphoric and Metonymic Use of Country Names in Economic News：A Corpus-Based Analysis

Abstract

Abstract Personification is widely acknowledged for its central role in the understanding of a nation. However, empirical evidence of its pervasiveness in authentic language data is lacking. In a self-built corpus of news report, this study coded, categorized, and analyzed the metaphoric and metonymic use of two country names: China and Australia. The distribution of the use of country names shows a continuum ranging from the literal, through metonymy, to metaphor. A clear majority of the figurative use of national names in the corpus lies in the category of metonymy, and the fuzzy area between metonymy and metaphor. In contrast, metaphors only take up a minor proportion, and most of them are based on metonymic link. By examining the mundane and seemingly literate use of country names, this study exemplifies that consistent patterns of conventional metonymy and metaphor are able to incur significant cognitive impact. Thus, this study calls for more attention on metonymy and metonymy-metaphor interaction in empirical studies on metaphor.