The proper names ‘Assad’, ‘ISIL’, ‘ISIS’, ‘Daesh’ and ‘European’ as metonymic blends in political
discourse
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Published:2023-01-30
Issue:1
Volume:21
Page:115-139
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ISSN:1877-9751
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Container-title:Review of Cognitive Linguistics
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language:en
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Short-container-title:RCL
Affiliation:
1. Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University named after R.E. Alekseev
Abstract
Abstract
The study investigated metonymic uses of the anthroponym ‘Assad’, the acronyms ‘ISIL’, ‘ISIS’, ‘Daesh’ and the
toponymic adjective ‘European’ from a blending theory perspective. The corpus comprised British and American politicians’ speeches
covering such topics as the activity of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, the fight against ISIS, and Euromaidan. Analysis of the
data revealed that the source domain of a metonymic expression which has certain cognitive salience in an utterance fuses with the
target leading to the emergence of a blend. It was also found that the construction of a metonymic blend in proper names often
requires activation of world knowledge which forms part of the conceptual structure of the source or target domains of a proper
name.
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Subject
Linguistics and Language,Developmental and Educational Psychology,Language and Linguistics
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