Place For Actor Structures: Event Agent Construction And Communicative Effects
What I aim to do in this paper is precisely to offer an account of metonymy as being halfway between lexical cognitive tool and a newspaper device. It is an attempt to describe a conceptual model in discourse, and thus to bring discursive supports to the functioning of the country-name based metonym...
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Cislaru, G. 2017-03-19T10:10:50Z 2017-03-19T10:10:50Z 2003 Place For Actor Structures: Event Agent Construction And Communicative Effects / G. Cislaru // Культура народов Причерноморья. — 2003. — № 42. — С. 74-81. — Бібліогр.: 18 назв. — англ. 1562-0808 https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/114864 What I aim to do in this paper is precisely to offer an account of metonymy as being halfway between lexical cognitive tool and a newspaper device. It is an attempt to describe a conceptual model in discourse, and thus to bring discursive supports to the functioning of the country-name based metonymy. en Кримський науковий центр НАН України і МОН України Культура народов Причерноморья Факультет иностранной филологии. Проблемы современного языкознания Place For Actor Structures: Event Agent Construction And Communicative Effects Структуры 'место действия вместо субъекта': моделирование события и коммуникативные реализации Article published earlier |
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Place For Actor Structures: Event Agent Construction And Communicative Effects |
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Place For Actor Structures: Event Agent Construction And Communicative Effects Cislaru, G. Факультет иностранной филологии. Проблемы современного языкознания |
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Place For Actor Structures: Event Agent Construction And Communicative Effects |
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Place For Actor Structures: Event Agent Construction And Communicative Effects |
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Place For Actor Structures: Event Agent Construction And Communicative Effects |
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Place For Actor Structures: Event Agent Construction And Communicative Effects |
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place for actor structures: event agent construction and communicative effects |
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Cislaru, G. |
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Cislaru, G. |
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Факультет иностранной филологии. Проблемы современного языкознания |
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Факультет иностранной филологии. Проблемы современного языкознания |
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2003 |
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English |
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Культура народов Причерноморья |
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Кримський науковий центр НАН України і МОН України |
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Структуры 'место действия вместо субъекта': моделирование события и коммуникативные реализации |
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What I aim to do in this paper is precisely to offer an account of metonymy as being halfway between lexical cognitive tool and a newspaper device. It is an attempt to describe a conceptual model in discourse, and thus to bring discursive supports to the functioning of the country-name based metonymy.
|
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Place For Actor Structures: Event Agent Construction And Communicative Effects / G. Cislaru // Культура народов Причерноморья. — 2003. — № 42. — С. 74-81. — Бібліогр.: 18 назв. — англ. |
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2025-11-26T23:37:35Z |
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Каменский А.И., Каменская И.Б.
РОЛЕВАЯ ИГРА КАК СРЕДСТВО ОБУЧЕНИЯ ИНОЯЗЫЧНОЙ
ЛЕКСИКЕ ДЕТЕЙ ДОШКОЛЬНОГО ВОЗРАСТА
74
рактер КЗ позволяет определить серию уроков как комплекс ситуативных упражнений игрового характера
в рамках коммуникативной модели обучения. Комплекс позволяет создавать и поддерживать высокую мо-
тивацию иноязычного общения; развивать процессы произвольного внимания и памяти; обеспечить под-
сознательную аналитическую деятельность по формированию новых динамических стереотипов, много-
кратное повторение операций с лексическим материалом в варьируемых ситуациях общения. Обучение де-
тей иноязычной лексике обуславливается ситуативностью, учебной игровой деятельностью в форме лич-
ностно ориентированного общения и коллективного взаимодействия, направленного на формирование и
развитие ЛН. Обучение детей иноязычной лексике требует создания подробного атласа тематически свя-
занных игровых проблемных ситуаций. Перспективной представляется разработка частных требований по
отбору и организации учебного материала для такого атласа.
Источники и литература
1. Стронин М.Ф. Обучающие игры на уроке английского языка. – М.: Просвещение, 1984. – 110 с.
2. High J. Second Language Learning through Cooperative Learning. – Los Angeles, CA.: Sinclair Printing,
1993. – 116 p.
3. Claire E. ESL Teacher’s Activities Kit. – N.Y., 1998. – 285 p.
4. Негневицкая Е.И. и др. Книга для учителя к учебному пособию по английскому языку для 1 класса
общеобразовательных учреждений. – М.: Просвещение, 1994. – 171 с.
5. Гергель А.Ф. Методичнi рекомендацiї з навчання англiйської мови на початковому етапi (1–3 класи). –
Київ - Рiвне, 1993. – 19 с.
CISLARU Georgeta
PLACE FOR ACTOR STRUCTURES: EVENT AGENT CONSTRUCTION AND
COMMUNICATIVE EFFECTS
Структуры "место действия вместо субъекта": моделирование события и коммуникативные реа-
лизации
Forty years ago, R. Jakobson (1963: 66) underlined the deep affinity that exists between realism and meton-
ymy. Metonymy leaves the rhetoric domain and serves to build the world and its events and to facilitate access to
information. Metonymy becomes “a way to see the world”. Later on, cognitive linguistics developed the A stands
for B model (G. Lakoff & M. Johnson, 1985), according to which metonymy is a matter of words and conceptuali-
zation that permits to switch reference from one to another, by virtue of an Idealized Cognitive Model (ICM) and
background cultural conditions. A PLACE stands for an INSTITUTION, CONTAINER for CONTAINED,
CONTROLLER for CONTROLLED, PART for the WHOLE and vice-versa. The notion of natural metonymy is
forged.
Natural metonymies are spontaneous in many discursive places like everyday communication, news, special-
ized discourse, etc. Statements like Les Etats-Unis ont frappé l’Afghanistan, L’Uruguay laisse flotter son peso1,
etc. are very common in news discourse2. All of them may be interpreted in terms of A stands for B structures (in-
fra). Is this a simple denominative tool or is it ideology? Is it simplification or reference complexity? The Ideal-
ized Model has no answer to these questions.
What I aim to do in this paper is precisely to offer an account of metonymy as being halfway between lexical
cognitive tool and a newspaper device. It is an attempt to describe a conceptual model in discourse, and thus to
bring discursive supports to the functioning of the country-name based metonymy.
1. A “stands-for” relationship
1.1. The Metonymic Model
Idealized Cognitive Models serve to schematize human cognition: a general principle is needed because one
cannot list all the examples that represent instances of the same model (e.g., the ICM with the background condi-
tion “institutions are located in places”) (G. Lakoff, 1987: 78). B (place), an element of this ICM, may stand for
element A (institution). Lakoff refers to stands-for relations as metonymic models, and develops the conditions of
the IMM as follows:
-there is a “target” concept A to be understood for some purpose in some context;
-there is a conceptual structure containing both A and another concept B;
-B is either part of A or closely associated with it in that conceptual structure. Typically, a choice of B will
uniquely determine A, within that conceptual structure;
1 These are metonymies since the inferred referents (Army, government, parliament, industrialists, sports teams,
etc.) are “ parts ” of the named country.
2 My analysis rests on French press. Where possible, I give equivalents from English/American press.
Факультет иностранной филологии
Проблемы современного языкознания
75
-compared to A, B is either easier to understand, easier to remember, easier to recognize or more immediately
useful for the given purpose in the given context (G. Lakoff, 1987: 84).
This article deals with “PLACE stands-for” structures, in accordance with the idea that our cognition perceives
any institution and more generally, any object, as located in a place. But, if Lakoff limited the place of an institu-
tion to its headquarters (cf. the Kremlin standing for the Soviet government (1987: 77), I consider that PLACE may
be enlarged to more inclusive domains, like countries.
1.2. Interpretation
Let us consider an example of a country-name based metonymy. The statement US attacked Iraq3 is usually
glossed The United States Air Force attacked Iraq. In this special case, metonymy interpretation requires the use
of cultural competencies: firstly, the acquaintance with the conceptual model Controller for Controlled – as far as
the United States is supposed to control its Army. Secondly, it requires the knowledge about the type of army that
took part in the military operations. At least this is what can be inferred from the gloss.
While the conceptual model is supposed to be automatic, the mechanism that provides supplementary informa-
tion is not specified in cognitive linguistics. The question is whether someone, except the analyst, takes the trouble
to infer the information concerning the type of army: Navy, Air force or Infantry… Can we always infer the refer-
ent B? Do we always need to infer it? Before engaging in a discussion on this particular topic, it is worth mention-
ing that the main specificity of interpretation is its subjectivity, i.e. an aspect to which the analyst has no direct ac-
cess. The construction of an interpretive model has always been a challenge for specialists on discourse.
Pragmatics promotes an inferential theory based on the speaker’s intentionality – the speaker (i.e. mass-media
discourse) respects the principle of informativity and intelligibility (D. Sperber & D. Wilson, 1989: 28). Conse-
quently, interpretation has its beginnings in the production of the statement. I argue that “intuitive” interpretation is
to be completed by the statement of tokens. These are most particularly, syntactic-semantic marks:
- predicative incoherence: Columbia has launched its toughest plan to control the country’s leftist rebels
with a series of military restrictions;
- number (and gender, in languages like French) incoherence: Invité d’honneur, les Emirats Arabes Unis.
Context provides part of the information that facilitates comprehension and supports the functioning – but
also the creation – of cultural stereotypes.
Very strangely, while the interpretation in context of these examples is accessible to readers (M. Lecolle 2001
and author’s survey), the modalization of the statement is ambiguous. There are several models that may be ap-
plied to the statement: PLACE for INSTITUTION, WHOLE for PART, CONTROLLER for CONTROLLED,
INSTITUTION for CONTROLLED AGENT…
1.3. Country-name particularities
My proposal for the comprehension and description of country-names based metonymies (further CNB meton-
ymy) departs from the conceptual structure of these denominations. Specificity of country-names lies in the split
reference between at least two aspects: space and state.
- The Army entered Afghanistan;
- In January, Germany began offering Riester pensions.
News usually focuses on the political aspect of the name. Country-name based metonymy partly results
from this selection. It is a cultural stereotype determined by the event construction in mass media and by the in-
most dependence of any social or political phenomenon on a place. On one hand, there is the denotative polyva-
lence of country names, that maintains spatial and political aspects for any name actualization. On the other hand –
the complexity of the reference to state, which enriches metonymy, while blurring its interpretation.
Similarly to all the other denominations, country-names denote objects and substances. The difference lies in
the “complex relationship, whether virtual or actual, these objects and substances maintain with other objects or
substances4” (D. Van de Velde, 2000: 38). A country-name may “stand for” various institutions, or state represen-
tatives, as shown in examples (1abc):
(1a) La Belgique veut réduire les impôts (titre)
Le gouvernement belge entend réduire les impôts d'au moins 120 milliards de francs
belges (3 milliards d'euros). (F)
Belgium wants to cut taxes5 (title)
Belgian government intends to cut taxes by € 3 billions.
(1b) Thailand has turned to what it calls medical tourism, offering services as varied as
dental care and cancer treatments. (IHT)
3 Statements Clinton attacked Iraq and Schwarzkopf defeated Iraq refer to the same event and are often cited in
cognitive literature. It will be shown infra that they offer different connotations and information, even though both
of them mean roughly, in terms of truth-conditions, US attacked (and defeated) Iraq.
4 “ Les noms propres de lieux nomment donc des choses, ou substances, comme les noms de personnes, avec ce
facteur de complexité supplémentaire que les substances visées par les noms de lieu sont, virtuellement ou
actuellement, dans une relation d’un certain type à une ou plusieurs autres substances. ” (D. Van de Velde, 2000 :
38)
5 The translation keeps the syntactical position of the country name (i. e. literal translation) in order to keep the
same informative structure.
CISLARU G.
PLACE FOR ACTOR STRUCTURES: EVENT AGENT CONSTRUCTION
AND COMMUNICATIVE EFFECTS
76
(1c) Australia starts favourite against any other team in the world. (IHT)
Sometimes reference is stated by means of nominal anaphora Belgium – Belgian government (ex. (1a)), some
other times by the denominative asymmetry that marks the relationship Australia – another team (ex. (1c)). But in-
ference may be led further and further in the huge majority of cases, building a pyramidal structure similar to the
use of generic terms, like in GENERIC for SPECIFIC metonymies.
(2a) Belgium wants to cut taxes
The Belgian government intends to cut taxes by € 3 milliards. The Prime Minister pro-
posed a reduction in taxes in order to boost young couples’ economic situation.
(2b) Thailand has turned to what it calls medical tourism, offering services as varied as
dental care and cancer treatments. Thai tourist infrastructure specializes in mixed ser-
vices.
As well as:
(2b’) Thai tourist infrastructure specializes in mixed services. Thailand has turned to what
it calls medical tourism, offering services as varied as dental care and cancer treat-
ments.
Thus double, even triple metonymies, can be obtained. US attacked Iraq follows the same paradigm: (The)
USA – Army – Air Force attacked Iraq. The country-name forms a fuzzy nucleus that offers important referential
possibilities.
1.4. A generalized model
In Lakoff’s Cognitive linguistics, CNB metonymies represent a subclass of the general principle PLACE for
INSTITUTION. Moreover, Lakoff points out that “the principle applies to an open-ended class of cases, not to any
fixed list” (G. Lakoff, 1987: 77). I argue that the PLACE for INSTITUTION principle is incomplete and insuffi-
cient to formalize country-name based metonymies. Actually, PLACE can stand for various institutions, officials,
elite people, teams, etc. By means of double mapping (see supra), reference transcends from generic to specific,
and thus place-names in the subject position designate the agents of the related events. To say it in a metaphorical
way, narration in news sets up the scenario of the events in accordance with a predetermined point of view, and
denomination builds a new category, the event agent, or simply ACTOR.
At the level of the language as a system, PLACE for ACTOR structures concentrate long chains of reasoning
and inferences, thus functioning as a global model. The stereotype of the national state brings together in a single
representation all the aspects of a country. The PLACE for ACTOR model avoids the multiplication of interpretive
inferences – it builds a conceptual integration by compressing WHOLE for PART, PLACE for INSTITUTION,
CONTROLLER for CONTROLLED in a single structure6. What would the advantage of a global model be?
Firstly, this model accounts for two particularly interesting features of country-names: their hetero-referential ca-
pacity and the focus on the event. Secondly, it concentrates an open-ended list of possible interpretations, and the
binary construction may be readily actualized in informative discourse under the structure subject meton-
ymy+agent predication+extension. Reference emerges as a result of the interplay between a widespread concep-
tion of the place as a complex notion and the media scope Who? Where? When?7
2. PLACE for ACTOR structures
2.1. Communicative effects
Metonymy brings conceptual accessibility (G. Lakoff, 1987), relevance and clarity (D. Sperber & D. Wilson,
1989; Z. Kövecses & G. Radden, 1998) discourse. R. Jakobson (1963) was one of the first to give metonymy a
new status in language, beyond poetics. For modern linguistics metonymy is a mechanism of cognition and every-
day expression rather than a stylistic device (G. Lakoff & M. Johnson, 1985). Nevertheless, metonymy is not de-
prived of connotation and communicative effects in many contexts (for a synthesis, cf. A. Papafragou, 1996).
What about CNB metonymy in news, which is often regarded as lexicalized routine (M. Lecolle, 2001: 153)?
Is there any difference between saying US attacked Iraq and (The) US/American Army attacked Iraq? The
WHOLE for PART principle, which naturally belongs to PLACE for ACTOR model, usually amplifies reference.
M. Bonhomme (M. Bonhomme, 1987: 241) grants this type of metonymy a capacity for generalization that makes
actuality the business of a whole political bloc. Moreover, the discourse effect may be a matter of metonymic in-
teraction, where all the ACTORS of the event (not only the subject position) are involved. To say that US hit Af-
ghanistan (and not terrorist bases in Afghanistan) reflects – and creates – an attitude towards this military opera-
tion:
(3a) US attacked Afghanistan (3b) Title: Inheriting a history of hatred
The effective [American] response against [terrorists]
bases in Afghanistan must have come as a serious
6 For a definition of compression cf. G. Fauconnier & M. Turner, 2000. In this article, compression points out
conceptual integration of different cognitive conditions (WHOLE for PART versus PLACE for INSTITUTION,
etc.) that build up reference interpretation.
7 I use a reformulation of Quintillion rhetoric to outline the main mass media discourse objectives.
Факультет иностранной филологии
Проблемы современного языкознания
77
shock to the terrorist organizations and compelled some
revision of their earlier assessment of American weak-
ness and demoralization.(IHT)
Besides, it is rather difficult to determine whether readers have the same interpretation of CNB metonymies.
Anyhow, they seem to understand these structures (M. Lecolle, 2001) and they successfully use them in everyday
communication. Again, interpretation is to be brought back to discourse production. Corpus analysis shows that ref-
erence is not exclusively metonymic in news, on the contrary, full denomination is preferred in quite a lot of con-
texts (I discuss this fact infra). “Responsibility” is not necessarily shifted to another referent. All the same, one may
note a tendency for specifying the referents:
(4) Prime Minister of Portugal told reporters that it was “very important that the United
States of America and President Bush listen to the opinion of closed allies.” (IHT)
Charge is clearly shared between the USA and President Bush here. Is it an attempt to make reference objec-
tive? The hypothesis is open to question. At least, it seems to indicate a point of view. I postulate that CNB me-
tonymies in news show a point of view, an attitude concerning an event and its agent. Metonymic use of country-
names builds fuzzy reference, and this fuzziness generates “events amplification”. Metonymy is meantime a way to
treat about responsibility in the presented events. It is a social amplification of the event at the level of reference,
in accordance with the cultural background of the national state. CNB metonymy automatically extends responsi-
bility for an act to the representation of the whole country. Place may even lose its initial mainly spatial aspect and
become a mere actor, as in: A Madrid, la France a promis d’approcher l’équilibre d’ici à 20048. (L)
2.2. Connotation
The referential function of metonymy is a common place, postulated by the rhetoricians and maintained by
cognitive and pragmatic theories. Nevertheless, it demands some supplementary explanations since the principle of
identity and identification is infringed:
(5a) Israël contre Israël (MD)
Israel against Israel
(5b) Le Japon chez le psy (L)
Japan at the psychiatrist
In (5a), there is a denomination identity conflict, while in (5b) the conflict is due to asymmetrical relationship
between ACTORS. Apart from reference to a place (event location) and to a social or political actor, these me-
tonymies cause contextual effects that interact with reference and modify it. For instance, example (5a) stresses the
tragic situation of a fratricide war by identifying two referents with the same name. It may also be interpreted as a
mark of scission or grotesque. In (5b) we see the amplitude of the depression phenomenon in Japan.
This particular use of metonymy seems to be a result of the information circuit in the press; to put it in other
words, it is determined by news intertextuality. Conflict in Israel and depression in Japan are “recurrent events”.
Most newspapers proposed a great number of articles on these topics. The proper names concentrate part of the in-
formation and actualize it when used in the same context. Then denomination becomes allusive.
Both (5a & b) are examples of titles from French newspapers. They seem to make sense in English as well,
however no such title was found in the English corpus9. This may reflect different mass-media “cultures”, the
French searching for a stronger discursive effect in news. But no language restrictions make this use impossible ei-
ther in English or in many other Indo-European languages.
3. Metonymy in the news
3.1. Metonymy and discourse topic
Metonymic use is a result of cognition schematization and expression simplification. “An easy-to-perceive or
well-understood aspect of something is used to stand either for the thing as a whole or for some other aspect or
part of it” (G. Lakoff, 1987: 77). It is largely acquainted now that metonymy (together with metaphor) helps us to
access the world and thus takes a central place in human communication. Nevertheless, communication is not a
mixture of metonymies and metaphors drawn from a pre-existing list. Especially when both metonymic and non-
metonymic expressions are possible. From language to discourse, what determines the use of CNB metonymy in
news?
More often than not, the metonymic use of a name in mass media is related either to another country-name me-
tonymy, or to a referent of the same class related to another country: Germany met Russia at Salt Lake City;
France condemned the acts of Milosevic, etc. However, metonymy can be found outside a relational context, in
National news. Then denomination switches to the class of collective names and refers to the country as a whole. It
8 In Madrid, France promised to approach balance by 2004.
9 Very restricted, the volume of the English corpus gives way to no quantitative or qualitative comparison with the
French corpus. English examples are only used to illustrate and confirm the existence of the same phenomenon in
English-speaking media.
CISLARU G.
PLACE FOR ACTOR STRUCTURES: EVENT AGENT CONSTRUCTION
AND COMMUNICATIVE EFFECTS
78
is the equivalent of a “we-us” identification: La France est en colère10. Nevertheless, most CNB metonymies pro-
liferate in International news and in topic areas where they offer reference accessibility, like Politics or Sports:
Spatial segmentation Topic segmentation
National International
Episodically, in direct and indirect
speech, France occurs as a subject me-
tonymy; current substitute:
la/notre République.
Commonly used. Common use of metonymy, fre-
quency decreases according to
headings: Sports à Culture.
Again, the most significant concentration was registered within International news and Politics, in contexts
were two or more referents are involved. The scenario actualizes binary relationships of conflict or negotiation: US
attacked Afghanistan, etc.
Metonymy also seems to depend on the frequency of the country-name. Names with low frequency in news are
rarely metonymic, except in titles; in the article body full denominations are used, as shown in example (1a):
(1a) La Belgique veut réduire les impôts (titre)
Le gouvernement belge entend réduire les impôts d'au moins 120 milliards de
francs belges (3 milliards d'euros). (F)
Objectively considered, the IMM keeps its validity since it functions in titles, but it is not decisive in discourse:
reference is not only a matter of metonymy. Therefore, I hypothesize a regulation by discourse. Does this mean a
return to the rhetoric theory? Not really, for if metonymy is common in political headings and international news,
it is not only a produce of their rhetoric. On one hand, politics and international news are privileged in non-
specialized French newspapers: they usually fill first pages and large spaces. Besides, in mass media, conflicts are
more likely to produce news – they ARE events. Action and interaction confer dynamism to information and thus
request an accessible – and meantime imposing – agent. On the other hand, high-frequency names refer not only to
elite nations11. Again, salience of the commented event is decisive for country-names frequency. Consequently,
“fame” is a product of the informative discourse.
Metonymic use is closely guided by event construction in news. In other respects, salient names vary from
heading to heading. For instance, a country-name that is hardly metonymic under International news/Politics may
be frequently metonymic under Sport: Australia starts favourite against any other team in the world.
3.2. Referential chains
Reference is not exclusively a matter of metonymy, and when metonymy is used, it is not merely a CNB me-
tonymy. Salient country-names are used concurrently with names of capitals or names of institutions: France-
Paris-l’Elysée-Jacques Chirac; Russia-Moscow-the Kremlin-Poutine; US-Washington-the White House-Bush, etc.
The name of the capital, government institution or president, as well as the name of the country, may be used to
designate the country’s army. Note however that names of capitals or institutions may not be metonymic in specific
contexts: it seems to be a semantic rather than syntactic problem. Is the selection of the denomination always
meaningful?
An enlarged context is an ample opportunity to observe the choices discourse makes in its informative enter-
prise. The chain of metonymies in example (6) points out the possibility of interaction of various conceptual mod-
els, all linked with the concept /country/:
(6) L’Union soviétique a condamné l’intervention
militaire des Etats-Unis au Panama, ce qui semble
être conforme à sa “ nouvelle pensée politique ”.
Moscou, en effet, a retiré ses troupes de
l’Afghanistan et poussé ses alliés cubain et
vietnamien à faire de même en Angola et au
Cambodge. En revanche, le Kremlin ne s’est pas
privé de multiplier ses interventions en Europe de
l’Est au cours du dernier trimestre de 1989 dans le
but de favoriser une évolution politique souhaitée
de toute évidence par M. Gorbatchev. (M)
The Soviet Union condemned the United States
military operations in Panama. This seems to be
part of its “new political reflection”. In fact, Mos-
cow withdrew its troops from Afghanistan and got
its Cuban and Vietnamese allies to do the same in
Angola and Cambodia. On the other hand, the
Kremlin multiplied its interventions in Eastern
Europe during the last term of 1989, aiming to fa-
vor/boost the political evolution obviously ex-
pected by M. Gorbachev. (my translation)
Do these denominations refer to the same object? Are they co-referential? It is clearly shown that conceptual
schematization is flexible: categories may transcend from one level to another. Moreover, the decreasing reparti-
tion seems to be hazardous: a priori, each metonymical denomination may be replaced by the three others: Mos-
10 France is angry.
11 Reference to elite nations is one of the cultural factors that determine news values. (R. Fowler, 1991, pp. 13-14)
Факультет иностранной филологии
Проблемы современного языкознания
79
cow/the Kremlin/M. Gorbachev condemned USA military operations; the Soviet Union/the Kremlin/M. Gorbachev
withdrew [its] troops from Afghanistan, etc. In practice, however, substitutions are meaningful. The same event is
related, the same action is perpetrated, but any Subject substitution – be it in the frames of the same space – brings
its own contextual effects and supplementary implicit comments on the event and on its place in the news. Actu-
ally, to put the Soviet Union for the Kremlin and vice-versa has an important impact on meaning and axiology (I
invite the reader to do so, because axiological interpretation of the substitutions is open to an infinite scale of con-
notations…)
3.3. Text structure
I now want to look up more closely at the continuity of metonymic denominations in discourse. It was demon-
strated that metonymy is highly convertible in news (part 3.2): communicative effects put aside, names of capitals,
institutions or politic personalities may designate the same referent as country-names. No regularity seems obvious
at first glance. But this conversion is not meaningless. The question is whether conversion is accidental or not.
Since CNB metonymy is controlled by event construction, I propose to consider its incidence with respect to
event focus and intertext. Headings and titles serve to organize information in mass media according to topic, loca-
tion, and nature of the event. While being attractive and argumentative, titles are also informative. Despite the
function of attractive label, titles are generally coherent with the text that follows them. When comparing reference
in titles with reference in the article body, one may notice an interactive coherence between them: the first sen-
tences may re-actualize the whole title or part of it:
(7a) La France ne peut faire cavalier seul (titre)
[…] “Dans ses choix de parc de production électrique, la France pourra difficilement
faire cavalier seul dans un monde qui s'ouvre à la concurrence ”, mettent en garde les
auteurs. (F)
(7b) Les industriels français pourraient renouer les liens tissés dans les années 70 avec
Bucarest (titre)
Les industriels français vont-ils reprendre le chemin de Bucarest ? S'il est encore trop
tôt pour le dire, les liens tissés tout au long des années 70 pourraient être réactivés. (M)
Titles containing general information or reference to a country encourage CNB metonymies. If other meto-
nymic proper names are used in the article, they never stand first:
(8a) Titre : SUD LIBAN La Finul se déploie
Le Liban a autorisé, au compte-gouttes, un dé-
ploiement des Casques bleus de l'ONU, qui ont pris
position hier côté libanais de la frontière évacuée le
24 mai par Israël, après un bref accroc avec le Hez-
bollah. (F)
(8b) Title: A second-generation alliance system
The policies and attitudes of the United States un-
der the Bush administration tend to make the prob-
lems of both these alliances substantially worse.
The United States is at present deconstructing its
alliances. Unilateralism, triumphalism, exceptional-
ism and, often, simple arrogance now mark Wash-
ington’s approach12. (IHT)
It is current that the same event be treated in different ways, from different points of view. Particularization is
then preferred to generalization. Thus a political personality may be chosen to represent the event, say, Clinton at-
tacked Iraq. Reference to a political personality brings much more complexity to information than simple person-
alization. The obsession with persons, and the media’s use of them as symbols, not only “avoids serious discussion
and explanation of underlying social and economic factors” (R. Fowler, 1991: 16), it also indicates the evaluative
attitude of the enunciator. However, very few French news titles metonymize elite persons’ names. More often
than not, a person’s name keeps its initial reference in titles and in the article:
(9) Title: Bush’s speech to the UN to challenge world on Iraq
President George W. Bush will not propose a specific course of action against Iraq when he
delivers a major speech to the UN General Assembly on Thursday […] a senior administra-
tion official said.
[…] the official said, adding that if it does not, Bush “reserves his options to act on behalf
of the United States13.” (IHT)
While country-names, capital names, names of institutions or political personalities may all construct the event
agent in news by means of metonymic use, a complementary selection among cognitive models is made in accor-
dance with text’s coherence. Country-names (and more generally geopolitical place names) share out information in
French news: there are such headings as Europe, Proche-Orient, Amériques, Brésil, etc. Thus national newspapers
focus mainly on global representations.
3.4. CNB metonymy between cognition and discourse
Metonymy, conceived as a cognitive model, is strongly dependent on discourse structure and topic. To show out
primarity within this cognition-discourse interaction implies difficulties that I do not intend to challenge in this arti-
cle. I claim that, wherever CNB metonymy begins, it functions in a continuous circularity between cognition and
discourse (Fig. 1 in Annex).
12 Further there are mainly occurrences of US.
13 Followed by reported speech; information sources (i.e. President George W. Bush) are repeatedly mentioned.
CISLARU G.
PLACE FOR ACTOR STRUCTURES: EVENT AGENT CONSTRUCTION
AND COMMUNICATIVE EFFECTS
80
The Idealized Model is constantly shaped and enriched by discourse. In accordance with the principle of cultural
and/or geographic proximity (R. Fowler, 1991), news focuses on a definite list of “actors” and events. Through dis-
course continuity and intertext relationship, mass media generates and maintains representations that supply cogni-
tive models with stereotypes – conflicts, elite nations, catastrophes and other hecatombs are all promoted by news
discourse. The use of metonymy brings clarity and accessibility to discourse; discourse gives metonymy an
axiologic dimension, which is reevaluated through feedback. Thus the “point of view” articulates the interface Cog-
nition-Discourse, on the basis of News communicative designs.
Conclusions
CNB metonymy, built on the ICM pattern, develops into a polyvalent model in newspaper discourse. Country-
names referential complexity is maximally exploited by the informative discourse. On one hand, metonymic use
reflects cultural stereotypes and brings accessibility and clarity: metonymy facilitates reference by putting forward
an accessible denomination. On the other hand, CNB metonymies serve to construct stereotypes, by means of
evaluative connotation that reflects an appreciation, the attitude towards an event through its ACTOR and vice-
versa. I suggest that metonymy has several degrees of interpretation, and communicative, cognitive, connotative
effects are mainly due to the selection of the “stand for” entity, that extends the responsibility for an act to the
whole country, to an institution or a personality.
Furthermore, CNB metonymy is also determined by topic segmentation and discourse continuity: events and
their localization, informativity, salience, intertextuality… The discourse structures reference and representations.
Metonymy evolves from a conceptual model into a communicative model of mass media, with its connotation and
discursive effects.
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Index of newspapers:
Le Figaro (F)
Le Monde (M)
Libération (L)
International Herald Tribune (IHT)
Annex 1:
Факультет иностранной филологии
Проблемы современного языкознания
81
COGNITION
DISCOURSE
CULTURAL STEREOTYPES-
IDEALIZED MODEL-
-MEDIA SCOPE WHO? WHERE? WHEN?
-INTERTEXTUALITY
-DISCOURSE CONTINUITY
& SEGMENTATION OF INFORMATION
REFLECTS
CONSTRUCTS
NEWS EVENT CONSTRUCTION
OBJECTIVE EVENT
Fig. 1
EVENT AGENT
PLACE FOR ACTOR
POINT OF VIEW
CLARITY
ACCESSIBILITY
|