On The Contextual Semantic Drift of Metonymy in Translation

Abstract

This paper attempts to prove that metonymic expressions might bring about certain drift exclusively in the semantic meaning of the message delivered, rather than its pragmatic meaning, a fact that should be taken into account in the process of translation. Context (whether linguistic or non-linguistic) has the effect of having the meaning of the metonymy to be pushed down into a subordinate position and innovating another figurative meaning linked in one way or another to the source sense to replace. In other words, the context of the expression relates two pre-existing signs or concepts by means of the reific contiguity conjure up additions sense for rhetoric and semantic reasons.