Have you heard the news? Metonymic extensions of the verb hear in English

Abstract

Bierwiaczonek (2013: 201-202) proposed an analysis of the polysemy of the verb see based on propositional metonymic mappings. In Matusz (2020) I supported this claim with a short dictionary analysis. In the present paper, I propose a similar analysis of the polysemy of hear based on propositional metonymy processes. In order to do that a short dictionary analysis is performed to determine the basic non-metonymic meaning of the verb and to distinguish the senses motivated by metonymic mappings. The analysis performed on the basis of three dictionary sources shows that a significant number of senses of hear may plausibly be explained as cases of PART FOR WHOLE propositional metonymic patterns. The metonymic shift may be demonstrated on the basis of State-of-Affairs Scenarios (SASs), as proposed by Panther and Thornburg (1999), due to the fact that within such scenarios the stage of auditory perception constitutes a particularly salient stage (a stage of SAS for SAS). Alternatively, some dictionary samples are ambiguous between the PART FOR WHOLE metonymic interpretation and the metaphoric reading wherein metonymy plays an active role in the emergence of the metaphoric shift. Thus, reference to metonymy-metaphor interaction appears indispensable. In the paper, I propose an analysis of such cases based on Ruiz de Mendoza and Díez Velasco (2002), who consider the role of metonymic domain expansion within the source of the metaphoric mappings.