Expressivity and metonymic inferencing: Stylistic variation in non-literary language use

Metonymy has received renewed attention in recent cognitive linguistic research as a prominent cognitive construal operation underlying many types of everyday language use. However, the same conceptualization mechanism is exploited for the realization of expressivity effects as well. The present paper explores the way in which metonymy contributes to the creation of an expressive meaning in different types of nonliterary language use. In two case studies dealing with highly informal expressions (verbal insults expressing stupidity) and more artificially construed language (newspaper headlines), a structural pattern of stylistic variation is revealed, one generated by the activation of a process of metonymic inferencing. In both types of expressions, a careful equilibrium emerges between an innovative, expressive meaning and well-established, conventional structures. This observation is supports Giora's Optimal Innovation Hypothesis.status: publishe