Body part metonymies in action and perception frames: a cognitive analysis.

In Cognitive Linguistics studies on metonymy have been mainly concerned with its conceptual nature whereas its impact on grammar has generally not received much attention. However, in the last few years some authors have started to pay attention to the kind of constraints that metonymy imposes on grammar. In this paper we describe metonymies appearing within the action and perception frame focusing on their motivation and realisation patterns. Within the action frame our study centres on the ACTION FOR PROCESS mapping; and within the perception frame we posit the existence of the PERCEPTION FOR EXPERIENTIAL EVENT metonymy. Finally, the analysis reveals that both metonymies are significant both at a conceptual and at a grammatical level.