Explicature interpretation grounded in conceptual metonymy

This study investigates how hearers recover explicatures in the process of utterance interpretation. The accounts of Grice (1975) and Sperber and Wilson (1986) have the limitation of not specifying a concrete interpretive route, a point also criticized by Levinson (1989). To address this limitation, the present study introduces Langacker’s (1993) theory of conceptual metonymy as a foundation, incorporating the notions of reference-point structure, profile, and active zone. An analysis of ordinary examples and dialogue data discussed in previous literature shows that explicature is recovered through a stepwise procedure involving reference-point selection, active-zone highlighting, profile reconfiguration, and foregrounding, and that this process is regulated by cognitive salience. By making the interpretive route visible, the reference-point structure functions as a device that supplements the limitations of relevance- theoretic accounts. In doing so, the study demonstrates how explicatures are formed through successive cognitive shifts, clarifies the interface between pragmatics and cognitive linguistics, and provides a basis for future research grounded in conceptual metonymy.