The proper names ‘Assad’, ‘ISIL’, ‘ISIS’,

‘Daesh’ and ‘European’ as metonymic

blends in political discourse
Tatiana Golubeva
Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University named after R.E. Alekseev

The study investigated metonymic uses of the anthroponym ‘A ssad’, the

acronyms ‘ISIL’, ‘ISIS’, ‘Daesh’ and the toponymic adjective ‘European’ from
a blending theory perspective. The corpus comprised British and American
politicians’ speeches covering such topics as the activity of Syrian president
Bashar al-Assad, the fight against ISIS, and Euromaidan. Analysis of the
data revealed that the source domain of a metonymic expression which has
certain cognitive salience in an utterance fuses with the target leading to the
emergence of a blend. It was also found that the construction of a
metonymic blend in proper names often requires activation of world knowl-
edge which forms part of the conceptual structure of the source or target
domains of a proper name.

Keywords: proper name, conceptual integration, metonymy, cognitive

salience, blend

1. Introduction

Cognitive linguistics has questioned the structuralist view of proper names as

entities devoid of meaning and used in speech only for reference. In contempo-
rary studies the ability of proper names to expand a conceptual-semantic sphere
of language is no longer debated. It should be noted, though, that even before
a cognition-based approach took root in linguistics, not all scholars had treated
proper names as purely referential phenomena. As long ago as 1924, Jespersen in
his Philosophy of Grammar argued that proper names “connote” the greatest num-
ber of attributes: “if proper names as actually understood did not connote many
attributes, we should be at a loss to understand or explain the everyday phenom-
enon of a proper name becoming a common noun” (Jespersen, 2007, p. 66). Since
the 1980s proper names have been closely investigated within cognitive grammar
https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00129.gol | Published online: 30 January 2023
Review of Cognitive Linguistics 21:1 (2023), pp. 115–139. ISSN 1877-9751 | E‑ISSN 1877-976X
© 2022 John Benjamins
116 Tatiana Golubeva

and cognitive semantics frameworks. According to Langacker, the founder of cog-

nitive grammar, proper names can be contrasted with common nouns as non-
prototypical nominals versus prototypical ones (Langacker, 1991, p. 53). However,
in a more recent research by Van Langendonck (2007, pp. 51–52) quite the oppo-
site view is expressed: “this nominal subclass represents the prototypical noun
since its primary function is to refer to an object (or person). […] Proper names
display the unmarked nominal feature of definiteness and they are prototypically
singular, countable, non-generic, and concrete”.
In cognitive semantics, since the very beginning, proper names have been
treated as nominals having a special meaning: Marmaridou (1989, p. 370) argues
that “proper names have a meaning consisting of the set of propositions that they
might implicate at any one time”; Jonasson (1994, p. 19) defines the linguistic cat-
egory of a proper noun “as a class of linguistic expressions associated in long-
term memory with an individual, i.e. with some specific and not some general
knowledge (as in the case of common nouns)”; Sjöblom (2016, pp. 67–68) views
them “as symbolic units consisting of form and meaning whose conventional sta-
tus is strengthened by repeated use”. In sum, it has been established that proper
names do have meaning, but this meaning is not constructed and interpreted in
the same way as the meaning of common nouns because it requires activation of
certain extralinguistic information, or background knowledge. In academic litera-
ture there is even an opinion that “unique reference is a consequence, rather than
the core of what proper names are designed to do” (see Dancygier, 2009, p. 166).
The connection between the referent of a proper name and background
knowledge is formed via conceptual metonymy, conceptual metaphor or both
(see Brdar & Brdar-Szabo, 2007). For instance, the transition of proper names
into the category of common nouns known as ‘appelativization’ occurs due to
metonymic and metaphoric projections between different mental structures. The
starting point of appelativization process is a proper name having sociocultural
significance and its end product is a lexical unit expressing new meaning, con-
veying a new concept. Conceptual metonymy is one of the cognitive mechanisms
responsible for the meaning construction of a proper name in discourse. To
date, metonymy has been an object of rather profound cognitive research (see
Barcelona, 2011; Fauconnier & Turner, 2003; Herrero-Ruiz, 2018; Panther &
Thornburg, 2017; Radden, 2018; Radden & Kövecses, 1999; Ruiz de Mendoza
Ibáñez, 2011). Lakoff and his collaborators treat metonymy as a conceptual map-
ping of the source onto the target within a single domain (Lakoff, 1987; Lakoff &
Johnson, 1980). In later studies this view has been developed and refined: Ruiz
de Mendoza Ibáñez (1997, p. 171) regards metonymy as “a one-correspondence
conceptual mapping within a domain where, if the target is part of the source,
the target is not a primary or central sub-domain of the source”; Barcelona
 ‘A ssad’, ‘ISIL’, ‘ISIS’, ‘Daesh’ and ‘European’ as metonymic blends in political discourse 117

(2011, p. 52) defines it as “an asymmetric mapping of a conceptual domain, the

source, onto another domain, the target. Source and target are in the same func-
tional domain and are linked by a pragmatic function, so that the target is men-
tally activated”. However, treatment of metonymic expressions as cases of the
domain-internal mapping of the source and target domains fails to capture all
dimensions of metonymy and cannot effectively account for all the meanings cre-
ated by metonymic uses of language. Extant research shows that the theory of
conceptual integration, also known as blending theory, which was proposed by
Fauconnier and Turner (1998/2001) for analysis of conceptual and linguistic phe-
nomena, including metaphor and metonymy, has proved to be more productive
in the identification and interpretation of novel, complex and context-dependent
metonymic meanings (see Alač & Coulson, 2004; Bierwiaczonek, 2013; Coulson
& Oakley, 2003; Ioannou, 2019; Radden, 2018; Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, 2003). In
fact, it shares some aspects of conceptual metonymy theory –for example, on both
approaches the new meaning emerges due to the mappings between conceptual
structures, but at the same time, there are some important differences between
these frameworks which will be briefly described in Section 2.
The present research aims to explore metonymic uses of proper names in
political discourse from a blending theory perspective. The main goal is to analyse
the conditions, character and results of conceptual integration in proper names
used as metonyms. Other objectives include identifying factors responsible for the
emergence of a metonymic blend and describing the properties and pragmatic
significance of blends. As it stands, metonymic uses of proper names have been
explored in cognitive linguistics and in political linguistics (Berberović, 2009;
Brdar & Brdar-Szabo, 2007; Markert & Nissim, 2007; Biernacka, 2013; Góralczyk
& Paszenda, 2017), but never before has BT been applied to analysis of proper
names in the language of politics.
The next section outlines the framework provided by BT for the construction
of meaning in language, highlights the differences between conceptual metonymy
theory and the BT model, and presents the findings of BT-based studies of
metonymy.

2. Theoretical background

As conceived in BT, conceptual integration, like framing or categorisation, is a

basic cognitive operation that operates uniformly at different levels of abstraction
and under superficially divergent contextual circumstances. Central to the the-
ory is the notion of a conceptual integration network consisting of mental spaces
–small conceptual packets constructed as we think and talk for purposes of local
118 Tatiana Golubeva

understanding and action. A minimal conceptual integration network is made up

of four mental spaces: two input spaces, a generic space and a blended space.
Networks in other cases of conceptual integration may have more input spaces
and even multiple blended spaces. Elements belonging to both of the input spaces
are projected to a generic space, whereas only selected elements from each input
space are projected to a blended space. Blending involves three major processes:
composition, completion and elaboration. Composition of elements from the
input spaces provides relations that do not exist in the separate inputs, and the
representations resulting from the composition process may or may not be real-
istic. Blends recruit a great range of background conceptual structure and knowl-
edge without our recognising it consciously, in this way composed structure is
completed with other structure. Elaboration develops the blend through imagina-
tive mental simulation according to principles and logic in the blend. As a result,
the blend develops emergent content of its own that is not copied from the inputs.
Inferences, arguments, and ideas developed in the blend can have effect in cogni-
tion, leading us to modify the initial inputs and to change our view of the corre-
sponding situations (Fauconnier & Turner, 1998/2001, pp. 1–14).
As we see, the basic unit of cognitive organisation in BT is not the domain
but the mental space. Mental spaces are not equivalent to domains because, firstly,
they represent particular scenarios structured by given domains, and, secondly,
they are short-term constructs informed by the more general and more stable
knowledge associated with a particular domain (Grady et al., 1997, p. 102). More-
over, while conceptual metonymy theory analyses involve mappings precisely
between two conceptual structures, BT makes use of a four-space model which,
according to proponents of this theory, can account for phenomena that are not
addressed by mechanisms of the two-domain model. The emergent property of
a blend cannot be captured effectively within a conceptual metonymy frame-
work focusing only on correspondences and projections from source to target.
The inference of a more complex and abstract metonymic meaning can better be
accounted for by the BT model. Finally, blending is an on-line, real time process
that creates new meaning through the juxtaposition of familiar content (Ibid,
p. 106). Therefore, BT research focuses mainly on novel, unique conceptualisa-
tions that may be short-lived, whereas conceptual metonymy theory is typically
concerned with investigating entrenched conceptual relationships and conven-
tional patterns of metonymic conceptualisations.
Fauconnier and Turner (1998/2001, p. 1) argue that blending is for the most
part a routine, workaday process that escapes detection except on technical analy-
sis. This seems to be especially true for metonymic expressions in which the
fusion of the source and target domains can be inconspicuous and, as a result,
hard to expose. As a matter of fact, only a small number of scholars have applied
 ‘A ssad’, ‘ISIL’, ‘ISIS’, ‘Daesh’ and ‘European’ as metonymic blends in political discourse 119

the BT approach to metonymy. Nevertheless, all of them contend that there are
good grounds to analyse metonymy with BT tools: Alač and Coulson (2004, p. 23)
believe that the conceptual dimensions of metonymy are best captured by blend-
ing theory; according to Bierwiaczonek (2013, p. 248), whole for part and part
for whole metonymies have all the makings of conceptual integration of two
input spaces: the image space and the disposition space; Ioannou (2019, p. 1)
extends the conceptual relevance of metonymy beyond the traditional typologi-
cal approach and re-interprets it as a frame-integration mechanism, whereby two
frames are brought together into an extended ICM. Even though the view of
metonymy as a case of conceptual integration is sometimes disputed in acade-
mic literature (see Brdar, 2020, p. 244), these studies appear to be potent enough
to inspire more scholars to continue work in this direction. At least, the present
research follows in their footsteps and, hopefully, its findings could be of some
value to the cognitive study of metonymy.
The next section describes the corpus data and the methods which have been
used to achieve the goals of the research.

3. Data and methodology

Since the research is qualitative, it uses relatively small data samples (about 33000
words) in order to support the depth of case-oriented analysis. The objects of the
research are proper names of different types: the anthroponym ‘A ssad’, a short-
ened form of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s surname, the acronyms ‘ISIS’
(‘Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’), ‘ISIL’ (‘Islamic State of Syria and the Lev-
ant’) and ‘Daesh’ (an Arabic acronym) –the names of the terrorist organisa-
tion which was active in the Middle East from 2013 to 2019, and the toponymic
adjective ‘European’. These proper names have been selected for analysis due to
their high sociocultural significance –they are closely associated with the major
world events that have changed history and made a dramatic impact on the
political situation in a number of countries. These events are (1) the Syrian
civil war (2011-present) and the political activity of Syria’s president B. al-Assad
(2000-present), (2) the large-scale military campaign against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh
(2014–2019), and (3) Euromaidan (November 2013-February 2014), the mass
protests in Ukraine against the government’s decision to suspend the signing of an
association agreement with the European Union. The study explores British and
American politicians’ speeches covering these events. The data have been down-
loaded from several Internet sources including the British government website
https://www.gov.uk, the US Department of State website https://www.state.gov,
and the US Department of Defence website https://www.defense.gov.
120 Tatiana Golubeva

To meet the objectives of the research, different methods have been

employed. Firstly, semantic and contextual analyses of text were conducted to
identify proper names used metonymically and to determine their meaning. At
this stage the four-step procedure developed by Biernacka (2013, p. 117) was fol-
lowed. It involved: (1) a close reading of the entire text; (2) determining lexical
units; (3) deciding on metonymicity of each lexical unit, establishing its contex-
tual meaning, determining if it is different from the basic meaning of a lexical
unit, and if it is connected with the basic meaning by contiguity; (4) checking
backwards and forwards to determine if any other lexical unit(s) belong(s)
together semantically, thus determining the extent of the metonym vehicle, and
marking the lexical unit (or lexical units which belong together) as metonymy
vehicle.
Secondly, the identified metonymies were interpreted and analysed:
1. Conceptual analysis was done to expose and describe the content and struc-
ture of concepts conveyed by metonymic proper names in an utterance.
2. The principles of BT were applied to the cognitive analysis of metonymic
proper names.
3. Pragmatic analysis aimed at identifying the properties of metonymic blends
and describing the significance of metonymic blends in an utterance and in
political discourse, in general.

4. Metonymy, cognitive salience and conceptual integration

As previously noted, the meaning of proper names involves activation of certain

extralinguistic knowledge. This phenomenon is corroborated by neuroscience
research: event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies
indicate that metonymies require deep semantic comprehension and mapping
processes such as integration of world knowledge and semantic analysis beyond
the surface meaning of the words within (Rapp et al., 2011, p. 196). It has been
established that processing metonymies elicits increased left lateralised fronto-
temporal activity, including left inferior frontal gyrus and left middle temporal
gyrus –the brain regions responsible for semantic processing (Jackson et al.,
2016). In the right hemisphere, common regions involved in metonymy process-
ing have been found in the right superior temporal gyrus with extension up to the
superior temporal pole (Fregni et al., 2019, p. 17) –the area responsible for mean-
ing construction (Stolk et al., 2014). Studies have revealed that the left inferior
frontal gyrus is also important for conflict resolution (Thothathiri et al., 2012)
when different representations compete at the lexical, syntactic, semantic and/or
 ‘A ssad’, ‘ISIL’, ‘ISIS’, ‘Daesh’ and ‘European’ as metonymic blends in political discourse 121

conceptual level. The increased fronto-temporal activity involved in metonymy

processing overlaps with regions belonging to the language network and some of
the areas related to inferencing and Theory of Mind (Fregni et al., 2019, p. 20). All
these findings point to the fact that metonymy is a basic process deeply rooted in
human reasoning –it is a mental action, a way of thinking, and a means of acquir-
ing and sharing knowledge.
On a cognitive approach, metonymy is a special case of cognitive modelling
that people use to understand the world (Gibbs, 1994). The psychological research
by Rosch (1975) has shown that metonymic models are extensively employed in
human categorisation when an instance of a category stands for the entire cate-
gory. Interestingly, not all members of a category can do this, only the best exam-
ples that are called prototypes can serve as reference points in relation to which
other category members are judged. A reference point can be defined as an ele-
ment that is prominent in the discourse and sets up the contexts within which the
conceptualiser enters into mental contact with other less prominent entities (Alač
& Coulson, 2004, p. 27). Cognitive reference points are usually cognitively salient
items (Langacker, 1991), in other words, choice of a reference point is affected
by salience. The notion of salience can be employed in two related ways: ‘cogni-
tive salience’ concerns the activation of concepts in actual speech events, whereas
‘ontological salience’ is related to inherent and, consequently, more or less per-
manent properties of entities in the world. The idea is that, by virtue of their
very nature, some entities are better qualified to attract our attention than others
and are, thus, more salient in this sense. The obvious link between ontological
salience and cognitive salience is that mental concepts of salient entities have a
better chance of entering our focus of attention (Schmid, 2007, pp. 119–120). Enti-
ties are ranked according to their potential for attracting a person’s interest in the
following way: a speaker is more salient than a hearer, a human is more salient
than an animal or an object, an animal is more salient than an object, and a physi-
cal object is more salient than an abstract entity (Langacker, 1991, p. 307). Another
principle which is also at work here is a whole is more salient than its parts (Ibid,
p. 171). It must be noted, though, that there are cases of a skewed salience relation-
ship in which salience of items in the immediate context can override the default
hierarchy that exits under neutral conditions. For instance, in White collars are
expecting a pay rise the metonymic source white collars has low cognitive
salience because, ontologically, objects are less salient than humans, a part is less
salient than a whole, and the properties of the target office workers (‘expect’,
‘pay’) dominate in the sentence. Nevertheless, it serves as a reference point here,
probably, because of its high expressivity, stereotypical or symbolic nature (tradi-
tionally, male office workers in Europe and the USA wear white-collared shirts).
122 Tatiana Golubeva

Cognitive salience, in general, is a matter of degree. The findings of Alač and

Coulson’s study (2004, p. 34) indicate that the degree of conceptual integration in
metonymy depends on the degree of cognitive salience of the source in a sentence.
If the subject of a sentence refers to the source, there is extensive blending of the
source and the target. If, however, the subject refers to the target, or intended ref-
erent, there is almost no blending of the conceptual domains. The target is cog-
nitively salient by default in any type of metonymy, since the identification of the
referent of a metonymic expression is necessary for an utterance to make sense.
The source appears to have maximal cognitive salience if (1) the entity it refers to
is ontologically superior to that of the target, and (2) its properties dominate in
an utterance. In the previous example there is hardly any conceptual integration
between white collars and office workers because the source is practically
non-salient. If a source, however, has certain cognitive salience in an utterance,
it is powerful enough to blend with a target. Proper names, which are proto-
typically definite, non-generic and concrete, make good ‘candidates’ for creating
metonymic blends: anthroponyms denote people –an entity of maximal ontolog-
ical salience, acronyms and toponyms represent concrete objects that are more
salient than abstract, invisible entities. Let us now turn to the data and consider
some examples.

5. Conceptual integration in proper names

5.1 The anthroponym ‘A ssad’ and the acronyms ‘ISIL’, ‘ISIS’ and ‘Daesh’

In British politicians’ utterances the anthroponym ‘A ssad’, the surname of Syria’s

president, is used not only in its literal meaning but also as a metonym. The
metonymic model political leader for government institutions is quite
common in the language of politics and successfully performs a compression
function. In some cases it can create additional meanings and get the addressee
to perceive one entity through another. According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980,
p. 39), via the controller for controlled metonymy we not only say “Nixon
bombed Hanoi” but also think of him as doing the bombing and hold him respon-
sible for it. Again, this is possible because of the nature of the relationship in this
type of metonymy, where responsibility is what is focused on. Likewise, in her
research Biernacka (2013, p. 161) argues that the metonymic uses of Tony Blair
are cases of the individual standing for a group, although the group is difficult to
define and the stand-for relationship is politically motivated in attributing respon-
sibility to the individual. Here, “the metonymic source projects its conceptual
structure on that of the target not by means of a systematic matching of counter-
 ‘A ssad’, ‘ISIL’, ‘ISIS’, ‘Daesh’ and ‘European’ as metonymic blends in political discourse 123

parts (as in metaphor), but by imposing a conceptual (and linguistic) perspective”

(Barcelona, 2011, p. 13). That is why the action represented by “bombed” is associ-
ated with the source NIXON rather than with the target us air force. This exam-
ple demonstrates that “the metonymic target is, in fact, complex and consists of
the inferred target, an inferred relation, and the source” (Radden, 2018, p. 164). In
the excerpt below the acronym ‘A ssad’ is used literally only once, in the last sen-
tence, and in all the other cases it performs a metonymic function.
(1) At the same time, we have to give hope to those who despair of a better future
and may be tempted to join the violent extremists. Whether they are frustrated
Palestinians who see no hope of resuming the Middle East peace process, Iraqi
Sunnis who await the inclusiveness Prime Minister Abadi has promised or
Syria moderate oppositionists who see no other way to fight Assad. […] The
Assad regime created the environment in which extremism and ISIL in partic-
ular flourished. So we reject the advice of those who say the poison of Assad is
the cure of the cancer of ISIL. It is Assad who released jihadis in the early
stages of the conflict. It is Assad who continues to trade with them even now.
And it is Assad’s forces which are killing more civilians in Syria each month
than any other actor. Assad has been, and remains, one of ISIL’s greatest
recruiting sergeants and his forces remain focused on the destruction of mod-
erate opposition groups and civilian population centres. Any attempt to ally
with Assad against ISIL will only strengthen ISIL, making them de facto lead-
ers of the Sunni resistance to the Assad regime. …So the best contribution
Assad and those around him can now make is to put their countries interest
before their own and step aside to allow a political transition that will end the
civil war and allow Syrians to unite in the struggle against Islamist extremism.
(Hammond, 30 September, 2015)

In (1), the source ASSAD of ‘A ssad’ has high cognitive salience because its referent
is ontologically the most salient entity, and its linguistic properties, manifested by
the relative pronoun ‘who’, the possessive pronoun ‘his’ and the genitive, dom-
inate in the utterance. The predicates ‘release’, ‘trade’, ‘recruit’ can generally be
used to describe a person’s actions, however, we understand that here it is not
Bashar al-Assad himself who ‘released jihadis’, ‘trades with them’ and ‘recruits
ISIL fighters’, but rather the representatives of government departments or institu-
tions that are accountable to him. Contextually, these departments are construed
as parts of Assad’s regime. In this utterance the metonymic meaning of ‘A ssad’
appears to be more complex than the meaning of ‘Nixon’ in Lakoff and Johnson’s
example where the political leader domain is directly mapped onto the us air
force domain. Here, ‘A ssad’ has some properties of a man, a political leader and
a regime. This complex meaning can best be captured by BT (I draw upon the
model of metonymic blend description used by Coulson and Oakley, 2003.): the
124 Tatiana Golubeva

conceptual integration network includes two mental input spaces which feed off
the source domain ASSAD and the target domain assad’s regime. The former
space contains such elements as man, political leader, government, and the latter
includes elements, like political leader, regime, government departments. The ele-
ments common to both spaces –political leader and government –are projected to
a generic space, and selected elements of structure from each input space –man
and regime –are projected to a blended space (see Figure 1). The blend develops
emergent structure of its own, the hybrid man/regime that exists only in discourse
and has no equivalent in the real world. Importantly, the pronouns ‘who’ and ‘his’,
the genitive, and the verbs in the expressions ‘to fight Assad’ and ‘to ally with
Assad’ appear to relate to this conceptual hybrid and not to the source ASSAD.

Figure 1. ‘A ssad’ as the metonymic blend man/regime

In modern political rhetoric the term ‘regime’ can be used by government offi-
cials, media journalists, and policy makers when referring to governments that
they believe are repressive, undemocratic or illegitimate, or simply do not square
with the person’s own view of the world (Encyclopaedia Britannica: Regime).
Here, ‘A ssad’ as the metonymic blend man/regime gets the addressee to regard
Syria’s president as a personification of the political system of oppression respon-
sible for the death of civilians and the spread of terrorism in the Middle East. This
 ‘A ssad’, ‘ISIL’, ‘ISIS’, ‘Daesh’ and ‘European’ as metonymic blends in political discourse 125

appears to be a case when “the persuasive power of metonymy lies in its potential
to obscure and privilege certain information to fit the rhetorical strategies of the
author, and to reflect and propagate language ideologies as well as personal atti-
tudes and beliefs about the world” (Kohler, 2018, p. 14).
In the fourth sentence the blend ‘A ssad’ is further elaborated, or “run”,
through the metaphoric frames DISEASE and MEDICINE which invite an infer-
ence that the destruction of cancer cells of ISIL terrorism by the poison of Assad’s
regime will inevitably harm the body itself, i.e. the international community,
since, as is well-known, chemotherapy kills not only malignant cells but healthy
cells as well. The notion of ‘frame’ introduced by Minsky (1974) denotes a data
structure for representing a stereotyped situation, a remembered framework to
be adapted to fit reality by changing details as necessary. Frames encoding prior
experience play an important role in the interpretation of an utterance because
they impose a certain conceptual model of understanding a situation, an event,
etc. which can form or modify attitudes, opinions and beliefs regarding this situ-
ation or event. In (1), the metaphoric frames serve to suggest the idea that Assad
and ISIS are equally dangerous and, therefore, should be rejected as unacceptable.
The metaphor POISON feeds the blend ‘A ssad’ as it adds one more element to the
input space assad’s regime –deadly harm –which is absent from the input space
ASSAD. As a result, the emergent structure within the blend expands to become
man/regime/deadly harm. The metaphor CANCER enables the acronym ‘ISIL’
to convey the abstract concept isil terrorism. Here, the speaker alludes to the
analogy made by former US President Barack Obama in his statement on ISIL
back in 2014: “Now, it will take time to eradicate a cancer like ISIL” (Obama, 10
September, 2014). The metaphoric comparison is motivated by the spread of ter-
rorism and the rapid, cancer-like expansion of territory occupied by ISIL fighters
in the Middle East. In “the cancer of ISIL” both the source ISIL and the target
isil terrorism are cognitively salient because the metaphor equally highlights
their properties: the expansion of territory controlled by the militant group and
the deadly harm inflicted by terrorism. The mental space ISIL contains such ele-
ments as organisation, people, activity, territory expansion, and the mental space
ISIL TERRORISM includes elements, like people, activity, terrorism, deadly harm.
Both spaces share the elements people and activity (an organisation consists of
people, acts of terror are committed by people; an organisation is involved in
some activity and terrorism is a type of activity) which are projected to the generic
space, whereas the blend develops its own structure –the hybrid organisation/ter-
ritory expansion/terrorism/deadly harm. The metaphors which project proper-
ties of another conceptual domain to the blended space appear to consolidate the
blend structure and reinforce the fusion of its elements leading to the weakening
of distinct characteristics of the source and target domains. Thanks to their power
126 Tatiana Golubeva

to create a vivid and impressive image, the metaphors intensify the abstract char-
acter of the blend making it more conspicuous in the discourse. In other cases,
however, the blended space tends to draw more heavily either from the mental
space ASSAD (“to ally with Assad”) or from the mental space assad’s regime (“to
fight Assad”), i.e., depending on a context, properties of one input space can be
slightly more prominent in the blend.
In (2), the phrase “at the hands of ” enables two proper names ‘ISIL’ and
‘A ssad’ to represent concepts metonymically. ‘At the hands’ is, in fact, a case of con-
ceptual interaction between metaphor and metonymy. Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez
and Galera-Masegosa (2011, pp. 10–11) identify four types of metaphor-metonymy
interaction patterns, but, as they point out, in all of them metonymy is subsidiary
to metaphor and forms part of its architecture. Here, we deal with a metonymic
expansion of metaphoric source –the metonymy ‘at the hands of ’ provides a cog-
nitively economical point of access to a complex scenario: the state of being at the
hands of someone in the metaphoric source domain is metonymically expanded
onto a situation in which a person is controlled against his/her will by someone.
The target domain of this metonymy is metaphorically mapped onto a situation
in which a person is treated badly by someone.
(2) But we think about what life is like right now for people across the world for
those in Syria and Iraq –families just like ours –suffering at the hands of ISIL
and Assad. (Cameron, 16 July, 2015)

Here, both proper names act as metonyms, but their source and target domains
have different degrees of cognitive salience. The source ISIL is cognitively inferior
to the target ISIL FIGHTERS because, ontologically, humans are more salient
than objects, and the expression “at the hands of ” manifests cognitive salience of
the target domain. The interpretation of ISIL does not require complex cognitive
operations, and the mapping of the source onto the target enables the addressee to
infer the contextual meaning of this acronym. By contrast, the metonymic mean-
ing of ‘A ssad’ is more subtle and intricate: in fact, it is hard to imagine how Bashar
al-Assad, as a person or as a president, could treat Syrian families badly. However,
it is the source ASSAD that has high cognitive salience in the utterance because
its referent is ontologically superior to the referent of the target assad’s regime,
and its properties are rather prominent. To interpret the meaning of ‘A ssad’ here,
it is necessary to apply the BT framework to its analysis. The construction of a
blend with emergent structure man/control/regime occurs due to projections of
the elements man and control from ASSAD and the element regime from assad’s
regime. Although the properties of the ASSAD mental space appear to dominate
here, this blend has no well-defined human referent in the world –it is an abstract,
imaginative construct which is created in discourse and exists only there.
 ‘A ssad’, ‘ISIL’, ‘ISIS’, ‘Daesh’ and ‘European’ as metonymic blends in political discourse 127

The blend ‘A ssad’ as man/regime is also constructed in (3) where the process
of blending is activated by the abstract noun ‘terror’. In the acronym the source
ISIL is mapped onto the target isil fighters whose properties dominate in the
utterance.
(3) The majority of these are Syrian refugees –fleeing the terror of Assad and
ISIL, which has seen more than 11 million people driven from their homes.
(Cameron, 7 September, 2015)

Importantly, by joining the metonymic blend ‘A ssad’ and the metonym ‘ISIL’ on
the basis of a common characteristic, the speaker draws an analogy between the
referents of these proper names which are not similar in reality. As Radden argues,
“metonymic expressions invite different and often more specific inferences than
those prompted by their non-metonymic alternatives” (Radden, 2018, p. 165). In
the literal and more accurate expression ‘the terror of the Assad regime and ISIL
fighters’ the referents are construed as separate and different entities, whereas
in the metonymic description an inference can be drawn that Assad and ISIL
have something in common, are united in their activity and consequently pose an
equal threat to society.
In (4), ‘ISIS’ is used four times: in its literal meaning ‘the terrorist organisation
ISIS’ in the first three cases and as a metonymic blend in the last one. The meaning
of ‘ISIS’ in “the evil of ISIS” is rather complicated because it appeals simulta-
neously to the structure of two mental spaces ISIS and ISIS TERRORISM: the
source ISIS represents a concrete entity and, thus, ontologically is more salient
than the target. The integration of the two input spaces leads to the emergence of
the blend ISIS as organisation/terrorism.
(4) Iraqi Security Forces continue to pursue the few ISIS fighters that seek to
threaten the people of Iraq, and clear previously ISIS-occupied areas, making
them safe for residents. The campaign against ISIS has resulted in over 4.5 mil-
lion people in Iraq liberated from the evil of ISIS, and we congratulate the
government of Iraq on their success, and are proud to stand beside them.
(Glynn, 16 January, 2018)

Dancygier and Sweetser (2014, pp. 110–111) argue that acronyms, like nicknames,
take on a life of their own. Two- and three-letter acronyms are frequently highly
ambiguous, since there are a great many phrases they could represent. In British
and American political discourse ISIS, ISIL and Daesh can be used metonymically
to communicate different concepts, and in these cases their meaning is con-
structed on the basis of world knowledge –the addressee’s ideas and beliefs regard-
ing the activities of this organisation. Therefore, in some cases the repetition of
these acronyms in politicians’ utterances does not sound redundant. For exam-
ple, in (5), ‘ISIS’ is used as a metonym twice: in the first sentence the source ISIS
128 Tatiana Golubeva

is mapped onto the target isis fighters that has high cognitive salience in the
utterance, whereas the meaning of the second ISIS in “to flee ISIS” is more com-
plex: here, both the source isis organisation and the target isis state are cogni-
tively salient as they refer to concrete entities. Thus, the acronym simultaneously
stands for the organisation and the territory controlled by ISIS fighters –the self-
proclaimed state. The element organisation from isis organisation and the ele-
ments state and territory belonging to the structure of isis state are projected to
the blended space to form the hybrid organisation/state/territory.
(5) ISIS was using the critical infrastructure of Mosul. There is a hospital just
north of the old city. They were using that hospital as a killing tower to assassi-
nate Moslawis trying to flee ISIS into the arms of the Iraqi Security Forces.
(McGurk, 8 July, 2017)

In the following excerpts the source ISIS has certain cognitive salience because
the entity it represents –a physical object –is ontologically superior to those of
the targets –abstract entities isis regime in (6) and isis occupation in (7) and
(8). So, the blending of the two input spaces, albeit rather moderate, results in the
emergence of the hybrids organisation/regime and organisation/occupation.
(6) Life under ISIS was real hell, a living hell on Earth. (Pompeo, 10 January, 2019)
(7) This campaign is about defeating the ideology that ISIS represents, it’s about
liberating the population, and it’s about working with local actors to return
people to their homes after ISIS. (McGurk, 8 July, 2017)
(8) In the normalisation phase, local leaders and local governments will take on
the process of restoring their communities in the wake of ISIS with our sup-
port. (Tillerson, 22 March, 2017)

In the corpus under analysis ‘ISIL’, ‘ISIS’ and ‘Daesh’ are used sometimes attribu-
tively, as dependent words in noun phrases, like ‘ISIS propaganda’, ‘ISIS material’,
‘Daesh film’, ‘Daesh content’, etc. Here, the acronyms convey a complex
metonymic meaning which can best be captured by BT.
(9) Researchers in the United States are already developing tools for sweeping the
dark corners of the Internet for ISIS material, but they need help to get to
their destination even faster. (Tillerson, 22 March, 2017)
(10) These and other companies are already making progress in stopping the
spread of terrorist content, which we warmly welcome. The average lifetime of
Daesh propaganda online has now dropped from six days to just 36 hours in
the first six months of the year. (May, 20 May, 2017)
 ‘A ssad’, ‘ISIL’, ‘ISIS’, ‘Daesh’ and ‘European’ as metonymic blends in political discourse 129

(11) As early as 2014, before the majority of the public were aware of the group’s
threat, Daesh were using bots to game Twitter and amplify their messaging.
Today this is complemented by the use of Telegram to coordinate thousands of
messages promoting the latest Daesh film within hours of release. […]
Research conducted by the UK government shows that the majority of links to
Daesh content are shared within 2 hours of first release.
(Shields, 25 January, 2017)

In (9)–(11), the interpretation of ‘ISIS’ and ‘Daesh’ requires activation of certain

knowledge about the group’s on-line activity. ISIS members actively utilised the
Internet, social media platforms and applications, posting videos with acts of ter-
ror and spreading extremist ideas in order to incite violence and radicalise their
followers. The sources ISIS and DAESH are cognitively salient because they are
ontologically superior to the targets isis/daesh extremism or isis/daesh ter-
rorism, and it is the knowledge about the organisation’s active use of on-line
resources that accounts for the construction of these metonymies. The properties
of the target domains are also rather pronounced, which, for example, is mani-
fested by the phrase “terrorist content” used as a contextual synonym of “Daesh
propaganda” in (10). The content of the two mental spaces is combined to yield
the blends ‘ISIS’ and ‘Daesh’ with the emergent hybrid structure organisation/on-
line/extremism (terrorism).
As it stands, proper names can communicate as many senses as there are
ideas connected with the person or object they designate. Rather extensive world
knowledge associated with the terrorist group known as ISIL, ISIS or Daesh
enables these acronyms to convey different meanings in political discourse. As a
result, they cease to be just names of a militant group and turn into complex socio-
cultural concepts.

5.2 The toponymic adjective ‘European’

In British and American political discourse the adjective ‘European’ is sometimes

used as a metonym and, in these cases it can convey axiologically charged con-
cepts. Axiology is a branch of science that studies the nature and structure of val-
ues, their interrelation, and their relation to other moral categories. Axiologically
charged concepts can be defined as concepts incorporating ideas about differ-
ent types of values: moral, aesthetical, spiritual, social, cultural, etc. According
to Krzeszowski (1997, p. 165), “every time an axiologically charged concept is lin-
guistically expressed, whoever uses it is aware of its axiological charge and uses
it deliberately to express his positive and negative attitude to the subject of dis-
course”. Let us consider some examples. In (12), the term ‘European’ is used three
times, and in each case it conveys a different concept. In “European leaders” the
130 Tatiana Golubeva

lexeme ‘European’ functions as a metonym: the source EUROPE is mapped onto

the target european union. The adjective in “European continent” is used in its
literal meaning, i.e. it represents the concept EUROPE. However, in the expres-
sion “a free, European future” this term develops another, more complex and
abstract meaning.
(12) This meeting of European leaders takes place at a dangerous moment. The
territorial integrity of an independent nation has been violated. […] This mat-
ters to people in Britain because we depend on a world where countries obey
the rules. It matters because this is happening in our own neighbourhood – on
the European continent where in the last 70 years we have worked so hard to
keep the peace. …So we must stand up to aggression, uphold international law
and support people who want a free, European future. …We are determined
to support the new Ukrainian government and to stand by the Ukrainian peo-
ple. What they want is what people everywhere want – a strong economy, the
rule of law, the right to choose their leaders and to hold them to account.
(Cameron, 6 March, 2014)

In “a free, European future” the adjectives describe the noun ‘future’ and are uni-
fied by a common property; consequently, here the lexeme ‘European’ does not
have only toponymic reference. Since the adjective ‘free’ conveys the abstract con-
cept FREEDOM which has manifest axiological character, the adjective ‘Euro-
pean’ should also represent a certain value-laden concept. As former British
Prime Minister D. Cameron states, people who want “a free, European future”
also want “a strong economy, the rule of law, the right to choose their leaders and
to hold them to account”. In other words, people want the benefits of a devel-
oped democratic society. The EU member states are considered to be egalitarian
democracies with a robust legal system and a stable economy. Therefore, in some
contexts the term ‘European’ can activate this kind of world knowledge about its
referent. So, the target domain of ‘European’ in (12) is european democracy.
The source EUROPE is cognitively salient because, firstly, the concrete entity it
refers to is ontologically more prominent than the abstract entity denoted by the
target, and, secondly, it has distinct topicality as it is related to the issue under
discussion –Euromaidan, the mass rallies in support of a closer economic and
political relationship between Ukraine and the European Union. To infer the con-
textual meaning of ‘European’, it is necessary to combine the conceptual content
of three mental spaces: europe, european union, which feeds off the source
EUROPE, and european democracy. The structure of EUROPE contains such
elements as continent, states; european union includes elements, like Europe,
union, states; and european democracy is made up of Europe, democracy, state.
The three input spaces integrate leading to the construction of a generic space
 ‘A ssad’, ‘ISIL’, ‘ISIS’, ‘Daesh’ and ‘European’ as metonymic blends in political discourse 131

composed of Europe and state (Europe consists of states, the EU consists of mem-
ber states, and democracy is a form of government of a state) and the emergence
of the hybrid continent/union/democracy (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. ‘European’ as the metonymic blend continent/union/democracy

In (13), even though the term ‘European’ is used as an attribute of the noun
‘Ukraine’, it does not denote the geographic location of this country because
Ukraine is part of Eastern Europe and consequently is European by default. As
in the previous example, ‘European’ develops a complex metonymic meaning and
communicates an axiologically charged concept. In “a unified, democratic, pros-
perous European Ukraine” the first three adjectives function as attributes of the
noun phrase ‘European Ukraine’, which is why the properties denoted by these
adjectives are construed as inherent features of the entity they describe. Here,
EUROPE relates to such irrefutable social values as unity, democracy and pros-
perity.
132 Tatiana Golubeva

(13) It is the voices of people like Oleksandra, of advocates and activists, of con-
cerned patriots who refuse to live under the yoke of corruption for another
generation, who demand fairness and respect for human rights, who are com-
mitted to a unified, democratic, prosperous European Ukraine.
(Baer, 24 February, 2016)

It is generally accepted that European countries are democratic, peaceful, eco-

nomically advanced and therefore good to live in. This type of knowledge is acti-
vated in (13) by the term ‘European’ and is reflected in the target european good.
The source EUROPE has high cognitive salience due to its ontological promi-
nence and topicality. The meaning of ‘European’ here is constructed out of the
content of EUROPE with the elements continent and states and european good
composed of good, Europe, states. The fusion of the two input spaces results in the
construction of a blend ‘European’ as continent/good. The same blend emerges in
the expression “a successful, democratic, and prosperous European state” in (14):
(14) These objectives can be pursued through immediate and longer term initia-
tives that will impose economic and geopolitical costs on Russia, increase the
risks to Moscow of further provocative behaviour, reinforce Central and East-
ern Europe’s sense of security, enhance Ukraine’s capacity for defence, and
help it transform into a successful, democratic, and prosperous European
state. (Brzezinski, 2014, p. 29)

The blend ‘European’ as continent/union/democracy and continent/good can be

viewed as a meme –a unit of cultural information spread by imitation. Like genes,
units of biological information, memes carry information, are replicated, and are
transmitted from one person to another. Those memes that are most success-
ful in being copied and transmitted become the most prevalent within a culture
(Encyclopaedia Britannica: Meme). As Chilton (2005, p. 40) argues, conceptual
constructs can become meme-like and ‘infect’ the mind (under the right social
conditions) when they have complex blending potential that recruits fundamen-
tal knowledge domains along with the core mechanisms of metaphor. Another
ingredient of textualised memes of this kind is the delivery of some kind of
credibility assurance and epistemic warrant. It seems that the blending process
activated by metonymy can also contribute to meme propagation, and, in this
regard, metonymy could be put on a par with metaphor. For instance, the blend
‘European’ as continent/union/democracy or continent/good has a distinct meme
nature: it carries culturally important information; it is replicated and transmit-
ted by imitation. Furthermore, it is credible and epistemically warranted, since it
owes its emergence to the widely shared beliefs and ideas about life in European
countries. This assumption is supported by the fact that the leitmotif of the Euro-
maidan protests in Ukraine was a demand for life in ‘a normal European state’.
 ‘A ssad’, ‘ISIL’, ‘ISIS’, ‘Daesh’ and ‘European’ as metonymic blends in political discourse 133

(15) The Euromaidan protests in 2013–2014 and the conclusion of the Association
Agreement appeared to be game-changers in EU-Ukraine relations. Popular
demand for life in ‘a normal European state’ was clearly demonstrated during
the protests, and has continued to be in evidence since then.
(Ash et al., 2017, p. 37)

The existence of this blend-meme is also borne out by the findings of a survey
which aimed to identify verbal means of representation of the concept EUROPE
in the Russian language. One hundred Russian students majoring in humanities
were asked to describe aspects and ideas they associated with Europe. Out of 490
words and phrases used by the respondents the most frequently mentioned lexical
items were those with a positive connotation: ‘progress’ (56), ‘wealth’ (48), ‘clean
streets’ (46), ‘green’ (45), ‘civilisation’ (44), ‘good roads’ (31), ‘humanity’ (22),
‘prosperous’ (20). It was also found that in the expressions ‘European standard’,
‘European level’ and ‘European quality’ the adjective is regarded as a synonym of
the term ‘high’, which points to the fact that in Russian this toponym can express
evaluation (Tchesnokov, 2003, p. 70). Most importantly, the survey has revealed
that in some speech communities EUROPE is not only a toponymic concept,
but a complex value-laden construct related in peoples’ minds to such important
sociocultural values as wealth, progress, prosperity and humanity. Thus, there are
good grounds to suppose that the construction of ‘European’ as continent/union/
democracy and continent/good in (12)–(14) is activated not only by immediate sit-
uational context, but also by prior context that draws upon world knowledge asso-
ciated with EUROPE and encoded in the lexeme ‘European’. These blend-memes
have become entrenched in the conceptual sphere of some languages, and can be
used in political discourse for the production and reproduction of certain socio-
cultural beliefs.

6. Discussion

Understandably, the results of this in-depth, qualitative study can hardly be used
for making any generalisations; nevertheless, they clearly indicate that conceptual
integration in metonymy depends on the cognitive salience of the source domain,
which is in line with previous research. Proper names are cognitively salient by
default because they are prototypically definite, non-generic, concrete, and have
a unique referent. Thus, when serving a metonymic function, they are able to
convey complex, abstract conceptual hybrids referred to as blends. The research
has shown that in political rhetoric the anthroponym ‘A ssad’, the acronyms ‘ISIL’,
‘ISIS’, ‘Daesh’ and the toponym ‘European’ are used as metonyms and metonymic
blends. These proper names express a complex metonymic meaning if their
134 Tatiana Golubeva

source domains have certain cognitive salience in an utterance. This happens

when the entity represented by the source is ontologically superior to the entity
denoted by the target or/and the linguistic properties of the source dominate in a
sentence, or/and the source is prominent owing to its topicality. The construction
of a metonymic blend often relies on activation of world knowledge which forms
part of the conceptual structure of the source or target domains of a proper name.
Metaphoric frames and figurative expressions also launch the process of blending
by adding new conceptual elements to the structure of the source and/or target
domains. Metonymic blends are, first and foremost, abstract constructs that are
often created according to the speaker’s interests and intentions; therefore, they
can be implausible and subjective.
In the language of politics proper names used as metonymic blends can carry
an ideological or an axiological message, i.e. their referents can be contextu-
ally identified with a certain system of ideas, principles or values. For instance,
‘A ssad’ as man/regime or man/regime/deadly harm relates its referent to a repres-
sive, dictatorial form of government that poses a threat to society; ‘European’
as continent/union/democracy or continent/good creates or, probably, reproduces
the representations of Europe as a land of freedom, democracy, success and
prosperity. If a blend is used widely, it can become a meme –“a virus of the
mind” characterised by distinct cultural value and prone to propagation. For
instance, the blend-meme ‘European’ as continent/good has become embedded
in the conceptual-semantic sphere of some linguocultures. By joining two
metonymic proper names on the basis of a common property, the speaker can
draw an analogy between their referents that are different in real life. Extensive
knowledge related to a proper name can transform it into a sociocultural concept
whose dimensions get highlighted in discourse via metonymy, for example, the
acronyms ‘ISIS’, ‘ISIL’ and ‘Daesh’ can act as metonymic blends organisation/on-
line/extremism (terrorism), organisation/state/territory, organisation/occupation,
organisation/regime, etc.

7. Conclusion

In their research exploring the relationship between blending theory, conceptual

metaphor theory and the phenomena they address, Grady, Oakley and Coulson
(1997, p. 420) argue that the two approaches are complementary, since they tackle
different aspects of metaphoric conceptualisation. As this study shows, conceptual
metonymy theory and BT can be successfully applied to analysis of metonymic
uses of proper names in political discourse, and, in this regard, these frameworks
can also be viewed as complementary. Importantly, the former effectively deals
 ‘A ssad’, ‘ISIL’, ‘ISIS’, ‘Daesh’ and ‘European’ as metonymic blends in political discourse 135

with recurring metonymic patterns, or conventional metonymic models, such

as controller for controlled, organisation for organisation members,
continent for political union, whereas the latter has proved to be more pow-
erful in explaining a variety of complex conceptual combinations, such as conti-
nent/union/democracy, organisation/online/terrorism, man/regime/deadly harm,
etc. The phenomena which are best accounted for by conceptual metonymy the-
ory mainly include stable knowledge structures, while BT effectively addresses
the particulars of individual examples –novel metonymic conceptualisations that
are short-lived and often require activation of world knowledge. The potential
rewards of applying the BT model to analysis of conceptual metonymy appear to
be significant, since blending theory tools are definitely more useful in exposing
and understanding non-conventional, complex, abstract metonymic meanings.

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.

References

Alač, M., & Coulson, S. (2004). The man, the key, or the car: Who or what is parked out back?
Cognitive Science Online, 2, 21–34.
Barcelona, A. (2011). Reviewing the properties and prototype structure of metonymy. In
A. Barcelona, R. Benczes & F. J. Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez (Eds.), Defining metonymy in
cognitive linguistics. Towards a consensus view (pp. 7–58). Amsterdam & Philadelphia:
John Benjamins.
Berberović, S. (2009). Would you like to be the Michael Jordan of Linguistics? Construction of
figurative meaning of personal names. In M. Brdar, M. Omazić & T. Pavičić (Eds.),
Cognitive approaches to English: Fundamental, methodological, interdisciplinary and
applied aspects (pp. 173–200). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.
Biernacka, E. (2013). A discourse dynamics investigation of metonymy in talk. PhD thesis. The
Open University.
Bierwiaczonek, B. (2013). Metonymy in language, thought and brain. Sheffield: Equinox.
Brdar, M. (2020). Review of the book Metonymy in language, thought and brain by
B. Bierwiaczonek. Jezikoslovje, 21(2), 237-248.
Brdar, M., & Brdar-Szabo, R. (2007). When Zidane is not simply Zidane, and Bill Gates is not
just Bill Gates: Or some thoughts on online construction of metaphtonymic meanings of
proper names. In G. Radden, K-M. Köpcke, Th. Berg & P. Siemund (Eds.), Aspects of
meaning construction (pp. 125–142). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Chilton, P. (2005). Manipulation, memes and metaphors: The case of Mein Kampf. In
L. de Saussure & P. Schulz (Eds.), Manipulation and ideologies in the twentieth century:
Discourse, language, mind (pp. 5–45). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
136 Tatiana Golubeva

Coulson, S., & Oakley, T. (2003). Metonymy and conceptual blending. In K.-U. Panther &
L. L. Thornburg (Eds.), Metonymy and pragmatic inferencing (pp. 51–79). Amsterdam &
Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Dancygier, B. (2009). Genitives and proper names in constructional blends. In V. Evans &
S. Pourcel (Eds.), New directions in cognitive linguistics. (pp. 161–184). Amsterdam &
Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Dancygier, B., & Sweetser, E. (2014). Figurative language. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Encyclopaedia Britannica: Meme. https://www.britannica.com/topic/meme
Encyclopaedia Britannica: Regime. https://www.britannica.com/topic/regime
Fauconnier, G., & Turner, M. (1998/2001). Conceptual integration networks. Expanded web
version, 10 February 2001. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1292966
Original version published in Cognitive Science, 2(20), 133–187.
Fauconnier, G., & Turner, M. (2003). Metaphor, metonymy and binding. In A. Barcelona
(Ed.), Metaphor and metonymy at the crossroads: A cognitive perspective (pp. 133–148).
Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Fregni, S., Heidlmayr, K., Weber, K., & Peeters, D. (2019). An exploratory fMRI study on
metonymy and metaphor processing. Retrieved from https://www.ru.nl/publish/pages
/982405/fregni_thesis.pdf
Gibbs, R. (1994). Process and products in making sense of tropes. In A. Ortony (Ed.),
Metaphor and thought (pp.252–76). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Herrero-Ruiz, J. (2018). Exaggerating and mitigating through metonymy: The case of
situational and CAUSE FOR EFFECT/EFFECT FOR CAUSE metonymies. Language
and Communication, 62, 51–65.
Góralczyk, I., & Paszenda, J. (2017). The proper name Misiewicz as Nomen Appellativum in
the current political discourse in Poland. Acta Neophilologica, XIX(2), 65–75.
Grady, J., Oakley, T., & Coulson, S. (1997). Blending and metaphor. In R. W. Gibbs & G. J. Steen
(Eds.), Metaphor in cognitive linguistics. Selected papers from the 5th international
cognitive linguistics conference (pp. 101–124). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John
Benjamins.
Ioannou, G. (2019). Metonymy and frame integration: Interfacing between concepts and
discourse. Topics in Linguistics, 20(1), 1–23.
Jackson, R., Hoffman, P., Pobric, G., & Lambon Ralph, M. A. (2016). The semantic network at
work and rest: Differential connectivity of anterior temporal lobe subregions. Journal of
Neuroscience, 36(5), 1490–1501.
Jespersen, O. (2007). The philosophy of grammar. London & New York: Routledge.
Jonasson, K. (1994). Le nom propre. Constructions et interprétations. Collection champs
linguistique. Louvain-la-Neuve: Editions Duculot.
Kohler, A. Th. (2018). What lies beneath: The revelatory power of metonymy in discourse,
language planning, and higher education. PhD thesis. The University of Arizona.
Krzeszowski, T. (1997). Angels and devils in hell: Elements of axiology in semantics. Warsaw:
Energeia.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
 ‘A ssad’, ‘ISIL’, ‘ISIS’, ‘Daesh’ and ‘European’ as metonymic blends in political discourse 137

Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, fire, and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Langacker, R. (1991). Foundations of cognitive grammar. Descriptive application. Volume 2.
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Marmaridou, S. (1989). Proper names in communication. Journal of Linguistics, 25, 355–372.
Markert, K., & Nissim, M. (2007). Metonymic proper names: a corpus based account. In
A. Stefanowitsch & S. Gries (Eds.), Corpus-based approaches to metaphor and metonymy
(pp. 152–174). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Minsky, M. (1974). A framework for representing knowledge. In P. H. Winston (Ed.), The
psychology of computer vision (pp.211–277). McGraw Hill, New York.
Panther, K.-U., & Thornburg, L. (2017). Metaphor and metonymy in language and thought: A
cognitive linguistic approach. SYNTHESIS PHILOSOPHICA, 64, 271–294.
Radden, G. (2018). Molly married money. Reflections on conceptual metonymy. In
O. Blanco-Carrión, A. Barcelona & R. Pannain (Eds.), Conceptual metonymy.
Methodological, theoretical, and descriptive issues (pp. 161–182). Amsterdam &
Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Radden, G., & Kövecses, Z. (1999). Towards a theory of metonymy. In K.-U. Panther &
G. Radden (Eds.), Metonymy in language and thought (pp. 17–61). Amsterdam &
Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Rapp, A., Erb, M., Grodd, W., Bartels, M., & Markert, K. (2011). Neural correlates of
metonymy resolution. Brain and Language, 119, 196–205.
Rosch, E. (1975). Cognitive reference points. Cognitive Psychology, 7, 532–547.
Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, F. J. (1997). Cognitive and pragmatic aspects of metonymy.
Cuadernos de Filología Inglesa, 6(2), 161–178.
Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, F. J. (2003). The role of mappings and domains in understanding
metonymy. In A. Barcelona (Ed.), Metaphor and metonymy at the crossroads: A cognitive
perspective (pp. 109–132). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, F. J. (2011). Metonymy and cognitive operations. In A. Barcelona,
R. Benczes & F. J. Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez (Eds.), Defining metonymy in cognitive
linguistics. Towards a consensus view (pp. 103–125). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John
Benjamins.
Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, F. J., & Galera-Masegosa, A. (2011). Going beyond metaphtonymy:
Metaphoric and metonymic complexes in phrasal verb interpretation. Language Value,
3(1), 1–29.
Schmid, H.-J. (2007). Entrenchment, salience, and basic levels. In D. Geeraerts & H. Cuyckens
(Eds.). The Oxford handbook of cognitive linguistics (pp.117–138). Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Sjöblom, P. (2016). A cognitive approach to the semantics of proper nouns. In S. Brendler
(Ed.), Cognitive onomastics: A reader (pp. 63–82). Hamburg: Baar.
Stolk, A., Noordzij, M. L., Verhagen, L., Volman, I., Schoffelen, J-M., Oostenveld, R.,
Hagoort, P. &, Toni, I. (2014). Cerebral coherence between communicators marks the
emergence of meaning. PNAS, 111(51), 18183–18188.
Thothathiri, M., Kim, A., Trueswell, A. K., & Thompson-Schill, S. L. (2012). Parametric effects
of syntactic-semantic conflict in Broca’s area during sentence processing. Brain and
Language, 120, 259–264.
138 Tatiana Golubeva

Tchesnokov, I. (2003). The concept EUROPE in linguistic consciousness of Russian students.

Science Journal of Volgograd State University. Linguistics, 3, 69–72.
Van Langendonck, W. (2007). Theory and typology of proper names. Berlin & New York:
Walter de Gruyter.

Sources

Ash, T., Gunn, J., Lough, J., Lutsevych, O., Nixey, J., Sherr, J., & Wolczuk, K. (2017). The
struggle for Ukraine. Chatham House report. The Royal Institute of International Affairs.
Baer, D., 24 February, 2016. Oleksandra Matviychuk receives the Democracy Defender Award.
http://osce.usmission.gov/congratulatory-remarks-on-the-occasion-of-the-democracy-
defender-award/
Brzezinski, I., 10 April, 2014. Prepared statement. Transatlantic security challenges: Central
and Eastern Europe. Hearing before the subcommittee on European affairs of the
Committee on Foreign Relations, the US Senate, 113 Congress, Second session, pp. 41.
https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/040219_Brzezinski_Testimony.pdf
Cameron, D., 16 July, 2015. Eid 2015: David Cameron’s message. https://www.gov.uk
/government/news/eid-2015-david-camerons-message
Cameron, D., 6 March, 2014. EU meeting on Ukraine: David Cameron’s speech. https://www
.gov.uk/government/speeches/eu-meeting-on-ukraine-david-camerons-speech
Cameron, D., 7 September, 2015. Syria: refugees and counter-terrorism. Prime Minister’s
statement. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/syria-refugees-and-counter-
terrorism-prime-ministers-statement
Hammond, Ph., 30 September, 2015. The Assad regime created the environment in which
extremism and ISIL in particular flourished. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches
/the-assad-regime-created-the-environment-in-which-extremism-and-isil-in-particular-
flourished
Glynn, J., 16 January, 2018. Department of Defense press briefing by Brig. Gen. Glynn via
teleconference from Baghdad, Iraq. https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Transcripts
/Transcript/Article/1416545/department-of-defense-press-briefing-by-brig-gen-glynn-via-
teleconference-from/
May, Th., 20 September, 2017. PM speech at UNGA: Preventing terrorist use of the Internet.
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-at-unga-preventing-terrorist-use-
of-the-internet
McGurk, B., 8 July, 2017. Press conference by special presidential envoy McGurk in Baghdad,
Iraq. https://www.state.gov/press-conference-by-special-presidential-envoy-mcgurk-in-
baghdad-iraq-3/
Shields, J., 25 January, 2017. Baroness Shields opening speech at the global counter-terrorism
forum. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/baroness-shields-opening-speech-at-
the-global-counter-terrorism-forum
Obama, B., 10 September, 2014. Statement by the President on ISIL. https://obamawhitehouse
.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/10/statement-president-isil-1
Pompeo, M., 10 January, 2019. A force for good. America reinvigorated in the Middle East.
https://eg.usembassy.gov/a-force-for-good-america-reinvigorated-in-the-middle-east/
 ‘A ssad’, ‘ISIL’, ‘ISIS’, ‘Daesh’ and ‘European’ as metonymic blends in political discourse 139

Tillerson, R., 22 March, 2017. Remarks at the ministerial plenary for the global coalition
working to defeat ISIS. https://www.state.gov/remarks-at-the-ministerial-plenary-for-the-
global-coalition-working-to-defeat-isis/

Address for correspondence

Tatiana Golubeva
Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University
603093, Donetskaya St. 2–50,
Russian Federation
gtm212@mail.ru

Biographical notes

Tatiana Golubeva, Assistant Professor of the Foreign Languages Department in Nizhny Nov-
gorod State Technical University, Russia. She earned her PhD degree from Nizhny Novgorod
University of Linguistics in 2009. Her research interests include cognitive linguistics, pragmat-
ics and political discourse.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3909-5364

Publication history

Date received: 27 March 2021

Date accepted: 31 August 2021
Published online: 30 January 2023
Copyright of Review of Cognitive Linguistics is the property of John Benjamins Publishing
Co. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv
without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print,
download, or email articles for individual use.