ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the existence of a link between metonymy and derivational word formation. It offers a detailed exploration of word formation in Spanish by suffixation, understood in terms of metonymic processes. Although some scholars have explored new research possibilities by extending metonymy to the grammatical domain, the main line of cognitive linguistics research on metonymy has its foundations in a lexical approach. Probably the most complete inventory of metonymical patterns “in prototype-theoretical terms” is the proposal made by Peirsman and Geeraerts. A considerable number of cognitivists have explored the boundaries of metonymy beyond the lexicon. Langacker offers one of the most thought-provoking proposals about the metonymic nature of grammar. Probably the first scholar to suggest the existence of a linking between metonymy and word formation was Jakobson. In order to understand Janda’s approach to the role of metonymy in word formation, it should first be clarified how exactly the link between metonymy and word formation can be established.
