A Theory of Lexical Change (with Examples from Folk Biology, Human Anatomical Partonomy and Other Domains).

0. 1. The significance of metaphor and metonymy as mechanisms of lexical change has long been recognized. 1 Metaphoric and metonymic usage can result in a word' s acquisition of a new meaning or sense. Metaphor in its core definition is the use of a word designating one object or idea to denote another, usually quite different, object or idea, thereby suggesting a similarity or likeness between them, e. g., use of words for mouth in Mayan languages as labels for door. Metonymy is the use of a word for a certain object or idea to denote another object or idea, the latter in some manner associated with the former, e. g., identifying a whole by use of a label for one of its parts such as in the tube for television set ( this type of metonymy is called 'synecdoche'). When a metaphoric or metonymic usage gains currency in a language, the old sense of the lexical item involved usually exists side by side with the new sense. If, for some reason, the old usage is eventually lost and the new usage stands alone, 'an absolute lexical change' has taken place. Numerous examples of absolute lexical change facilitated by metaphor and metonymy have been documented.