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Metonymy in Language about Organizations: A Corpus‐Based Study of Company Names

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  • Joep P. Cornelissen

Abstract

abstract In this paper, I examine the use of metonymies in people's talk about organizations. Drawing upon a corpus of natural talk extracted from the British National Corpus (BNC) I identify recurring categories of metonymies that appear to be a central part of people's talk about organizations. These categories of metonymies involve substitutions where an organization stands in for its members, its products, its facilities, its stock or shares or a company‐related event. I also found that metonymies in each of these categories are used as basic metonymic expressions that are only partially connected to metaphorical expressions and interpretations of organizations. Where those connections exist, the use of metonymies follows a metaphor‐from‐metonymy linguistic pattern (where a metaphorical meaning arises from the use of a metonymy) rather than a metonymy‐within‐metaphor pattern (where a metonymy is part of a metaphorical expression). I elaborate on the implications of these findings for our understanding of how organizations are discursively constructed and understood through metonymic language.

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  • Joep P. Cornelissen, 2008. "Metonymy in Language about Organizations: A Corpus‐Based Study of Company Names," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 79-99, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:45:y:2008:i:1:p:79-99
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2007.00737.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Simon Lloyd D. Restubog & Matthew J. Hornsey & Prashant Bordia & Sarah R. Esposo, 2008. "Effects of Psychological Contract Breach on Organizational Citizenship Behaviour: Insights from the Group Value Model," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(8), pages 1377-1400, December.
    2. Shirley Leitch & Ian Palmer, 2010. "Analysing Texts in Context: Current Practices and New Protocols for Critical Discourse Analysis in Organization Studies," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(6), pages 1194-1212, September.
    3. Elizabeth Goodrick & Trish Reay, 2010. "Florence Nightingale Endures: Legitimizing a New Professional Role Identity," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 55-84, January.
    4. Stenka, Renata & Jaworska, Sylvia, 2019. "The use of made-up users," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    5. Jenny Lewin-Jones & Mike Webb, 2013. "Ideology in Disguise: Place Name Metonyms and the Discourse of Newspaper Headlines," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(4), pages 167-181, November.
    6. Dan Kärreman, 2010. "The Power of Knowledge: Learning from ‘Learning by Knowledge‐Intensive Firm’," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(7), pages 1405-1416, November.

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