The treatment of zoosemy in conceptual metaphor and metonymy theory

Abstract: The paper presents an overview of the ways the phenomenon of zoosemy, i.e. figurative use of lexemes denoting animals are used to refer to humans is handled within the Conceptual metaphor and meton-ymy theory. By focusing on the repercussions of the phenomenon treated as an instantiation of the on-tological mapping human being is an animal, the paper addresses both the issues it opens as a prob-lematic type of instantiation regarding the theoretical status of the two cognitive mechanisms, as well as those related to the figurative meaning description and specific pragmatic effects it conveys. A number of useful theoretical constructs within the approach (cultural models, primary metaphors, (chains of) me-tonymy and its multiple functions (Barcelona 2005) and the main meaning focus (Kövecses 2003) are suggested and exemplified in hope of achieving a more motivated description of the phenomenon.