SEMANTIC FUNCTIONS OF SUBJECT, PROTOTYPE THEORY AND METONYMY

Abstract: This paper has argued that morphological and syntactic properties of subjects decrease as subjects deviate from the prototypical subject, which simultaneously encodes the semantic function Agent and the pragmatic function topic. On the other hand, the paper also argues that the mapping of a particular semantic role/function is not independent of the type of metonymic mapping, as is evident from the acceptability of some metonymic mappings (LOCATION-FOR-INSTITUTION vs. LOCATION-FOR-RESPONSIBLE PERSON(S)). The initial hypothesis is that such discrepancies between English and Croatian are an instation of a more general metaphorical/metonymic difference: INANIMATE-FOR-ANIMATE.