Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
First International Language-For-All Conference, Adana, Türkiye, 21 - 22 Ekim 2022, cilt.1, sa.1, ss.66
Figures of speech, one of the creative components of language systems, enable individuals to
employ literal and deviant meanings in order to meet diverse communication needs and
functions in verbal and written texts. Unlike traditional views, which consider figures of speech
as elements of literature and poetry, figures of speech have been embraced as prominent
elements in individuals’ daily use of language. Apart from daily language use, figurative
language is also pervasive in language teaching materials, which augment language learners’
proficiency regarding various aspects in the target language in that they provide various
pedagogical benefits, such as semantic expansion, comprehension of figurative expressions,
gaining an insight about the way of target language thinking, reaching the fluency level of a
native speaker and rich language production. Among figures, metonymy, which has bare
attention compared to metaphor, is one of the figures of speech which occupies a great deal of
place in verbal and written texts since it also has an important role in the organization of
meaning, interpretation and production as an output of thinking and human cognitive
mechanism. Since textbooks are primary sources for language students who are exposed to
target language items in the immediate ELT environment, investigating textbooks in terms of
speech figures is considered to provide valuable insights. In this respect, this study aims to
investigate the types of metonymy employed in the reading texts (n: 273) of eight ELT course
books based on Conceptual Metaphor Theory.
Keywords
figures of speech, metonymy, Conceptual Metaphor Theory