Abstract This paper explores the role of metonymy in determining a syntactic argument alternation (“conductor-vehicle alternation”) which occurs in English and Portuguese: o piloto acelerou a Ferrari “the driver speeded up the Ferrari”/a Ferrari acelerou “the Ferrari speeded up/sped away”. Since the verbs in the conductor-vehicle alternation have conductor and vehicle arguments (controller and controlled entities), a metonymic process can occur, allowing the vehicle expression to provide access to the conductor participant. To explain how metonymy allows a verb with two participants to be integrated into a construction with a single argument, we assume that metonymy gathers information about both entities involved; the vehicle expression provides mental access to both vehicle and conductor (“fusion”). We also discuss cognitive and pragmatic factors involving the choice of a construction over another. Constructions with vehicle expressions as subject are used when the vehicle is salient or the conductor is unknown. This also explains why dirigir “drive” does not alternate in Portuguese, contrarily to prediction and differently from English drive. We provide a comparative account of the behavior of this verb in both languages. Dirigir, differently from drive, conceptualizes semantic components incompatible with a situation in which the agent/conductor is not salient or is unknown. This research adds to the ongoing body of literature on the role of metonymy in grammar and is a contribution to the understanding of the metonymic process, as a fusion, and also to argument alternation processes and lexical-constructional integration.

中文翻译：

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转喻触发句法论点的交替：指挥转喻的载体是对词法-建构整合的约束

摘要本文探讨了转喻在确定英语和葡萄牙语中句法论点交替（“导体-车辆交替”）中的作用：o飞行员法拉利“法拉利驾驶员加快速度” /法拉利名人“法拉利速度加快”向上/加速离开”。由于指挥官与车辆的交替中的动词具有指挥官和车辆参数（控制者和受控实体），因此可能发生转喻过程，从而使车辆表情能够向指挥者提供访问。为了解释转喻如何允许具有两个参与者的动词整合到具有单个参数的结构中，我们假设转喻收集有关两个实体的信息；车辆表情使人可以同时接触车辆和指挥（“融合”）。我们还将讨论认知和语用因素，这些因素涉及对结构的选择。当车辆突出或导体未知时，将使用以车辆表情为主题的构造。这也解释了为什么dirigir“ drive”在葡萄牙语中不会交替出现，与预测相反，与英语中的drive不同。我们提供了两种语言中该动词行为的比较说明。Dirigir与驱动器不同，在概念上将语义组件概念化为与代理/导体不显着或未知的情况不兼容。这项研究为有关转喻在语法中的作用的文献提供了补充，并且有助于理解转喻过程（作为一种融合），也有助于论证交替过程和词汇-结构整合。