Metonymy is a pervasive phenomenon, and metonymic interpretation is a powerful interpretive device. In generation, it can be used to achieve economy of expression wherever a sufficiently salient coercion relation will yield an unambiguous interpretation. Among the most salient relations are those provided by the explicit content of the text itself. Allowing these as possible coercions, we see how a combination of syntax, compositional semantics, and metonymic interpretation can explain a diverse set of supposedly syntactic phenomena.
The examples discussed in this chapter all lie on the boundaries between syntax, semantics and pragmatics. That they all yield to the same solution illustrates the utility of a framework in which the three areas are modelled in a uniform fashion.