EN
The article offers an outline of metonymy from a linguistic point of view, with focus on the cognitive theory of metaphor and metonymy. Metonymy is not restricted to language but is a cognitive phenomenon, understood as a conceptual process in which one conceptual entity, the 'target', is made mentally accessible by means of another entity, the 'vehicle', within the same conceptual structure. The selection of the metonymic vehicle is governed by a number of cognitive and communicative principles. Traditional classifications subsumed metonymy under metaphor. In cognitive linguistics metaphor and metonymy are considered to be different cognitive strategies. The former results in understanding one concept in terms of another, the latter in highlighting the most relevant aspect of a conceptual structure. The metonymic relationships are classified – as proposed by Radden & Kövecses (1999) – under two general conceptual configurations: 1. whole ICM and its parts 2. parts of an ICM. The following typology of metonymies includes the most typical metonymic constructions in Polish.