WHAT’S IN A BILL GATES

A Corpus Linguistics Study of the Metonymic Use of Proper name

Abstract

The case of proper name is unique. In one hand, a proper name can
only refer to a specific entity, in the other hand, it also subject to
figurative use. Bill Gates, the name of the Microsoft founder is one
example of how proper noun are used not to refer to a single
individual, but is extended to refer to specific properties which
possesses by Bill Gates.. This research aims to identify the transferred
properties embedded in the use of proper names i.e, Bill Gates
figuratively and the objective of using the name as metonymy. The
research is qualitative; the data are taken from Corpus of
Contemporary American English (COCA), in order to achieve thirty
data, the amount of 422 data from COCA is examined. The result
shows, that from 30 metonymic use of Bill Gates, there are ten
associative properties assigned to the metonymic use of Bill Gates,
which are a very famous person, the richest person, a very successful
entrepreneur (In Computer Technology), a successful drop-out college,
philanthropist, a pioneer of particular field, a computer geek, an
individual with a brilliant ideas at the first stage of business, multiple
properties assigned, and a very successful person in his field.

Key Words: Bill Gates, Metonymy, Proper Name, Corpus Linguistics,