Omas, Opas und Tattergreise: resemblance and metonymic mappings in two German expressions of ageism

The present paper aims at analyzing resemblance and metonymic mappings motivating sarcastic and/or derogatory uses of the expressions Oma / Opa and Tattergreis / Tattergreisin. For this purpose, a corpus analysis of the type key-word in context was conducted in order to identify and analyze all the instances of the resemblance mappings underlying the uses of the expressions. This allowed to show the most salient stereotypical patterns underlying the identified conceptualizations and shed light onto their metonymic base. The paper concludes with an analysis of the metonymic patterns underlying the elements of the compound Tattergreis. In particular, two possible analyses of the compound will be presented and discussed against the backdrop of two general approaches to the study of metonymy.