The Expression Seeing Getting the Meaning of Dating: Metonymic or Metaphoric?

This paper claims that the semantic change of the expression seeing getting the meaning of dating is not exclusively a metonymic process, refuting Sullivan (2007, 2013) but the overlapped case between the metonymic inferencing and the metaphoric extension. The evidence is found in various aspects. First, the metaphor DATING IS SEEING can also appear in cartoons or movies even though it might have received little attention yet. Second, the semantic change can pass the systematic extensions test. Third, there is a legitimate reason for the semantic change to fail the inflection test. In addition to the three arguments, this paper presents a new argument that there are recognizable differences between SEEING and DATING, which can serve as evidence for metaphoric extensions since metaphor is based upon similarity via comparison of two separate domains which easily allows for differences.