The purpose of this paper is to analyze the referential expressions for “ren” (person) in Mandarin Chinese from the perspective of cognitive linguistics in order to see the conceptual structure involved. The commonly occurring referential expressions for “ren” (person) are collected as language data and analyzed according to the cognitive linguistics claims, the condition for the metonymic extension suggested, and a final remark given as the conclusion.

中文中，用以指「人」之集合詞常常會包含身體之部分器官為其構詞之主要成分。如「籃球國手」指代表國家參加籃球比賽的人。「籃球國手」為一集合詞，而身體器官「手」為其構詞之主要部分。此類詞彙還包括：頭目、眼線、千里眼、順風耳、名嘴等。本文旨在從認知語言學的點探討此類集合詞之概念結構，以便闡明這類集合詞中所表現之換喻現象以及換喻之基礎所在。