A model of lexical and conceptual relations, especially conceptual metonymy, built on the cognitive grammar view of the domain (1) and developed by William Croft. On this account, a target is accessed within a domain as a result of domain 'highlighting'. Croft's proposal is that, from the perspective of encyclopaedic semantics, which is assumed by this model, metonymy functions by highlighting one domain within a concept's domain matrix.

Thus a particular usage of a lexical concept can highlight distinct domains within the concept's domain matrix on different occasions depending on the utterance context. Consider the following examples:

1. Proust spent most of his time in bed
2. Proust is tough to read Part of the domain matrix associated with Marcel Proust is that he was man known for particular habits relating to how much time he spent in bed. This is knowledge about Proust the man. Another aspect of the domain matrix relates to Proust's literary work and his career as a writer. While the expression Proust in (1) highlights the domain for Proust (Proust the man), the expression Proust in (2) highlights the literary work of Proust. Thus, from the perspective of domain matrices, a particular expression can metonymically highlight distinct, albeit related, aspects of our encyclopaedic knowledge relating to Proust.