The present paper shows that Prototype Theory has a great potential for the diachronic semantic analysis of Spanish because it meets the needs of the study of language in use. The object of study we have chosen for this purpose is the verb salir. We first analysed the meanings of the Latin verb SALIRE, and, subsequently, approximately 300 testimonies of salir from early Romance until the 13th century from the Corpus del Nuevo Diccionario Histórico. The analysis of the data brings to light a prototypical change which proves to be crucial for the further development of salir. The case study provides evidence for both the advantages and the limitations of Prototype Theory for the diachronic semantic investigation of polysemic words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
The aim of this research is to show the application of Cognitive Semantics to the description of nominal compounding in American Spanish. Compounding is a productive morphologic process used to create words with a transparent meaning (apoyacabeza 'head restraint', destapabotellas 'bottle opener' etc.). However, many compounds also have an important level of idiomaticity (ahogabecerro 'tree', bienmesabe 'candy' etc.). The paper shows that Cognitive Semantics can explain the semantic opacity of these idiomatic compounds on the basis of metaphoric and metonymic processes. The data are extracted from the Diccionario de americanismos published by the Real Academia Española. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]