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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]

The paper's intention is a programmatic one. After presenting several definitions for the terms semantics of speech and structuralism, the topic is discussed with regard to Coseriu's theoretical framework. After confirming that there is not a methodological assignment within the universal level, I establish the hypothesis that it is due to the impossibility of structuralism for consistently carrying it out. For this purpose, I expound some arguments from Ricoeur, criticizing however that he did not take into account the efforts of structuralism to overcome these limitations. Briefly developing several methodological changes to structuralism, I critically comment on some of Coseriu's remarks on cognitive semantics. This allows a better understanding of the relation between the semantics of language and the semantics of speech. Finally, I propose several ways to methodologically develop the semantics of speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]