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This paper attempts to analyse the way in which the semantic configuration of a lexical form determines the pragmatic senses developed in discourse. Two radically different syntactic forms are used for analysis, the adjective claro and the preposition-connector según. The analysis shows that the pragmatic behaviour of these unrelated forms is determined and restricted by the schematic semantic representation of the base form. Following Langacker (1985, 1990), it is proposed that a process of subjectification via semantic bleaching involves an increasing loss of semantic features, which in turn involves an equally increasing degree of participation of the conceptualizer in the constitution of different types of pragmatic senses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we discuss the characteristics that are habitually assigned to collocations: binarism, belonging to the norm and arbitrariness and show that these properties do not in fact define them. 1) The binary relationship between the base and the collocate is contradicted by the possibility of combining the same collocate with a number of bases. 2) The assumption that collocations belong to the norm is refuted by the existence of semantic paradigms formed by bases which combine with the same lexical unit: the collocate. 3) The very existence of semantic paradigms is not an arbitrary phenomenon, but rather, a consequence of the meaning of the units that constitute them, the bases, one of whose semantic features forms part of the meaning of the collocate. Thus, we can conclude that collocations are radial syntagmatic structures in which one semantic feature of the collocate determines its combination with a lexical class of units, bases, which share the same feature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on semantic processing in psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics over the last decades makes necessary a partial revision of the structural linguistic methodological paradigm. The revision aims at achieving a more flexible formulation of the lexical meaning structure. On the grounds of a conception of meaning as a functional network with a neuropsychological base emerging from the close link between semantic and cognitive parts of the lexicon, this paper intends 1) to address in more detail these related parts, and 2) to discuss evidence derived from an analysis of the processing at this level, along with the major facts we know about the internal organization of our brain. All this leads to the description of a new neurocognitive dimension of lexical content within the framework of lexical semantics. [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]