Publications
Publication details [#5422]
Guarddon Anelo, Carmen. 2005. Prepositional semantics and metaphoric extensions: Spanish 'desde'. In Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, Francisco José. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 3. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 300–324. 25 pp.
Publication type
Article in book
Publication language
English
Keywords
Place, Publisher
Amsterdam: John Benjamins
Abstract
In this paper we analyze the semantics of the Spanish preposition 'desde'. This analysis is developed within the cognitive linguistics framework. First, we establish the central uses of this category, using a corpus created from examples provided by Spanish speakers. Then, we examine the uses of this preposition that respond to a metaphoric extension. According to my working hypothesis, these metaphoric uses are derived from the topological schema that underlies all the uses of this preposition. The metaphoric extensions of this preposition have been gradually and only partially accepted by the 'Real Academia de la Lengua' and other linguistic authorities. However, there exits a use based on a metaphoric transfer which is ignored by traditional treatments. Furthermore, this use is explicitly defined as incorrect by the dictionary of the Spanish language Clave. We will show that this use is consistent with the topological schema that has given rise to the rest of the metaphoric uses of 'desde' and thus should be treated as another valid use of this category.
(Carmen Guarddon Anelo)