Semantic approaches to the study of denominal parasynthetic verbs in Spanish

Abstract

This paper puts forward an analysis of Spanish denominal parasynthetic verbs based on the assumption that these formations express an event of change (either of state or of location), and that their meaning depends on three elements: the type of noun they incorporate, the directionality encoded by the prefix, and the kind of internal argument they select. In order to carry out such an analysis, two semantic theories of lexical decomposition have been used: Jackendoff’s (1983, 1990) model of Conceptual Semantics and Pustejovsky’s (1995) theory of the Generative Lexicon. The first model allows us to classify the verbs under study from the standpoint of their lexical-conceptual structure, which makes evident the structural parallelisms existing in their meaning. On the other hand, the model developed by Pustejovsky gives us the opportunity to explore some additional aspects related to the compositional meaning of these formations, enabling us to demonstrate the relevance of the internal argument in relation to the (regular and irregular) polysemy of these constructions