The polysemy of the conjunction 'y' in Spanish proverbs
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Abstract
This paper analyzes the different semantic interpretations, polysemy, of the Spanish coordinating conjunction 'y' and in a particular linguistic structure: proverbs. As linguistic structures, proverbs generally consist of two phrases or clauses linked by a conjunction. A corpus of 200 proverbs connected by 'y' was analyzed in terms of semantic functions, commutative properties, and temporal meaning (simultaneous or sequential). These findings were corroborated by native speakers semantic interpretations of 'y' in a multiple-choice test. Both the frequency of use and the preference for a particular conjunction provided the basis for establishing a hierarchy of the various meanings of 'y' in Spanish proverbs. This hierarchy explicitly models the radial structure (as defined by Lakoff, 1987) of the category 'y': there is a central category (addition) and non-central extensions (adversativity, concession, etc.).
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