부산대학교 도서관

This study investigates the role played by figurative speech in the evolution of the Spanish verb, how numerous such instances are and of what kinds, which figures of speech predominate, and where the development of their meaning(s) reflects movement in terms of concrete vs. abstract. Of 500 verbs of the highest frequency from H. Keniston's (1941) Standard List, 120 (24%) were found to be figurative and, over time, to have embodied 196 meanings. In the early stages, figurative development was principally metonymic and the reference was mainly concrete to concrete and, to a lesser extent, concrete to abstract. Conversely, in later stages, figurative development was found to be mainly metaphoric and the reference increasingly concrete to abstract. Movement from abstract to concrete and abstract to abstract at all historical stages was found to be rare. It remains to be investigated whether these findings hold true for Spanish alone, for other Romance languages as well, or for languages in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]