The contribution of cognitive semantics to lexical composition

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 Espanola.