Evolución semántica y lexicalización del somatismo español cerrar los ojos

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the feasibility of applying the Invited Inferencing Theory of Se- mantic Change in order to establish the semantic evolution of idioms with literal correlates, in particular somatisms or kinegrams. The methodology is applied to analyze the testimonies (until 1700) of Spanish somatism cerrar los ojos in a diachronic corpus of Spanish language (CORDE), so as to find out what inferences generated contextual meanings that conditioned its lexicalization as idiom, semanticizing symbolic meanings related to death, sleep, knowledge, irrationality, submission or trust.