Cognitive models in Spanish metalinguistic phraseology

Abstract

This study analyses cognitive models underlying a number of phraseological expressions in Spanish. The expressions which will be discussed were selected from a collection of more than 250 units taken from the most recent Spanish dictionaries and phraseological repertoires. All of these units are fixed expressions which are used in present-day Spanish (mostly in the European variety) to refer to people’s ways of speaking – by a verb of speech such as hablar (speak, talk), decir (say, tell) etc. The meaning of these expressions, together with the presence of verbs of speech, allows us to label them “metalinguistic”. Indeed, these phraseological expressions belong to what Rey-Debove described as “natural metalanguage”, more specifically, to the nonscientific metalanguage used in everyday discourse. Such expressions, which are found in different languages, are particularly significant as a reflection of how linguistic communication is conceptualized. Based mainly on Lakoff and Johnson’s theoretical frame, this study uncovers the ‘folk’ understanding of Spanish speakers about language reflected in the data, and shows how this particular speech community perceives and interprets this field of reality.