Separar... ¿en dos?: estudio semántico del prefijo dis-en español.

Ardiles Cuevas, Ignacio; Bustos Baez, Christopher; Toro Varela, Francisca

The article explores the semantic functions of the prefix dis-in Spanish words, particularly the expression which refers to 'dividing in two'. Although there are more functions related to this prefix (such as the notion of divergence, increase and even negation), we believe that the spatial value which was in the origin of this particle still survives. Thus, the aim of the study is to evaluate whether it is possible to recover the original spatial value 'dividing in two' in the Spanish lexicon. For this matter, we selected 50 prefixed words in the Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual (CREA) of the Real Academia Española. With a sample of 12,218 data, we analyzed the semantic value shown by the prefix based on García's (2021) classification and, in those cases whose value it was division, we determined whether it occurred in two or more groups. This study allows us to 1) reaffirm the current validity of the 'dividing in two' notion granted by the prefix dis-, since we find it present in several nominal, adjectival and verbal formations; and 2) to trace a path of the grammaticalization process, to which dis-underwent early from Latin to Spanish.

Literatura y Lingüística, 2023, Issue 47, p221

0716-5811

Academic Journal

10.29344/0717621X.47.3256