Abstract

Languages are heterogeneous systems including several registers, such as formal, standard and popular. In this paper we consider the denominations of the winds belonging to these three registers in Catalan, Spanish and French. Assuming the principles of Cognitive Linguistics, the denominations will be analysed from two complementary perspectives, namely semantic (onomasiologic and semasiologic) and morphologic. The conclusions of the analysis can be applied to translation and to lexicography, specifically to the study of some misleading equivalences proposed in bilingual dictionaries.

Abstract

The contrastive analysis of a corpus of neologisms is an appropriate way to describe and analyse the mechanisms of lexical innovation used to update the lexicon. It also shows the degree of linguistic coincidence and helps make hypotheses on the influence of some languages on others. The synchronic study of several neologisms from the Neology Observatory highlights the degree of coincidence and divergence between Catalan and Spanish with respect to two aspects: (i) the mechanisms of innovation (morphological, semantics and borrowings) and (ii) the resulting neologisms. This analysis also allows to make some hypotheses about the influence of Spanish and other languages on Catalan.