COGNITIVE VERBS IN SPANISH AND GREEK. TWO PATTERNS OF SEMANTIC EVOLUTION
COGNITIVE VERBS IN SPANISH AND GREEK. TWO PATTERNS OF SEMANTIC EVOLUTION

Summary/Abstract: THIS ARTICLE AIMS TO PRESENT THE COGNITIVE FRAME OF VERBS WHICH DENOTE ‘THOUGHT’(‘UNDERSTAND’, ‘KNOW’, ‘THINK’), MAINLY IN GREEK AND SPANISH, CONSIDERED FROM ADIACHRONIC PERSPECTIVE. THE ETYMOLOGIC ANALYSIS AND THE THEORETICAL BACKGROUNDOF THIS INVESTIGATION (I.E. COGNITIVE SEMANTICS) HELPED US IDENTIFY TWO MAIN SEMANTICPATTERNS IN THE EVOLUTION OF COGNITIVE VERBS. THESE PATTERNS ARE BASED ON TWOCONCEPTS, NAMELY ‘SIGHT’ AND ‘GRABBING’, WHICH DEVELOPED AN ABSTRACT SENSE. THUS,UNDERSTANDING, KNOWLEDGE OR THOUGHT COULD BE CONSIDERED THE RESULT OF THEFOLLOWING SEMANTIC CHANGES: ‘I SEE’ > ‘I KNOW’ / ‘I UNDERSTAND’ AND ‘I GOT (IT)’ > ‘IUNDERSTOOD’. THUS, WE CAN CONCLUDE THAT THE ABSTRACT AND COGNITIVE MEANINGSDEVELOPED FROM CONCRETE ONES, FOLLOWING A GENERAL PATTERN OF SEMANTIC EVOLUTION.INTERESTINGLY, THESE SEMANTIC SHIFTS ARE NOT ONLY DIACHRONICH. SYNCHRONICALLY,THESE TENDENCIES ARE EVIDENT IN THE CASE OF MANY VERBS AND COLLOQUIAL EXPRESSIONS.MOREOVER, THESE TWO PATTERNS AND SEMANTIC SHIFTS, UNDERGONE BY THE VERBS OFCOGNITION, CAN ALSO BE FOUND IN OTHER LANGUAGES, SUCH AS ROMANIAN, FRENCH, ENGLISHETC., AND, THEREFORE THEY CAN BE CONSIDERED GENERAL CROSS-LINGUISTIC PATTERNS OFSEMANTIC EVOLUTION.

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