The semantic and conceptual structure of dynamic pragmatic meaning

This paper attempts to analyse the way in which the semantic configuration of a lexical form determines the pragmatic senses developed in discourse. Two radically different syntactic forms are used for analysis, the adjective claro and the preposition-connector segun. The analysis shows that the pragmatic behaviour of these unrelated forms is determined and restricted by the schematic semantic representation of the base form. Following Langacker (1985, 1990), it is proposed that a process of subjectification via semantic bleaching involves an increasing loss of semantic features, which in turn involves an equally increasing degree of participation of the conceptualizer in the constitution of different types of pragmatic senses.