The Interplay of Synonymy and Polysemy

Figure 10
. Abstract schema motivating the LVCs with 
lanzar
. 
 
Violent acts are a way of interacting with other individuals, though in a negative 
fashion. Political nouns also incorporate interaction between humans. Making an 
announcement and launching a campaign are forms of societal organization. 
Lanzar
’s 
increased use of nonphysical 
MOVANTS
is in part based on its ability to express several 
notions relating to human interaction, mostly in light verb constructions.
 Functional Synonymy 
The previous discussion shows that each verb tends to appear with certain types of 
nonphysical 
MOVANTS
, though there are cases where more than one verb can appear with the 
same semantic class of nouns. This is summarized in figure 11. The boxes represent the 
different schemas that were detailed. The circles then show the combinations that each 
specific verb can show. For example, 
tirar
has the smallest circle since the 400-sentence 
corpus only showed it appearing in the 
HITS
schema.
In the 400-sentence corpus, 
tirar 
only appears in the 
HIT 
schema. 
Tirar 
has a low 
occurrence of nonphysical 
MOVANTS
because it has a limited ability to appear in LVCs: it 
only appears in the 
HITS 
schema (which is an example of an LVC).
Arrojar
mostly appears in 
the 
SHED LIGHT
and 
PRODUCING DATA 
constructions. There are also instances of 
arrojar
in the 
SOUNDS 
and
LOOKS 
schemas, but these are less common. 
Echar
occurs in the 
LOOKS
schema 
and other schemas specific to the verb, including the 
BLAME
construction, and (fixed) phrases 
that meant ‘to ruin’, ‘to reproach’ and ‘to bear a burden’. 
Lanzar
has a significantly higher 
S
OUNDS
/S
PEECH
V
IOLENCE
P
OLITICS
H
UMAN 
I
NTERACTION
F
ACIAL 
E
XPRESSIONS

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86 | 
occurrence with nonphysical 
MOVANTS
. Not only does it appear in a large number of 
schemas, but does so frequently. 
Lanzar 
occurs in the 
VIOLENCE 
schema (
HITS
is a subset of 
VIOLENCE
), the 
SOUNDS
schema, the
POLITICS SCHEMA
and the 
FACIAL EXPRESSIONS 
schema 
(
LOOKS
is a subset of 
FACIAL EXPRESSIONS
).
The diagram also represents functional synonymy. We can say that 
tirar
and 
lanzar
are functional synonyms since they both can express throwing hits (
HITS
).
Lanzar
and 
arrojar
are also synonyms when combined with 
MOVANTS 
that refer to sounds. 
Arrojar
, 
lanzar
and 
echar
are synonyms since all three can appear in the 
LOOKS 
schema.
Of course, noting that two verbs can appear in the same schema does not mean that 
they do so with equal frequency. For example, 
lanzar 
is much more frequent in the 
LOOKS 
schema than either 
arrojar
or 
echar
. It is of importance to note this difference, because there 
may be issues of preferences and unmarkedness at play. That is, even though it is possible to 
say 
arrojar una mirada 
‘throw a look’, the version with 
lanzar
might be the more natural, 
preferred or unmarked form.
It must be noted that there are limitations to the current analysis. The analysis is based 
on data from the 400-sentence corpus. Therefore it is not possible to make statements about 
what cannot or is not said. For example, in the 400-sentence corpus, 
tirar
only appears with