On the image schemas in the notional complements selected by the verb to go out

Abstract

Metaphor and metonymy are two mecanisms of basic conceptualization that justify the notional uses the verb motion go out as semantically derived from its corresponding prototypical uses. In this paper we will demonstrate that the abstract structures involving this verb can be explained by the projection of three basic image schemas: the path schema, thecontainer schema and the whole-part schema (with its two metonymical directions: whole by part and part by whole). However, we will study others subsidiary image schemas of container and path metaphors: the force image schema, the process image schema, the fullempty image schema and the excess image schema. The examples were drawn from two oral corpora—Corpus oral de la variedad juvenil universitaria del español hablado en Alicante (COVJA) y Alicante, Corpus del español (ALCORE)—, where I have noticed a frequent use of these structures; and from one corpus written—CREA—, to which I have resorted in order to get a broaden database.