Los procesos 'hipotético-estimativo': un análisis lexemático-funcional de los predicados verbales ingleses

Abstract

The aim of the present study is the delimitation and organization of the lexical dimensions that encompass ‘hypothetical’ and ‘estimative’ processes –which belong to the semantic field of ‘cognition’– in order to point out the main semantic, syntactic and functional differences and similarities that are settled between them. We try to explore the relations between language and cognition, how mental processes are expressed by words. For this purpose, a detailed analysis of the English verbal predicates that belong to the core of these lexical dimensions has been carried out at both syntagmatic and paradigmatic levels, from a functional-lexematic perspective (L. Martín Mingorance), which integrates two descriptive models: Structural Lexematics (Coseriu and Geckeler) and Functional Grammar (S.C. Dik). At the end we find out how the linguistic relations among the predicates analysed reflect the interrelation between both mental processes.