Metáfora y metonimia: el fenómeno de polisemia en el sufijo del español -itis

Abstract

Most linguistic trends accept the fact that meaning is one of the components of language that is most prone to change, it is possible to divide words in minimal units called morphemes, which, as all the other units of language that carry meaning, may broaden meaning through usage.
Thus, this research is centered on the analysis of the Spanish morpheme -itis, which generally adds to the root of the word the meaning ‘inflammation of’. However, we have found examples of usage, such as ambicionitis or caviaritis, which are impossible to be glossed as ‘inflammation of ambition’ or ‘inflammation of caviar’.
This research reveals that there are at least two innovative meanings associated to this suffix, and it analyses the phenomenons of language use involved in its polysemy: metaphor and metonymy.