Metaphor and Metonymy as a Source of False Friends in Spanish and Standard Modern Greek
Metaphor and Metonymy as a Source of False Friends in Spanish and Standard Modern Greek

Summary/Abstract: The linguistic interference phenomenon of false friends has always been present in language as a process of divergence between two languages or linguistic varieties. It concerns cognates (either due to borrowing or a common origin) whose meanings have diverged over time. One of the main sources of semantic divergence are metaphor and metonymy that have brought about pairs of false friends such as retirement and retiro, or retirada in English and Spanish, respectively; and the pairs αφυπηρέτηση, σύνταξη, and συνταξιοδότηση, in Standard Modern Greek (SMG, hereinafter) and Cypriot Standard Greek (CSG, hereinafter). These nouns are all partial semantic friends (they differ in relation to at least one of their meanings) and their emergence is seen in detail accompanied by examples clarifying their semantics and pragmatics.

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