Polysemy patterns in semi-lexical elements in Spanish and Catalan

Researchers investigating the Spanish word mismo and its Catalan congener mateix have traditionally focused exclusively on phonological issues, ignoring a number of worthy semantic topics. In this paper I explore the polysemy patterns of these forms in a cross-linguistic perspective. I argue that such examination of polysemy patterns in different languages will help us understand the nature of polysemy. I also claim that the evidence points to a three-way division of the lexicon into lexical, semi-lexical, and grammatical subparts.