To Put the Hands in the Fire for Someone. Constructions in Spanish with the Noun Mano (Hand)

Abstract

This article aims to offer an analysis proposal for the structures formed in Spanish with the verb meter (‘to introduce’, ‘to put inside’) and the noun mano / manos (‘hand/ hands’) from a cognitive linguistics perspective (Langaker: 1987, 1990, 1991, 2008). The structures in question were taken from a synchronic corpus of Mexican Spanish and correspond to
expressions such as: meter las manos en un lugar (‘to put the hands inside a location’), the pockets for example, meter las manos por alguien (‘to advocate for someone’), meter las manos al fuego por alguien (‘to take risk for someone’), meterle mano a alguien and meter mano (this two meanings with sexual connotation). The analysis is based on construction grammar (Golberg 1995, 2003, 2006) and blend theory (Fauconnier and Turner 2002) to explain both structure conformation and their different meanings. That these expressions have as origin a mother construction, namely, the construction of caused movement, which modified its meaning when adding the corporal noun is the hypothesis developed. It was observed that some of these expressions arise from an overlap between two constructions, that of caused movement and that of transference, which also brings light upon the verb-noun construct meter mano. Lastly, a conceptual integration network of these structures is shown.