Blows of meaning. Morphological creativity in the construction [ <i>a</i> N-suffix _{singular.blow} <i>limpio</i> ] in Spanish

Abstract This study explores the intersection of phraseology and morphology within the postulates of usage-based Construction Grammar, focusing on the construction [ a N-suffix singular.blow limpio ]. The peculiarity of this syntactic construction is that it embeds productive morphological formations with the suffixes -azo , -ada and -ón , all of which convey the notion of ‘blow’ or ‘impact’. Through a corpus-based analysis of 3,300 tokens from the esTenTen18 corpus (Sketch Engine), we offer a semantic/pragmatic description of the construction and its realizations, examining how lexicalized and non-lexicalized slot fillers interact with the construction’s lexically filled elements. The analysis aims to investigate the degree of morphological creativity and semantic coercion present in the construction, identifying how evaluative suffixes encode metaphorical or compositional meanings depending on the context. By distinguishing between frequent, conventionalized forms and low-frequency forms or hapax legomena, we shed light on the gradient between F-creativity and E-creativity, and on how morphologically derived lexemes can be reanalyzed within a semi-schematic construction. Ultimately, this research contributes to understanding how evaluative and metaphorical meanings emerge at the intersection of morphological schemas and syntactic patterns.