This project started out of the confirmation of an implicit decision in the composition of new Spanish language dictionaries, by which the tag "figurado (fig.)" (figurative) was suppressed before the definition of some senses of polysemical entries. This lexicographic choice showed an increase between 2000, year in which this project was born, and Dec 2003, when the project was finished. New Spanish language dictionaries came out in this period, especially in 2001 (DRAE 22.ª, GDUEA and Lema Vox), where this trend, which was already observed in other dictionaries in 1995, is noticeable. Nevertheless, the case of diversity of senses or semantic transfer, which seems to respond still to a diachronic approach, may be revised if regarded from a point of view at which the dichotomy synchrony-diachrony is not at the basis of the conception of language. This approach is found in psycholinguistics, which focuses on the mental lexicon of speakers and it is also found in computational linguistics, mainly in the model developed by Pustejovsky (1995) and its generative lexicon environment.

Starting off with these observations, the project intends to study and categorize the metaphorical and metonymic relations that are present or possible in different senses of only one lexicographic article regarding meaning transfer, so as to apply what has been studied to dictionary composing. Specifically: a) create a theory frame from the polysemy of the lexicographic article to account for the solutions in the setting-up of senses (metonymic, figurative and by extension), b) notice bad interpretations regarding reading and translating when meaning transfer plays a role and what the use of current dictionaries can do to avoid them; and c) analyse dictionaries (mainly Spanish dictionaries and bilingual English-Spanish dictionaries) in the aspects considered.

Research results:

1. General objectives: From studies on lexicon structure (Pustejovsky 1995) and on language philosophy (Moravscik 1990), a conception of the lexical unit as a linguistic information unit and conceptual-encyclopedic integrated has been forged, which entails an adaptation of its reflection on articles in monolingual general dictionaries or its adaptation-selection to specific-purpose dictionaries. In lexicography, this integration demands to increase the syntactic and pragmatic description in connection with the semantic description, as well as to consider the order in which senses are sorted and the determination of senses over two relevant aspects: related senses over variations in meaning extension and variations over intensional uses of meaning, whose predicative value very often implies syntactic features. This aspect is reinforced by the interest of grammar in intensional noun use.
2. Specific objectives:
   • Study of close senses in lexicographic articles of polysemic entries and of quasi-synonyms in bilingual dictionary equivalences (Alsina-DeCesaris).
   • Study of variations in the composition of definitions which represent changes in extension. DRAE's 1992 and 2001 definition of macuto has been followed, as well as expressions which mark this change of extension (Battaner-DeCesaris). This aspect has also been studied in romanic perspective by J. Brumme, who analyses the lexicographic development and treatment of metaphors for luz .
   • Study of metaphoric, metonymic, or figurative senses already marked in dictionaries, of the solutions each dictionary applies and of the evaluation of the considerable disappearance of the mark 'fig.' in new lexicography. Battaner has compiled concordance from CREA for the entries anteojeras , rodillo y cocina and has analysed their behaviour in dictionaries in this respect. After studying the concordances of entries that present figurative senses, she has observed that both meanings appear in the texts, and it is thus advisable to mark that relation in dictionaries.
   • Follow-up of information about 'attributes 'of nouns or of 'qualia' of adjectives included in dictionaries and the need of this information to get pertinent and satisfactory reading inferences. This approach requires to interpret entries in its denominative possibility and in its predicative possibility. The lexicographic description with regard to the latter must have some 'attributes'/'qualia' that allow for their interpretation.
   • Study of the lexicographic treatment of adverbs and adverbial idioms: adverbs that may undergo meaning variations and thus may present several senses, and also adverbs and adverbial idioms that have an effect on the semantic interpretation of their related entries (either reducing or intensifying the word's sense) and that are not fully described in dictionaries.
   • Study of the treatment of phraseological units which may be interpreted literally or figuratively, the latter being the most common use (Battaner).

Meetings among specialists have also been organized within the frame of this project:

1. The III Jornades de Lexicografia, held in Nov 2003, attended by specialist H. Béjoint (Université Lyon II) and by L. F. Lara, director of the Diccionario del Español de México , among other specialists and researchers from Spain and the rest of Europe. Conference proceedings are still to be published.
2. I Symposium Internacional de Lexicografia, held in May 2002, whose papers and articles have been pubished in Edicions de l'IULA, Sèrie Activitats; 15: P. Battaner i J. DeCesaris ( ed. ) De Lexicografia: actes del I Symposium Internacional de Lexicografia, Barcelona, 16-18 de maig de 2002. Barcelona: Institut Universitari de Lingüística Aplicada, DOCUMENTA UNIVERSITARIA, 2004.