This study presents a comparative analysis of the semantic evolution of the noun punta and its verbal derivatives in both Catalan and Spanish: apuntar (Cat. / Sp.), despuntar (Cat. / Sp.), espuntar (Cat.), traspuntar (Cat. / Sp.), puntejar (Cat.) and puntear (Sp.). The Generative Lexicon framework (Pustejovsky 1995) is adopted, which allows examining the processes that intervene in the emergence of words’ new senses from a sub-lexical and compositional standpoint. It is demonstrated that the semantic changes and extensions undergone by punta and its verbal derivatives throughout the history can be accounted for by means of a series of generative devices that operate when these terms are used in context.
