The Spanish verb dar is a lexical item particularly rich in nuances of meaning. Some of its senses have been studied under the « semantic bleaching » hypothesis consequent upon the « grammaticalization » of the verb. This process would reveal mainly in the discourse marker dale and in the use of dar as a « support verb » in nominal predicates like dar un golpe, dar un paseo, dar una mano de pintura, etc. According to the theoretical framework for this research, which accounts for the distinction between language and discourse as well as the unicity of the linguistic sign, an existential notion underlies every discourse realization of this verb. The notion conveyed by the signified of dar is that an entity B gains access to existence in the sphere of an entity C as a result of the action of an entity A. Hence, this existential meaning appears in every use of a lexeme whose semantic content is never affected.
