«A Baptism of Fire»: Towards a Practical Hybrid Approach for the Lexicographic Indexation of Phraseological Units with Religious Lexical Components in English and Spanish

Abstract

Traditionally, researchers have had a particular interest in the study of the relationship between phraseology and lexicography [e.g., Alonso Ramos (2006); Mellado Blanco (2008); Buendía Castro and Faber (2015); Paquot (2015); Nuccorini (2020)] to the point of having labeled it a «scientific marriage» (Leroyer 2006). In addition, scholars have been increasingly interested in the semantic analysis of phraseological units (henceforth PUs) [e.g., Grčić Simeunović and de Santiago (2016) and Torijano and Recio (2019)]. Among the problems that these and several other studies have pointed out, there is the recurrent reference to inaccuracy and difficulty in indexing PUs in lexicographic resources. Although some scholars consider onomasiological approaches as an interesting starting point [e.g., Bosque (2017) and Siepmann (2008)], a systematic methodology in phraseology that includes both the semantical analysis of the entries and their indexation is still needed.
 We intend to address that need here through the analysis of 242 idioms (199 in Spanish and 43 in English) extracted from a 21,045-idiom database that was compiled from two phraseological dictionaries: the Diccionario fraseológico documentado del español actual (henceforth DFDEA) (Seco, Andrés et al., 2004), and the Collins COBUILD Dictionary of Idioms (henceforth CCDOI) (Sinclair and Moon 1997). The criteria employed to select the resulting analysis units were: (i) they had to include at least one lexical component related to religion, and (ii) the idiom had to be nominal or verbal. The religious component was identified semi-automatically by using the UCREL’s Semantic Analysis System (USAS) (Archer et al., 2002).
 The contributions of this paper are as follows: (i) it presents a lexicographic analysis of the macrostructure and microstructure of the two phraseological resources previously mentioned, (ii) it offers a model of semantic analysis for PUs with religion-related components, (iii) it proposes an alternative indexation method of PUs in lexicographic resources involving semasiological and onomasiological approaches; and finally, (iv) it shows a systematic way to use semantic and pragmatic information in order to create semantic entries for PUs.
 In conclusion, by closely examining said set of phraseological entries, this study sheds light on the semantic composition of Pus. It also suggests a systematic hybrid approach for their lexicographic indexation in English and Spanish.