Phrasemes as prototypical linguistic micro-representations of the world: the role of values in the propagation of Winged Words

Abstract

Phrasemes such as winged words, quotations, dicta etc. establish an intertextual connection, i.e. they originate in pre-existing texts which can refer to further texts or extralinguistic phenomena. Such phrasemes typically align with the cultural and conceptual core values of the linguistic communities and social peers they are coined in, which makes them linguistic micro-representations, and to propagate successfully as many recipients as possible must align with the conveyed ideas and use the phrasemes themselves. So far, it has not been investigated upon what impact values might have or not have on the propagation of winged words. To fill this gap, the role of values in the context of perception, cognition, and language is examined from an interdisciplinary perspective. After that, this article analyses the variability of literary winged words to be or not to be, that is the question, ger. das (also) war des Pudels Kern, it. nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita and the biblical quotation an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth in Sketch Engine corpora enTenTen21, deTenTen20 and itTenTen20 from an onomasiological perspective, focusing on differences between canonical form and modifications and on the coherence of the corresponding value structures.