Phraseologie im Wörterbuch

Abstract

Abstract The overarching aim of the present paper is to formulate the central phraseographicparameters that can enable researchers to analyze and measurethe efficiency of every dictionary containing phrasemes of all possibletypes. This paper considers the various ways in which phraseology is represented.Although issues of this kind have been a matter of discussion for acouple of decades, most crucial problems remain unsolved. Rather thandelivering an overview of the relevant works or a critical analysis of existingphraseological dictionaries, the present paper concentrates on somegeneral questions of phraseography. Of special interest are the ways inwhich phrasemes are presented in so-called active dictionaries, i. e., dictionariesthat aim at speech production. The discussion focuses on innovativetechniques for explaining meaning. First, rather than just pointing to anear-synonymous word, descriptions of idiom semantics must take into accountall relevant distinctive features. Second, definitions need to includethe image component of idiom semantics. This task relates to the nature ofidiom motivation. The image component is central to the mental representationas well as to the grammatical and discursive behavior of idioms.Moreover, the lexicographic relevance of this part of the meaning explanationis based on the fact that it can potentially evoke and convey culturespecificchunks of knowledge. To meet these two conditions, lexicographershave to analyze authentic contexts using large text corpora. In other words,the lexicographic definition of idiom semantics has to be substantiatedthrough detailed analyses of the usage of a given phraseme. Besides purelysemantic issues, questions arise as to how dictionaries should present boththe pragmatic and stylistic aspects and the combinatorial behavior ofidioms. As for bilingual idiom dictionaries, the crucial idea is that fullequivalence between seemingly congruent idioms from different languages hardly exists. Although certain idioms may reflect close formal and semanticcorrespondences, in most of the cases their actual use shows subtle differences.A specific focus is put on aspects of variation. This section develops asystematic typology for the forms of idiom variation. It can be consideredthe general foundation for both theoretical discussions and practical, lexicographicallyoriented analyses. Objects of attention include habitualizedword play, i. e., generally known and frequently used modifications of theidiom structure based on puns. This phenomenon has not been satisfactorilyclassified in traditional approaches to phraseology. However, it is importantfrom the lexicographical point of view as well because this kind of idiomvariation reveals the inherent creativity that characterizes many idioms.