engleski

Idiom modifications in dictionaries: Creativity meets systematicity

This paper deals with the lexicographic treatment of modifications, i.e. deliberate manipulations of an idiom’s lexis and/or structure for communicative purposes. The aim is to show that idioms dictionaries of Slavic languages should include information on modifications as they reveal usage patterns and display some regularity. For example, Croatian speakers frequently exploit the idiom napraviti od muhe slona (lit. make an elephant out of a fly ‘make a slight difficulty seem like a serious problem’) by using other words instead of slon ‘elephant’, e.g. napraviti od muhe vola/devu/avion (lit. make an ox/camel/plane out of a fly). Idioms dictionaries of various European languages list conventionalized variations, but they differ in their treatment of modifications. Some dictionaries of English idioms include modifications and provide explanations of how speakers typically manipulate a given idiom, while idioms dictionaries of Slavic languages do not contain information on creative use. One possible reason is that modifications are considered to be manifestations of an individual’s linguistic creativity (which is shown by terms such as individual transformations, occasional variants etc.). On the other hand, corpus-based studies of idioms (e.g. Langlotz 2006 ; Omazić 2015 ; Parizoska 2019) show that modifications are governed by similar restrictions as conventionalized variations, and they exhibit systematicity. For instance, according to data from the Croatian web corpus hrWaC, the words that speakers use instead of slon ‘elephant’ in napraviti od muhe slona typically denote big animals or objects. Overall, when it comes to listing modifications in dictionaries, entries should show users that idioms are prone to creative use and focus on patterns at the same time.

modifications, idioms dictionaries, usage patterns, corpus, Croatian

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