A construction-based study of German ditransitive phraseologisms for language pedagogy
(2016) Applied Construction Grammar — ISBN: [978-3-11-045421-5], 53-88, published
Files
CALP_Publication01_DeKnopMollica_1stVersion_150614.docx
Open Access - Microsoft Word XML
- 141.06 KB
Details
- Authors
- Abstract
- Earlier studies in phraseology described phraseologisms as idiosyncratic, idiomatic expressions with a meaning non-predictable from their constituent parts (Chafe 1968; Fraser 1970; Weinreich 1969). Such a definition is unsatisfactory, especially in language pedagogy, as it implies that phraseologisms have to be learnt by heart. In our paper we advocate a construction-based approach enriched by valency aspects for a more adequate description of phraseologisms, and more specifically of German ditransitive phraseologisms, e.g. (1) Max hat Luisa einen Korb gegeben (Lit. ‘Max has given Luisa a basket’ = ‘Max has turned Luisa down’) or (2) Petra zeigt ihrem Bruder die Krallen (Lit. ‘Petra shows her brother the claws’). Our study shows that German ditransitive phraseologisms have the same pattern as non-phraseological ditransitive constructions (Cx), but with some additional figurative aspects. This similarity can be exploited for an efficient teaching methodology. We will first describe prototypical ditransitive constructions in the framework of Goldberg’s Construction Grammar (1995 and 2006). Such constructions express the idea of a transfer and are characterized by the “correspondence principle” (Goldberg 1995: 50), which means that there is a fusion between the argument roles specified by the construction and the participant roles required by the verb (Goldberg 1995: 51). German being a strong flectional language we will further illustrate how morpho-syntactic cases contribute to the realization of this fusion. Ditransitive phraseologisms can be classified into 2 types according to the degree of fusion between the construction and the verb valency: (i) either the verb valency matches the prototypical ditransitive construction pattern, e.g. with prototypical ditransitive verbs like geben ‘to give’, zeigen ‘to show’ in example (1) or (2); (ii) or construction pattern and verb valency are different, e.g. in (3) Ich huste dir was (Lit. ‘I cough you smtg’, which means ‘You can wait a long time, but I won’t do it’), in which the dative object is not foreseen in the verb valency. Inspired by tests conducted by Bencini/Goldberg (2000), but also by Valenzuela/Rojo (2008) and by Konopka/Bock (2009) we will present some further tests based on sorting tasks with Italian- and French-speaking learners of German. The tests make it possible to recognize that learners sort ditransitive phraseologisms in the same way as prototypical ditransitive constructional argument structures and not so much according to the verb or their idiomatic meaning. This link can be exploited for the development of an adequate teaching methodology, based among others on the principle of “structural persistence” (Konopka/Bock 2009: 71), according to which it is possible to describe the productivity and predictability of ditransitive phraseologisms in terms of a generalization of the structures even if the single words are different in specific structures. Productive ditransitive phraseologisms have the same prototypical ditransitive pattern (esp. with verbs with a ditransitive valency, e.g. geben (‘to give’)/zeigen (‘to show’)/versprechen (‘to show’), and so on. To make a difference between the phraseological and non-figurative ditransitive constructions, the concepts of metaphor and metonymy are further needed. More problematic for the learning of ditransitive phraseologisms are such constructions where there is no fusion between the constructional argument structure and the verb valency. In such cases another methodology, in which the construction pattern prevails has to be adopted. From the results of the tests we can conclude that a construction-based teaching methodology which integrates the study of non-compositional phraseologisms within the larger frame of compositional and non-compositional schematic constructions should be enriched by valency properties typical of the German verbs (Stefanowitsch 2011 and Herbst 2011) and by the recognition of associations gro
- Affiliations
Citations
De Knop, S., & Mollica, F. (2016). A construction-based study of German ditransitive phraseologisms for language pedagogy. In Sabine De Knop & Gaëtanelle Gilquin (ed.), Applied Construction Grammar (pp. 53-88). de Gruyter. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/230538