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8. Phrasal similes in the BNC

  • Kay Wikberg✝
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Phraseology
This chapter is in the book Phraseology

Abstract

This study focuses on similes, a category of phraseological units that has been amply studied in the phraseology literature but suffers froma lack of corpus-based description. The concept of simile is defined and the differences between similes and comparisons, on the one hand, and similes and metaphors, on the other, are described in some detail with reference to the literature. Then four simile patterns are extracted from the British National Corpus: as Adj/Adv as, is like a(n), is like V-ing a(n) and V like a(n). The selection procedure consists in sifting out literal comparisons using the reversibility test and the degree of figurativeness. This process highlights interesting differences between the patterns in terms of frequency, lexicalization and register. The as Adj/Adv as-pattern is the most frequent but the vast majority of the instances represent literal comparisons. The few per cent similes tend to be lexicalized and there is little innovation. By contrast, the is like a(n)-sequences are much less common but regularly figurative and innovative. The V like a(n)-pattern also proves to contain a high proportion of similes, both lexicalized and innovative.

Abstract

This study focuses on similes, a category of phraseological units that has been amply studied in the phraseology literature but suffers froma lack of corpus-based description. The concept of simile is defined and the differences between similes and comparisons, on the one hand, and similes and metaphors, on the other, are described in some detail with reference to the literature. Then four simile patterns are extracted from the British National Corpus: as Adj/Adv as, is like a(n), is like V-ing a(n) and V like a(n). The selection procedure consists in sifting out literal comparisons using the reversibility test and the degree of figurativeness. This process highlights interesting differences between the patterns in terms of frequency, lexicalization and register. The as Adj/Adv as-pattern is the most frequent but the vast majority of the instances represent literal comparisons. The few per cent similes tend to be lexicalized and there is little innovation. By contrast, the is like a(n)-sequences are much less common but regularly figurative and innovative. The V like a(n)-pattern also proves to contain a high proportion of similes, both lexicalized and innovative.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors xi
  4. Acknowledgements xiii
  5. Preface xv
  6. Introduction: The many faces of phraseology xix
  7. Part I. Phraseology: theory, typology and terminology
  8. 1. Phraseology and linguistic theory: A brief survey 3
  9. 2. Disentangling the phraseological web 27
  10. 3. A unified approach to semantic frames and collocational patterns 51
  11. 4. Processing of idioms and idiom modifications: A view from cognitive linguistics 67
  12. 5. A very complex criterion of fixedness: Non-compositionality 81
  13. 6. Reassessing the canon: 'Fixed' phrases in general reference corpora 95
  14. Part II. Corpus-based analyses of phraseological units
  15. 7. Adjective + Noun sequences in attributive or NP-final positions: Observations on lexicalization 111
  16. 8. Phrasal similes in the BNC 127
  17. 9. Foot and Mouth: The phrasal patterns of two frequent nouns 143
  18. 10. The Good Lord and his works: A corpus-driven study of collocational resonance 159
  19. 11. Fixed expressions, extenders and metonymy in the speech of people with Alzheimer's disease 175
  20. Part III. Phraseology across languages and cultures
  21. 12. Cross-linguistic phraseological studies: An overview 191
  22. 13. Figurative phraseology and culture 207
  23. 14. Critical observations on the culture-boundness of phraseology 229
  24. 15. Phraseology in a European framework: A cross-linguistic and cross-cultural research project on widespread idioms 243
  25. 16. Free and bound prepositions in a contrastive perspective. The case of with and avec 259
  26. 17. Contrastive idiom analysis: The case of Japanese and English idioms of anger 275
  27. 18. Automatic extraction of translation equivalents of phrasal and light verbs in English and Russian 293
  28. Part IV. Phraseology in lexicography and natural language processing
  29. 19. Dictionaries and collocation 313
  30. 20. Computational phraseology: An overview 337
  31. 21. A computational lexicography approach to phraseologisms 361
  32. 22. Extracting specialized collocations using lexical functions 377
  33. 23. Combined statistical and grammatical criteria for the retrieval of phraseological units in an electronic corpus 391
  34. Envoi
  35. The phrase, the whole phrase and nothing but the phrase 407
  36. Author index 411
  37. Subject index 417
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.139.14wik

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors xi
  4. Acknowledgements xiii
  5. Preface xv
  6. Introduction: The many faces of phraseology xix
  7. Part I. Phraseology: theory, typology and terminology
  8. 1. Phraseology and linguistic theory: A brief survey 3
  9. 2. Disentangling the phraseological web 27
  10. 3. A unified approach to semantic frames and collocational patterns 51
  11. 4. Processing of idioms and idiom modifications: A view from cognitive linguistics 67
  12. 5. A very complex criterion of fixedness: Non-compositionality 81
  13. 6. Reassessing the canon: 'Fixed' phrases in general reference corpora 95
  14. Part II. Corpus-based analyses of phraseological units
  15. 7. Adjective + Noun sequences in attributive or NP-final positions: Observations on lexicalization 111
  16. 8. Phrasal similes in the BNC 127
  17. 9. Foot and Mouth: The phrasal patterns of two frequent nouns 143
  18. 10. The Good Lord and his works: A corpus-driven study of collocational resonance 159
  19. 11. Fixed expressions, extenders and metonymy in the speech of people with Alzheimer's disease 175
  20. Part III. Phraseology across languages and cultures
  21. 12. Cross-linguistic phraseological studies: An overview 191
  22. 13. Figurative phraseology and culture 207
  23. 14. Critical observations on the culture-boundness of phraseology 229
  24. 15. Phraseology in a European framework: A cross-linguistic and cross-cultural research project on widespread idioms 243
  25. 16. Free and bound prepositions in a contrastive perspective. The case of with and avec 259
  26. 17. Contrastive idiom analysis: The case of Japanese and English idioms of anger 275
  27. 18. Automatic extraction of translation equivalents of phrasal and light verbs in English and Russian 293
  28. Part IV. Phraseology in lexicography and natural language processing
  29. 19. Dictionaries and collocation 313
  30. 20. Computational phraseology: An overview 337
  31. 21. A computational lexicography approach to phraseologisms 361
  32. 22. Extracting specialized collocations using lexical functions 377
  33. 23. Combined statistical and grammatical criteria for the retrieval of phraseological units in an electronic corpus 391
  34. Envoi
  35. The phrase, the whole phrase and nothing but the phrase 407
  36. Author index 411
  37. Subject index 417
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