Abstract
Phraseological Units (PUs) in a language often include quotations and the so-called authorial “winged words” (“geflügelte Worte” in Gläser 1986), which have a single known author. These units, by gaining popularity among the members of a community of speakers, take on a life of their own as PUs. This study illustrates how these quotations acquire meanings and uses that do not match those of the original formulation they derive from, which, in turn, sheds light on how linguistic expressions at large reach conventionalization through language change. Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) ranks high among the authors who have contributed most to the English Phrasicon. This study investigates two case studies where quotations by Shaw have made their way into the English language as PUs. These quotations, however, are often used, as we shall see, in a way that differs from the sense they had in their original context. This study analyses how some novel PUs are coined and can help us map the processes of semantic adaptation these PUs undergo as they become conventional. It also provides insights into what constitutes a PU and how their defining characteristics apply in these cases.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Editorial (English)
- Editorial (Deutsch)
- Articles
- Übersetzungsorientierte Didaktisierung juristischer Phraseologie
- Los fraseologismos en el aula de prácticas de traducción: estudio de caso sobre el impacto de los traductores automáticos
- Proposal of a catalogue of criteria for the identification and classification of metaphorical collocations
- Metaphorical Idioms in Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory
- Das also war des Pudels Kern oder: „Geflügelte Worte“ als Phrasemklasse? – Problemfelder und begriffliche Präzisierung
- Phraseological Quotations: Two Shavian Case Studies
- Book Reviews
- Book reviews
- Book reviews
- Book reviews
- Book reviews
- Book reviews
- Book reviews
- Obituary
- Obituario para María Luisa Ortiz Álvarez (Cuba 1954 – Brasil 2024)
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Editorial (English)
- Editorial (Deutsch)
- Articles
- Übersetzungsorientierte Didaktisierung juristischer Phraseologie
- Los fraseologismos en el aula de prácticas de traducción: estudio de caso sobre el impacto de los traductores automáticos
- Proposal of a catalogue of criteria for the identification and classification of metaphorical collocations
- Metaphorical Idioms in Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory
- Das also war des Pudels Kern oder: „Geflügelte Worte“ als Phrasemklasse? – Problemfelder und begriffliche Präzisierung
- Phraseological Quotations: Two Shavian Case Studies
- Book Reviews
- Book reviews
- Book reviews
- Book reviews
- Book reviews
- Book reviews
- Book reviews
- Obituary
- Obituario para María Luisa Ortiz Álvarez (Cuba 1954 – Brasil 2024)