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One of the most important issues in interpreting the role of phrasemes in discourse concerns identifying phrasemes that are typical of discourse and those that indicate discourse. This paper attempts to identify discourse-relevant idiomatic phrasemes (idioms) based on a large corpus of press texts from Süddeutsche Zeitung on the Covid-19-discourse. For this purpose, a deductive method is applied. The corpus is analysed for the keywords, -terms, and Ngrams to identify the main discourse strands. The thematic domains were determined according to the discourse strands, based on which, idioms that could potentially occur in the analysed discourse were defined onomasiologically and extracted from the phraseological dictionary. Subsequently, the extracted units were searched for in the corpus. In the final step, the relative frequency of the idioms in the studied discourse was compared with their relative frequency in reference corpora. The chapters on the methodology and results of the study are preceded by theoretical reflections on discourse, phraseology, and attempts to combine the assumptions of these two disciplines. The study reveals that the methodology used allows for the identification of phrases that are typical of a particular discourse. First, some of the phraseological units studied actually occurred in the discourse. Second, most of the idioms with the highest frequency in the studied discourse occurred more frequently in the Covid-19-corpus than in the reference corpora. However, the method has some limitations in terms of the time required and the number of results obtained. The qualitative analysis of the idiom with the highest increase in frequency shows that it is indeed used because of the main topic of the discourse, and thus can be considered both typical and as an indicator of this discourse.

In the BBC Radio Four panel game Just a Minute (JaM), players must speak fluently for one minute without hesitation, deviation, or repetition. Other players challenge them and take over the remainder of the minute if successful. What impact do the JaM rules have on players’ spoken output? Study 1 compares twelve unchallenged JaM minutes with twelve sample minutes from an interview by the same speaker, Paul Merton. Although lower, his repetition rate in JaM is still >34%. Study 2 asks why so many repeated words go unchallenged. Analysis of 97 JaM rounds (18,500 words) from 12 complete episodes reveals that word class, word frequency, and the distance between mentions all play a role. The parameters of challenges in the game are modeled and there is consideration of why and how repetition occurs in a language and how the wider priorities of JaM as entertainment shape the linguistic patterns.

The present study explores partially filled idioms that go beyond the limits of the Spanish phraseological tradition, in that it focuses on semi-schematic patterns that had been relegated to the periphery and does not restrict itself to the pairing phraseological expression and lexicalized form. With a corpus comprising 592 instances extracted from the esTenTen18 corpus (Sketch Engine), the objective in the study of the constructional idioms [ a PRON como si X] and [ por PRON como si X] is twofold. First, to shed light on the “pragmatic point” (Kay and Fillmore 1999) of these discontinuous patterns by describing their rejection illocutionary force, their colloquial dialogic context, and their intensifying speech act; and second, to delve into the lexical variability of the constructions under study in the intersection of creativity and extravagance.

In contrast to the case of metaphorical and metonymical idioms, there is no research specifically concerned with Spanish hyperbolic idioms. This article shows that it is possible to apply different definitions and characterizations of hyperbole to idioms that should be considered hyperbolic. The analysis is based on idiomaticity and is supported by the distinction between the literal and idiomatic meanings of these fixed expressions. In the conclusions, seven criteria are established to identify hyperbolic idioms, and the types are differentiated according to: 1) the conceptual mechanisms of metaphor and metonymy that explain their formation, 2) the form and meaning of their constituent parts, and 3) the semantic fields in which they are included. Finally, we point out the need to continue analyzing these types of idioms from both a theoretical and an applied perspective, in the latter case with a possible view to marking them as hyperbolic in dictionaries.

The project establishing the Croatian paremiological minimum and optimum began in 2014 during which valuable data was collected from 1,585 informants, who completed two sets of field questionnaires – the first and the second final text presentation of the proverbs occurring most frequently in the three biggest Croatian corpora (see Aleksa Varga and Keglević 2020a). The questionnaires were analyzed using the model analysis developed by Chlosta and Grzybek (see Chlosta and Grzybek 2005, 2015 and Grzybek 2012), based on a 4-code system. Since part of the analysis of both studies regarding the zero variant and the familiarity of Croatian proverbs have already been published (see Aleksa Varga and Keglević 2020b), the scope of this paper lies in analyzing the variations of the first, second, or third degree. As one of the goals of the research, apart from establishing the Croatian paremiological minimum and/or optimum, is also the construction of an electronic Croatian paremiological thesaurus, it is of utmost importance to analyze the proverb variations from the field questionnaires for inclusion in the database as well; i.e., to determine if they appear frequently enough alongside or instead of the proposed zero variant. Therefore, the present paper analyzes the Croatian proverb variants of the first, second, and third degree from the quantitative, qualitative, and corpus linguistic point of view, providing suggestions on further steps in constructing the Croatian proverbial thesaurus.

Some adjectives in the German language can only be used in connection with a copula verb (e. g., ansichtig werden and eingedenk sein/bleiben ). Other adjectives can have different meanings, among which a particular meaning restricted to predicative use (i. a. bar sein ). Since these constructions consist of an adjective and a fixed verb component, they can be classified as phrasemes or even as verb phrasemes. Verb phrasemes and one-word lexemes can demand a certain number of complements with a particular form and syntactic function and a certain meaning. The choice of the valency characteristics of phrasemes with a predicative adjective as the subject of this article is explained by the fact they have not yet been systematically analyzed concerning the diachronic perspective. The research approach and method examine each phraseme in its valency occurrences, documenting these by examples found in historical and modern dictionaries as well as in corpora of different kinds from Old High German to Modern German. The valency occurrences consist of a combination of complements, which are recorded as so-called complete valency. Both the quantitative and qualitative variation of complements are contained in the complete valency and can therefore be called polyvalency. Quantitative polyvalency refers to the number of complements while qualitative polyvalency refers to the type of complements. Each combination of complements found in the research material is illustrated with an example. Finally, the quantitative and qualitative valency developments are summarized in a short commentary.