Lakunarne jednostki wielowyrazowe w perspektywie międzyjęzykowej

Abstract

Monografia jest poświęcona przejawom lakunarności we frazeologii. Zjawisko to polega na występowaniu jednostek, które nie mają obcojęzycznych ekwiwalentów. Materiał badawczy pochodzi z trzech języków: polskiego, angielskiego i włoskiego. Po przedstawieniu lakunarności w ujęciu definicyjno-klasyfikacyjnym uwagę skupiono na analizie kontrastywnej frazeologizmów bezekwiwalentnych opisujących wiek człowieka. Podjęto również zagadnienie opisu frazeograficznego jednostek bezekwiwalentnych, które z powodu specyfiki językowej i kulturowego osadzenia wymagają rozbudowanych artykułów hasłowych, wpisujących się w koncepcję leksykografii hybrydowej.

The phenomenon of lacunae, i.e. gaps, is researched by scholars specialising in many disciplines, for example, literary, film or media studies. The notion of lacuna is also used in linguistic studies, in which the analysis of lacunary phenomena can be done at various levels and from many perspectives. So far gaps have been analysed mostly in phonology and lexicology, with much less attention paid to lacunae observed in the collections of multiword units. The use of the terms lacuna, lacunary and lacunarity allows for discussing the phenomenon which can be researched both from a monolingual and multilingual perspective. In the contrastive approach, the word lacunarity is synonymous to the terms non-equivalence or zero equivalence. Moreover, the use of the proposed terms facilitates the analysis of the phenomena at issue from an interdisciplinary perspective. Unlike language products, reproducts, i.e. units not created ad hoc by language users, constitute a very big and important group of word combinations. The aim of the present work is to discuss the phenomenon of lacunarity in the area of multiword expressions. Research studies on multiword expressions have been conducted from various angles. The number of approaches contributes to diversity, which can be beneficial, but which may also cause problems. One of them is related to determining what the object of the analyses should be, which criteria one ought adopt to select the research material composed of so many various units. Moreover, terminological issues need to be discussed further, since nowadays common terms tend to be used by particular scholars in different meanings. To a great extent such differences can be attributed to various traditions in particular linguistic circles, for example, Slavic and Anglo-Saxon. One can observe the tendency to use broad notions, which is related to the existence of the opposition produced – reproduced, such as in English lexical phrases or formulaic language, Polish – wielowyrazowe jednostki języka (multiword language units) and reprodukty (reproducts). Thanks to it, the analysis can encompass various kinds of word combinations – from idioms to winged words – which all belong to phrases characterised by reproducibility. In Part One, the theoretical issues regarding lacunae are presented, with a special focus on gaps among reproducts. The notion of lacunary multiword unit is defined and a typology of such expressions is proposed. Special attention is paid to linguo-cultural aspects, which are very important, due to the fact that many units at issue are culture-bound. The division of gaps into linguistic and referential ones is also discussed. Another issue which is addressed is how gaps among the multiword units are filled in. Part Two is devoted to the contrastive analysis of those lacunae. The comparison of two or more languages enables determining which multiword expressions do not have equivalents in the form of petrified word combinations in the target language, in other words, such research studies result in finding lacunae in the collections of reproducts used in the compared languages. The phenomenon of cross-linguistic equivalents is also discussed: first, the traditional approach is presented and the division into four classes of interlingual correspondences is given. The typology comprises the following kinds of equivalents: absolute/quasi-absolute, partial, parallel, zero. Then zero equivalence is analysed in detail to give an insight into lacunarity of multiword expressions. The research methodology will be presented and its implementation illustrated by the analysis of gaps in the field AGE, based on Polish, English and Italian multiword stock. The units were excerpted from various mono- and bilingual lexicographic works of general and specific character. The inclusion in a dictionary was a criterion of selection, since the units attested in lexicographic works tend to be stablized in language. The most important Polish sources are the following: Uniwersalny słownik języka polskiego (USJP), Wielki słownik frazeologiczny języka polskiego (WSFJP), Wielki słownik frazeologiczny PWN z przysłowiami (WSF), Słownik frazeologiczny współczesnej polszczyzny (SFWP). The English dictionaries which were particularly useful for the excerption are: Macmillan Dictionary of English (MDE), Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms (ODEI), The Penguin Dictionary of English Idioms (PDEI). Among the Italian ones, the main works comprise: Il dizionario della lingua italiana (DLI), Dizionario dei modi di dire (DMD), Capire l’antifona (CA). As for bilingual dictionaries, the major Polish-English and EnglishPolish dictionaries are: Wielki słownik polsko-angielski PWN-OXFORD (WSPA) and Wielki słownik angielsko-polski PWN-OXFORD (WSAP), Słownik frazeologiczny angielsko-polski i polsko-angielski (SFAPPA), while among Polish-Italian and Italian-Polish, the following are important: Uniwersalny słownik polsko-włoski (USPW), Podręczny słownik polsko-włoski (SPW), Wielki słownik włosko-polski (WSWP), Uniwersalny słownik włosko-polski (USWP). Among English-Italian and Italian-English dictionaries the ones which should be mentioned include: 2001 Italian and English Idioms. 2001 Espressioni idiomatiche italiane e inglesi (IEI). The units excerpted from the dictionaries listed above were divided into four subfields: CHILDHOOD, YOUTH, MIDDLE AGE, OLD AGE. Then they were subdivided into expressions naming: the life period, persons, charactertistic features, places, activities, other notions related to a given period. All units were excerpted and analyzed, so that a set of all their meanings could be distinguished. The next step was to provide multiword expressions for the languages in which they exist and propose single-word or multiword equivalents for other phrases. The analysis of Polish, English and Italian multiword expressions excerpted from lexicographic sources allowed for creating a list of all meanings expressed by fixed expressions in at least one of the langauges compared. The meanings are divided into categories, so that a matrix could be made. Then units from all the languages were included in the model and the lack of a unit in a particular language is signalled by the symbol X preceding the word or a descriptive phrase expressing the meaning. The implementation of this method facilitates doing research on the units from a given field. Simultaneously, it shows the correspondences between all the analyzed languages. The novelty of the study consists in proposing the model for the analysis of lacunarity of cross-linguistic equivalents of multiword units. While traditional approaches focus on equivalence, the proposal aims to reverse the analysis: it is the intensity of lacunarity which is the dominant category of the research on the selected units. Three levels of lacunarity are distinguished: zero (multiword equivalents: absolute/quasi-absolute, partial, parallel), partial (occurring in the case of polysemous unit when one meaning is of lacunary character), absolute (zero equivalents). The lexicographic description of lacunary units is discussed in Part Three. The focal issue is the presentation of multiword units in bilingual dictionaries. Attention is paid to their description in such lexicographic sources. From a cross-linguistic perspective, lacunary multiword units cause many problems in bilingual lexicographic description which is conditioned by many factors of both linguistic and cultural character. The analysis of selected lacunary units in contemporary dictionaries serves to create a model of their extended description. The proposed model of an entry contains additional elements, which allows for a more detailed presentation. The inclusion od additional information, especially those on the cultural background of a given unit, contributes to its comprehensive presentation. Such an approach enables the dictionary user to acquire the knowledge on the specifics of the lacunary expressions, which are necessary for proper using and interpreting the units in question.