I claim that it is the variability of collocations rather than their restrictedness that makes it a challenge for foreign learners to acquire them and for researchers to categorize them (1.1.) and argue that a usage-based approach drawing on notions from functional and cognitive linguistics makes it possible to account for collocations as a dynamic and flexible language resource. The functional and cognitive framework that I propose for the categorization of collocations is one of several lines of investigation within Usage-based linguistics, an approach evolving since the 1980s as a challenge to the top-down approach of structuralist and generative linguists who study the language system separately from language use (Langacker [2000: 91-93], Herbst, Schmid & Faulhaber [2014], Diessel [2017: 1]). I use corpus data in a qualitative approach based on the theory and methodology developed in Poulsen [2022]. Frequency, which is a complex phenomenon (Geeraerts [2017: 158]), is part of the description of the data while function is considered more important for analysis. In the introduction to the first part of this paper, I give a brief example of the usage-based framework that I intend to introduce before giving an overview of previous approaches that include insights converging on a usage-based approach. In the second part, an alternative functional and cognitive approach is outlined, which is subsequently tested, in the third part, by means of an exemplary study of the noun joke. Using examples from the study of joke, I argue that verbs in conventional and entrenched collocations make up a functional domain and can be construed as a lexicogrammatical prototype category of support verbs.

Multi-word expressions can be defined as combinations of words with a certain degree of idiomaticity. These expressions can become “defixed,” meaning they undergo formal and semantic changes, such as “V for Vendetta” (James McTeigue, 2005) becoming “V pour Vend des tartes” (“V for we sell pies”, the name of a bakery in the town of Berfray, France). In this article, we study the phenomenon of defixation through the concept of “snowclones,” generally defined as partially fixed phrase patterns (such as “X is the new Y”) derived from or alluding to an expression. We seek (i) to determine whether, as the literature on them suggests, snowclones invariably manifest themselves in a single, sTable configuration and (ii) to demonstrate that snowclones should not be considered specific phraseological units, but rather situated within a broader descriptive framework, among other types of defixed expressions.

This study highlights the linguistic specificities of loanwords and uses a theoretical model based on the assumption that the English lexicon is composed of different subsystems. Loanwords have specific phonological, letter-to-sound, semantic, morphological, segmental and syntactic properties that distinguish them from the items of the other subsystems. The first part of the study lists these properties and illustrates them with examples taken from dictionary data (Wells [2008]). The formation of the loanword subsystem is thus a product of the dynamic interaction between different linguistic systems (Dabouis & P. Fournier [2022]). The emergence of this subsystem reveals that the theoretical framework for loanwords is rooted in the principles of interaction, categorisation and gradience. The second part of the study proposes a conceptual and dynamic representation of the subsystem, mainly grounded in cognitive linguistic theory (Culioli [1990]; [1999a]; [1999b]; Lakoff [1987]; Taylor [1998]). The category of loanwords is represented by a set whose centre concentrates the prototypical and defining parameters of the category, and from which items that fall within this class are identified. A loanword is more or less close to the prototypical form according to the number of parameters it activates. The notions of gradience and boundary are essential in the conceptualisation of the system, because they contribute to defining the concept of loanword as a category based on a continuum. Less-prototypical elements of the subsystem are defined by a lower concentration of defining characteristics and may even shift to other subsystems. The theoretical model proposed in this study is grounded in the principles of prototypicity, gradience, and boundary and provides a dynamic representation of the loanword category, while also addressing the limitations of linguistic categorisation.

Ce numéro thématique de Lexis 26, co-dirigé par Vincent Hugou (Sorbonne Université) et Mathilde Pinson (Sorbonne Nouvelle), explore le figement, non pas comme une propriété statique des expressions idiomatiques, mais comme un phénomène graduel fondé sur l’usage, observable à travers des constructions, des schémas syntaxiques, des routines interactionnelles et des schémas collocationnels. Chacune des cinq contributions illustre un niveau distinct, mais complémentaire du figement. Ensemble, el...

El artículo tiene como objetivo analizar las metáforas pertenecientes al dominio animal identificadas en la novela Ricardo Nixon School (Geisse 2016). El marco teórico está constituido por la teoría de la metáfora conceptual y su relación con los estudios literarios. Se aplicó un procedimiento de análisis que consta de las siguientes etapas: etiquetado, agrupación de términos metafóricos en dominios fuente, vinculación de dominio fuente a dominio meta, foco de la metáfora. Se analizan las metáforas LOS/AS ESTUDIANTES SON ANIMALES, EL PROFESOR ES UN ANIMAL, LAS MUJERES SON ANIMALES. El análisis contribuye a obtener una comprensión de cómo, mediante la metáfora conceptual, se construye la degradación del protagonista en el transcurso de su experiencia de vida y profesional.

The article is dedicated to the study of the functions of fear in Seneca’s Oedipus . The analysis of the emotional theme is firmly intertwined with that of the communication of evil. The search for truth, in fact, develops along a path of communication of the unspeakable, in which fear plays a decisive role. The main aim of the work is to show how this adfectus , which operates according to mechanisms in line with the Stoic theory of passions, assumes, during the process that leads to the emergence of truth, a function of a heuristic kind. A fundamental tool of this study is the analysis of the phenomenology of passions, which signals the main stages of emotional development.

This paper studies the tragedy Idomeneo by S. Riva, performed in Udine and published in Bologna in 1758, one of the few versions of the Idomeneo myth with a happy ending prior to the opera Idomeneo by Varesco and Mozart, which has been overlooked until now. The characteristics of this school drama and its treatment of the myth are analysed in relation to the previous versions by Fénelon, Crébillon and Danchet. When compared with the opera by Varesco and Mozart, some similarities can be observed along with notable differences and therefore it cannot be definitely determined whether the authors of the famous opera could have known Riva’s piece, although some external indications allow us to contemplate such a possibility.

Este trabajo examina el retrato que elaboró Flora Tristán de una mujer caudilla que a inicios de la República peruana alcanzó notoriedad por su ejercicio abierto de poder político. Sostiene que los discursos feministas que eclosionaron en las revoluciones de 1789, 1830 y 1848 en Francia, en particular el sansimonismo, y el debate de género patriótico en el Perú constituyen los hilos más visibles del complejo entramado narrativo de su libro de viajes. Al entrar el sujeto literario en contacto con un escenario peruano poblado de personajes femeninos históricos ajenos a los imaginarios franceses, su lugar de enunciación se desestabiliza y potencia su fuerza visionaria. En el proceso de construir a Zubiaga como figura pública, Tristán descubre un espacio narrativo de negociación identitaria frente a mandatos de género en relación de intenso antagonismo, lo que le permitirá su reinvención como líder de una nueva política emancipatoria de clase y género.

The article argues that an intentional acrostic in Prop. 4.3.16-9 contributes significantly to the poignancy and purpose of the elegy. In fact, stylistic elements and literary intentions confirm the intentionality of the wordplay, also allowing the reader to reflect on the use of such features made by the author.

Inscrit dans la foisonnante collection des éditions Points « Le goût des mots », dirigée par Philippe Delerm, qui signe ici la quatrième de couverture, ce volume de format poche en suit les préceptes fondateurs : réfléchir sur la langue en s’en amusant, piquer la curiosité des lecteurs et lectrices tout en contribuant à leur érudition. Son titre à double sens, La clé anglaise, clin d’œil de l’auteur, évoque fort à propos la boîte à outils dans laquelle il pourrait s’insérer, tout en rappelan...