PHRASEOLOGY AND PRAGMATICS

Abstract

The article has as its starting point the observation that the semantic-pragmatic presentation of phraseology in general and specialized dictionaries still tends to be inadequate. It tackles the question of how the complex semantics and pragmatics of phraseological units should be lexicographically represented, so that both the theoretical and practical lexicographical aspects as well as the user-oriented needs are appropriately considered. In particular, it addresses selected aspects of the pragmatics of phraseological units (figurativity, expressivity, contextuality, speech act potential, speaker attitude, text-type and media specificity) to exemplify which are the requirements for (contrastive) phraseology, applied lexicography, language didactics and translational practice. The article’s primary goal is to encourage and facilitate detailed systematic, corpus-empirical, analytical and contrastive explorations of the pragmatic aspects of phraseology. At the same time, it touches upon the problems that the rich pragmatic potential of phraseology poses for both theoretical phraseology and the practical application of its findings.