CA22115 - A Multilingual Repository of Phraseme Constructions in Central and Eastern European Languages (PhraConRep)

To communicate, language users must not only respect the grammatical rules of a given language; they must also have knowledge about which words typically belong together. This means that they must know how to combine words and grammatical forms to create specific meanings in specific contexts. When learning a new language, the focus is usually on the teaching of grammatical rules and vocabulary. Verbal routines and other kinds of patterned speech, such as idioms or proverbs, have also become a natural part of modern foreign language teaching. The PhraConRep Action targets a class of idiomatic word combinations that have been much less of a focus not only in teaching, but also in research. The patterns in question will be referred to as Phraseme Constructions (PhraCons) and are defined as patterns of idiomatic word combinations consisting of fixed lexical elements (“anchors”) and empty slots for fillers. Both lexical anchors and lexical fillers must meet certain criteria specific to the given PhraCon.

PhraConRep coordinates contrastive empirical research on PhraCons and establishes a platform for conducting joint research on the classification, description, storage, translation and teaching of PhraCons of Middle and Eastern European languages. Its main objective is to provide a multilingual repository of PhraCons. On the basis of two pivot languages, German and Russian, equivalents of PhraCons are established in at least nine Slavic languages and Hungarian. The repository will be a unique tool for language learners, teachers, and other stakeholders, such as professional translators, involved in the study of these languages.