Corpus linguistics, psycholinguistics and lexicographical approaches∗
10.1515/9783110501933.Abstract
In phraseological research, unique components are words that only occur within phrasemes (e.g. in jmdn. an den Pranger stellen TO PUT SOMEBODY IN THE UC [= unique component] (Pranger PILLORY) ‘to pillory somebody’ and im Handumdrehen IN A UC (Handumdrehen HAND’S TURNING) ‘immediately, in the twinkling of an eye’. Still, observations of actual language use show that seemingly unique components can also be (re-)used outside of phraseological contexts and that they can contribute to the expansion of the lexicon. This paper deals with this free usage of unique components and focuses on corpus analytical, psycholinguistic and lexicographical approaches. It addresses questions about how the free usage of unique components can be ascertained with the help of corpus linguistics, how this usage can be explained from a psycholinguistic perspective and to what extent freely used unique components are recorded in German dictionaries.
