A construction-based analysis of German ditransitive phraseologisms for language pedagogy

Earlier studies in phraseology described phraseologisms as idiosyncratic, idiomatic expressions with a meaning non-predictable from their constituent parts (Chafe 1968; Fraser 1970; Weinreich 1969). Such a definition is unsatisfactory, especially in language pedagogy, as it implies that phraseologisms have to be learnt by heart. In our paper we advocate a construction-based approach enriched by valency aspects for a more adequate description of phraseologisms, and more specifically of German ditransitive phraseologisms, e.g. Petra zeigt ihrem Bruder die Krallen (lit. ‘Petra shows her brother the claws’ = ‘Petra threatens her brother’). Our study shows that German ditransitive phraseologisms have the same abstract semantic and syntactic pattern as on-phraseological ditransitive constructions, but with some additional figurative aspects. Inspired by tests conducted by Bencini and Goldberg (2000), but also Baicchi (2013),Della Costanza and Mollica (2015), and Valenzuela Manzanares and Rojo López (2008) we present some further tests based on sorting tasks with Italian- and French-speaking learners of German. The tests reveal that learners sort ditransitive phraseologisms in the same way as prototypical ditransitive constructional argument structures and not so much according to the verb or their idiomatic meaning. This link can be exploited for the development of an adequate teaching methodology, based among others on the principle of “structural persistence” as defined by Konopka and Bock (2009). This principle describes the productivity and predictability of ditransitive phraseologisms in terms of a generalization of syntactic structures even with a variation of lexemes constituting these structures. From the results of the tests we can conclude that a construction-based teaching methodology which integrates the study of ditransitive phraseologisms within the larger frame of literal and idiomatic abstract constructions should be enriched by valency properties typical of the German verbs (Herbst 2011; Stefanowitsch 2011) and by the recognition of associations grounded in metaphor and/or metonymy.