The international Conference Formulaic Language and Construction Grammar: Applications in Translation, Lexicography, and Foreign Language Teaching is organized in the framework of the research project COST-Action 22115 A Multilingual Repository of Phraseme Constructions in Central and Eastern European Languages (PhraConRep) (www.cost.eu/actions/CA22115/; www.phraconrep.com/). 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. 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. Based on two pivot languages, German and Russian, equivalents of PhraCons are established in eleven Slavic languages, Albanian, Hungarian and Turkish. 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.
Against the backdrop of the objectives of the 22115 PhraConRep project, the international conference Formulaic Language and Construction Grammar: Applications in Translation, Lexicography, and Foreign Language Teaching aims to create a space for dialogue and scientific exchange on formulaic language in general, and in particular on “phraseme constructions” or “constructional idioms” in European languages.
According to the definition proposed by Dobrovol’skij (2011: 114), these are model-like form–meaning pairings in which some constituents are lexically fixed, while other components occur as free slots that are only instantiated in discourse. Although the specific meaning of the individual instantiations of constructions may vary from context to context, a constant, more or less abstract meaning can be identified for each PhraCon (Ivorra Ordines in press). This meaning may occur (1) as a pragmatic function of intensification, as in (a); (2) as a denotative semantic feature, as in (b), namely ‘cumulative succession’; (3) as a discourse function, as in (c), namely ‘relativization of the prior discourse’; and/or as an illocutionary function, as in (d), namely an expressive act of ‘astonishment’ (cf. Schafroth 2015; Mellado Blanco, Mollica & Schafroth 2022; Mellado Blanco, Ivorra Ordines & Esteban-Fonollosa 2024; Schlund & Pavlova 2024):
- (a) German: [EINNom N1 von EINDativ N2]: ein Baum von einem Kerl ‘a really tall and strong guy’
- (a) Russian: [от Xsing_gen до Xsing_ge]:От города до города ‘from town to town’
- (b) German: [Was heißt schon X?]: – Den mögen Sie nicht, oder? – Was heißt schon mögen? ‘You don’t like him, do you? – What does ‘like’ even mean’
- (b) [What’s X doing Y?]: What’s this fly doing in my soup?
This type of construction was already present in the late 80s under the name of “formal idioms” (Fillmore, Kay & O’Connor 1988), in contrast to the notion of “substantive idioms”. Despite their role as a starting point for Construction Grammar 35 years ago, these structures have largely been ignored until these past years (see FRASESPAL in this respect; www.frasespal.com/). Recently, however, the intersection of Phraseology and Construction Grammar has revitalized interest in these patterns. This shift is evident in the growing body of work – primarily in Germanic and increasingly in Romance languages and, under somewhat different premises, in Russian – focusing on partially filled structures that convey a specific, global pragmatic meaning. Other similar terms include “lexically open idioms” (Fillmore, Kay & O’Connor 1988), “constructional idioms” (Langacker 1987; Taylor 2016), “schematic idioms” (Croft & Cruse 2004), and “idiomatic construction patterns” (Finkbeiner 2008: 218).
One of the most interesting research areas at the interface between phraseology and Construction Grammar concerns the modification of idioms, routine formulae, slogans, and proverbs, which can lead to pattern formation. In principle, variation may involve the expansion of semi-open paradigms, as is the case with synonymous variants [e.g., German eins auf den Kopf/den Deckel/den Hut/die Nuss/… bekommen/kriegen]; the substitution of lexemes in lexicalized idioms and paremias, e.g. [vini, vidi und X] (cf. Stutz & Finkbeiner 2022), [a man is known by + clause] (Ivorra Ordines 2025); or the variable slot filling of phraseme constructions, as in [V1 und V1 (und V1) (nicht)] (cf. Mellado Blanco 2020). The boundary between these three pattern types is not always clear (Stumpf 2025; Pavlova & Mellado Blanco under review). Particularly problematic is the distinction between modified phraseological units (such as idioms, routine formulae, proverbs, and slogans) and pattern formation through lexical substitution (see Pfeiffer 2017; Stutz & Finkbeiner 2022). Corpus-based studies and statistical calculations can contribute to resolving this issue (Stumpf 2015). From a construction-grammatical perspective, the relationship between the original instantiation and the extended instantiations that lead to pattern formation is also of interest, as well as the relations between PhraCons and other related constructions within the linguistic system (De Knop & Mollica 2018; Hartmann & Ungerer 2024).
The limited attention given to phraseological templates (within phraseology) and to PhraCons (within constructional research) can be attributed to their special status between lexicon and grammar: due to their partial lexical specification, they cannot be treated lexicographically as lexical units, and due to their lexical, semantic, and categorical restrictions, they are not considered grammatical entities, that is, objects of (morpho-)syntactic analysis (Lyngfelt 2018). They are therefore characterized simultaneously by grammatical and lexical properties, which further complicates their lexicographic representation and description.
The usefulness of Construction Grammar for the description of phenomena of formulaic language has so far been particularly evident in German, Spanish, Russian, the English-speaking research traditions. Nevertheless, the Construction Grammar model has so far found little resonance in the contrastive linguistics of these languages – apart from a few exceptions in extensive studies and edited volumes (cf., among others, Boas 2010; Boas & Gonzálvez-García 2014; De Knop, Mollica & Kuhn 2014; Mellado Blanco, Mollica & Schafroth 2022; Ivorra Ordines in press; Mellado Blanco & Ivorra Ordines forth.) In this context, our conference aims to contribute to strengthening the relationship between formulaic research and Construction Grammar and to provide new impetus for the investigation of PhraCons from both intra- and interlingual perspectives.
The following topics, in the form of talks, panels, and posters, are welcome at the conference:
Conference Topics
- PhraCons in historical and typological linguistics
- Empirical approaches to PhraCons
- The pragmatics of PhraCons
- The meaning potential of PhraCons
- Cognitive approaches to PhraCons
- PhraCons in human and AI translation
- The role of PhraCons in foreign language teaching, learning and assessment
- PhraCons in foreign language teaching materials
- Building the multilingual repository of PhraCons
- PhraCons in digital tools, AI, databases, and language technology
- PhraCons in social media and digital communication
- PhraCons in multimodal communication
- PhraCons in literature, music, and popular culture
Paper proposals may also address forms of formulaic language beyond PhraCons; however, a clear connection to PhraCons is strongly encouraged. The papers presented at the conference are planned to be published in open access.
It is also possible to participate in the conference as the coordinator of one of the following panels:
Panel Proposals
- PhraCons and their treatment in lexicography
- PhraCons from a didactic perspective
- Typology of PhraCons
- PhraCons and cross-linguistic equivalence
- PhraCons and translation
- PhraCons and creativity
The panel proposal must be accompanied by a list of five potential speakers who have already expressed their intention to participate in the corresponding panel. Panel coordinators will be responsible for organizing the panel and promoting it. They will also be in charge of accepting or reviewing the abstracts they receive.
References
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