Phraseological units as a lactor ol variance oe idiomatic nomination in german

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Phraseological units as a lactor ol variance oe idiomatic nomination in german

Sulym V. Т., Candidate of Philology,

Associate Professor of theDpt. oflntercultural Communication and Translation,

Dean ofthe Faculty ofForeign Languages Ivan Franko National University of Lviv

Summary. A study of the national peculiarities of German in the framework of the theory of heterogeneity of the literary standard as well as research into the normalized divergence of the phraseological microsystems in three national varieties of German reveals interesting interplays of the onomasiolog- ical resources and communicative strategies in the topological-social ontology of idiomaticity. A versatility of constituent composition and inter-variant (non)equivalence of phraseological units get evinced in the subtle scenarios of the genuine place-bound use of idioms. Parallel functioning or asymmetry of phraseological nomination as to the areal norms of German are conducive to a more in-depth penetration into codification processes and comprehension of idiomatic variance as a lexicographic and textual mutability.

Key words: phraseological meaning, componential structure, phraseological variants, areal usage norms, idioms in the texts, phraseological fickleness.

Introductory remarks. Present-day German is known for its almost unsurpassable variance. Its territorial spread is a factor of the changing character of this language. German as a language is not tantamount to its own self. This situation at some point gave rise to the three varieties of German: the literary standard spoken in Germany as well as the standards of Austria and Switzerland.

Each of these national varieties tends to perform all the social functions ascribed to the typical homogeneous language [14]. The variant in question is functionally complete with the given structure of significant applications. It enters the supranational mega-system as a constituent. Historically, the said three variants stem from the respective German dialects. Contemporaneously, the tree variants tend to reveal unevenly (mis)matching inventories of expressive means in the idiomatic nomination of. As phraseology is intricately interwoven with the cultural-historical and societal factors of relevance its significance for phraseology is only too apparent.

However, a fully comprehensive comparative dictionary of the variant pictures of German phraseologies is still to be compiled in the future.

The aim of the present paper lies in determining the methodological principles of the corresponding description of idiomatic var- iantology of German with the focus on the cross-variant counterpart diversity or graded equivalence in the framework of the respective phraseological (sub-)systems and textual functioning of their constituents.

State of the art. German phraseology encompasses the idioms that belong not only to the literary standard of the German language (Binnendeutsch or Deutsches Deutsch) but also to the nationally marked varieties of Austria (Osterreichisches Deutsch) and Switzerland (Schweizer Hochdeutsch). In this regard the German language does not display homogeneity. The phraseologisms of Austrian provenance are fairly well documented. Swiss idiomatic nomination is more deeply entrenched in dialect sources.

A contrastive analysis of a corpus containing the most typical verbal idioms which pertain to the respective national variants of German allows us to transcend variational boundaries and deduce an all-encompassing German phraseological system [6; 8].

This analysis is to be based on the theoretical framework elucidated in numerous general works on phraseology, whereas the study ofthe aforementioned phraseological microsystems, which is presented against the backdrop of the phraseological system of the German literary standard, takes into account the respective peculiarities of each linguistic variant [4; 7].

The national variety of a language is a socioloinguistic phenomenon, since it performs all the societal functions of any homogeneous language. In the German case, the national variety is a fixture in the press, television, cinema, it also functions within the church, as well as other institutions. The main precondition of a national variety of a language is the national community. The correlation between the nation and language is one of the most potent realizations of the relation between language and society [1].

The theorists in idiomatic nomination have defined the object and capacity of phraseology they have elucidated its systemic laws and worked out a system of classifying and analyzing idioms and their realization within texts. However, idioms which are clearly marked as Austrian and Swiss ones have received only secondary attention and thus have not been adequately represented in the general phraseological dictionaries. There has been a noticeable upsurge in the interest in the studies of the phraseological units within the national varieties of German which are clearly “alien” to speakers of other varieties or have entered their usage only recently [2; 3]. The Austrian phraseological dictionary calls them “nicht heimisch oder seit kurzem gebrauchlich” (foreign or recently borrowed) ”) [11, p. 6-7], e.g. eine Mattscheibe haben (“nicht begreifen, benom- men sein”); auf Pump leben (“von geborgtem Geld leben”); in der Klemme sein (“in Not, bedrangt sein”); Zeter schreien (“laut jammernd urn Hilfe rufen. The existence of such idioms within the Swiss variety is also highly probable, but the lack of lexicographical sources makes the search for them a more difficult undertaking.

Discussion. In this study we will use the idioms of the German standard language, which are common for all the German-speaking countries, in order to conduct the contrastive analysis needed for the description of the divergence in usage.

Austrian German differs from literary German in a number of respects. Since the Austrian variety has undergone a long period of independent development, these differences have gradually become common for the Austrian speaker. In this respect, the phraseological stock of the language provides us with ample examples which have become peculiarly Austrian as a result of the influence of the Bavarian dialect. This process resulted in the appearance of a host of exclusively Austrian idioms which have accumulated different phenomena of Austrian life and culture.

A similar process can be reconstructed in the case of Switzerland which as a country is in itself a unique linguistic area with four national languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh. The peculiarities of Switzerland's development as a country lay the groundwork for a dialectal differentiation of the written Aleman tradition. These dialects have permeated all spheres of life by taking over the functions ofboth the literary and the colloquial language. For this reason, we can state that dialectal speech has gained a wider communicative relevance in Switzerland as compared to the respective situations in Austria and Germany they have reduced the functioning of the German literary standard merely to written communication. As a result, the Swiss national variety lacks a distinct notion of colloquial speech (Umgangssprache), since all of its functions have been taken over by the dialects.

The literary language of Switzerland abounds in dialectal words which have acquired specific national connotations. In order to elucidate the intra- and extralinguistic factors which are of paramount importance to the divergence of phraseological units in the various national varieties of German, we will view the phraseological bulk of German as a wholesale idiomatic system which in its own right encompasses three phraseological microsystems, i.e. strictly German, Austrian or Swiss idioms

The intricate relations of various linguistic and extralinguistic factors, which are peculiar to the development of the various varieties of German, have given rise to a corpus of phraseological units that are used in only one of the German-speaking countries and thus shape separate microsystems within their respective national varieties. Such idioms are of consequence for the phraseological sub-systems of the German linguistic varieties since they are vital for comparison.

A contrastive analysis of the material has allowed us to establish a binary classification of nationally-marked idioms, i.e. they can be grouped as “equivalent” or “nonequivalent”. Equivalent idioms are nationally marked equivalents of the idioms which can be found in the literary language. Non-equivalent idioms can in turn be classified into those characteristic of Austria and Switzerland.

The rise of phraseological equivalents caused an accumulation of qualitative percolations in the topological usage oflanguage and a shift of the language reality under the influence of certain, both intra- and extralinguistic, factors which determine the existence of the national variants of language as such. This presupposes that the accepted norm in the medium of functionality is superseded by the variant norm (Abstandsprache) that goes through the process of codification inside the corresponding medium and acquires the status of the “communicative rival” at the level of a certain phraseological microsystem. Hence within the national varieties of the present-day multiply codified German there exists a whole series of parallel as to the norm idioms. The latter, owing to the respective factors of divergence, managed to enter the communicative process and become part and parcel of the lexico-phraseological inventory of the national variant in question. By way of exemplification we can adduce such German idioms as: German, keinen Groschen in der Tasche haben, Austrian, keinen luckerten Heller in der Tauche haben, Swiss, keinen Rappen mehr in der Tasche haben, Austrian, wie ein Heftelmacher aufpassen, Austrian, wie ein Haftelmacher aufpassen, Swiss, wie ein Haftlimacher aufpassen, Germanj-m ein Bein stellen, Austrianj-m das Haxl stellen /j-m ums Haxl hauen,

Swissj-m das Bein stellen, German, weggeben wie frische / warme Semmeln, Austrian, weggehen wie frische Brezel, Swiss, wegge- hen wie frische Weggli; German, dastehen wie der Ochs am / vorm Berge, Austrian dastehen wie, s Mandl beim Sterz, Swiss, da stehen wie der Esel am Berg, German, ganz aus dem Hauschen sein, Austrian, ganz aus dem Hausel sein, Swiss, aus dem Hausli sein.

The Swiss phraseological system can be tentatively split into three groups of idioms: those characteristic of literary German that are in use wherever German is spoken and codified in the authoritative dictionaries; nationally marked idioms characteristic of the German-speaking part of Switzerland and dialectally marked idioms. Of peculiar interest is the second group of idioms which contain specific words that are intrinsic to the German of Switzerland. The semantic fields of such words encompass geographical, historical, cultural, political and everyday words. E.g. in the idiom Karlishofhaben (“sich schakernd unterhalten, schwelgen”) the first constituent of the compound stood for Charlemagne and the compound as a whole used to denote the court, whose mores, manner and traditions laid the foundation for the very idiom and its specific locally determined motivation.

Switzerland just as a number of other countries is home to many traditional games [15; 16]. One of them which is quite popular is called “Der Hosenlupf' a) Ringkampf nach altem Alplerbrauch; b) Kraftemessen. The noun die Hose is active idiom wise in Swiss German. It signifies a garment suitable for playing this game. It gave rise to a number of nationally marked idioms: in die Hosen steigen (“sich zum Kampf bereit machen”); mit j-m in die Hosen mussen (“sich mitj-m im Kampf messen mussen”); in die Hose(n) gehen (“nicht gelingen”). The latter is also widely used in Austrian German. Another instance of the Swiss coloring in idioms is names of currency and coins: e.g.: Happen spalten (“kleinlich sparen”); der Zwanziger (“das Zwanzigrappenstuck”); ist hinunter (gefallen) (“der Groschen ist gefallen”); kein Weggli undkein Rappli (abgeben wollen) (“auBerst sparsam sein”).

In terms of structure Swiss idioms that may (not) reveal equivalence with their counterparts in standard German tended to abide by the general standard criteria. This situation admits the following major idiom construing models:

V+S (den Finken klopfen; den Rank nehmen); V+Pron/S+S (j-m das Nel(l) abstechen;j-m ein Morgarten bereiten); V+Prap.+S (auf den Stockzahnen lachen; zu Kilt gehen); V+S+Prsp.+S (j-n am Seil herunterlassen;j-m in die Schuhe blasen). Both Swiss and Austrian idioms attest items that are manifestations of the aforementioned patterns.

Alongside standard German idioms Swiss German is open to a number of marked items. The use of such idioms in the text contributes to the achieved effects of emotionality, imagery and nationally flavored idiomaticity resting on the specific Swiss inventory. Swiss idioms that lack their counterparts in German could be exemplified by, e.g. einen Schuh voll herausstellen (“gehorig Schaden nehmen”); das Fuder uberladen (“zuviel des Guten tun”); Mais machen (“Larm schlagen”); neben den Schuhen stehen (“falsch liegen”); sein Heu nicht auf derselben Buhne heben (“nicht die gleichen An- sichten haben”). In terms of cross-German variance they are marked by a number of components. These could be some realia of life, proper names, historicisms, obsolete or archaic lexical items, names for money, dialectal words and even loans from other languages characteristic of Swiss German.

Most of literary Swiss idioms have their dialect counterparts playing into the abstand-/ausbau- contact interaction: am Berg sein - dialectal, am Beerg sie; den Kopf machen - dialectal, der Kopf mache I e Kopf aanemachen,. einen Bart einfangen - dialectal, e Bart fange / yyfange.

Lack of inter-variant constituent congruence proves especially visible in verbal idioms. The idioms in question from Swiss German do have equivalents in literary German, e.g. Swiss etw. ins Kamin schreiben corresponds to the German etw. in die Esse schreiben, Likeweise, Swiss in den Sack langen is the German in die Tasche greifen. Similarly, Swiss sauberen Tisch machen is the German rei- nen Tisch machen. Swiss j-m die Stange halten - Germanj-m die Waage halten, Swissj-n unter den Boden bringen - Germasn.j-n ins Grab bringen. They do differ by the constituent nouns, their determiners, including articles, as well as some prepositions. Such idioms are sometimes endowed with the text-construing potential as is the case with the idiom einen (den) Riegel schieben (stecken, stofien):

“Nach den Geschafteleuten reisten auch weifie Politiker nach Lusaka. Auf die Politiker folgten anschliefiend die Studenten, doch hier blieb es vorest bei der blofien Absicht, weil die Regierung mit der Beschlagnahme der Reisepasse den Planen einer Gruppe von Studenten der afrikanischen Universitat von Stellenbosch einen Riegel schob. Ahnlich erging es daraufhin einer Gruppe von Theologen der reformierten Staatskirche, die die Behorden mit der blofien Drohung eines Entzugs der Reisedokumente von einer Reise abhielten” (NZZ, 8.5.36,4) [15].

The idiom einer Sache (j-m) einen (den) Riegel schieben is instrumental in expressing the communicative category of factual assertion. It also marks the center of the suprasentential unity revealing the borderline between the topic (theme) and comment (rheme) in the structured message. The subsequent passage Ahnlich erging es daraufhin einer Gruppe von... implies the previously used idiom owing to which fact it gets evinced in the perception of the recipient for the second time enhancing the overall expressiveness of the utterance.

For the sake of the German - Swiss idiomatic discord we adduce the following pairs of idioms: Swiss, daruber sind die Hefte geschlossen - German, daruber sind die Akten geschlossen, Swiss, das ist mir Hans was Heiri - German, das ist mir Hose wie Jacke. There are also some comparative Swiss idioms analogous with the German counterparts: Swiss, wie ein Kuchli aufgehen - German, wie ein Pfannkuchen aufgehen, Swiss, Wie es im Buchlein steht - German, wie es im Buche steht', Swiss, wie ein Murmeli schlafen - German, wie ein Murmeltier schlafen.

There are plenty of expressions in Austrian German that qualify for the category. They are typically endowed with some national coloring and tend to fall under several distinct groupings:

The first group encompasses the idioms that notwithstanding some amount of constituent variance do bear resemblance with the common German counterparts. Typically, they are the idioms with the core verb: die Patschen anziehen (“sich mit dem Erreichten zufriedengeben”); in die Fraisen fallen (“sehr erschrecken”) etw. ist j-m Powidl (“etw. ist j-m egal”); etw. in Evidenz halten (“etw. ubersichtlich zusammenstellen, registrieren”); zu etw. seinen Kren geben (“zu etw. seinen Senf geben”); ein Schnoferl machen (''einen Flunsch ziehen”).

In the second group, the verb central idioms in Austrian German admit no common German equivalents. They could be understood when we resort to paraphrasing [5; 12]. Such idioms are peculiar to emphasizing the national coloring as well as subtle nuances reflected in language owing to the culture, history, customs, traditions and even the way of life of the people. E.g. auf der Dacken sein / liegen (“ganz herabgekommen sein, darniederliegen; sich in einer Krise befinden”). The story runs that in medieval Vienna convicts in a prison were to sleep on a thin straw matrass. It was called die Dacke. Hence, the idiom “to be on die Dacke” implied frugal life conditions. There is a small sculpture in Prater (in Vienna) to take blows from the visitors. In German it is called “Der Watschenmann”. It entered the idiom kein Watschenmann sein. Its meaning was “not to let anyone debase or humiliate you”. The rise and immediate spread of the Austrian German idiom einen Fritzelacke machen (“der Lange nach hinfallen”) were both rooted in the advertisement of the Austrian firm “Fritze-Lacke” [13, p. 314]. It depicts a boy with the open can of paint held in his hand and spilled over when he stumbled. In the language of Austrian newspapers such idioms do serve as a text-forming element owing to the congruence scenarios that they holdfortheverytext. Structurally, both equivalent and non-equivalent idioms marked in Austrian German are not different from the corresponding common verbal idioms characteristic oflit- erary German proper. The respective markers in such idioms are in the local Austrian lexemes. Etymologically, for the most part they are related to the Austrian Bavarian dialect which used to be of paramount significance for the formation of the lexical-phraseological inventory of the national Austrian variant of German for centuries: e.g.: j-m das Gogerl kratzen; j-m ein Holzl werfen; ein Schauferl nachlegen; ein Kruckerl machen. Quite of interest are some specific Austrian words within comparative idioms started by the verb, e.g. wie ein Glockerl gehen, ausschauen wie ein Rastelbinder; sich ziehen wie ein Strudelteig; j-m zureden wie einem lahmen (kranken) Rofi. The Austrian marker within such idioms is mostly in the nouns expressing comparison

A number of idioms in Austrian German function within the two-verb structural models, e.g. bohmisch einkaufen (“stehlen”); tschari/tschali gehen (“weg sein, verloren gehen”);paschen gehen (“auf Unterhaltung gehen”). A comparative study of Austrian phraseology with that of literary German revealed an overlap in some of the idioms: cf. Austrian, eine Watsche fangen - German, eine Ohrfeige bekommen, Austrian, etw. hangt j-m beim Hals heraus - German, etw. hangt j-m zum Hals heraus; Austrian, in den Rauch- fang schreiben - German, in die Esse / Schornstein schreiben, Austrian, einen Knodel im Halse haben - German, einen Klofi im Halse haben, Austrian,j-n am Bandl haben - German, j-n an der Leine haben, Austrian, auf Freiersfufien wandeln - German, auf Freiers- fufien geben.

Major factors of divergence in the national markers of idioms become visible from the conducted componential analysis [9; 10]: Mismatch in the use of substantive constituents: nouns are the largest group of such elements. Most of them prove synonymous, territorially duplicate or belonging to the same semantic field, e.g. das Bandel - die Leine; das Krawattl - der Schlips; die Gosche - der Mund; die Watsche - die Ohrfeige. Austrian substantive idioms comparable to their literary German counterparts are oftentimes marked by diminutive forms of nouns, e.g. sich ein Hinterturl of- fenlassen; aus dem Hausel sein; sich ein Scheiberl abschneiden. Our overhaul of Austrian newspapers revealed that such idioms are indeed used for communicative purposes: “'Peugeot will sich am milliardenschweren Dieselgeschaft naturlich auch ein Scheiberl abschneiden und prasentiert nun den 306. mit SelbstzunderagregaL (KURIER, 28.6.95.22).

Some of the Austrian German idioms, interestingly, contain common German words that function as Austrian local markers.

Austrian, keinen Tau von etw. haben - German, keinen Schimmer von etw. haben, Austrian, die Hande in den Sack stecken - German, die Hande in die Taschen stecken, Austrian, keinen Muckser machen - German, keinen Mucks machen. Thus, national markedness is exercised through the use of beyond-national elements. Cf. the use of fully equivalent constituents der Muckser and der Mucks. They both derive from the verb mucksen that reveals identical semantic content in literary German and Austrian German. Notwithstanding the fact that the idiom muckemauschenstill sein is attested in both varieties of German, the Austrian dictionary gives only the noun der Muckser and the idiom keinen Muckser machen / sagen. Mismatch in the use of verbal components: the national Austrian markers in verbal idioms may lie in their core constituents. Primarily, they are specific verbs characteristic of Austrian German, e.g. Austrian, sich etw. aus den Fingern zuzeln - German, sich etw. aus den Fingern saugen, Austrian,j-d kann j-n den Buckel funferln / hinunterrutschen - German,j-d kann j-m den Buckel runterrutschen/, as well as prevalent supra-national verbs. The Austrian idiom der Welt einen Haxen ausreifien is different from the common German one both by the verb and by the noun, cf. German, die Welt aus den Angeln heben. The phra- seomatic stability of the idiom is witnessed by the example taken from the text in the newspaper, e.g. Mit 65 kann man der Welt keinen Haxen ausreifien, aber sie reichen zu einer Spitze von 165 km / h ... (KURIER, 28.5-93,22). Mismatch in the use of the prepositional component: in the Austrian national variety of German the preposition “bei” often takes over its counterparts “an” and “zu”. Likewise, “auf dem” is superseded by “am”, e.g. Austrian, etw. bei der Wurzel packen - instead of the German etw. an der Wurzel packen / fassen. The attributive variance is also plausible, e.g. Austrian, sich die ersten Sporen verdienen - German, sich die Sporen verdienen, Austrian, keinen luckerten Heller haben - German, keinen roten / lumpigen Heller (mehr) haben.

Conclusion and prospects for further research

The multiplicity of the idiomatic heart of German and its lexicographic multiple codification seem of interest for the ethnic segmentation of the respective linguistic pictures and even sketches of the world in single varieties of German or the compared pairs of such varieties. Phraseological variants and distinctions look like important factors of speech culture and alternative encoding/decoding of real language use within the supranational language. The corresponding signification inventories still do call for the appropriate reflection in the practice of German phraseography that would give more emphasis to the actual idiomatic usage of Swiss, Austrian and core German.

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