Original scientific paper

Phraseology and motivation. Prototypical and iconic aspects of German and Balkan phraseologisms

Silvana Simoska ; University of Skopje

Abstract

The main aim of the present paper is to compare flora and fauna phraseologisms in German, originating from the North European linguistic and cultural domain, with those from the Balkan region and to test them in view of their motivational structure. To this effect, the Iconicity Hypothesis by Charles Sanders Peirce and the Theory of Prototypes by Eleanor Rosch are taken into account. The ultimate objective is to enquire the purpose behind the motivation and to attempt the following questions: a. Why is it so, that in German and in the North European linguistic and cultural domain, der Apfel fällt nicht weit vom Stamm (the apple does not fall far from the tree), while in the (South) Balkan languages- ‘the pear falls under the tree‘ - (e.g. крушата под круша паѓа (Macedonian), крушка пада под крушку (South Serbian), dardha nёn dardhё bie (Albanian))? b. What is the reason for the fact that in German we have the phrase eine Schwalbe macht noch keinen Sommer (one swallow does not make summer), while in the Balkan linguistic and cultural domain - ‘a swallow does not make spring‘, (e.g. една ластовичка не прави пролет (Macedonian), jedna lasta ne čini proljeće (Croatian), једна ласта не чини пролеће (Serbian))? We based our hypothesis on the belief that the formation of motivated phraseological structures is shaped by universal iconic and culturally bounded prototypical aspects, e. g. climate, flora and fauna, lifestyle etc. The findings clearly demonstrate that the contrastive analyses of German and Balkan phraseologisms allow us to gain insight into the iconic perspectivation and culturally bounded prototypicalisation of phraseologisms.

Keywords

contrastive phraseology, flora and fauna phraseologisms, motivation, iconicity, prototypes, cultural domains

Hrčak ID:

308755

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/308755

Publication date:

15.7.2019.

Article data in other languages: german

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