ADJECTIVE SYNTAGMS OF THE GOL GOLCAT TYPE IN LANGUAGE MANUALS AND DICTIONARIES OF THE CROATIAN STANDARD LANGUGAGE AND THE ČAKAVIAN DIALECT GROUP

Abstract

This paper discusses adjective syntagms such as gol golcat, focussing on their status within the Croatian standard language and the way they are analyzed in various language manuals (orthographies, grammars, and articles on phraseology, as well as general, phraseological, and dialect dictionaries). It also analyzes the different terms that have been used until now for this type of adjective syntagm. The study is based on examples from a manual and a dictionary of the Croatian standard language, as well as from Čakavian dialect dictionaries. The examples reveal that such dictionaries are often not systematically edited and that they often use several different expressions for the same grammatical concept. It is suggested that syntagms of the gol golcat type should be called elatives, and that they should be processed on the word formation level in grammars and treated under their own headword in dictionaries.