>ČASOPIS PRO MODERNÍ FILOLOGII 2025 (107) 2
Non-Standard Adjectival Similes in Corpus Data
ABSTRACT (en)
The adjectival simile is a well-established multiword expression (MWE) type. Although it occurs in many languages, it remains an understudied phenomenon within phraseology. The relatively universal existence of this idiom (of comparison) indicates that it represents an extralinguistic concept. However, lexical representations of one concept may differ across languages, potentially giving rise to loan forms that may appear foreign (at least initially) in some languages.
This study investigates non-standard adjectival similes in Czech, specifically their occurrence in parallel corpus data where the source texts are not originally Czech. Firstly, using general and lemma-specific queries, the adjectival similes were mined from translated data in a parallel corpus (InterCorp v16 — Czech). Secondly, the extracted adjectival similes were searched for in a reference corpus (Syn v12) to check their frequencies in Czech texts.
The results show that around 10% (27 out of 262) of all Czech adjectival similes retrieved from InterCorp v16 are non-standard, which can be attributed to two reasons. Firstly, one of their components (an adjective or a noun) is replaced by a synonym, or the whole simile represents a fusion of two unique MWEs. Secondly, the lexical components indicate a foreign influence, usually through loan translation.
Corpus data typically constitute empirical evidence for the existence of MWEs and justify their inclusion in dictionaries. However, the present study of adjectival similes shows that frequency alone is insufficient evidence. A careful and methodical approach to the study of language data and the presentation of our findings is necessary to ensure we do not hastily institutionalise foreign MWEs without proper scrutiny.
KEYWORDS (cz)
adjektivní přirovnání, korpusová data, transformace, ustálenost, víceslovné lexikální jednotky
KEYWORDS (en)
adjectival simile, corpus data, transformation, standardisation, multiword expression
DOI
https://doi.org/10.14712/23366591.2025.2.2
LITERATURE
Barnden, J. A. (2016): Metaphor and simile: Categorizing and comparing categorization and comparison. In: Gola, E. — F. Ervas (Eds), Metaphor and Communication, s. 25–46. John Benjamins.
Čermák, F. (2007): Frazeologie a idiomatika česká a obecná / Czech and General Phraseology. Praha: Nakladatelství Karolinum.
Croft, W. (2007): Construction grammar. In: D. Geeraerts — H. Cuyckens (eds.) Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, s. 463–508. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Emmer, J. (2020): Boring as hell: a corpus study of intensifying post-modification of predicative adjectives in the ADJ as NOUN frame. Linguistica Pragensia, 30, 2, s. 127–137.
Emmer, J. (2023): English Idioms of Comparison in Corpus Data. Disertační práce. Praha: FF UK.
Emmer, J. (2024): Anglická adjektivní přirovnání: srovnání korpusového vzorku s výběrem ve standardní příručce idiomů. Časopis pro moderní filologii, 106, 1, s. 28–43.
Gargani, A. (2016): Similes as poetic comparisons. Lingua, 175–176, s. 54–68.
Goldberg, A. E. (1995): Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Hanks, P. (2005): Similes and Sets: the English Preposition like. In: R. Blatná — V. Petkevič, V. (eds.) Jazyky a jazykovĕda (Sborník k 65. narozeninám prof. PhDr. Františka Čermáka, DrSc.), s. 31–44. Praha: FF UK.
Klégr, A. — Bozděchová, I. (2024): Lexikální anglicismy v češtině. Praha: FF UK — Nakladatelství Karolinum. Kopřivová, M. (2017): Contribution Towards a Corpus-Based Phraseology Minimum. In: R. Mitkov (ed.) Computational and Corpus-Based Phraseology, s. 220–231. London/Berlin/ Heidelberg: Springer Verlag.
Kopřivová, M. — Šichová, K. (2023): Proverbs in Contemporary Czech. Corpus Probe into Written Texts. Journal of Linguistics, 74, 1, s. 92–99.
Langacker, R. W. (1987): Foundation of Cognitive Grammar (Vol. 1). Theoretical Prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Moon, R. (2008): Conventionalized as-similes in English: a problem case. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 13, 1, s. 3–37.
Moon, R. (2011): Simile and dissimilarity. Journal of Literary Semantics, 40, 2, s. 133–157.
Norrick, N. R. (1986): Stock Similes. Journal of Literary Semantics, 15, 1, s. 39–52.
Petkevič, V. — Kopřivová, M. — Hnátková, M. — Jelínek, T. — Kopřiva, P. — Rosen, A. — Skoumalová, H. — Vondřička, P. (2020): Typologie víceslovných jednotek v češtině a frekvenční zastoupení jejich hlavních vlastností v žánrově vyváženém korpusu. In: Studie z aplikované lingvistiky, 11, 2, s. 37–62.
Veale, T. (2013): Humorous similes. In: T. Ford (ed.), Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 26, 1, s. 3–22.
CORPORA
Klégr, A. — Kubánek, M. — Malá, M. — Rohrauer, L. — Šaldová, P. — Šebestová, D. — Vavřín, M. — Zasina, A. J.: Corpus InterCorp — English, version 16 from 12th October 2023. Ústav Českého národního korpusu FF UK, Praha 2023. Dostupné z http://www.korpus.cz
Rosen, A. — Vavřín, M. — Zasina, A. J.: Corpus InterCorp — Czech, version 16 from 12th October 2023. Ústav Českého národního korpusu FF UK, Praha 2023. Dostupné z http://www. korpus.cz
