| Abstract |
The choice of a suitable point of entry for an idiomatic expression is one of the most complex tasks a lexicographer faces throughout the compilation of a dictionary. This is further exacerbated by the possibility of lexical variation in certain expressions. This paper analyses twenty idioms with variable verbs (ten English / ten Italian) and twenty idioms with variable nouns (ten English / ten Italian) across six bilingual Italian-English dictionaries, Il Ragazzini (ZIR) (2006), Hoepli Grande Dizionario di Inglese (HGDI) (2003), Collins Sansoni Italian Dictionary (CSID) (2003), Oxford-Paravia Italian Dictionary (OXID) (2001), Il Sansoni Inglese (ISI) (2006) and Hazon Garzanti Inglese (HGI) (2006). The analysis highlights a number of problems in the treatment of lexically variable idioms. Firstly, bilingual Italian-English dictionaries do not have a definitive approach to dealing with the problem of lexical variation. Secondly, the consistency and comprehensiveness in the coverage of lexical alternatives varies significantly both within and across the Italian-English and English-Italian sections of dictionaries. The totality of such differences suggests that a more systematic approach is required in order to achieve a greater consistency in the recording of the variable constituents of idioms. |
| BibTex |
@InProceedings{ELX08-140,
author = {Chris Mulhall},
title = {The Lemmatisation of Lexically Variable Idioms: The Case of Italian-English Dictionaries},
pages = {1373-1378},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 13th EURALEX International Congress},
year = {2008},
month = {jul},
date = {15-19},
address = {Barcelona, Spain},
editor = {Elisenda Bernal, Janet DeCesaris},
publisher = {Institut Universitari de Linguistica Aplicada, Universitat Pompeu Fabra},
isbn = {978-84-96742-67-3},
} |
