Empirical Methods of Selecting and Analyzing Data for a Phraseological Dictionary

What is it about?

The article discusses methods of data selection and analysis in the new lexicographical project 'Modern German Phraseology: German-Russian Corpus Dictionary', currently being prepared for public release. Previously, when choosing lexical entries for a dictionary, lexicographers were guided mainly by their own intuition, occasionally resorting to traditional methods of empirical data collection such as surveys and observation of the native speakers’ discourse. With the widespread availability of electronic corpora, an additional method has emerged which facilitates assessment and analysis of linguistic units in use. To achieve adequate results when working with a corpus, it is crucial to decide to what extent it is advisable to use a parallel corpus. If it is not representative, we have to identify monolingual corpora that are most suitable as a source of data and lexicographically significant information for a given type of dictionary.

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Why is it important?

The central question is: what exactly does the lexicographer expect from utilizing corpus data; what information about the structure and functioning of the described expressions, which cannot be obtained by any other means, should the corpus provide? The article shows how addressing the corpus allows the systematic selection of idioms based on criteria significant for the phraseological dictionary, a thorough analysis of the semantic structure of a given expression, including its polysemy and cross-linguistic equivalence.