I TO MI JE NEK- N! Classification and translation of phraseme constructions with an evaluative meaning

Phraseme Constructions (PhraCons), also known as Constructional Idioms, are defined as specific types of multiword expressions consisting of lexically specified elements known as anchors, and empty slots for fillers. PhraCons are difficult to describe lexicographically because of their semi-fixed nature. PhraCons are often highly expressive, and many of them express evaluations.

This paper classifies PhraCons with evaluative meaning using Croatian and German examples. Some PhraCons can express both positive and negative evaluations (e.g., German eine Frage (ist) klüger/dümmer als die andere ‘one question is smarter/stupider than the other’), while others are only negative (e.g., Toliko o kulturi! ‘So much for culture!’). Evaluation can be explicit or implicit. Explicit PhraCons contain an evaluator, e.g., an adjective in the Croatian PhraCon rijetko sposoban/dobar/bezobrazan/glup ‘rarely capable/good/impudent/stupid’. Implicitly evaluative PhraCons do not contain evaluation at the lexical or semantic level but express it based on conventional usage guided by pragmatic rules (e.g., Ah ta djeca! ‘Ah, those kids!’). The structure of explicit PhraCons can  have one to three components: predicative evaluator (PE),  object of evaluation (OE), and agent of evaluation (AE) (e.g., German Du (OE) bist mir (AE) ein schöner Freund (PE) ‘Some friend you are!’).

The second focus of this paper is PhraCons as patterns that often have two or more variants, with these different forms of realization depending on the number and grammatical variability of the elements in the anchor of the construction. Through exemplary corpus research, the most frequent forms of realization of a Croatian PhraCon expressing negative evaluation are established, namely ti si mi nek- N and i to mi je nek- N. The most frequently attested form(s) of a PhraCon is/are referred to as its standard form(s).

The third focus of this paper is the translatability of evaluative PhraCons. Specifically, the article examines German equivalents of the Croatian PhraCon with the two standard forms of realization ti si mi nek- N and i to mi je nek- N. When translating instantiations of this PhraCon, it is crucial to ensure that both the intensity and quality of the evaluation are reflected in the target language equivalent.