The phrase “something is passing someone’s ass” mentioned in the preface is listed in the Duden on idioms. There, one prefers the phrase fixed turn, which always describes a word structure consisting of more than one word; thus, polylexicity must be present.
Fixed phrases distinguish themselves from free word-groups because they are fixed in their composition, i.e. the words that form the fixed phrase cannot be exchanged for other words or can only be exchanged to a very limited extent (cf. Duden 2013: 9). There is also a very limited changeability with regard to the structure of the fixed phrases.
A further criterion is an idiomaticity: “The characteristic of the fixed phrases is that their meaning cannot or can only partially be recognized from the individual meanings of their components” Polylexicity, firmness, and idiomaticity are thus given as defining characteristics of the term fixed turn. But even the very first lines of the introduction in the Duden idioms indicate that there are many more terms for this linguistic phenomenon.
In the following, some of these terms will be examined more closely in order to theoretically contextualize and substantiate the term idiomatic phrase chosen in this work.
In her article “Idiom, Phraseologismus oder Phrase?”
Elke Donalies lists on the first page alone more than 50 different terms which have been used by various linguists as synonyms or subcategories for the phenomenon defined by the Duden as a fixed phrase.
The phenomenon to be described in Donalies’ article is that of polylexical formulations, that is, those consisting of more than one word, which may have a certain degree of firmness in their structure and may also have a certain degree of idiomaticity. More about ass visit here. Donalies concludes in her article and also in a later textbook that phrase is the most appropriate term for these formulations
However, idiomaticity is not a mandatory part of a phrase, because Donalies comes to the following conclusion at the end of her article
The linguistic phenomena discussed here can thus be defined as follows: They are units of at least two words that are perceived and reproduced as a whole.
It regards idiomaticity as a non-decisive criterion. In her textbook, however, she also gives the proposed idiom in addition to phrase, since it has become an accepted term worldwide.
There you will also find an overview of the terms that have been used in linguistics so far, with the starting point that the term that is chosen is always the one that focuses on what you want to kiss in your research. If firmness plays an important role, terms such as fixed turns are preferred; if, for example, idiomaticity is the main focus, terms such as idiom o- the idiomatic phrase are often found.
In her study on unintentional idiom transformations in German, Karoline Weber also states that there is disagreement in linguistics regarding the concept of the phenomenon to be investigated in phraseology. Here she starts out from a general assumption of phraseologies, whose characteristics are polylexicity and firmness.
Here, too, idiomaticity is left out but will be discussed later in a separate section. According to this, idiomaticity consists in the fact that the meaning of an entire word unit does not result from the meaning of the individual words. However, it is also argued here that there is no sharp distinction between idiomatic and non-idiomatic, but that there is a degree of idiomaticity in all multi-word units. This fact is also taken up by Donalies, who states that this degree can be expressed in linguistics through full-idiomaticity, part-idiomaticity, and non-idiomaticity.
Rita Finkbeiner also writes in her study on idiomatic sentences in German that there are countless terms for this type of word combination. Finkbeiner, like Donalies and Weber, defines idioms as a core category of phraseological
Here, too, it is argued that phraseologies represent a supra-category of word structures in which idiomaticity can, but does not have to occur to a certain degree. Since Finkbeiner limits herself to whole sentences, she chooses the term idiomatic sentences for her object of investigation.
Based on this state of research, the term idiomatic phrase was chosen for this work. Of the terms defined above, only a fixed phrase requires idiomaticity. However, this term requires a certain firmness and a very limited changeability. Although these are also important features of the formulations examined, they are not always mandatory3. The term idiom also includes idiomatic single words and composites, which are not examined here.
For this reason, the term phrasem and the definition of the term cited by Donalies were chosen for this work: “Phrasemes are polylexical, can be idiomatic, can be idiomatic, and are each E I N E N terms4”
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Idiomaticity is the most important characteristic for the object of investigation, since only phrases with the word “ass” are investigated which are to be understood idiomatically and not in the literal sense. In this thesis the definition of idiomatic from the Duden applies:
of, in the manner of an idiom an idiomatic turn (idiom, the overall meaning cannot be deduced from the meaning of the individual words.
The evidence examined in this thesis includes both partial and full-diomatic phrases. This means that either the entire phrase (as in sdm. the ass goes on ground ice) or only part of the phrase should be idiomatically understood, while the other part retains its literal meaning (like the verb laugh in itself laughing its ass off).
The idiomatic meaning of the phrases was analyzed with the help of semantic roles as described by Meibauer
