Von der Routineformel zur Konstruktion – Präformierte Konstruktionseinheiten als polyfaktorielles Phänomen.
From routine formulae to constructions – Prefabricated turn-construction units as a polyfactorial phenomenon
Résumé
Starting out from an inventory of old and new tendancies in research on formulaic language the present text reflects on basic defining criteria of formulaicity: polylexicality, frozenness and idiomaticity. Advocating a systematic ‘corpus-driven approach’, the author pleads for a replacement of the criterion of polylexicality by polyfactoriality, the criterion of frozenness or stability by a common formulaic denominator, the criterion of idiomaticity by idiomatic and pragmatic imprint. Presenting four sequences from talkshows the text also develops basic functions of prefabricated language use. Referring to ‘constructions’, its author finally argues in favour of lexicogrammatical phrases replacing theoretical context-free grammatical rules.