Pasito a pasito,Schrittchen für Schrittchen : The platform CONSTRIDIOMS as a tool to learn constructional idioms in Spanish and German

Abstract

Aims and objectives:

This study investigates the descriptive and contrastive analysis of constructional idioms within the framework of the CONSTRIDIOMS project. Focusing on the Spanish reduplicative construction [N1_singular a N1_singular], the aim is to demonstrate how a constructionist, corpus-based approach can contribute to the systematic identification of phraseological patterns across languages, thereby supporting future didactic applications.

Methodology:

The study adopts Cognitive Construction Grammar as its theoretical foundation. A two-step analysis was conducted. First, the Spanish construction [N1_singular a N1_singular] was analyzed using the esTenTen23 corpus (Sketch Engine), focusing on frequency, semantics, and contextual collocates. Second, the unilateral contrastive method was applied using the Spanish-German parallel corpus PaGeS to identify potential equivalent constructions in German.

Data and analysis:

The analysis draws on 1,978,020 tokens from the esTenTen23 corpus, with a focus on the 50 most frequent types of the [N1_singular a N1_singular] construction. These were analyzed for formal structure, semantic variability, and typical usage contexts. Selected types were then examined in PaGeS to uncover recurrent German equivalents, including semi-schematic constructions and idiomatic expressions.

Findings and conclusion:

The Spanish construction [N1_singular a N1_singular] displays a high degree of productivity and polysemy, with meanings shaped by both lexical fillers and collocational context. In German, multiple constructional equivalents were identified, highlighting variation in form and idiomaticity. While the study does not assess learning outcomes, the results suggest that contrastive corpus-based analyses of this kind hold potential for enriching the pedagogical treatment of phraseological phenomena.

Originality:

This study offers a novel empirical account of a Spanish reduplicative construction and its German counterparts, combining constructionist theory with contrastive corpus methodology. It also provides structured linguistic data that may inform future applications in language education.

Keywords

CONSTRIDIOMS constructional idioms didactics corpus-based study reduplicative construction

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Boas

H. C.

(Ed.). (2022). Directions for pedagogical construction grammar: Learning and teaching (with) constructions. De Gruyter Mouton.

Boers

(2014). Idioms and phraseology. In Littlemore

Taylor

(Eds.), The Bloomsbury companion to cognitive linguistics (pp. 185–201). Bloomsbury.

Bosque

(2018). Sintaxis sin concatenación: estructuras preposicionales con sustantivos duplicados [Syntax without concatenation: prepositional structures with duplicated nouns]. In Bosque

Costa

Malcuori

(Eds.), Palabras en lluvia minuciosa: veinte visitas a la gramática del español inspiradas por Ángela Di Tullio [Words in Minute Rain: Twenty Visits to Spanish Grammar Inspired by Ángela Di Tullio] (pp. 47–71). Iberoamericana/Vervuert.

Capelle

(2014). Conventional combinations in pockets of productivity: English resultatives and Dutch ditransitives expressing excess. In Boogaart

Collemann

Rutten

(Eds), Extending the Scope of Construction Grammar (pp. 251–282). De Gruyter Mouton.

Casenhiser

Goldberg

A. E.

(2005). Fast mapping between a phrasal form and meaning. Developmental Science, 8(6), 500–508. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2005.00441

Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. (2020). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Council of Europe.

De Knop

. (2025). Construction-based language learning and teaching. In Fried

Nikiforidou

(Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of construction grammar (pp. 596–622). Cambridge University Press.

De Knop

Gilquin

., (Eds.). (2016). Applied construction grammar. De Gruyter Mouton.

De Knop

Mollica

. (2016). A construction-based study of German ditransitive phraseologisms for language pedagogy. In De Knop

Gilquin

(Eds.), Applied construction grammar (pp. 53–87). De Gruyter Mouton.

10.

De Knop

Mollica

. (2024). Ditransitive Kollokationen: eine konstruktionsgrammatische Untersuchung aus der DaF-Perspektive [Ditransitive Collocations: A Construction Grammar Analysis from the Perspective of German as a Foreign Language]. Deutsch Als Fremdsprache, 61(19), 14–25. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.3/275201

11.

Dewaele

Bak

Ortega

(2022). Why the mythical “native speaker” has mud on its face. In Slavkov

Melo-Pfeifer

Kerschhofer-Puhalo

(Eds.), The changing face of the “native speaker”: Perspectives from multilingualism and globalization (pp. 25–46). De Gruyter Mouton.

12.

Dobrovol’skij

Mellado Blanco

(2021). Von Jahr zu Jahr. Das Pattern [von Xsg zu Xsg] und seine Entsprechungen im Russischen und Spanischen: eine Korpusstudie [From year to year. The pattern [von Xsg zu Xsg] and its equivalents in Russian and Spanish. A corpus study]. Aussiger Beiträge, 15, 113–138. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1807837/FULLTEXT01.pdf

13.

Ellis

N. C.

Cadierno

(2009). Constructing a second language: Introduction to the special issue. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 7, 111–139. https://doi.org/10.1075/arcl.7.05ell

14.

Endresen

Zhukova

Bjørgve

Demidova

Kalanova

Butenko

Lonshakov

Lavén

D. H.

(2022). Construxercise!: Implementation of a construction-based approach to language pedagogy. Russian Language Journal, 72(1), 47–71. https://www-jstor-org-443.web.bisu.edu.cn/stable/27213136

15.

Goldberg

A. E.

(1995). Constructions: A construction grammar approach to argument structure. University of Chicago Press.

16.

Goldberg

A. E.

(2006). Constructions at work: The nature of generalization in language. Oxford University Press.

17.

Goldberg

A. E.

(2019). Explain me this: Creativity, competition, and the partial productivity of constructions. Princeton University Press.

18.

Hoffmann

(2022). Construction grammar: The structure of English. Cambridge University Press.

19.

Hösselbarth

(1988). Das unilaterale Vergleichsverfahren in Theorie und Praxis [The unilateral comparison method in theory and practice]. STUF: Language Typology and Universals, 41(2), 230–236. https://doi.org/10.1524/stuf.1988.41.16.230

20.

Iglesias Iglesias

N. M

. (2020). Las construcciones fraseológicas reduplicativas del alemán [S1sg für S1sg] y [S1pl für S1pl] y sus implicaciones didácticas en L2. [The reduplicative constructional idioms in German [S1sg für S1sg] and [S1pl für S1pl] and its didactics implications in L2]. Linred (Lingüística en la Red 17). http://hdl.handle.net/10017/48816

21.

Ivorra Ordines

. (2023). Spanish comparative constructional idioms and their English and French counterparts. A corpus-based study. In Ferreiro-Vázquez

Ó.

Varajão Moutinho Pereira Correia

A. T.

Gonçalves Araújo

S. L.

(Eds.), Technological innovation put to the service of language learning, translation and interpreting: Insights from academic and professional contexts (pp. 157–179). Peter Lang.

22.

Ivorra Ordines

Mellado Blanco

. (in press). CONSTRIDIOMS: A repository of constructional idioms in German and Spanish: The case study of [N1singular por N1singular]. International Journal of Lexicography.

23.

Jackendoff

(2008). Construction after construction and its theoretical challenges. Language, 84(1), 8–28. https://www-jstor-org-443.web.bisu.edu.cn/stable/40071010

24.

Kątny

Olszewska

Socka

(2014). Kontrastivität in der Linguistik und ihre Dimensionen [Contrastivity in Linguistics and its dimensions]. Studia Germanica Gedanensia, 31, 9–23. https://czasopisma.bg.ug.edu.pl/index.php/SGG/article/view/1479

25.

Leino

Östman

(2005). Constructions and variability. In Fried

Boas

H. C.

(Eds.), Grammatical constructions: Back to the roots (pp. 191–213). John Benjamins.

26.

López Meirama

. (2019). Relaciones temporales de la construcción fraseológica [Ssing PREP Ssing] [Temporal relations of the constructional idiom [Ssing PREP Ssing]]. Verba: Anuario Galego de Filoloxia, 46, 245–278. https://doi.org/10.15304/verba.46.4598

27.

López Meirama

Mellado Blanco

. (2018). Las construcciones [de X a Y] y [de X a X]: realizaciones idiomáticas y no tan idiomáticas [The constructions [de X a Y] and [de X a X]: idiomatic and not so idiomatic instances]. In Díaz

Vaamonde

Varela

Cabeza

M. C.

García-Miguel

J. M.

Ramallo

(Eds.), Actas do XIII Congreso Internacional de Lingüística Xeral [Proceedings of the 13th International Conference of General Linguistics], Vigo 2018 (pp. 576–583). Universidade de Vigo.

28.

López Meirama

Mellado Blanco

. (2019). Entre miradas de asombro: aportaciones de la Lingüística de Corpus al estudio de una construcción con la preposición entre [Entre miradas de asombro: contributions of Corpus Linguistics to the study of a construction with the preposition entre]. Verba, anexo, 79, 81–119. https://doi.org/10.15304/9788417595876

29.

Martínez Vázquez

. (2003). Introducción [Introduction]. In Vázquez Martínez

(Ed.), Gramática de Construcciones: Contrastes entre el inglés y el español [Construction Grammar. Contrasts between English and Spanish] (pp. 1–14). Universidad de Huelva, Grupo de Investigación Gramática Contrastiva.

30.

Mellado Blanco

. (2022). Construcciones semiesquemáticas de valor intensificador desde los corpus paralelos: el caso de [von wegen X] y sus construcciones equivalentes en español [Semi-schematic constructions with an intensifying meaning from parallel corpora: the case of [von wegen X] and its equivalents constructions in Spanish]. In Cuartero Otal

Gutiérrez Pérez

Larreta Zulategui

J. P.

Martínez Vázquez

(Eds.), La interfaz léxico-gramática: Contrastes entre el español y las lenguas germánicas [The lexicon-grammar. Contrasts bertween Spanish and Germanic languages] (pp. 167–186). Peter Lang.

31.

Mellado Blanco

. (2023). Wie Fisch und Fahrrad. Inkongruenz als konstitutives Merkmal der verneinenden Vergleichskonstruktionen [Wie Fisch und Fahrrad. Incongruence as a constitutive feature of negative compative constructions]. In Mollica

Stumpf

(Eds.), Konstruktionsgrammatik IX. Konstruktionsfamilien im Deutschen [Construction Grammar IX. Families of constructions in German] (pp. 165–203). Sauffenburg.

32.

Mellado Blanco

Iglesias Iglesias

N. M

. (2024). in aller Kürze: die Konstruktion [in ALL Nabstr/sg] im gesteuerten DaF-Unterricht [in aller Kürze: the construction [in ALL Nabstr/sg] in teaching German as a foreign language]. Deutsch als Fremdsprache, 2(2), 67–80. https://doi.org/10.37307/j.2198-2430.2024.02.02

33.

Michaelis

L. A.

(2003). Headless constructions and coercion by construction. In Francis

Michaelis

L. A.

(Eds.) Mismatch: Form-function incongruity and the architecture of grammar (pp. 259–310). CSLI.

34.

Mollica

Stumpf

(Eds.) (2023). Konstruktionsgrammatik IX. Konstruktionsfamilien im Deutschen [Construction Grammar IX. Families of constructions in German]. Stauffenburg Linguistik.

35.

Mollica

(in press). The syntax-lexicon continuum. In Wen

Sinha

(Eds.) The Cambridge encyclopedia of cognitive linguistics. Cambridge University Press.

36.

Nueva Gramática de la Lengua Española. (2009–2011). Nueva gramática de la lengua española. Real Academia Española y Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española [New grammar of the Spanish language. Spanish Royal Academy and Association of Academies of the Spanish Language]. Espasa. https://www.rae.es/recursos/gramatica/nueva-gramatica

37.

Nikiforidou

(2021). Grammatical variability and the grammar of genre: Constructions, conventionality, and motivation in “stage directions.” Journal of Pragmatics, 173, 189–199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2020.12.012

38.

PaGeS: Parallel Corpus German Spanish. (n.d.). https://www.corpuspages.eu/corpus/about/about?lang=es

39.

Pakzadian

(2023). Pedagogical construction grammar: The case of collocations and collostructions in foreign language instruction. AILA Review, 36(2), 135–163. https://doi.org/10.1075/aila.22017.pak

40.

Patten

A. L.

Perek

(2022). Pedagogic applications of the English construction. In Boas

(Ed.), Directions for pedagogical construction grammar: Learning and teaching (with) constructions (pp. 179–216). De Gruyter Mouton.

41.

Pawley

Syder

F. H.

(1983). Two puzzles for linguistic theory: Native like selection and nativelike fluency. In Jack

J. C.

Schmidt

R. W.

(Eds.), Language and communication (pp. 191–226). Longman.

42.

Penadés Martínez

(2021). Las construcciones fraseológicas desde la perspectiva lexicográfica “Constructional idioms from a lexicographic perspective”. Linred. Lingüística en la Red, 18, 1–27.

43.

SkE. Sketch Engine: Corpus Query System. (n.d.). http://www.sketchengine.co.uk

44.

Sommerer

(2022). Day to day and night after night: Temporal NPN constructions in present day English. In Sommerer

Keizer

(Eds.), English noun phrases from a functional-cognitive perspective: Current issues (pp. 364–394). John Benjamins.

45.

Traugott

(2018). Modeling language change with constructional networks. In Pons Bordería

Loureda Lamas

Ó.

(Eds.), Beyond grammaticalization and discourse markers (pp. 17–50). Brill.

46.

Traugott

E. C.

Trousdale

(2013). Constructionalization and constructional changes. Oxford University Press.

47.

Ziem

(2018). Construction Grammar meets Phraseology: Eine Strandortbestimmung. Linguistik Online, 90(3). https://doi.org/10.13092/lo.90.4316

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.02 MB