Criteria for sample sentences in phraseological dialect dictionaries: a proposal based on GEPHRAS2

Abstract

Abstract This article offers a preliminary overview of dialect phraseography, showing that it is still a relatively new field of study. However, as far as Genoese-Italian phraseography is concerned, significant developments have been made in recent years as a result of the GEPHRAS and GEPHRAS2 projects. The two projects (P31321 and P 33303-G) have been financed by the Austrian Science Fund FWF and led by E. Autelli. Many thanks to Christina Scharf and Anne Freckleton for proofreading this article. The second part of this article focuses on sample sentences found in dialect dictionaries, while the third part will briefly explain the GEPHRAS2 project. This will be followed by a proposal as to how to create sample sentences for dialect phraseological dictionaries according to the criteria chosen for GEPHRAS2, and how to analyse ancient and modern phrasemes. It will be shown that one cannot always rely on corpora in order to document sample sentences in dictionaries because, for some dialects, open access corpus is not always available. It will also be seen that, in the preparation of sample sentences, it is essential to establish a set of criteria in order to guarantee readability and authenticity, and to offer concrete help to dictionary users.