Fraseologia col·loquial? Ara ve quan el maten!

Abstract

Summary: Although Catalan lexicography has always paid a great deal of attention to phraseology, it remains unclear how to classify colloquial, idiomatic expressions such as Ara ve quan el maten (literally, ‘now it is when he is going to be killed’, approximately ‘We are in trouble’). None of the three main categories found in Catalan dictionaries, namely, refranys (proverbs), locucions (phrases) and frases fetes (idioms), seems to be appropriate enough to describe this type of formulaic expressions, which are also challenging from a theoretical perspective. The present article argues that expressions like Ara ve quan el maten should be regarded as conversational routines which have typically undergone a subjectification process. [Keywords: phraseology, spoken language, formulaic language, conversational routines, subjectification]