Diaphasic and diastratic marks of idioms in general and phraseological dictionaries

Abstract

The use of diaphasic and diastratic marks has a deep-rooted tradition in Spanish lexicography. In fact, it is possible, already in the first versions of the Dictionary of the Spanish language (REAL ACADEMIA ESPAÑOLA, 2014), to locate several labels that refer to the level and style of the language. However, the consultation of the different dictionaries shows that the interest in the establishment of such marks has not been supported by theoretical bases and systematic procedures. The problems derived from the description of these marks increase more when it comes to the idioms, units characterized by their fixation and idiomaticity. The present contribution tries to find out how diaphasic and diastratic marking applied to idioms is treated. The objective of this work is to examine various dictionaries, general and phraseological, to find out a series of questions, such as the description of these marks in the prologue of the works studied, the plurality of names used to refer to the different diaphasic and diastratic marking microsystems, subjectivity in its application, etc. At the end, some proposals will be presented to resolve the pitfalls described in the work.