Fixed expressions in cross-linguistic perspective

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With the flourishing of approaches linking language to cognitive and behavioral phenomena, culture, environment, and society, the recent momentum in phraseological studies is unsurprising given their focus. Fixed expressions, including proverbs that convey timeless truths, situationally conditioned formulae, and figurative expressions, serve as labels typifying actions within specific societies. These motivated expressions draw from familiar domains to articulate abstract, novel, or taboo concepts. This collection presents twenty contrastive analyses of proverbs, fixed formulae, compounds, and idioms across various languages, such as English, French, German, Spanish, Latvian, and Ukrainian. The analyses highlight the connections between language and extralinguistic realities. By examining the essential agreements in form and expressive power within phraseological corpora, the papers explore processes of borrowing and calquing, revealing both similarities and differences in how various languages conceptualize diverse subjects, including religion, leave-taking, the home, and deception.