Phraseological neoforms from the Neologisms Bank corpus of the Cervantes Virtual Centre and Antenario

Abstract

It is difficult to distinguish between neological lexical units (those that have a certain generalisation and durability) and temporary creations, since only with time will it be possible to know whether or not they will be included in a general dictionary. In any case, the different chronological, intuitive, and lexicographical parameters (to which those of frequency and dispersion should be added) help to establish a delimitation. This is applicable to both monolexematic and phraseological units. Sources based on the media provide examples of neological units in general and phraseological units in particular; that is the reason why the Neologisms Bank of the Cervantes Virtual Centre, which includes BOBNEO data, and the Antenario have been chosen for extracting the phraseological units not included in the Diccionario de la lengua española by the Royal Spanish Academy. The most representative ones have been selected in order to analyse their formal and thematic predominance. The predominant neological phraseological units are formed by a noun and an adjective or prepositional phrase. This is because most of the time they allude to individual realities. Logically, they are a testimony to sociopolitical and cultural changes. The recent global pandemic has led to a considerable number of new phraseological units. In short, the monoverbal and multiverbal neoforms obey similar designative motives, although in the phraseological units extracted from journalistic texts there is no formal variability that shows the expressive capacities of the non-phraseological units.