Marcharse a la francesa or filer à l’anglaise, idioms or lexical matrixes?: the sequency a la + noun in French and Spanish

Abstract

A la gallega, a la canaria, a la panadera, a la putanesca, à la provençale, à la dijonnaise, à la jardinière, à la paysanne, are just some examples that show the great productivity of a la + nombre structure in Spanish, à la + nom in French. However, most of these frequent combinations are not included in bilingual lexicographic works, since, in general, the introduction of phraseological data is insufficient or incorrect. Furthermore, we consider that these sequences, due to the manifestation of certain features, such as semi-lexicality, lower semantic idiomaticity, the presence of fixed and variable elements, and a functional meaning of an adverb, can be analyzed from a constructivist approach, that is, identified with lexical matrixes. Likewise, this approach would allow us to address a wide spectrum of combinations, from conventionalized locutions to those combinations of free and ephemeral creation in a discursive situation, present in the linguistic corpora consulted.