In this paper, an analysis is presented of selected Slovene somatic phraseological units or phraseological cores containing the component roka ‘hand’ ([delati (kaj)] z levo roko, biti igrača/igračka v rokah (koga/česa), and iz prve roke, iz druge roke), which are listed alphabetically under the entry roka in the Slovar slovenskih frazemov (Dictionary of Slovene Phrasemes). Their usage was studied using the deduplicated Gigafida 2.0 corpus with both the CJVT concordancer and the NoSketch Engine concordancer.
For the first phraseological unit, three aspectually paired verb collocates are particularly relevant: jemati/vzeti (kaj) z levo roko, opraviti/opravljati (kaj) z levo roko, and lotiti/lotevati se (česa) z levo roko, which frequently appear in negative and modal contexts. The obligatory valency slot is most commonly filled by nouns from the domain of sports.
The phraseological unit biti/postati igrača/igračka v rokah (koga ali česa) exists in multiple variants, with the most frequent components being the verb biti and the diminutive noun igračka. Data show that we are most often igračka v rokah of the powerful, of fate, (higher or stronger) forces, politics, others, and people.
Typical verbal collocators accompanying the phraseological units iz prve roke and iz druge roke are semantically specialized. The unit iz prve roke is primarily associated with verbs of knowing, perceiving, and communicating, whereas iz druge roke more commonly co-occurs with verbs denoting buying, selling, or acquiring something.
The Dictionary of Slovene Phrasemes does not yet register the most common variant of the verbal component occurring with the phraseological unit z levo roko, i.e. vzeti (kaj) z levo roko. The entry kupiti (kaj) iz prve roke registered in the dictionary may also be somewhat misleading, as the unit iz prve roke is not typically associated with verbs of buying or selling (only three instances of this unit appear in the GF 2.0 corpus), but more frequently with verbs from the semantic field of knowing, perceiving, and communicating.
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