Vārdu savienojumi ar lietvārdu 'auss' 'Latviešu valodas vēsturiskās vārdnīcas' materiālos

In the article, word groups with the word auss (‘ear’) in the early written sources of Latvian are considered. It is based on the materials of the Historical Dictionary (16th–17th centuries) of Latvian, which contains mainly religious texts – the electronic dictionary is constantly supplemented with new entries, and the word auss is one of the largest entries up to now (number of tokens: 512). In writing entries for the dictionary, the biggest part of the work is to look through all the tokens, to find the word groups related to the particular word, and to determine to which type of word groups each belongs. In the Historical Dictionary of Latvian, word groups are classified into three types: frequently used free word groups, without sense explanation; stable word groups, without special transfer of sense, but with a sense explanation; and phraseological units or idioms, also with a sense explanation. In the written sources of Latvian of the 16th–17th centuries, a wide range of word groups with the word auss is found to belong to all three types of word groups: free word groups, for example, ar ausīm dzirdēt (nedzirdēt) (‘to hear (not to hear) with ear’); stable word groups, auss/ausu skripstiņš (‘earlobe’); and idioms, pa vienu ausi ieiet, pa otru atkal iziet (‘in one ear and out the other’). The word auss belongs to the base of inherited lexicon, the so called somatic idioms characteristic not only in Latvian, but also in many Indo-European languages. Semantic transfers, for example, ear = hearing, are universals characteristic to many languages, too. In ancient Latvian texts, the construction of some word groups has German influence; for example, ausis atvērās sev (‘ears opened for themselves’) and runāt priekš kāda ausīm (‘to speak for someones ear’). Sometimes the word auss in the word groups has a function of in-tensification: it emphasizes the need to listen carefully or to pay attention. For example, ar ausīm klausīties (‘to listen with ear’) means ‘to listen carefully.’ In the ancient texts, the distinction between free word groups and stable word groups, as well as between stable word groups and idioms, cannot be drawn firmly. Therefore all the meanings of dictionary entries, as well as word groups and their belonging to a particular type, are always discussed within the work group of the Historical Dictionary.