Explaining metaphorical motivation of idioms in French learners’ dictionaries

Idioms are challenging for non-natives because what is said differs from what is communicated. It has been demonstrated that the inner form is an important part of idiom semantics and, consequently, “any attempt to analyse figurative language by itself, without the inclusion of extralinguistic knowledge, is doomed to failure” (Dobrovol’skij and Piirainen 2022). The explanation of the image component should therefore receive a description in learners’ dictionaries. However, French dictionaries poorly represent the inner form in their semantic definition. This paper addresses the following question: How can the explanation of metaphorical motivation in learners’ dictionaries be improved? Three possibilities to explain the image component in dictionaries are discussed: a semantic explanation, etymological notes and pictures.