Jelena Parizoska University of Zagreb Croatia https://orcid.org/0000–0002–3407–2964 Phraseological Derivation in Croatian: Nominalization of Verbal Idioms Abstract. This paper deals with Croatian NP idioms which are derived from ver- bal idioms that are caused-motion and self-motion constructions, e.g. bacati/baciti rukavicu u lice komu (lit. throw a glove in someone’s face ‘to challenge’) → bacanje rukavice u lice (lit. the throwing of a glove into someone’s face); bacaˇ c rukavice u lice (lit. a thrower of a glove in someone’s face); rukavica u lice (lit. a glove in the face ‘a challenge’). The aim is to give a cognitive linguistic account of nominalization of verbal idioms using corpus data. More specifically, we will show that reification – the conceptual shift from a relational concept to a thing – is constrained both glob- ally and locally. The most common patterns of nominalization are those in which the relation is still present. This is in line with the nature of verbal idioms, which are used to describe the characteristics of a specific situation. Key words: phraseological derivation, verbal idioms, reification, corpus 1. Introduction Phraseological derivation, i.e. the formation of new idioms from existing ones, is common in many European languages. For example, verbal idioms undergo nominalization and form various types of NP idioms. The following examples from Polish and Russian illustrate nominal expressions derived from verbal idioms, which contain a noun describing a situation (1 and 2) and a human participant (3): (1) obiecywać złote gory (lit. promise golden mountains ‘make extravagant promises’) → obiecywanie złotych gór (lit. the promising of golden moun- tains), (2) выбрать меньшее из зол (lit. choose a lesser evil ‘choose the less un- pleasant of two poor choices’) → выбор меньшего из зол (lit. the choice of a lesser evil),