Where does phraseology actually begin?
(2015) Yearbook of Phraseology — Vol. 6, n° 1, p. 1-2 (2015)
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- After several decades of research on phraseology, one of the most controversial topics of this multi-faceted discipline remains the borderline between ordinary constructions (what John Sinclair called the open-choice principle) and phraseology (Sinclair's idiom principle). Consider a phrase such as take the example: is this just an open choice between a number of possibilities, in this case rather limited, or are we already dealing with some kind of communicative routine? The criterion of frequency might be invoked, but then you would have to conclude that 'take the third exit' is also a set phrase, because it is particularly frequent (on the Web at least). And what do you do with other borderline cases such as take the form, take the time, take the lead, take the necessary action, take the offensive, take the risk, take the same approach, take the train to, etc.? Sweeping some of those cases aside by calling them light verb constructions does not solve the whole problem, because what is at stake here is probably a complex interplay between frequency and fixedness, that needs to be further explored.
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Colson, J.-P. (2015). Where does phraseology actually begin? Yearbook of Phraseology, 6(1), 1-2. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/188124 (Original work published 2015)