Although there are units larger than the word in language, linguists have not been able to agree on a definition of these units. This study examines a variety of notions, relevant in the study of ”fixed” or ”frozen” expressions in contemporary French. Criteria such as memorization, unique context, non-compositionality, marked syntax, lexical blocking and grammatical blocking are analyzed in detail. A closer look at them reveals that in fact only one of them, lexical blocking, is both necessary and sufficient in the description of a fixed expression. The other criteria are, however, also important to the notion of ”fixedness”. It may well be that the criteria that have often been proposed in linguistic literature would benefit from being organized in a family resemblance rather than being used as necessary and sufficient conditions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-335 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Svensson, Maria Helena |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Moderna språk, Umeå : Moderna språk |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | French |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral thesis, monograph, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Skrifter från moderna språk, 1650-304X ; 15 |
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