Feste Phrasen

Abstract

Multi-Word Expressionsand Fixed Phrases

According to Harald Burger, fixed phrases are defined as less fixed phraseologisms compared to the topical formulas (Burger, 2007:37). Fixed phrases include most, but also the most well-known, categories in the phraseological field, such as short forms, which are considered the shortest phraseologisms and usually appear as one-word lexemes such as "Metze", twin formulas consisting of two words of the same part of speech such as Ach and Krach , idioms such as blaming someone, proverbial idioms defined as incomplete but meaningful statements, winged words such as the tree of knowledge (Bible) and if God did not exist, one would have to invent him (Voltaire), proverbs (Wellerisms), the anonymous proverbs are formulated in a funny and ironic way, e.g. All beginnings are difficult, said the thief, then he stole an anvil. This paper focuses multi-word expressions and fixed phrases from a theoretical perspective. It touches upon as twin formulas, idioms, proverbial sayings and winged words, et explores a set of properties characterizing such structures, among which arbitrarily prominent co-occurrence, or collocation as a particular feature, discontinuity, and non-compositionality. Due to this variablility, there would be a need for classification. A set of characteristic features have been established in this paper for classificatory purposes.