Finding the common ground: phraseological theory and terminology revisited

Abstract

The present paper is a state of the art review of the contemporary theory of phraseology. The field of phraseology has now been known to deal with 'the formulaic nature of language, the psycholinguistic reality of holistically stored multi-word expressions and the importance of phraseological units in second-language acquisition', among others [Hoffmann et al. 2015: 1]. Two major challenges, however, stand in the way: the ever-expanding list of terms pertaining to phraseology and a plethora of approaches regarding its scope. In an attempt to resolve these issues, the present paper will first focus on two major approaches to the study of phraseology: the traditional approach and the frequency-based approach. Then, a survey into phraseological terminology will be conducted. Further, connections between phraseology and four influential disciplines, i.e. construction grammar, semantics, pragmatics and cultural linguistics will be explored. It will finally be concluded with a discussion of the points under analysis.