Parseme MWE Template: English

Fixedness/flexibility of MWE parts

We should not classify entire MWEs with respect to their fixedness, but we should rather classify each part of an MWE for fixedness. For this reason, we list the relevant tests for the particular syntactic categories.

At least semi-fixed

Does the head noun inflect? Singular/plural

• kick [NP: the bucket]: *kick [the buckets]

Can an adjective/modifier be inserted.

• kick [NP: the bucket]: kick [the proverbial/social bucket]

MWEs by fixedness

Semi-fixed MWEs

General characterization

Semi-fixed MWEs may show inflection and for reflexive pronoun agreement.

They do not allow for internal modification, lexical variation, or topicalization. Usually they do not allow for passive.

Nominal MWEs

Compounds. They are treated as semi-fixed rather than fixed because they typically show number inflection.

Semi-fixed Verb-Noun Idiomatic Combinations

Typically show agreement on the verb, but do not allow for passivization or any movement of the direct object NP. These are treated as non-decomposable idioms.

kick the bucket

saw logs

trip the light fantastic

Flexible MWEs

Flexible Verb-Noun Idiomatic Combinations

They all allow for passive, raising, and internal modification.

Class 1: Some may allow for pronominalization, determiner change.

spill the beans

Class 2: Even fewer may allow for relative clause formation, use of idiom parts without the rest of the idiom in the same sentence, though it must be salient in the discourse.

pull strings

Institutionalized phrases

General characterization

Combination only shows statistical idiomaticity.

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