Phraseology lecture 13 phraseology and phraseological units

The ‘freedom’ of free word-groups is relative and arbitrary.

• Nothing is entirely ‘free’ in speech as its linear relationships are governed, restricted and regulated, on the one hand, by requirements of logic and common sense and, on the other, by the rules of grammar and combinability.
• A black-eyed girl but not of a black-eyed table.
• The child was glad is quite correct, but a glad child is wrong.

Free word-groups are so called not because of any absolute freedom in using them but simply because they are each time built up anew in the speech process whereas idioms are used as ready-made units with fixed and constant structures.

• Free word-groups are so called not because of any absolute freedom in using them but simply because they are each time built up anew in the speech process whereas idioms are used as ready-made units with fixed and constant structures.