Collocations as a Phraseological Category Viewed from Different Perspectives

The delimitation of collocations as a category on its own can be done along different lines. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the definition & use of the term 'collocation' from various points of view. Collocations differ from free word combinations on one hand & from idioms on the other, having two characteristic features: a certain degree of meaning compositionality & a certain degree of formal, structural & lexical fixedness. These features appear in several combinations which form the basis of different classifications. First, criteria & classifications are discussed; second, the use of the term in lexicographic theory & corpus linguistics is analyzed. The discussion is illustrated by a few examples of lexicographic representation in Danish dictionaries. Finally, an outline of various descriptive approaches with their focus on particular features is presented. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document