Herbst T (2026)
Publication Type: Authored book
Publication year: 2026
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 9780443222863
DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-323-95504-1.01239-4
This entry outlines the concept of the idiom principle, which was developed by John Sinclair on the basis of large-scale corpus analyses. According to this principle, language use involves a considerable amount of “semi-preconstructed phrases” (Sinclair, 1991, p. 110). Different ways of accommodating the facts underlying the idiom principle in other approaches will be indicated, such as the notion of partially filled constructions in Construction Grammar or research on collocation and idiomaticity (especially in foreign language linguistics).
APA:
Herbst, T. (2026). Idiom Principle. Elsevier.
MLA:
Herbst, Thomas. Idiom Principle. Elsevier, 2026.
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