Phraseology is located at the intersection of lexicon and syntax. It deals with polylexical signs composed of, at least, two words (even a single one, if its use is idiomatic) which are fixed, repeated and often figurative. Polylexicality, (gradual) frozenness, repetition and institutionalization are, in fact, the essential properties that characterize the PU and that allow them to be distinguished from free productions.

History of Phraseology

The father of Phraseology is Charles Bally when he published Traité de Stylistique Française (1909). He was the first to give a name to this field and to make a systematic classification of the elements of fixed combinatorial language. Others had previously been able to refer to this linguistic phenomenon (see Michel Bréal), but Bally's work gave impulse to the development of this field of study which has now become another subject area in the linguistic disciplines.

Theoretical Phraseology

Phraseology takes into account the phraseological units (PU) of a language as its object of study. This field analyzes the formal, semantic and pragmatic properties of these elements and classifies them into categories. Based on empirical studies, phraseology identifies the theoretical principles that describe how PUs work in discourse.

Applied Phraseology

Applied phraseology covers practical areas such as Phraseodidactics, Phraseotranslatology and Phraseography, among others. In order to develop their own fields of application, these are based on the principles established by theoretical phraseology.