Abstract

This paper reveals new features of certain phraseological units (PUs) through bottom-up and top-down examination. Previous phraseological research has tended to focus on the PUs characteristically observed in a genre or context or how PUs semantically and syntactically behave to improve communicative competence. However, previous phraseological research has failed to give systematic explanations as to the formation of PUs and the process and conditions necessary for a word-combination to become a PU. By applying existing word-formation rules to various PUs, this study clarifies the formation and formation process for PUs and the four conditions required for a word combination to become a PU. It was found that although the word-formation rules are used, PUs generally arise in an unformed manner. Further, word-combinations are used as PUs only if they undergo a formation process and abide by the four conditions. PU features were found to be function words from a degrammaticalization standpoint. It has been widely accepted that degrammaticalization occurs in words. However, no research to date has dealt with the application of degrammaticalization to PUs. It was found that semantic degrammaticalization occurs in PUs arising from function words.

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