Continuum of Phrases and Phraseological Units in French Language

This study explores the continuum of phrases and phraseological units in the French language, focusing on their roles in both general and specialized discourse. Phraseology, encompassing idioms and collocations, is essential for understanding the interplay between everyday language and technical expressions. Despite extensive research on English phraseology, a significant gap exists in the comparative study of French, particularly in the pragmatic and rhetorical functions of phraseological units across different genres. To address this, a corpus-based analysis was conducted, examining the frequency, distribution, and contextual usage of phrases in a diverse range of French texts, including academic, journalistic, and conversational sources. The findings reveal that idioms, while culturally embedded, are subject to lexicalization in specialized contexts, where their meanings become more fixed. Collocations, on the other hand, show variability depending on the genre, with scientific texts exhibiting more rigid structures compared to the flexibility observed in journalistic discourse. These results suggest that phraseological units in French function along a continuum, influenced by their context of use. The study’s implications are significant for both linguistic theory and language teaching, highlighting the need for further research into the cognitive processes underlying phrase usage and the development of pedagogical frameworks that incorporate phraseology into language learning curricula. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the role of fixed expressions in French and suggests new directions for future studies in phraseology.