1 Chapter 1. Introduction: status and definition of compounding ...

2.2.2.1 Lexical and grammatical variability
Claiming (as the title of the present chapter suggests) that compounds can be viewed and
also studied as idiomatic expressions, or perhaps even as idioms proper (?), calls for an
explanation what we mean by these.
Speaking of ‗idiomatic expressions‘ I have in mind multiword chunks consisting of
constituents which are bound together lexically and syntactically. These constituents need not
necessarily be bound absolutely, although this kind of invariability is believed to be a significant
feature of typical idioms, e.g., red herring, cook one‟s goose. However, there are combinations
in which one constituent (called a ‗collocate‘) can be replaced, cf. chequered history/career;
seize/grasp the nettle. Moreover, certain degrees of variance are permitted within grammatical
categories, whereas syntactic variance (sometimes referred to as syntactic productivity) is hardly
possible, e.g., It speaks/spoke volumes – *volumes are/were spoken; He spilled the beans – *The
beans were spilled (unless we have in mind the literal meaning). For reasons of space, intricacies
concerning possibilities of variance in genuine idioms cannot be commented upon 3 ; fortunately,
these will not affect the following discussion on compounds. Nevertheless, even if readers may
judge the expression spill the beans as an idiom but chequered history as a collocation (due to
the fact of the replaceable ‗collocate‘ and the fixed ‗base‘ in the latter case), it is still a delicate
matter to determine the points at which a multiword expression is called a ‗collocation‘ rather
than an ‗idiom‘, to say nothing of a boundary between these two on the one hand, and so-called
‗free combination‘ (practically ‗syntactic string‘) on the other hand, e.g., a small desk, open the
door (to be compared to a writing desk; answer the door). One reason is that we do not have any
means of measuring the degrees on one or the other scale. The other reason is that the feature of
variance, or variability, is by itself a complex phenomenon, involving both grammar and lexis.
29