Fraaseologiaan

Fraaseologiaan, or phraseology, is a branch of linguistics that studies fixed expressions, idioms, collocations, and other multiword units whose meanings or usages are not fully predictable from the individual words. The field distinguishes among idioms, where the figurative meaning is not deducible from components; collocations, where certain words habitually co-occur; and set phrases or formulae, which are conventional sequences used as fixed units. It also covers proverbs, phrasal templates, and metaphorical or evaluative language patterns.

Researchers use corpus-based methods to identify frequent combinations, analyze semantic prosody, and describe how phraseological units vary by genre, register, or language. The study informs lexicography, language teaching, translation, and natural language processing by clarifying which units function as fixed wholes and which allow productive variation.

Examples include idioms like "kick the bucket" (figurative meaning is not literal), collocations such as "strong coffee" or "make a decision," and fixed phrases like "in terms of," "as a result." Phraseology interacts with semantics and pragmatics, reflecting cultural norms and stylistic choices.

In Finnish linguistics, fraaseologiaan refers to this field within the broader study of phraseology; language-specific resources use fraaseologia or fraaseologiat to describe a language’s fixed expressions.

See also: idiom, collocation, fixed expression, proverb, corpus linguistics, lexicography.