A multiword expression (MWE) is a lexeme made up of a sequence of two or more lexemes that has properties that are not predictable from the properties of the individual lexemes or their normal mode of combination.
For a shorter definition, MWEs can be described as "idiosyncratic interpretations that cross word boundaries (or spaces)". (Sag et al., 2002: 2).
A multiword expression can be a compound, a fragment of a sentence, or a sentence. The group of lexemes which makup up a MWE can be continuous or discontinuous. It is not always possible to mark a MWE with a part of speech.
A MWE may be more or less frozen.
Example#1 in English: to kick the bucket, which means to die rather than to hit a bucket with one's foot. In this example, that is an endocentric compound, the part of speech may be determined as being a verb. The MWE is frozen, in the sense that no variation is possible.
Example#2 in English: to throw
Example#3 in French: la moutarde
Read more about Multiword Expression: Machine Translation (MT) of Multiword Expressions
Famous quotes containing the word expression:
“No mans thoughts are new, but the style of their expression is the never-failing novelty which cheers and refreshes men. If we were to answer the question, whether the mass of men, as we know them, talk as the standard authors and reviewers write, or rather as this man writes, we should say that he alone begins to write their language at all.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)