Formulaic language covers a range of phenomena – e.g. proverbs, idioms, collocations, lexical bundles and speech act routines – that are thought to be retrieved from memory (by the speaker) and processed (by the hearer) as holistic units rather than being creatively assembled on the basis of the compositional rules of syntax each time they are needed. However, there is considerable disagreement among linguists regarding the exact nature and scope of formulaicity.

In this course, we will look at a range of relevant phenomena and describe their linguistic characteristics in order to arrive at a better understanding of formulaicity. For example, formulaic language is often semantically opaque (e.g. to beat about the bush), but there are good reasons to believe that semantically transparent sequences such as It was lovely to see you or even more flexible constructions involving slots for open-class items such NP be-TENSE sorry to keep-TENSE you waiting are formulaic in nature. We will be looking at different methodologies to measure formulaicity (e.g. corpus linguistics and psycholinguistics) and consider the acquisition of formulaic language in both first and second language learners.