Основы теории английского языка. Листунова Е.И. - 39 стр.

                                          IV. Unrestricted variance, literal
                                          beautiful/lovely, etc. Sweet
                                          woman, smooth/plump, etc.
                                          glowing/rosy cheeks, etc.
Literal idioms
IV. Restricted variance,                  V. Restricted, variance, literal,
optional elements                         optional elements
abstain (from), (even)                    shrug (one’s shoulders), nod
worse, worse (still), develop             (one’s head), clap (one’s
(from) (into), etc.                       hands), etc.
       Idioms yield three sub-classes: pure idioms, semi-idioms, and
literal idioms. A working definition of a pure idiom which is adequate
for the present is ‘a type of conventionalized, non-literal multiword
expression’. Spill the beans, for example, has nothing to do with
beans. In contrast to its literal counterpart meaning ‘letting fall legu-
minous seeds’, a non-literal meaning is imposed on the idiom as
a whole: ‘commit an indiscretion’.
       A semi-idiom (Weinreich 1969; Cowie 1981) has one or more
literal constituents and at least one with a non-literal subsense, usually
special to that co-occurrence relation and no other: drop has the
meaning ‘overuse’ only when it co-occurs with names. Other exam-
ples are catch one’s breath ‘check’, foot the bill ‘pay’, etc. Some of
these semi-idioms, like their kin, restricted collocations with spe-
cialized subsenses, permit lexical variation, for example, blue ‘ob-
scene’ film/joke/gag/story/comedian.
       Literal idioms (on foot; tall, dark and handsome; waste not, want
not; on the contrary; a (very) happy birthday; a merry Christmas and a
happy New Year, etc.) meet the salient criterion for idioms: invari-
ance or restricted variation. They are, however, less semantically
complex then pure and semi-idioms.
       Some collocations, like idioms, show a habitual co-occurrence
of words but these are multiword expressions which permit lexical
alternatives as a matter of course, either restricted or unrestricted:
       addled eggs/brains, in the-not-too-distant past/future (restrict-
ed); by dint of hard work/perseverance/repetition/application/patience/
persistence, etc. catch a bus/train/tram, etc. (unrestricted). The last
example is the most unrestricted collocation of the cited examples,
but this is only in relation to the others. Catch in the context of items
signifying public transport has the specialized subsense ‘be in time
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