Основы теории английского языка. Листунова Е.И. - 40 стр.

for’, as it does with the post (catch the post). New forms of public
transport can be added to the set of possible alternatives (e.g. hydro-
foil/hovercraft), but some restrictions exist as with ship, though not
with boat. Catch does not generally co-occur with forms of private
transport (bicycle/car/yacht/dinghy/helicopter, etc.) though taxi (catch
a taxi) is an exception. Although catch is unrestricted in relation to
restricted collocations such as those cited above, it is relatively re-
stricted itself when compared with some other habitual cooccurrences
such as Adj + coffee: strong/weak/black/white/Irish/Turkish/Brazil-
ian/hot/iced/sweet/bitter, etc. coffee. However, numerous a& are the
adjectives that can co-occur with coffee, there are limits: coffee can
be strong but not powerful or vital, weak but not limp, Irish ‘coffee
laced with whisky’, but not British, and so on.
       Despite such limits, the generous openness of this collocation
apparent in the wide range of possible adjective options it has, places
it at the lower end of a scale of idiomaticity in contrast to smell a rat,
white lie, catch fire, etc., which are lexically invariant and non-
literal, completely or partially.
       It is difficult to maintain a strict division between pure idioms,
semi-idioms, literal idioms, restricted and unrestricted collocations. The
range of alternatives that can co-occur with blue ‘obscene’ (film/joke,
etc) may lead to this expression being seen as both a semi-idiom like
white lie and a restricted collocation like explode ‘debunk’ a myth/theory/
notion/idea/belief, especially as both have specialized subsenses; ‘ob-
scene’ and ‘debunk’, which are non-literal. Consequently, semi-idioms
and restricted collocations can be regarded as overlapping as in Cowie
(1981). However, explode a myth because of its several options has less
unity as a multiword expression than the invariant catch one’s breath
‘check’ or catch fire ‘ignite’, ‘be enthused’. Looked at in this way,
explode a myth, etc. belongs more with catch a bus, etc., the chief
difference being that the first is relatively restricted, the second relatively
unrestricted. A pure idiom such as get cold feet can take two other options
(have/give), a flexibility which establishes links between it and restricted
collocations. This kind of fuzziness afflicts taxonomies in every area of
language. The elements of a language cannot all be lumped together —
differences do exist — nor can they be inflexibly categorized, as shared
features are also present. What we have in the linguistic universe, as in the
material one, is a mix of pure breds and hybrids. Following other schol-
ars, I have already suggested a graduated scale as the best means of

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