History of Corpus Linguistics

Abstract

An idiom is a tool with which human speech can be made much more colorful and varied. Examples of this type of phrase can be found worldwide, in every existing language and all possible contexts. Some of them are modern and some of them have been around for hundreds of years with traceable origins. In spite of this fact the linguistic community has still not agreed on one fully valid definition as the emergence of an idiom cannot be predicted, nor explained by rules. However there are points that bring us closer to determining what an idiom is.