On the importance of a diachronic approach to phraseology

Résumé

A diachronic approach to Phraseology may provide us the key to understand the nature of the phraseological phenomenon, thus contributing to the establishment of the subdiscipline. In this paper, we underline the relation between Phraseology and language change, showing the similarities between Phraseologization and Grammaticalization processes and, subsequently, focusing on their differences. Having explained the general Phraseologization process, we focus on its three sides: the acquisition of structural, semantic and pragmatic fixedness, leading to the synchronic features known as polylexicality and idiomaticity. Having seen the importance of semantic and pragmatic factors in the process, we describe Phraseologization in terms of semantic change, using the Spanish idiom “con pelos y señales” as an example.