PERSPECTIVES AND THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO FORMULAIC EXPRESSIONS

Formulaic language is a longstanding empirical and theoretically recognized phenomenon and one of the most structurally important aspects of any given gender. Past attempts to study the phenomenon have faced definitional and methodological inconsistencies regarding the extent, taxonomic levels, and the linguistic level of formulaic expression. This study attempts to examine major theories in the structure of language in the form of structures, cognition, and psycholinguistics to better understand formulaic language, and to shed some light on formulaic sequences as coherent and stable forms of language. Referring to the essences of phraseology, usage-oriented analyses of language, and the sub-discipline of psycholinguistics, thestudy attempts to analyze the storage, retrieval, semantic unity, and fixed function of formulaic expressions. The study indicates that formulaic expressions are a central organizing mechanism of the lexicon and provide the language user fluency, economy of processing, coherence of discourse, and creativity of language. This leads the study to argue that our understanding of the phenomenon and the mentally represented form of fixed expressions will improve if the interrelation of form and meaning is betterunderstood.