Reassessing the Canon: “fixed” phrases in general reference corpora

This paper sets forth the argument for revisiting fixed phrases in the light of the knowledge that their fixedness is not necessarily something to be taken for granted. It focuses on the location and analysis of variant forms in general reference corpora. Existing phraseological structures, including collocational frameworks, idiom schemas and semi-prepackaged phrases, are introduced by way of background before a procedure for retrieving non-canonical forms of fixed expressions in general reference corpora is presented. Some implications relating to the study of variant forms are presented, along with suggestions for future research directions.