Namaeh Farhangistan

Namaeh Farhangistan

Types of Multi-Word Units in Persian

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Saeed Rafiei Khezri
Researcher at the Academy of Persian Language and Literature, Tehran, Iran
10.22034/nf.2026.313192.1120
Abstract
Mono-word units (lexemes) are lexical units that have essential function of organizing and categorizing human experience into symbolic units and to name new concepts. In natural languages, more than mono-word units, there are linguistic constructions, although, according to word formation, do not conform to mono- word units serve precisely the same function. These constructions are multi-word expressions (MWEs), the lexical units that formed by two or more lexemes and according to the properties of the component lexemes are lexically, syntactically, semantically, pragmatically and statistically marked. These units make up a significant portion of language lexicon and display some formal and functional idiosyncratic properties with respect to free word combinations and include an extremely varied set of types. The use of these units and their importance in language is by no means inferior to mono- word units, for this reason, recognizing and describing them has attracted the attention of researchers not only in the field of linguistics, but also in many other fields such as phraseology, lexicology, lexicography, computer linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics and natural language processing. In this article, after the introduction, first the importance of MWUs, the need to recognize and describe them are discussed; then the definitions of MWUs and criteria for extracting them are provided; finally based on the principles and rules, the types of MWUs are introduced and their classification is presented. This presentation and classification is based on data in the context of today language and synchronic observations.
Keywords
&ldquo
mono-word uits&rdquo
multi-word units&rdquo
to be multi-word&rdquo
lexical unit&rdquo
, &ldquo
types of MWEs&rdquo
Subjects
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Namaeh Farhangistan
Volume 24, Issue 6 - Serial Number 100
Nameh Farhangestan (Literary Studies)
January and February 2026
Pages 29-47

  • Receive Date 02 November 2021
  • Revise Date 26 November 2021
  • Accept Date 22 December 2021