El estatus del concepto cliché en fraseología

Resumo

What does the following linguistic units have in common: barril de pólvora, marcar la tensión, como en casa en ningún sitio, dulces sueños, concepto u observatorio (meaning 'plan', 'project', 'draft', 'design ', the former, and 'council', 'committee', 'institute', the latter)? Each one of them is considered linguistic clichés, though only the first four are also classified as phrascological units. This answer may generate a series of questions around the coneept of cliché, the fact it can be applied to both simple and complex lexical units and its connection to the Phraseology. Considering these points, this paper ponders, firstly, about the notion of cliché, its origin and development and about how it has been defined and characterized, mainly in the linguistic scope; secondly, we observe the treatment it has received in Phraseology. Thirdly, we reflect on the way in which the notion of cliché may be applied to phraseological studies. We argue that it is more effective to associating it with the idea of function, instead of connecting it to the idea of category. Finally, we consider the interest and relevance of this notion to this field, based on the examination of a set of phraseologisms obtained from a collection of 350 phraseological units (all of them clichés, according to different fields).