ABSTRACT
The fi rst attempts to systematize the study of collocations in Catalan come from Ginebra (2003, 2004). These studies discuss the terminological issue (there is still no general agreement about how to adapt the term collocation : both col·locació and concurrència are used in Catalan), establish an initial taxonomy of different kinds of Catalan collocation, and provide a general bibliographical overview. Since then, collocations in Catalan have been studied more extensively, although it cannot yet be said that they occupy an important position in the fi eld of Catalan linguistics. Probably, the most remarkable point is that there are approaches from different perspectives, and that different theoretical and methodological approaches do not meet each other (although this is not specifi c to the study of collocations, or to Catalan linguistics; unfortunately, it is the hallmark of current linguistics). In a more traditionally oriented approach to phraseology – mainly concerned with applied implementations such as lexicography and the phraseological analysis of literary works –, the concept of collocation seems to be considered as an inappropriately complex and unnecessarily abstract device (which obstructs taxonomic work, common in this tradition), whereas, according to at least some of the main trends in theoretical linguistics, it is regarded as not really relevant from a theoretical point of view. It hardly needs to be said that if some common ground were to be found the result would be benefi cial to both approaches.
