ABSTRACT
I introduce the phenomenon of idiomatic blocking and discuss how the Elsewhere Principle could be a reasonable way of explaining the phenomenon. Unfortunately, the Elsewhere Principle does not apply to most versions of formal grammar. A remedy is sought by couching grammars as systems of generation rules. If the generation starts from a pragmatic goal which gets enriched within the generation process, it can indeed be shown that a suitable specificity hierarchy would give the blocking effect. However, in view of the problem of reverse blocking, it seems that this solution must be given up in favour of a theory in which generation and interpretation both play an essential role but where linguistics itself is after all the definition of a form-meaning association serving as a resource for both algorithms. The two forms of idiomatic blocking are then meta-linguistic phenomena arising from the generation and interpretation process.
