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1. Criterion of stability of the lexical components and lack of
motivation. It is assumed that unlike constituents of free word-
groups that may vary according to communication needs, member-
words of phraseological units are always reproduced as single
unchangeable collocations. For example, the constituent red in the
free word-group red flower may be substituted for by any other
adjective denoting color, without essentially changing the
denotational meaning of the word-group under consideration (a
flower of a certain color). But in the phraseological unit red tape
(meaning “bureaucratic methods”) no substitution like this is
possible, as a change of the adjective would involve a complete
change in the meaning of the whole group.
2. Criterion of function. Phraseological units function as
word-equivalents, the denotational meaning belongs to the word
group as a single semantically inseparable unit and grammatical
meaning i.e. the part-of-speech meaning is felt as belonging to the
word-group as a whole irrespective of the part-of-speech meaning
of the component words. (cf.: the free word group a long day and
the phraseological unit in the long run).
3. Criterion of context. The point of this criterion is in the
fact that free word-groups make up variable contexts whereas the
essential feature of phraseological units is a fixed context. Thus,
in free word-groups small town/ room the adjective small has the
meaning “not large” but in the set-phrases small hours the
meaning of the word small has nothing to do with the size. It
means “early hours from 1 to 4 a.m.”
4. Criterion of idiomaticity. Phraseological units are ready-
made phrases registered in dictionaries while free word-groups are
made up spontaneously. The above is probably the most discussed
– and the most controversial – problem in the field of phraseology.
The task of distinguishing between free word-groups and
phraseological units is further complicated by the existence of a
great number of marginal cases, the so-called semi-fixed or semi-
free word-groups, also called nonphraseological word-groups

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