Word-combination can be called:
1) A phrase;
2) A word cluster / a cluster of words;
3) A word group / a group of words.
Word-combination and Sentence are regarded to be main unites of Syntax.
The problem of definition of Word-combination concerns the difficulty in giving the positive definition. It is usually defined negatively – what Word-combination does not refer to.
Thus the main negative differential characteristics of Word-combination is the following: Word-combination, in comparison with Sentence (they are compared because both refer to Syntax, not to morphology), does not have the communicative direction.
Definitions of Word-combination:
| in the Occidental Linguistics | In the Home Linguistics |
| Word-combination together with Sentence is the main unity of Syntax. It has two or more elements which are related syntactically, can vary its forms in accordance with the peculiarities of syntactic combinations of its elements and does not have the communicative direction. | Syntactic unity which is called Word-combination is any syntactically organized group that consists of combination of Categorematic or Syntacategorematic words which are united with any type of syntactic connection. |
Theory of Word-combination studies:
1) Its structure (main and dependent words / elements);
2) Arrangements of its elements, the principle of arrangement the elements of Word
combination in relation to each other (the order the elements of a word-combinations
take in its structure);
3) Its forms which can differ (the form a word-combination gets in the result of the
arrangement of its elements);
4) Syntactic relations between or among the elements of it (peculiarities of syntactic
combinations and relations in different forms of a word-combination).