items stored in the lexicon as catenae, whereby a given catena may or may not be a constituent. In syntax, a catena is any element or combination of elements (words or parts of words) that are continuous in the vertical dimension, that is, in the hierarchy of words. The elements form a catena insofar as they are linked together by dependencies. Some dependency grammar trees containing multiple-word lexical items that are catenae but not constituents are now produced. The following trees illustrate phrasal verbs: The verb and particle (in red) in each case constitute a particle verb construction, which is a single lexical item. The two words remain a catena even as shifting changes their order of appearance. The following trees illustrate polywords: The component words of the polywords (in red) are continuous in the vertical dimension and are therefore catenae. They cannot, however, be construed as constituents since they do not form complete subtrees. The following trees illustrate idioms: The fixed words constituting the idiom (in red) build a catena each time. Note that your is not part of the idiom in the first tree (tree a) because the possessor is variable, e.g. He is pulling my/her/his/someone's/etc. leg. An important caveat concerning idiom catenae is that they can be broken up in the syntax, e.g. Your leg is being pulled. The claim, however, is that these lexical items are stored as catenae in the lexicon; they do not always appear as catenae in the actual syntax. See also Dependency grammar Lexical chain Outline of linguistics Set phrase Notes References Lewis, M. 1997. Implementing the Lexical Approach. Language Teaching Publications. Hove, England. O’Grady, W. 1998. "The syntax of idioms". Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 16, 79–312. Osborne, T. and T. Groß 2012. "Constructions are catenae: Construction Grammar meets Dependency Grammar". Cognitive Linguistics 23(1), 163–214. External links Lexical semantics Linguistics terminology