fixedness

[Jean Hudson]

Dear funknetters

It's quite a few years since Paul Hopper wrote (in Traugott & Heine 1991):
"The occurrence of certain lexical items in frequent collocations (for
example when the word 'foot' repeatedly occurs in phrases like 'at the foot
of the hill', etc) may be prima facie evidence of incipient grammaticalization."
My primary interest is the notion of 'fixedness' and I've been trying (in
vain) to find references to work related to this citation. Note that it is
not the grammaticalization of the phrase that concerns me but the propensity
of words that seem to be undergoing grammaticalization to become part of
fixed expressions.

Any references to related work or contacts with interested researchers would
be most welcome.

Jean Hudson