[Lexicog] roots, stems, idioms, & phrases in an Oceanic language

[lengosi]

I'm plugging away at a lexicon for an Oceanic language and I've found myself in a bit of a muddle... I've been using something called the Dictionary Development Program to gather 'words' (and FieldWorks to work with the data), and much of the data are clearly compound words or idioms / phrases. Sometimes I think I know what I'm doing in terms of roots and stems, idioms and phrases, and I happily forge ahead, but there are other times I haul back on the reins and wonder if I've really got it straight. This is one of those 'other times'...

Here's a short example concerning the word /ghana/:
/bere ghilaghana/ v. 'recognise; lit. see know'
/ghana/ v. 'think'
/ghana bule-kaghini/ v. 'think carelessly; lit. think crazy-CAUS'
/ghana dea/ v. 'consider; lit. think go'
/ghana iti/ v. 'respect; lit. think up/high'
/ghana le/ v. 'forget; lit. think purposelessly'
/ghana lubathi/ v. 'forget; lit. think leave'
/ghana mava/ v. 'respect; lit. think heavy'
/ghana ruka/ v. 'doubt; lit. think two [times], twice'
/ghana sapa longa/ v. 'think comprehensively; lit. think seaward landward'
/ghanaghana/ n. 'thought, opinion'
/ghanaghana doku/ v. 'think hard'
/ghanaghana kasuni/ v. 'think before acting'
/ghanaghini/ v. 'remember'
/ghilaghana/ v. 'know, know how [to do s.t.]'
/ruka ghanaghana/ v. 'reconsider, think twice'
/talu ghilaghana/ v. '"tag"; attach an identifying mark on a chicken (foot / wing) to indicate ownership; lit. put know'

I think it would be safe to call /ghana/ a root, and something like /ghanaghana/ a stem (full and partial reduplication are used for both N > V and V > N derivation [among other things]), but things get muddled after that... How do you discern a compound from an idiom from a phrase / phrasal verb? 

Of course, as in many other Oceanic languages, there tends to be a lot of reduplication to indicate things like intensity, plurality, etc., but I've tried not to include such forms in the lexicon. But with something like the verb /ruka ghanaghana/ 'reconsider', it looks like the /ghanaghana/ part is reduplicated for plurality rather than V > N derivation.

Well, any clarity you could add to my muddle would be most welcome! Thanks,

Paul



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