Foreign MWEs
Overview
Multiword expressions may be borrowed wholesale from another language. They tend to be completely fixed.
Examples
- et cetera
- coup d’état
- déjà vu
Unaware of any evidence that these can ever be split or internally modified, we treat these as multiword lexical items:
The nation is so prone to coup d'état -s that each of them feels like a déjà vu .
coup d'état : N[+sg -pl]
-s : NP[+pl]\N[+sg]
a : NP[+sg]/N[-pl]
déjà vu : N[+sg -pl]
coup d'état -s : coup d'état < -s => NP[+pl]
a déjà vu : a > déjà vu => NP[+sg]
(I am not sure about the particulars of the categories. - Nathan)