Collocation et locution: deux notions lexicales pour mieux apprendre le vocabulaire

In this article we present the main approaches for the teaching of phraseological units to demonstrate their limitation regarding the definition of and the distinction between an idiom and a collocation. Then, we introduce our definition of these categories, based on the Explanatory and Combinatorial Lexicology and we explore the RL-fr – Réseau Lexical du Français, a lexical network that distinguishes between idioms and collocations. Our exploration of this lexical resource is based on phraseological units containing the French noun SOUPE, an idiom (SOUPE AU LAIT) and a collocation (s’emporter comme une soupe au lait).