Formulas and Free Expressions. If after these preliminary remarks we turn our attention to thepsychological side of linguistic activity.it will be well at once tomention the important distinction between formulas or formular unitsand lree expressions。 borne things in language--in any language—are of the formula character:that is to say,no one can changeanything in them.A phrase like“How do you do?”is entirelydifferent from such a phrase as“I gave the boy a lump of sugar.”In.the former everything is fixed:you cannot even change the stress,saying“How do you do?”or make a pause between the words.andit is not usual nowadays as in former times to say“How does yourfather do?”or“How did you do?”Even though it may still bepossible.after saying“How do you do?”in the USUal way to some ofthe people present,to alter the stress and say“And how do you do。〕itde Mary?”the phrase is for all practical purposes one unchangedand unchangeable formula.It is the same with“Gpod morning!”.“nank you.”“Beg your pardon.”and other similar expressions.0Be may indeed analyze such a formula and show that it consists ofseveral words.but it is feh and handled as a unit,which may oftenmean something quite different from the meaning of the componentwords taken separately:“beg your pardon,”for instance,oftenmeans“please repeat what you said.I did not catch it exactly”;“how do you do?”is no longer a question requiring an answer.ere. It is easy to see that“I gave the boy a lump of sugar”is of atotally different order.Here it is possible to stress any of the essentialwords and to make a pause.for instance.after“boy,”or tosubstitute“he”or“she”for“I.”“lent”for“gave,”“Tom”for“the boy.”etc.One may insert“never”and make other alterations.vmilc in handling formulas memory,or the repetition of what one has0nee learned.is everything,free expressions involve another kind ofmental activity:they have to be created in each case anew by thespeaker.who inserts the words that fit the particular situation.Thesentence he thus creates may,or may not,be different in some one ormore respects from anything he has ever heard or uttered before;thatis of no importance for our inquiry.What is essential is that inpronouncing it he con~oirns to a certain pattern.No matter what wordshe inserts.he builds up the sentence in the sanle way,and evenwithout any special grammatical training we feel that the two sentences. ……