Well gee...

I have been thinking about this on and off for awhile now. I was also reading about catch phrases in Eric Partridge and the definition seems loose enough to include almost anything. And yet it seems like there are fairly clear divisions between phrase types that become apparent over time

There are some phrases that do seem to be catch phrases like: "let's face it.", "my bad". There arebproverbs like "A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush", or "even the devil eats flies." Then there are turns of phrase that come down through the years. Phrases like "all of a sudden" or the recently queried, "to get stuck in". And then there are some that I'm not sure are really phrases in that they aren't repeated enough... like "was bring bumped up" which someone asked below.

So has anyone thought about this or know more about how phrases are catagorised? I might be over complicating this. I'm just curious.

I am sure there are more sub-categories.
Aphorisms
Cliches
Phrases
Proverbs
Quotations

Yes, that's just what I'm looking for. Thanks Bruce.

Don't forget platitudes!

Types of phrases at www.phrases.org.uk bulletin_board 21 messages 482.html

Where was I for that discussion! Thanks ESC. Sorry I missed it the first time.