Abstract
This paper addresses the constraints that govern binomial (Paarformel) formation in German (as in fix und fertig, Kind und Kegel). It is shown that the most striking property of binomials, their striking irreversibility, follows without construction-specific assumptions, from the interaction of three classes of constraints that are all independently motivated in the grammar of German : (a) semantic/pragmatic salience constraints ; (b) phonological constraints on stress assignment in monomorphemes ; and (c) phonological constraints on syllable concatenation. It is argued that these highly general constraints may impose conflicting requirements on binomial candidates, and that these conflicts are resolved in an optimality-theoretic manner : The constraints are violable and ranked
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