(A construction is definable as a meaningful combination of forms). A construction may contain any number of morphemes in its constituent parts, and it may constitute a morphological or syntactic structural layer, but regardless of its size it must exhibit a meaningful relationship, which we may designate as its episememe.
- Nida (1951), a pag.11

Since most constructions are binary [...], it is convenient to describe the episememes by identifying the semantic components of the constituent parts. The following are a few of these types of constructions in English: action-goal: 'hit John' action-indirect -goal: 'gave him (the bat)' action-time: 'went yesterday' actor-action: 'John went' goal-action: 'John was hit' relation-axis: 'for Bill' limitation-substance: 'some man' quality-substance: 'white cloud'.
- Nida (1951), a pag.11

Most constructions [...] are semantically endocentric. This is true of most productive derivative formations, practically all inflectional formations, and most syntactic expressions. When expressions are semantically exocentric, we simply classify them as idioms [...]
- Nida (1951), a pag.13