The paper discusses two types of noun phrases with
idiosyncratic properties: the Big Mess Construction and the
Binominal Noun Phrase Construction.
Employing the framework of constructivist Head-driven Phrase
Structure Grammar I develop an analysis of these constructions
with equal attention for their regular and irregular properties.
For this purpose I make use of a bidimensional hierarchy of phrase
types, in which the higher (less specific) types capture the regularities,
in which the maximally specific types capture the idiosyncracies,
and in which the intermediate types cover the zone in between.
The resulting treatment is compared with a number of alternative
treatments, both transformational and monostratal ones.
The more general purpose of the paper is to show how the treatment
of idiosyncratic constructions can be integrated in a framework that
allows for a continuum between the regular and the idiosyncratic,
rather than for a dichotomy between them.