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A Learner-Oriented Annotated Resource of French Multiword Expressions for Text Adaptation in Foreign Language Reading

This article presents a learner-oriented annotated lexical resource of French multiword expressions (MWEs) designed to support text adaptation in foreign language reading. MWEs, including idioms and collocations, pose major comprehension challenges for learners because their meaning often cannot be inferred compositionally or depends on conventional lexical constraints. To address this issue, the study extends the existing verbal MWE database by integrating nominal and verbal MWEs annotated according to a linguistically grounded typology distinguishing idioms, opaque collocations, and transparent collocations. The resource was developed through a multi-step methodology combining automatic extraction from pedagogical corpora, manual annotation using decision-tree-based guidelines, and CEFR level assignment based on corpus distribution. The resulting dataset includes approximately 2,700 expressions enriched with detailed linguistic and learner-relevant metadata. Annotation campaigns involving native and non-native annotators showed moderate agreement, reflecting the gradient nature of phraseological opacity. By linking phraseological complexity with learner proficiency, this resource provides a reproducible framework for modeling MWE difficulty. It offers valuable support for text adaptation, readability assessment, and the development of NLP-based educational tools, contributing to improved accessibility of French texts for language learners.