Concept analysis is both the cornerstone and Achilles ' heel of terminography. This paper describes a linguistically oriented approach to concept analysis, in which terminological phrasemes are seen as potential indicators of conceptual meaning. We propose that phrasemes can assist the terminographer in acquiring conceptual information related to: (1) external influences on the domain, (2) concept identification, (3) concept systems, and (4) particular meaning problems. We conclude that phrasemes provide important conceptual "footholds " for terminologists working in phraseologically rich domains and ideally with machine-readable texts.