In this paper, we address the issue of syntagmatic expressions from a computational lexical semantic perspective. From a representational viewpoint, we argue for a hybrid approach combining linguistic and conceptual paradigms, in order to account for the continuum we find in natural languages from free combining words to frozen expressions. In particular, we focus on the place of lexical and semantic restricted co-occurrences. From a processing viewpoint, we show how to generate/analyze syntagmatic expressions by using an efficient constraintbased processor, well fitted for a knowledge-driven approach.