Collocation http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/collocations.htm

Why do you say deep water and not profound water? “A word is known by the company it keeps” (JR Firth) - tremble with fear tremble with excitement* - quiver with excitement quiver with fear* There is no definable reason why we choose to say “tremble with fear” but not “quiver with fear”. It is simply a question of COLLOCATION.

What is collocation? COLLOCATION refers to a relationship between words that frequently occur together The words together can mean more than the sum of their parts (The Times of India, disk drive) - other examples: hot dog, mother in law Examples of collocations noun phrases like strong tea and weapons of mass destruction phrasal verbs like to make up, and other phrases like the rich and powerful. Valid or invalid? a stiff breeze but not a stiff wind (while either a strong breeze or a strong wind is okay). Broad/bright daylight (but not narrow darkness).

Collocational meaning (1) Collocational meaning refers to the associations that a word acquires in its collocation: e.g. girl boy boy woman man pretty flower handsome garden colour village

Collocational meaning (2) A word can gain different collocational meaning in different contexts: e.g. green on the job white man green fruit white wine green with envy white noise white coffee These different meanings of “green” and “white”are polysemous but they are caused by the different collocation, i.e. the change in verbal context

Criteria for collocations Typical criteria for collocations: - non-compositionality - non-substitutability - non-modifiability. Collocations usually cannot be translated into other languages word by word. A phrase can be a collocation even if it is not consecutive (as in the example knock . . . door).

Non-compositionality A phrase is compositional if the meaning can predicted from the meaning of the parts. e.g. new companies A phrase is non-compositional if the meaning cannot be predicted from the meaning of the parts e.g. hot dog Collocations are not necessarily fully compositional in that there is usually an element of meaning added to the combination. e.g. strong tea. Idioms are the most extreme examples of non-compositionality. e.g. to hear it through the grapevine.

Non-substitutability We cannot substitute near-synonyms for the components of a collocation. e.g. We can’t say yellow wine instead of white wine even though yellow is as good a description of the color of white wine as white is (it is kind of a yellowish white). Many collocations cannot be freely modified with additional lexical material or through grammatical transformations (Non-modifiability). e.g. white wine, but not whiter wine mother in law, but not mother in laws

Linguistic Subclasses of Collocations Light verbs: - Verbs with little semantic content like make, take and do. - e.g. make lunch, take it easy, Verb particle constructions - e.g. to go down Proper nouns - e.g. Bill Clinton Terminological expressions refer to concepts and objects in technical domains. - e.g. Hydraulic oil filter

Definition Of Collocation (Corpus Literature) A collocation is defined as a sequence of two or more consecutive words, that has characteristics of a syntactic and semantic unit, and whose exact and unambiguous meaning or connotation cannot be derived directly from the meaning or connotation of its components. [Chouekra, 1988]

Word Collocations Collocation Firth: “word is characterized by the company it keeps”; collocations of a given word are statements of the habitual or customary places of that word. non-compositionality of meaning cannot be derived directly from its parts (heavy rain) non-substitutability in context for parts (make a decision) non-modifiability (& non-transformability) kick the yellow bucket; take exceptions to

Collocations Collocations are not necessarily adjacent Collocations cannot be directly translated into other languages.

Example Classes Names Technical Terms “Light” Verb Constructions Phrasal verbs Noun Phrases

Linguistic Subclasses of Collocations Light verbs: verbs with little semantic content like make, take, do Terminological Expressions: concepts and objects in technical domains (e.g., hard drive) Idioms: fixed phrases kick the bucket, birds-of-a-feather, run for office Proper names: difficult to recognize even with lists Tuesday (person’s name), May, Winston Churchill, IBM, Inc. Numerical expressions containing “ordinary” words Monday Oct 04 1999, two thousand seven hundred fifty Verb particle constructions or Phrasal Verbs Separable parts: look up, take off, tell off

Collocation definition: collocation defines a sequence of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. In other words, two or more words that often go together. These combinations just sound "right" to native English speakers, who use them all the time. On the other hand, other combinations may be unnatural and just sound "wrong".

Examples Natural English Unnatural English... the fast train the quick train fast food quick food a quick shower a fast shower a quick meal a fast meal

1. Adverb + Adjective: completely satisfied (NOT downright satisfied) We entered a richly decorated room. Are you fully aware of the implications of your action?

2. Adjective + Noun: The doctor ordered him to take regular exercise. The Titanic sank on its maiden voyage. He was writhing on the ground in excruciating pain. .

3. noun + noun Let's give Mr. Jones a round of applause. The ceasefire agreement came into effect at 11am. I'd like to buy two bars of soap please.

4. noun + verb The lion started to roar when it heard the dog barking. Snow was falling as our plane took off.

5. verb + noun The prisoner was hanged for committing murder. I always try to do my homework in the morning, after making my bed. He has been asked to give a presentation about his work.

6. verb + expression with preposition We had to return home because we had run out of money. At first her eyes filled with horror, and then she burst into tears. Their behaviour was enough to drive anybody to crime.

7. verb + adverb She placed her keys gently on the table and sat down. Mary whispered softly in John's ear. I vaguely remember that it was growing dark when we left.

Collocation Lists -1 have have a bath have a drink have a good time have a haircut have a holiday have a problem have a relationship have a rest have lunch have sympathy

Collocation Lists -2 do do business do nothing do someone a favor do the cooking do the housework do the shopping do the washing up do your best do your hair do your homework

Collocation Lists -3 make a difference make a mess make a mistake make a noise make an effort make furniture make money make progress make room make trouble

Collocation Lists -4 take a break take a chance take a look take a rest take a seat take a taxi take an exam take notes take someone's place take someone's temperature

Collocation Lists -5 catch a ball catch a bus catch a chill catch a cold catch a thief catch fire catch sight of catch someone's attention catch someone's eye catch the flu

Collocation Lists -6 pay a fine pay attention pay by credit card pay cash pay interest pay someone a compliment pay someone a visit pay the bill pay the price pay your respects

Collocation Lists -7 save electricity save energy save money save one's strength save someone a seat save someone's life save something to a disk save space save time save yourself the trouble

Collocation Lists -8 keep a diary keep a promise keep a secret keep an appointment keep calm keep control keep in touch keep quiet keep someone's place keep the change

Teaching Vocabulary Elementary (Do x Make) Images 1, 2 and 3 from English Collocations in use - Cambridge