1. Collocation

2. 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.

3. 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).

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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).

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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]

11. 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

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

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

14. 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 , two thousand seven hundred fifty
Verb particle constructions or Phrasal Verbs
Separable parts:
look up, take off, tell off

15. 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".

16. 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

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

18. 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. .

19. 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.

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

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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

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