English Collocation

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.
2
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).
3
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
4
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
5
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).
6
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.
7
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 8
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
9
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
11
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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)
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Collocation

- tremble with fear tremble with excitement*

There is no definable reason why we choose to say

• COLLOCATION refers to a relationship between words that frequently occur

• Collocational meaning refers to the associations

• A word can gain different collocational meaning in different

These different meanings of “green” and “white”are

• Collocations usually cannot be translated into other

• A phrase can be a collocation even if it is not

• A phrase is compositional if the meaning can predicted from the

• We cannot substitute near-synonyms for the

• Many collocations cannot be freely modified with

a quick shower a fast shower

• We entered a richly decorated room.

• Are you fully aware of the implications

• The Titanic sank on its maiden voyage.

• He was writhing on the ground in

• The ceasefire agreement came into effect

• I'd like to buy two bars of soap please.

• Snow was falling as our plane took off.

make a difference make a mess

take a break take a chance

Images 1, 2 and 3 from English Collocations in use - Cambridge

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