Collocation

Collocation Collocation is the relationship between two words or groups of words that often go together and form a common expression. If the expression is heard often, the words become 'glued' together in our minds. 'Crystal clear', 'middle management' 'nuclear family' and 'cosmetic surgery' are examples of collocated pairs of words. Some words are often found together because they make up a compound noun, for example 'riding boots' or 'motor cyclist'. Examples of phrases: a person can be 'locked in mortal combat', meaning involved in a serious fight, or 'bright eyed and bushy tailed', meaning fresh and ready to go; 'red in the face', meaning 'embarrassed', or 'blue in the face' meaning 'angry'. It is not a common expression for someone to be 'yellow in the face' or 'green in the face' however. Therefore 'red' and 'blue' collocate with 'in the face', but 'yellow in the face' or 'green in the face' are probably mistakes. English has many of these collocated expressions and some linguists (e.g Khellmer 1991) argue that our mental lexicon is made up of many collocated words and phrases as well as individual items. Some words have different collocations which reflect their different meanings, e.g 'bank' collocates with 'river' and 'investment'. A good place to look for collocations is a corpus database of language, which has been concordanced, or selectively organised and indexed around a word. The VLC concordancer does this. Extract: (words in brown are collocates from the dictionary)

1. 2. 3. 4.

What do I want to talk about? A noun = plan What kind? adjective + noun = comprehensive plan What happened to it? verb + adjective + noun = prepare a comprehensive plan How did it happen? verb + adjective + noun + adverbial = prepare a comprehensive plan beforehand 5. Put the idea into a sentence = We had to prepare a comprehensive plan beforehand... Within the area of corpus linguistics, collocation is defined as a sequence of words or terms which co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. Collocation refers to the restrictions on how words can be used together, for example which prepositions are used with particular verbs, or which verbs and nouns are used together. Collocations should not be confused with idioms.

Examples In English the verb perform is used with operation, but not with discussion: The doctor performed the operation. Collocates of 'bank' are: central, river, account, manager, merchant, money, deposits, lending, society. These examples reflect a number of common expressions, 'central bank', 'bank or building society', and so forth. It is easy to see how the meaning of 'bank' is partly expressed through the choice of collocates. High collocates with probability, but not with chance: a high probability but a good chanc everb + noun -- take a vacation adjective + noun -- light rain adverb + verb -- completely forget adverb + adjective -- totally awesome adjective + preposition -- tired of ... noun + noun -- a business deal Here are some examples of longer collocations based on 'll: I'll give you a call. I'll be in touch. I'll get back to you as soon as I can. I'll be back in a minute. I'll see what I can do.

Collocations 1. to burst into laughter 2. to bear witness to (something) 3. to carry something too far

4. to cast an eye over (something) ( = to examine something briefly) 5. to catch (one's) eye 6. to change one's mind 7. to carry/convey a message 8. to cause damage to 9. to take care of somebody / something 10. to come to somebody's rescue/aid 11. to come off in an examination 12. to commit crime 13. to draw (one's) attention to (something) 14. to make comparison 15. to drive (someone) mad 16. to drop a line to (someone) ( = to write to somebody) 17. to turn a deaf ear to 18. to have something done (by somebody) 19. to do somebody a favour 20. to look down on somebody 21. There is a great demand for 22. to eat one's words

23. to exercise (one's) right 24. to engage a telephone line 25. to earn a living

26. to have a good/bad effect on 27. to enrich one's knowledge 28. to come to an end 29. to pay attention to (someone) 30. to place an order 31. to play tricks on (someone) 32. to put the blame on (someone) 33. to pay a visit to 34. to pick up a bad habit 35. to put an end to 36. to raise a question/an objection 37. to read between the lines (= to look for the underlying meaning of one's words) 38. to receive a good education 39. to receive a letter from 40. to take (one's) time (= to do something slowly) 41. to throw cold water on something (= to discourage someone from doing something) 42. to turn a blind eye to 43. to tackle a problem 44. to take the chance 45. to keep track on 46. to take shape 47. to _________ ________ a job 48. to ___________after somebody (= look like somebody)

49. to __________ turns 50. to give birth ________________ 51. to put __________with something / somebody 52. to __________support 53. to __________money from a bank 54. to come to terms __________somebody 55. to be fed up _________something 56. An accident ____________. 57. Beauty _____________. 58. A bomb __________ __________/ ____________.

59. Business ___________/ grows. 60. A contract __________into force. 61. Crime ___________. 62. A crisis ___________. 63. Darkness ___________. 64. Difficulties __________. 65. Diseases ______________. 66. Efforts ____________ . 67. An event __________ place. 68. Friendship __________/ grows. 69. A habit _________.

70. Time _________. 　 COLLOCATIONS 1

1. (give/make) a suggestion 2. (take/make) a telephone call

3. (do/make) an attempt to 4. (win/beat) a match 5. (win/beat) a team 6. (put/carry) out a plan 7. (put/bring) something to an end 8. (put/bring) an end to something 9. (ruin/hurt) your health 10. (do/make) a complaint about 11. (select/make) a choice 12. (do/make) a decision 13. (do/make) somebody a favour 14. (do/make) a comparison, 15. (put/take) action to 16. (rise/raise) fund 17. (keep/hold) one's word 18. (miss/lose) one’s way 19. (watch/observe) a custom 20. (take/listen to) somebody’s advice

COLLOCATIONS 2 1. (do/make) business with somebody 2. (go/come) to an agreement 3. (make/do) friends with others 4. (give/pay) somebody a lift 5. (write/compile) a dictionary 6. (do/make) improvement 7. (do/make) a performance 8. (do /make) a promise 9. (give/open) a party 10. (take/make) use of something 11. (give/pay) a visit to somebody 12. (do/play) an important part 13. (do/make) a new start 14. (bring/take) advantage of something 15. (fit/meet) the requirements 16. (do/make) a good teacher 17. (do/make) haste 18. (raise/rise) a question. collocation

A collocation is a combination of words (most frequently of two words) that are commonly used together. Some examples of collocations are: heavy rain (‘strong’ rain, for example, is not a collocation), make a promise (not say/do/tell, etc.), reach an agreement, tennis court, cricket pitch, dead slow, on television. Important collocations are often included in examples, sometimes highlighted in bold type.