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Friday, June 17, 2016

Categories of Collocations


                O’Dell and McCarthy (2008) explain seven different grammatical categories of collocations as follows:

 1. Verb + noun: draw up a list/contract, pass up a chance/opportunity, and withstand pressure/the impact.

 2. Noun + verb: opportunity arise, and standards slip

 3. Noun + noun: a spate of attacks/thefts, a barrage of questions/insults, a stroke of luck, and a snippet of information.

4. Adjective + noun: idle threat, vain hope, mounting concern/criticism/ fury, and simple/plain truth.

5. Adverb + adjective: intensely personal, and stunningly attractive.

6. Verb + adverb or prepositional phrase: fail miserably, drive recklessly, burst into song, and foam at the mouth.

7. More complex collocations: take it easy for a while, and put the past behind you.

               
 Benson, Benson, and Ilson (1997) define collocations as specified, identifiable, non-idiomatic, and recurrent combinations. They divide collocations into two main types – grammatical and lexical collocations. Grammatical collocations consist of the main word (a noun, an adjective, a verb) plus a preposition or ‘to + infinitive’ or ‘that-clause’ and are characterized by 8 basic types of collocations:
 G1= noun + preposition e.g. blockade against, apathy towards

 G2= noun + to-infinitive e.g. He was a fool to do it. They felt a need to do it.

 G3= noun + that-clause e.g. we reached an agreement that she would represent us in court. He took an oath that he would do his duty.

 G4= preposition + noun e.g. by accident, in agony

 G5= adjective + preposition e.g. fond of children, hungry for news

 G6= adjective + to-infinitive e.g. it was necessary to work, it’s nice to be here. 

G7= adjective + that-clause e.g. she was afraid that she would fail, it was imperative that I be here.

G8= 19 different verb patterns in English e.g. verb + to-infinitive (they began to speak), verb + bare infinitive (we must work) and other.

 Lexical collocations do not contain prepositions, infinitives or relative clauses but consist of nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs.

There are 7 types of them:

 L1= verb (which means creation/action) + noun/pronoun/prepositional phrase e.g. come to an agreement, launch a missile

 L2= verb (which means eradication/cancellation) + noun e.g. reject an appeal, crush resistance

 L3= [adjective + noun] or [noun used in an attributive way + noun] e.g. strong tea, a crushing defeat, house arrest, land reform

 L4= noun + verb naming the activity which is performed by a designate of this noun e.g., bombs explode, bees sting

 L5= quantifier + noun e.g. a swarm of bees, a piece of advice

 L6= adverb + adjective e.g. hopelessly addicted, sound asleep

 L7= verb + adverb e.g. argue heatedly, apologize humbly.

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