Collocation: initial training sessions
Collocation is a complex and technical area and most initial
training courses can only hope to scratch the surface.
That's all these worksheets can do, too.
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The key ideas |
This section makes no attempt to condense the study of collocation into a short set of worksheets and tasks. What it does try to do is cover the essentials from which people can build a greater understanding.
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The aim of all of this is to give trainees the essential data they need to be able to teach collocation effectively (or at least recognise its value).
With the exception, arguably, of verb + prepositional phrase, the following deals only with lexical collocation.
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What is collocation? |
The purpose here is to alert trainees to the existence of collocation and its basic characteristics. The usual definition is something to do with co-occurrence with more than random frequency but that's slightly loose. The question is not one of more than random frequency, it is one of statistical likelihood.
The first task is simple: to identify some obvious collocations
and false collocations to get people thinking about the essentially
unpredictable (but not random) nature of the phenomenon.
Task 1 focuses on noticing that some collocations are stronger
than others. Usually the issue is one of semantic probability.
It is difficult to imagine anything but a types of vessel
collocating with oceangoing, for example, because of the
word's meaning. Idiomaticity is another consideration as the
example of foot the ... demonstrates.
Task 2 focuses on acceptability and this may be a good time to talk
about the need for clarity in the classroom and avoiding saying, e.g.,
Well, you could say that but ....
because that is rarely a helpful response and most
learners need a bit more guidance.
Task 3 focuses on predictability and also on reciprocity.
I.e., that there are, for example, many fewer verbs which can
collocate with beds than there are nouns co-occurring with
the verb make.
Textual collocation is exemplified with the doctor or nurse
example.
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Types of collocation |
The second worksheet is more of a test than a teaching mechanism
so the input before you use it will have to come from you.
Don't try this task unless you are happy that your trainees can
recognise all the word classes involved.
Task 1 is designed simply to alert trainees to the fact that
reciprocity between nouns and adjectives is unbalanced insofar as
there are many more nouns which will collocate with common
adjectives and that some adjectives collocate with a very limited
set of nouns. Whether the noun is animate or inanimate also
plays a role.
The other thing to notice, if you feel it is appropriate, is the
difference between nouns which collocate with true adjectives and
those which are normally preceded by classifiers. Classifiers,
such as welcome or glass, by their nature,
collocate with fewer nouns than epithets, especially common ones
like difficult or unhappy.
Task 2 is designed to alert people to unbalanced reciprocity in the
combination, too, and, more importantly to notice that some verbs
(mostly the so-called delexicalised ones) collocate strongly with
certain nouns. The usual list of delexicalised verbs, so
called, is:
do | have | get | go | make | put | set |
take
(A list of semi- and fully delexicalised verbs is available
here.)
Task 3 is designed to alert people to issues of gradability and
classifiers vs. epithets.
Task 4 considers the overlap between a noun classifier plus noun and
a compound noun and also alerts people to the fact that these
combinations are ungradable. The overlap between a noun + noun
collocation with compound nouns becomes apparent here.
Task 5 mixes adverbs of manner, extent, time and place and alerts
people to the fact that only place adverbs can be used with stative
verb uses.
Task 6 is also about adverbials but in this case they are
prepositional. There is a strong argument that we are not
dealing with lexical collocation here but with grammatical
colligation. No phrasal verbs appear here because they are
adverbial and it would easily confuse people. If some people
insert what is actually an adverb making a phrasal verb, now is
probably not the time to dwell on the difference but you could.
The issue of transitivity is dealt with in the question and the fact
that tell, conceal and enjoy are always transitive
so cannot be followed directly by a prepositional phrase.
Some may be tempted to insert a to-infinitive and now is
the time to point out that this does not constitute a prepositional
phrase.
The second and third prepositional phrases with by will
encourage the use of a passive form of a verb.
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Related areas |
Lexical relationships are treated at length in the in-service guides to the area but the majority of those are not suitable for initial training course use.
| Related guides | |
| For trainees: | |
| collocation | the initial plus guide to the essentials of the area |
| For you (as a reminder of what you need to know) | |
| collocation | for the in-service guide which is much more detailed |
| colligation | for an in-service guide to a related area |
| A-Z index | where you can find guides to or containing specific concepts and terms |