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. What do I want to talk about? A noun = plan

2. What kind? adjective + noun = comprehensive plan
3. What happened to it? verb + adjective + noun = prepare a comprehensive plan
4. 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.