The Analysis of Collocation

Science & Technology Vision理论争鸣科技视界2012年9月第25期The Analysis of Collocation袁向宁(山东建筑大学山东济南250101)[AbstractlCollocation, as an important category of lexical patteming in language learning, can objectively ellet people' s com-petence of writin, organizing and expressing in English. This paper will mainly focus on what is cllocaion in English, as well as theanalysis of the collocation from the source text. Then the paper will classify the different kinds of collocation according to the differentlimits or characteristic of these collocation occurred in the source text.[Key wordslCollocation;Grammatical combinaions ;ollocational range;Culural- speeific cllocations.1 What is collocation?A heavy rainfall (this“heavy" means Large in yield or out-put).Many years ago, J.R Fith defines cllocation as the com-Secondly, the reason why we use "heavy smoker" whereaspany words keep’-their relationships with other words. Another“big”or“massive” collocates with“smoker" that is becausedefinition might be the way words combine in predictable ways.meaning cannot always account for collocational pattemning.When we think of the number of words in English, the number(Baker, 2000)collocation in terms of the tendency of certainof potential combinations runs into many millions.Each word has its own meaning which is not only definedwords to co-oceur regularly in a given language.From the above example, we may notice that the colloca-in dictionary but also the meaning in a phrase. We need knowtion is a group of words combined for the common usage. Theboth meanings of a word.meaning of the individual word may usually be understood byWe know many expressions of the words which are heardpeople. There is a boundary of the change which we can make afrequently in our daily life. So we just keep them in mind ascombination of words. Sometimes the boundary may be very“one word". For example,“Crystal clear'，and also some“com-strict such as“heavy smokers", but in some cases the words arepound noun", like“riding boots" or“motor cyclist". These ex-more freedom to be chosen which we can make them together.pressions that are one kind of collocated pairs of words are usedeveryday by us which have already been fixed like“one word".2 Collocation classificationIn language teaching, collocation is a very interesting area,2.1 Less fixed combinationsbecause they can be found in many parts of the language study-These are very common in English. In such cases, we haveing, such as in a syntactic relation, lexical relation, or they canmore freedom to make combinations, but there are certain re-be in no linguistically defined relation. Knowing collocationsstrictions on what is possible or probable. We use differentwell is a key point to use well of a language. Sometimes, we canmeaning of“make" to describe the condition. We make morenot just judge a sentence only though whether its grammar ismoney paragraph 5 (To gain or eam, as by working)/ make vers-right or not.es (To compose)/ make a telephone call (To carry out; Perform):“Heary smokers": it is definitely a standard collocation.make laws (To institute or establish; Enact)/ made a field goal.We may analyze it from two aspects. Firstly, the word“heavy"(To score or achieve, as in a spor)/ make believe (to pretend),.has a diferent meaning in each of the fllwing situations. SuchSo we can see that there are many approaches of combin-asing make with nouns. There are some limits to a series of collo-A heavy drinker (this “heavy" means indulging to a greatcations they have and thev mav not often use the same collo-degree in drink).cates.中国煤化工Heavy bread (this “heavy" means insuficiently leavened).2.2 Other cHCNMHGnsA heavy going or a heavy reading (this“"heary" means HardThere are no clear rules for why certain adjective go withto do or accomplish; Arduous).SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY VISION科技视界|417Science & Technology Vision2012年9月第25期科技视界理论争鸣certain nouns, they just do.“Collocation is the readily observ-Two main factors can influence the collocation range of anable phenomenon whereby certain words co -occur in natural.item (Beekman and Callow, 1974). “The first is its level oftext with greater than random frequency". (Lewis , 1997) Collo-specificit: the more general a word is, the broader its colloca-cation has three characteristics they are: co-occuI, readily ob-tional range; the more specific it is, the more restricted its collo-servable and the pattems of collocations are largely arbitrarycational range".“the second factor which determines the collo-and independent of meaning.cational range of an item is the number of senses it has." Most1)Some collocation is fixing, such as: heavy smokers.words have a lot of senses and they trend to obtain a differentWhen you plan to describe the degree of indulging of a smoker,set of collocates for each sense. No collocation is impossible.you may not change any word of this collocation. The same situ-Collocation ranges are not fixed.ation occurred to: to catch a cold ,rancid butter , dnug addict.These collocations also rellect the background of cultures.2)Some other collocation can change a part of words. SuchIf the source and target languages have the significantly differ-as: scared to death (afraid) in paragraph 5 and: blood /close 1ent in background of cultures, there will be a big gap when thedistant /near( west)relative. These kinds of collocation are flexi-translator tries to translate the source text to target text. In thisble to change a part of combination. (Lewis, 1993).case, the translator will give the wrong meaning of the colloca-tion and the target reader should get the misconception of the3 Problems related to collocation in translationcollocation.A translator can easily misinterpret a collocation in the5 Conclusionsource text because interference from people' s native language.This happens when a source -language collocation occurs to beTo sum up, this paper mainly explained what collocation isfamiliar and it corresponds in form to a common collocation inin English from the source text examples, as well as the analysisthe target language.of the collocation and lasification of diferent collocation. SThe boundary of combination of words in collocation is aswide as that we can feel free to make words together, but it is[References]not unbounded. In some cases, some words must be collated[1 ]BeekmanJohn, and John allowTransating the Word of God [0].with the certain words and they can not be changed. If someGrand Rapids, MI: Zondervan,1974.Chinese students who do not know these collocations, they will[2 ]Cowie,A.P.The Treatment of Collocations and Idioms in Leamers'make mistakes when they translate Chinese phrases into Eng-Dictioris[]Applied Lingisics,1981 ,23)223 -235.lish. For example, we can not translate“人山人海 ”this Chi-[3]Jack C.Richards,John Plt,Heidi Plt.Longman Dictionary of Lan-guage teaching and Aplied inguistics,Longman Group UK Limited[M].nese phrase which means huge crowd of people into peoplemountain people sea because“人”is people, “山”is mountain2nd Ed.1992.and“海”is sea in English.on sccess[AV/Lewis Michal.Teaching Cllolation[C.Hove: LTP,2000:4 Collocational range and Cultural- specific col-47-67.location[责任编辑:尹雪梅]中国煤化工YHCNMHG418|科技视界SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY VISION