Words_about_words_An_introduction_to_Eng

Multi-Word Units in English

node and its collocate(s) are too vague to help distinguish unrestricted collocations from free word groups. One example will suffice to illustrate this last sub-class: anxious / worried / close / curious / strange /

disapproving / meaningful / grim / pleading, etc look.

The restricted and the unrestricted collocations are discussed by Fernando (1996) in comparison with idioms. What she suggests is that, although closely related, the two are not identical. Idioms are a narrow range of word combinations, viewed as “indivisible units whose components cannot be varied or can be varied only within definable units” (Fernando 1996: 30). Restricted and unrestricted collocations, on the other hand, rather represent a scale of different degrees of habitual co-occurrence of lexical items. Idioms, conventionally fixed in a specific order and lexical form, or having only a very limited number of variants, lie at the top of this scale.

Somewhat lower on the scale of idiomaticity are the “habitual collocations” (Fernando’s term which encompasses both restricted and unrestricted collocations), some of which share characteristics with certain sub-classes of idioms. The salient feature of such collocations is that all their components show variance – restricted as in the semi-literal explode a myth / theory / notion, catch the post / mail, or in the literal addled eggs / brains, potato / corn chips, unrestricted as in the semi-literal catch a bus / plane / ferry, etc., run a business / company, or in the literal smooth /

plump / glowing / rosy, etc. cheeks, beautiful / lovely / sweet, etc. woman. The comparison of collocations with idioms prompts another remark. While, in the case of idioms, meaning is holistic, i.e., it belongs to the group of words forming the idiom as a whole and cannot be arrived at by adding the individual meanings of these words, in the case of collocations, meaning is additive, i.e. it is the sum of the meanings of its components and it can be arrived at step by step, while advancing element by element of them. This is obvious in a collocation such as to blink one’s

eyes as opposed to an idiom such as to make eyes at somebody.

Besides considering the range of nodes, collocations may be classified, from the point of view of the linguistic rules that govern them,

into grammatical and lexical structures.

A grammatical collocation is, according to Benson, Benson and Ilson (1991: ix), “a phrase consisting of a dominant word (noun, adjective, verb) and a preposition or grammatical structure such as an infinitive or clause”. Chomsky’s (1991: 191) examples are helpful starting points in illustrating this definition. His opinion is that decide on a boat, meaning “choose (to buy) a boat” contains the collocation decide on (in his terminology, decide on is a “close construction”), whereas decide on a boat meaning “taking a decision while embarked on a boat” is a free combination (in his terminology, a “loose association”). Any native speaker of English would feel that the components of decide on, when it means “choose”, and of other fixed phrases such as account for, accuse (somebody) of, adapt to,

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agonize over, aim at, etc collocate with each other. S/he would reject violations of collocability such as *decide at a boat, *account over a loss,

*accuse (somebody) on a crime, *adapt towards new conditions.

That decide on a boat, when referring to making a choice of a boat, is a collocation becomes even more evident when comparing it to the countless free combinations of decide, whose elements are joined in accordance with the general rules of English syntax and freely allow substitution. Such free combinations include, among others: decide after

lunch / before breakfast / at nine o’clock / at the meeting / on the spot / in the library / on the bus / with a heavy heart / immediately / quickly /

reluctantly / happily / unhesitatingly, etc.

The Bensons and Ilson (1991) describe eight major classes of grammatical collocations, designated G1, G2, G3, etc, included in their BBI

Combinatory Dictionary of English.

The G1 class contains collocations which consist of “noun + preposition” combinations: apathy towards, abstinence from, blockade

against, blight on, cry for, dig into, epilogue to, fellowship with, graduate

in, hope for, inferiority to, leadership in, method for, prologue to, sympathy for, etc. Combinations with the genitive preposition of and the agential preposition by are excluded from the group.

The G2 class comprises “noun + long infinitive” (or an –ing verb form) collocations such as effort to, genius to, impulse to, need to, problem to, right to, found in a number of typical syntactic patterns:

It was a struggle (pleasure, mistake) to do it.

They had the foresight (instructions, an obligation, permission) to do it. They felt a compulsion (an impulse, a need) to do it.

They made an attempt (a promise, a vow) to do it. He was a fool (an idiot) to do it.

The nouns that are followed by infinitives normally associated with the whole sentence rather than with the nouns itself, usually expressing purpose – They closed the window to keep the flies out, They sold their

house to cut down on expenses, She is wearing a fur coat to impress her boyfriend - are not considered member of the class. Neither are phrases such as a procedure to follow, a book to read, a place to eat, a way to do it, in which the infinitives may be replaced by relative clauses, and constructions containing nouns preceded by a descriptive adjective of the

kind an interesting book to read, a difficult person to understand, a clever

thing to say.

In the G3 group, the linguists include collocations made up of a noun and a that clause following it, if this clause is not a relative one (i.e. that should not be replaceable by which). Nouns that can be followed by a clause only when they are objects of a preposition are not included in the class; it was by chance that we met, it was with pride that he presented his

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findings. Examples of G3 collocations include: agreement that (he should represent us in court), chance that (she will win), decision that (the taxes will be cut), hunch that (they will not come), myth that (their army was

invincible), rumour that (she was back to town).

G4 collocations consist of “preposition + noun” combinations. Examples are: by accident, in confidence, on/off duty, in effect, without

fail, at hand, within limits, by mistake, in need, under oath, in/within

sight.

G5 collocations are “adjective + preposition” collocations. Combinations of past participles of transitive verbs and the agential preposition by are left out of this class. The G5 pattern may be illustrated

by: afraid of, blind with, careful about/of, demanding of, efficient in, frightened about/at/of, hopeful of, irate about, keen on, literate in,

peripheral to, qualified for, soft on, talented at/in.

G6 collocations consist of adjectives followed by long infinitives. The adjectives included in this class occur in two basic configurations with the infinitives: constructions with “dummy” it subjects of the type it was necessary to work and constructions with “real”, both animate and inanimate subjects such as she is ready to go and the machine was

designed to operate under high pressure.

Adjectives preceded by too and followed by enough + a long infinitive (it was too easy to give a simple answer, it was embarrassing enough to tell the truth) and past participles used in passive constructions and followed by long infinitives (she was chosen to represent us, the colonel was asked to lead the army on the battle field) are not considered members of the G6 class.

Of the G6 collocations, the following may be quoted: advantageous to (wait), charming to (watch them), dangerous to (play in the street), evil to (kill), frustrating to (work in a place like that), healthy to (walk in dump weather), irrational to (react in that manner), mystified to (find her watch gone), outrageous to (permit such behaviour), practical to (do that),

stimulating to (read science fiction books).

G7 collocations are built on the “adjective + that clause pattern” (many of the adjectives that occur in these collocations are found in G6 as well): (she was) afraid that she will fail de examination, (it is) deplorable

that such corruption exists, (it is) incredible that nobody pays attention to the dreadful news, (it is) lucky that we got here before dark, (it is) obvious that he is drunk, (it is) remarkable that the streets are so clean after the

festival.

G8 collocations consist of nineteen verb patterns, which the Bensons and Ilson (1991) designated by the letters A to S.

“Pattern A verbs allow the dative movement transformation, i.e. they allow the shift of an indirect object (usually human) to a position before the direct object, with deletion of to when both objects are nouns and when the direct object is a noun: he sent the book to his brother – he sent

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his brother the book and he sent the book to him – he sent him the book.”

(Benson, Benson and Ilson 1991: xiv). Other verbs that may be part of G8A collocations are: bring, explain, give, grant, make, offer, promise, etc.

Pattern B verbs, though transitive like those in pattern A, do not allow the dative movement transformation. Thus, we have They described

the book to her, They mentioned the book to her, They returned the book to

her, but not *They described her the book, *They mentioned her the book” or *They returned her the book. Examples of verbs that fit pattern B include: babble, bark, cry, divulge, growl, introduce, shout, yell, etc.

The transitive verbs in pattern C, used with the preposition for, allow the dative movement transformation, i.e. the deletion of the preposition and the movement of the indirect object (usually animate) before the direct object: She bought a shirt for her husband – She bought her husband a shirt. Many of the verbs that collocate with a direct and indirect object in the way just illustrated are “culinary verbs” such as bake,

boil, brew, chop, cook, fry, grill, grind, peel, scramble, slice, toast.

In pattern D, verbs form collocations with specific prepositions followed by objects. Free combinations such as to walk in the park and combinations of verbs and prepositional objects preceded by by or with, when they denote the means or the instrument by which the actions are performed, are not part of the class, according to the authors of the BBI Combinatory Dictionary. Transitive D-pattern verbs used with to and B- pattern verbs produce the same constructions. The verbs that are normally used with an animate indirect object are assigned to class B – We described the meeting to them, while verbs normally occurring with inanimate indirect objects are considered elements of class D – We invited them to the meeting. Examples of pattern D verbs include: brood about/over,

capitulate to, drill for, extract from, feature as, glow with, hamper in, improve in, join for/in/with, lead against/by/from, move from/into/to, notify about/of, open by/with, point at/to, rehearse for, scream at/for,

turn into/off/to/towards, etc.

Pattern E is illustrated by collocations formed of verbs followed by long infinitives, if these infinitives do not express purpose (they are nor replaceable by “in order to”): begin, continue, decide, endeavour, forget,

hope, like, mean, need, offer, promise, remember, swear, want, etc.

Pattern F includes the small number of collocations formed by the modal verbs followed by short infinitives: can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, must. The verbal phrases had/would better, had/would rather also fit this pattern.

In pattern G, the collocations are made up of verbs followed by gerunds. Typical examples of verbs that usually collocate grammatically with gerunds are: avoid, keep, recommend, remember, start, suggest, etc.

Some of the verbs in pattern G that collocate with gerunds may be found in pattern E as well, as nodes collocating with long infinitives. Thus, sentences such as The baby began crying – The baby began to cry, The

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ambassador continued speaking – The ambassador continued to speak,

My mother suggested to get the train – My mother suggested getting the train are approximately synonymous constructions. Several verbs that occur as nodes in collocations both in the G and in the E class have a different meaning in each pattern. As the Bensons and Ilson (1991) explain, the sentence He remembered to tell them means that “he intended to tell them and told them”; He remembered telling them means that “he remembered the act of telling them”. In a similar manner, the construction He forgot to tell them means that “he intended to tell them, but forgot to do so”; He forgot telling them means that “he forgot the he had told them”. Note also the difference between the pattern G construction She stopped chatting – “she terminated her chat” and She stopped to chat – “she interrupted whatever she was doing in order to chat”, containing an infinitival phrase of purpose.

The pattern H grammatical collocations consist of transitive verbs followed by an “accusative + long infinitive” construction. Most of these verbs, though not all, may be passivized, the result being a “nominative + infinitive” construction built around the verb in the passive voice. Examples of pattern H collocations include: ask me to come, force John to confess,

get the television to work, invite Mary to join (us), permit the children to

play, set them to write, tell them to leave, etc.

Pattern I collocations resemble those in class H, the difference being that the infinitive that is used with the verbs is short. Unlike the verbs in the pattern H collocations, those in pattern I collocations cannot be, most of the times, used in the passive voice. Examples that illustrate class I are:

hear them leave, help us move, let the children go, make the criminal talk, see her cry, etc.

In pattern J, transitive verbs are followed by an “accusative + participle” construction and can, in their great majority, be passivized (some of these verbs are found in class H as well, so that approximately synonymous constructions occur: (She) heard them leave – (She) heard

them leaving; (We) watched the actors play – (We) watched the actors playing, etc.). Typical examples of class J collocations are: catch the thieves

stealing, feel one’s heart throbbing, keep them waiting, leave me crying,

set me thinking, watch the rain falling, etc.

Pattern K collocations contain a transitive verb followed by a possessive (noun or pronoun) and a gerund (some of these constructions are close to those in pattern J) such as: excuse my saying (this), imagine

his coming late, (They) remembered Bill’s having made a mistake, etc.

In pattern L collocations, transitive verbs are followed by a clause introduced by that: (They) admitted that they were wrong, (He) denied

that he had told her lies, (The travelers) hope that the train will arrive (on

time), (We) suspect that she is guilty, (Mother) hopes that I will graduate (this year), etc. Some of these verbs take an obligatory noun or pronoun object before the that clause, others may be used with or without such an

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object, while still others (often belonging to pattern G as well) may be followed by a prepositional phrase with to. In the first category, there are:

to assure – (She) assured me that she would join (the party), to convince – (The rector) convinced the students that he would consider (their

suggestions), to inform – (I) was informed that I would be promoted, etc. The second category contains verbs such as: to bet – (She) bet that it would

snow; (She) bet me that it would snow, to promise – (John) promises that he will learn (more); (John) promises his parents that he will learn (more), to show – (We) showed that we were (good) teachers; (We) showed everybody that we were (good) teachers, etc. (He) explained to us that he

would come later and (The man) swore to his wife that he would stop drinking are illustrative of the third category.

Some verbs in the pattern L collocations are followed by that clauses containing an analytical or synthetic subjunctive. Examples of such verbs

are: (He) demanded that we (should) be there tomorrow, (The captain) ordered that the soldiers (should) clean (their guns), (The manager)

suggests that a new department head (should) be appointed, etc. A few L- pattern verbs regularly take “dummy” it as their subject: (It) appears that

they will not be here, (It) follows that the results are wrong, (It) seems that

you didn’t understand, (It) turns out that he was lying, etc.

In pattern M, transitive verbs can be followed by a direct object, the infinitive to be (verbs that combine freely with infinitives other than to be are part of pattern H collocations) and either an adjective, a past participle or a noun/pronoun. In most cases, the same verb may be followed by any of these three forms. Examples of pattern M collocations

are: (We) consider her to be very polite/well trained/our leader, (The

engineers) found the roads to be excellent/paved properly/a (national) problem, etc.

Pattern N collocations are made up of a transitive verb followed by a direct object and an adjective, a past participle or a noun/pronoun. Examples of this construction include: She dyed her hair red, We found

them interesting, The police set the prisoner free, The man had his car

repaired, We heard the song sung in Italian, We appointed Bob president,

My friends call me Dana, etc. Some of the verbs in pattern N collocations may be used in pattern M constructions as well: We consider her (to be) a

competent engineer, The court declared the woman (to be) guilty, We found the streets (to be) cleared of snow, etc. On the other hand, some of the N-pattern collocations are fixed or restricted, in the sense that the verb in their structure can be accompanied by either only one or a limited number of adjectives. Thus, for example, the verb to paint accepts adjectives denoting colours only: I painted the walls blue/green/orange, etc., while to shoot may be used in to shoot somebody dead only.

In pattern O, transitive verbs can take two objects, neither of which can be used in a prepositional phrase with to or for. Examples of collocations in which the verbs may take such double objects are: The

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teacher asked the pupil a question, Our neighbours envy us our new house, She punched him one in the eye, I tipped the waiter ten dollars, etc. Verbs pertaining to the semantic field of gambling may be heads of pattern O collocations. Some of them, such as bet, lay and wager are able to take in effect three objects – one referring to a person, one to an amount and one denoting the point of the bet, as in We bet him ten pounds that the train won’t arrive in time. Of the three, bet can be used with any of the three objects alone, lay seems to require the second and the third, while wager may be accompanied by either the second or the third alone. O-pattern verbs may be passivized. In most cases, at least one of the objects may become the subject of the passive construction: The pupil was asked a

question (by the teacher)/a question was asked (by the teacher), He was

punched one in the eye, The waiter was tipped ten dollars.

Verbs in pattern P collocations are either intransitive, reflexive or transitive and their sense must always be completed by an adverbial – an adverb, a prepositional phrase, a noun phrase or a clause. Without such an adverbial, sentences like the following would sound incomplete in English:

*The meeting lasts, *A strange woman was lurking, *She puts pressure, *The box weighs, etc. Once an adverbial is used together with the verb, these sentences become acceptable: The meeting lasts two hours, A strange

woman was lurking in the dark, She puts pressure on her children, The

box weighs ten kilos.

Pattern Q collocations are built around a verb followed by a wh- interrogative word – what, where, when, which, who, why - or by how. Quite frequently, the “verb + wh- word” construction precedes an infinitival phrase or a clause: She could not decide which car to choose, My sister

knows how to drive, He wonders where to go, The man asked us what the

time was, Guess where the money is, We had to infer what she meant by that, We discussed how to do it. Of the pattern Q verbs, most do not need to be used with an object, some may be used with or without one and some, such as tell, inform, must always be accompanied by an object.

In pattern R collocations, transitive verbs (often expressing emotions) are preceded by a “dummy” it subject and are followed by a long infinitive or by a that clause (sometimes, following an object). Examples are: It amazed me to learn that he had been promoted, It burned me up to

hear her lying, It hurts to see my sister crying, It puzzled us that they never answer the phone, It surprised them that their suggestion was

rejected.

Lexical collocations, in contrast to grammatical ones, “normally do not contain prepositions, infinitives or clauses. Typical lexical collocations consist of nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs” (Benson, Benson, Ilson 1991: xxiv).

Just like in the case of grammatical collocations, lexical collocations differ from free combinations, the elements of which do not freely co-occur and are not bound specifically to each other. Thus, as explained in the

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preface to The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English (Benson, Benson, Ilson 1991), condemn murder is a free lexical combination. The verb condemn may be used with an unlimited number of nouns: condemn the abduction / abortion / abuse of power / the acquittal, etc. In a similar manner, the noun murder combines freely with countless verbs: abhor / accept / acclaim / advocate murder, etc. On the other hand, commit murder is a collocation, since the verb commit is limited in use to a small number of nouns meaning crime, wrongdoing.

Seven major types of lexical collocations are illustrated by entries in

The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English (Benson, Benson, Ilson 1991).

L1 collocations consist of a verb which is usually transitive, and a noun or a pronoun (which combine in a rather arbitrary, non-predictable way). Most verbs in L1 collocations denote creation or/and activation (the Bensons and Ilson 1991 call the collocations build round such verbs “CA collocations”): come to an agreement, make an impression, compose

music, set a record, reach a verdict, inflict a wound, set an alarm, fly a kite, launch a missile, spin a top, wind a watch, to set off a bomb, etc.

There are instances when the same noun collocates with a verb that denotes creation – establish a principle, draw up a will – and with another verb, that denotes activation – apply a principle, execute a will. As explained in the preface to the BBI Dictionary (1991), there are also instances, which are quite numerous, when the meanings “creation” and “activation” are united in one verb: call an alert, display bravery, hatch a

conspiracy, impose an embargo, produce friction, inflict an injustice, offer opposition, pose a question, lay a smoke screen, put out a tracer, commit

treason, issue a warning, etc.

The same noun may collocate with different verbs that refer to actions performed by specific subjects. Such nouns will form different CA collocations, according to which subject role is being described. Thus, a copyright office grants or registers a copyright, while an author or a publisher holds or secures one.

CA collocations for polysemous nouns may prove difficult to form for non-native speakers. The verb nodes that a noun such as line may collocate with are dictated by its various meanings: draw a line (“leave a trace on paper”), drop somebody a line (“write somebody a letter”), form a line (“line up”). In the same way, possible collocations of operation are perform an operation (“perform surgery in a hospital”), carry out / conduct / launch an operation (“do something on the battle field”).

L2 collocations also consist of a transitive verb followed by a noun (less frequently, a pronoun), but, unlike in L1 structures, the verb here essentially means “eradication” or “nullification” (due to the meaning of the verb that acts as the node of the unit, these collocations are called by Benson, Benson and Ilson 1991 “EN collocations”). Typical examples, as offered by the BBI Dictionary (1991) are the following: reject an appeal, lift

a blockade, break a code, reverse a decision, demolish / raze / tear down a

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house, revoke a license, annul a marriage, suspend martial law, scrub / cancel a mission, withdraw an offer, ease tension, quench one’s thirst,

denounce / abrogate a treaty, exterminate vermin, override a veto, etc.

L3 collocations are made up of a noun and an adjective (in some cases, only one form of the adjective may collocate with a particular noun –

best regards, *good regards): reckless abandon, chronic alcoholic, pitched battle, intensive care, crashing defeat, oral examination, implacable foe,

eternal glory, cultural heritage, involuntary manslaughter, stiff opposition, vicious propaganda, etc. Nouns that are used attributively in English may replace adjectives in L3 collocations: house arrest, birth

certificate, brain death, party elite, steel guitar, survival kit, paper money,

insurance policy, sound-and-light show, etc.

A noun and a verb that names the action characteristic of the person or the thing that this noun refers to combine in L4 collocations:

adjectives modify, alarms go off, bees buzz, clocks tick, donkeys bray,

elephants trumpet, a plague spreads, etc.

As it is explained in the preface to the BBI Dictionary (1991: xxvii), L5 collocations, structured as “noun 1 of noun 2”, indicate the unit that is associated with a noun. Such collocations may indicate the larger group to which a single member belongs – a colony / swarm of bees, a herd of

buffalos, a pack of dogs, a pride of lions, a school of whales – or the specific, concrete, small unit of something larger, more general – a word of

advice, an article of clothing, an act of violence, a grain of salt, a sheet of

steel, a clove of garlic, a leaf of grass, a segment of orange, etc.

L 6 collocations consist of an adverb and an adjective, while those in the L 7 group are composed of a verb and an adverb. Examples of structures in the former group include deeply absorbed, strictly accurate,

closely / intimately acquainted, hopelessly addicted, keenly / painfully aware, actively engaged, fully insured, while collocations of the latter type may be illustrated by affect deeply, amuse thoroughly, anchor firmly,

examine closely, guarantee fully, hope fervently / sincerely.

5.2. Idioms

5.2.1. Definition

The generally accepted definition of an idiom states that it is “a group of words established by usage as having a meaning non-deductible from those of the individual words” (Oxford Concise Dictionary 2002: 379) or “an expression whose meaning is different from the meaning of the individual words” (Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners

2002: 710), in other words, “a phrase, the meaning of which cannot be predicted from the individual meanings of the morphemes it comprises” (Jackson and Amvela 2007: 77).

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5.2.2. Characteristics and classification

The clearest features of idioms, as it follows from their very definition and as it is mentioned by Fernando (1996: 3), are compositeness – “idioms are commonly accepted as a type of multiword expression (red herring – “any diversion meant to distract attention from the main issue”; smell a rat – “to know instinctively that something is wrong or that somebody is telling lies”; the coast is clear – “people supposed to watch one are not there and one is able to move or leave”, etc.)” (Fernando 1996: 3), they are “particular phrases or turns of expression which, from long usage, have become stereotyped in English” (McMordie 1972: 5) and semantic opacity, or idiomaticity – “the meaning of an idiom is not the sum of its constituents. In other words, an idiom is often non-literal”, though there are cases of idiomatic phrases, such as to throw money away, to have a rare time, which have a direct meaning that may be easily understood on the basis of their component elements (Fernando 1996: 3). Idiomaticity is paralleled by grammatical inseparability – idioms function as single units from a grammatical point of view as well. In a free word group, each lexical item has an independent meaning and its own grammatical function. By contrast, in an idiom, both lexical and grammatical meaning belong to the structure as a whole (if, in The old man kicked the bucket, kicked the bucket – “to die” - is considered a free combination of words, grammatically, it is made up of a verb functioning as the sentence predicate and a noun which is, syntactically, its direct object. If, on the contrary, it is regarded as an idiom, the whole unit is a verbal phrase that functions as the predicate of the sentence).

Most idioms are characterized by lexical integrity, in the sense that “as a general rule, an idiomatic phrase cannot be altered; no other synonymous word can be substituted for any word in the phrase, and the arrangement of the words can rarely be modified” (McMordie 1972: 6). While free word groups can be freely made up, according to the needs of communication, and any of their elements can be replaced without affecting the meanings of the others, idioms are used as ready-made units in which substitution is either impossible or very limited. Examples of idioms with invariable elements include red tape – “official paperwork and bureaucracy (negative connotation)”; to spend an arm and a leg – “to spend very much”; on pins and needles – “very worried about something”; a nine days’ wonder – “anything that arouses great excitement and interest, but for only a short time”; to be out like a light – “to fall asleep very fast”, etc.

“Variation of the parts of an idiom could be in terms of number and tense (inflectional changes) or the replacement of one structure word like an article by another or by zero, or it could be lexical, one content word being replaced by another” (Fernando 1997: 43). Variation in tense is common to many verb idioms and it usually mirrors the time frame of the

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