ГОС_1 / Lexicology / Lecture9 / Lexical&grammatical coolocability

Lexical & grammatical collacability.

Collacability – the ability to combine with other words in speech, is based on their valency. Valency & collocability may be lexical & grammatical (syntactical).

The aptness of the word to be used in certain grammatical (syntactical) patterns is called grammatical valency. In other words, grammatical valency is the possibility of syntactical connection of a word on the syntactical level.

Grammatical collacability – is the realization of the grammatical valency in speech. It’s achieved through lexical collacability.

Lexical Valency – is the aptness of a word to appear in various combinations with other words in speech . It’s a possibility of connecting a word with other words on the lexico-semantic level. Lexical collocability – the realization in speech of the potential connections of words or it’s the realization of the lexical valency in speech.

Valency & Collocability are linguistic factors that determine the co-occurrence of English words but they aren’t the only factors influencing it.

E.g. patentially all English adjectives denoting colours can be connected with nouns denoting inanimate objects. In reality we can hardly speak of “a violet tree” or “black milk”.

As the use of words in speech is also governed by extralinguistic factors – rules of logics.

The word conbination applying “cow” is possible but unlikely occur as linguistic patterning to a great extend rests on cognitive patterning on extralinguistic patterning.

The co-occurence of words in speech ia actually a blend of extralinguistic & linguistic reasons.

Grammatical Valency & collocability.

Since grammatical valency is the aptness of a word to appear in specifical grammatical or syntactical structures, by a specific grammatical pattern we understand the syntactical pattern of a word group regarding as the minimal grammatical context in which words are used in speech when brought together to fall word-group.

a) To begin with, the Grammatical Valency depends on the part of speech the word belongs to. On the syntactical level word-groups may be generally described through the pattern of arrangement of a constituent members. The term “Syntactic Structure or Formula” implies the description of the order & arrangement of member words as parts of speech.

E.g. the word-groups: “a smart student, a white dress” may be described as made up of an Adj. & a Noun (A+N). “to write novels, to sell hats” – as a combination of a verb & a noun (V+N). Their syntactical structures may be represented as “A+N” & “V+N”.

Such structural formulas can be used to describe all the possible syntactical structures of English word-groups. When the structure of word-groups is described in relation to the head-word it is usual to speak of the patterns of word-groups, but not of formulas. The term “pattern” implies that we are speaking of the structure of the word-group in which a given word is used as its head.

Notional member words in such patterns are usually represented in conventional symbols, whereas the prepositions & other form words are given in their usual graphic forms:

e.g. the grammatical valency & collacability of the Adj. “keen” may be illustrated with the help of the patterns 1) keen + N (keen man); 2) keen + on + N (keen on skating).

b) Though the grammatical Valency of words is primiraly determined their part of speech characteristics, the grammatical Valency of words belonging to speech isn’t necessarily identical. E.g. the synonymous Adjectives – clever & intellegent – possess different grammatical Valency as “clever” may be used in word-groups having the _____: “clever + at+ N” whereas “intelligent” can’t be used there.

c) The grammatical Valency of correlated words in different languages is really identical, e.g. “to influence” can be followed by a noun which may be reflected with the help of the structural formula “V+N”. The grammatical Valency of its Russian counterpart is different & it can be combined with the preposition _____ noun: “V+prep+N”.

d) The individual meanings of a polysemantic word may be characterized by different grammatical Valency & correspondently described through it.

E.g. different meanings of “keen” are realized in different syntactical patterns: “keen + N”; “keen + on + N”; “keen + V” (keen to know).

In this case word-groups are regarded as minimal syntactic structures that serve to distinguish different meanings of a polysemantic word.

Lexical Valency & Collocability.

Lexical Valency – is the aptness of a word to appear in various combinations with other words in speech . It’s a possibility of connecting a word with other words on the lexico-semantic level.

a) Lexical Valency & Collocability of words of the same part of speech may be different as it depends on the lexical meaning of the word. Thus, the typical grammatical structure “Adj+N” is realized in the following word combinations: a clever man; a thin book & so on, & can’t be realized in a thin waist as it should be a slim waist. The grammatical structure Adj+prep+N is realized in the following phrases: kind to people, clever at maths, BUT NOT intellegent at maths.

The grammatical structure V+N is realized “take the book, raise the question” but not “lift a question”. The range of the lexical Valency of words is linguistically restricted by the inner structure of the English word stock by the lexico-sematic system of the English language. It’s observed in the use of synonyms. Synonyms similar in meanings, also differ in some semantic components of their meanings. The presence of different components in their semantic structure determines the difference in their lexical Valency & Collocability. That’s why interchangeability can’t serve as the universal criterion of Synonymy. That’s why though “to raise” & “to lift” are usually treated as synonyms, it’s only “to raise” which is collocated with “question”.

b) The lexical Valency of correlated words in different languages isn’t identical. Both the English Adj “new” & the Russian “новый” may be combined with nouns denoting clothes (Eng: a new dress – Rus.новое платье; a new blouse – Rus.новая блузка). But Russian word cannot enter into combinations with nouns, denoting food products: (new bread – свежий хлеб; new potatoes – молодой картофель). Some other examples of different collocability are: flower – цветок. N1+N2 - N1- the place the flower grows; garden flowers (садовые); pot house flowers (оранжерейные); pot-flowers(комнатные). Thin(тонкий)-Adj.+Noun- a thin book-тонкая книга; subtle irony- тонкая ирония; a slim waist - тонкая талия.

c) Collocability of words depends on their semantic structure & in its turn ____ influences it. _____ meanings of a polysemantic word can be described through the possible types of lexical contexts, i.e. through the lexical _____ of the word. On the 1 hand, different meanings of a polysemantic word ___ realize themselves in different lexical contexts, i.e. in different word groups. On the other hand, different word groups containing a certain polysemantic word, may serve as characteristical lexical sets, distinguishing different meanings of the given polysemantic word. E.g. hard task – tough bed; dear brother – dear furcoat; to lose a book – to lose a battle.

There is a certain norm of lexical valency for each word. Any depature from this norm is felt as a literary or stylistic device. A lot of jokular formations are based on the violation of lexical valency & collocability of words in English: e.g. She left the shop 2 hours & $ 56 later.

Some words tend to form habitual colloquations with other words, called “clichés”. E.g. to put forward to ____, keen sight, to win a victory.