What is a collocation?

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What is a collocation? In corpus linguistics, a collocation is a sequence of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. In phraseology, collocation is a sub-type of phraseme. An example of a phraseological collocation, as propounded by Michael Halliday,[1] is the expression strong tea. While the same meaning could be conveyed by the roughly equivalent *powerful tea, this expression is considered incorrect by English speakers. Conversely, the corresponding expression for computer, powerful computers is preferred over *strong computers. Phraseological collocations should not be confused with idioms, where meaning is derived, whereas collocations are mostly compositional.

There are about six main types of collocations, a collocation is two or more words that often go together. These

combinations just sound "right" to native English speakers, who use them

all the time. On the other hand, other combinations may be unnatural

and just sound "wrong".

Types of Collocation

There are several different types of collocation made from

combinations of verb, noun, adjective etc. Some of the most common types

are:

Adverb + Adjective: completely satisfied (NOT downright satisfied)

Adjective + Noun: excruciating pain (NOT excruciating joy)

Noun + Noun: a surge of anger (NOT a rush of anger)

Noun + Verb: lions roar (NOT lions shout)

Verb + Noun: commit suicide (NOT undertake suicide)

Verb + Expression With Preposition: burst into tears (NOT blow up in tears)

Verb + Adverb: wave frantically (NOT wave feverishly)