Collocations – words in company

Collocation – It’s Meaning and Type

Collocations can be defined as words that go together, in a set pattern of word-order, by dint of sheer habit, custom, and convention. Collocation is made of two words: co and location, and denotes to mean, to locate or place a word in company (co) of another word. In the words of Firth, collocation is defined as: “Collocations of a given word are statements of the habitual or customary places of that word.”

When collocations are first introduced, they are introduced as pair–words, a cut chase way of understanding collocation. So, we are told that words like: bread and butter, nut and bolt, hard and fast, loud and clear, are words that always go hand-in-hand, and are collocations.

If we believe that collocations mean only such pair-words, we are sadly mistake. Because, the problem with collocations is that, at a deeper level, some words refuse and defy going with any other word, other than their own collocated word pair, just like the expression: sadly mistaken. Why should one always be sadly mistaken, why can’t one sometimes be mournfully mistaken, sorrowfully mistaken, or regretfully mistaken? There is no logic, but just that, it’s the way it is. That is collocation- happy together with the right company, and weird with strange ones.

Types of Collocation

You can categories collocations by employing a variety of criteria. Here we shall employ the grammatical categorization of collocations:

Adjectives and Nouns: You can describe a person’s physical appearance with many of these collocations such as:  round face, chubby cheeks, long face, straight nose, oval face, slender waist, sleek figure, Wavy hair, bushy eyebrows lanky youth, and portly gentleman (fat and round elderly gentleman)

Nouns and Verbs: There are many collocations formed by the combination of nouns and verbs, like in the sentence: Companies flourished during the IT boom. Economy expanded and markets grew.

Noun and Noun: A typically pattern of such collocations is: a noun of noun structure. We have collocations like : a surge of anger, a sense of pride, a pang of nostalgia, a sense of defeat, a sense of belongingness, a sense of purpose, a sense of urgency, and others.

Verbs and Adverbs: Collocations as in:  immaculately groomed, lovely complexion, highly intelligent, fiercely loyal, and brutally honest.

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