Collocation Errors

Abstract

We know that words do not combine randomly in natural language, as their distributions are governed by both syntax and semantics. But beyond grammar and meaning, words also show tendencies or preferences in the ways they combine. As we noted in Chapter 3, native speakers of English know that the noun phrase powerful computer is preferred over strong computer, even though both are grammatically and semantically well formed. Examples of such arbitrary, conventional usage appear in many different syntactic constructions, including adjective + noun (stiff breeze instead of rigid breeze), verb + noun (hold an election instead of make an election; kick the bucket (in the die sense) instead of hit the bucket), noun + noun or noun + of + noun (movie theater instead of film theater; swarm of bees instead of crowd of bees), and adverb + verb (thoroughly amuse instead of completely amuse).¹ Preferred word combinations such as these were first termed “collocations” by Firth [1957]. In the Firthian approach, the context of a word’s usage is seen as crucially important in determining the word’s meaning. This view underlies Firth’s now-famous dictum that “you shall know a word by the company it keeps.”