Professional Documents
Culture Documents
VOLUME 14 Grammatical
No.and Lexical English
1 Februari 2002 Collocations Halaman 53 - 62
* Doktoranda, Master of Arts, Staf Pengajar Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya,
Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta.
any text.” In addition to that, the following is (Kennedy, 1990:224): from the outside, inside
an explanation by Benson, Benson, and Ilson the cupboard. These prepositional phrases
(1986 in Bahns, 1993:57): are considered as free combinations.
In English, as in other languages,
there are many fixed, identifiable, non- 2.2 Types of Grammatical Collocations
idiomatic phrases and constructions. According to Benson,Benson and Ilson
Such groups of words are called (1986) in their introduction to their The BBI
recurrent combinations, or Combinatory Dictionary of English
collocations. Collocations fall into two grammatical collocations fall into the following
major groups: g r a m m a t i c a l combinations: noun+preposition, noun+to-
collocations and lexical collocations. infinitive, noun+that-clause, preposition +
noun, adjective+ preposition, predicate
Unlike collocations whose meanings are adjective+ to-infinitive, adjective+ that-clause,
often unpredictable, ‘free combination’ and the English 19 verb patterns.
consists of elements that freely allow
substitution. For example, decide on a boat, 2.2.1. noun + preposition combinations
meaning ‘choose (to buy) a boat’ contains
the collocation decide on, whereas decide Not all noun + preposition combinations
on a boat, meaning ‘make a decision while can be considered as collocations due the
on a boat’ is a free combination. The possible highly predictable meaning of some
combination of ‘decide’ (meaning ‘making a prepositions, such as of and by. So, noun +
decision’) is limitless: They decided —after of / by combinations are considered free
dinner, immediately, at the meeting, with a combinations. The following phrases are
heavy heart, etc. A native speaker will not examples of noun + preposition collocations:
say: They decided (meaning ‘choose’) at a blockade against, apathy towards.
boat. To them decided at a boat (meaning
to ‘choose’ a boat) is not collocable. 2.2.2. noun + to + infinitive
We reached an agreement that she b. adjectives with real and animate subject,
would represent us in court such as She is ready to go; or with
He took an oath that he would do his inanimate subject, such as : It (the bomb)
duty is designed to explode at certain
temperatures; or with either animate or
However, when the ‘that-clause’ can be inanimate subject: She was bound to
replaced by ‘which-clause’ as that in relative find out or It (the accident) was bound
clauses, such a noun + that-clause to happen.
construction is not considered as
collocational. For example: We reached into
an agreement that/ which would go into 2.2.7. adjective + that clause
effect in a month. Some adjectives can be followed by that-
clause. For example:
2.2.4. preposition + noun combinations
She was afraid that she would fail her
Any combinations of preposition and examination
noun can fall into this category, however the Several adjectives followed by present
choice of preposition with certain noun is not subjunctive in formal English are
at random. For example: collocational, such as: It was imperative that
by accident, in advance, in agony, etc. we be there.
indirect object to a position before the Some verbs in this category may have
direct object. For example: synonymous construction : He began reading
or He began to read are similar in meaning.
She bought a shirt for her husband;
And some other verbs of this category may
also possible: She bought her
have different construction and meaning, for
husband a shirt or She bought a
example: He remembered telling him the
shirt for him or She bought him a
story and He remembered to tell him the story
shirt.
are different in meaning
d. The verb forms a collocation with a
h. Transitive verbs are followed by an
specific preposition and an object. For
object and to + infinitive. For example:
example:
They asked the students to
They based their conclusions on
participate in discussion
the available facts
We adhered to the plan They permitted the children to
watch television
However, the following similar constructions
are not collocations, but free combinations Many of the verbs in this pattern can be
of verb + preposition denoting ‘location’ or followed by infinitive to be. For example, She
‘means’ or ‘instrument’ asked me to be punctual. Furthermore, most
of the verbs in this construction can be
We walked in the park
passivized.
They came by train
i. Transitive verbs are followed by a direct
e. Verbs are followed by to + infinitive. For
object and an infinitive without to. Most
example:
I-pattern verbs cannot be passivized. For
They began to speak; example:
She continued to write We let them use the car
However, verbs + to infinitive meaning We saw them leave the house
“purpose” are not included as collocational
combination. For example: He was running j. Verbs are followed by an object and a
(in order) to catch the bus. verb in –ing. For example:
She stopped (in order) to chat I caught him smoking in his
bedroom
f. Verbs are followed by infinitive without
We found the children sleeping on
to
the floor
These verbs, except dare, help, and
Some verbs in this category (especially
need, are called modals. The verbal
verbs of perception, like see, hear, feel)may
phrases had better and would rather also
have similar constructions with that of
fit this pattern. For example:
construction in I-pattern. We saw him smoke
They must work the cigarette beside We saw him smoking.
We had better go now J-pattern verbs usually can be passivized.
I cannot imagine their stealing Some verbs in this category may also
apples. be used with M-verb pattern, For example:
Please excuse my waking you so We considered her very capable
early.
However possessive constructions are o. Transitive verbs are followed by two
often considered awkward, more common objects. For example:
expressions for the same meaning will use The teacher asked the students
the following alternative: questions
I cannot imagine them stealing apples The police fined them fifty pounds
This fact justifies Bill for coming late
p. Intransitive /reflexive / transitive verbs
Please excuse me for waking you so
must be followed by an adverbial (an
early
adverb/a prepositional phrase/a noun
l. Verbs are followed by a noun clause phrase/a clause). For example:
beginning with conjunction that. For
He carried himself with dignity; but
example: not * He carried himself
They admitted that they were wrong The meeting will last two hours; but
We hoped that the weather would not *The meeting will last
be nice Other verbs in this category are: come,
Some verbs always take an object noun sneak, weigh, etc. However some of these
or pronoun before the that-clause, such as verbs may have senses that do not require
For example: an adverbial, for example: They are coming,
in addition to They are coming home
She assured me that she would arrive
on time q. Verb can be followed by an interrogative
They convinced us that we should invest word, such as how, what, when, etc. For
our money example:
Some verbs in this category allow the He always wants what I want
insertion of the fact. For example: She knows when to keep quiet
He acknowledged (admitted/confirmed/ However, some verbs in this construction
etc) the fact that he was guilty need an object, such as
m. Transitive verb can be followed by a They told us what to do
direct object, an infinitive to be and She asked me why she had come
adjective / past participle/ noun/pronoun.
For example: r. Dummy ‘it’ is followed by transitive verbs
(often expressing emotions) and by to
We considered her to be very + infinitive or by that + clause or by
capable / well-trained / a competent either. For example:
engineer
It puzzled me that he never
n. Transitive verbs are followed by a direct answered the telephones
object and adjective/ past participle or It surprised me to learn of her
noun/pronoun. For example: decision
She dyed her hair red s. A small number of intransitive verbs are
He found them interesting followed by a predicate noun / predicate
adjective. Including the verb make, used which in fact troublesome. The transfer
intransitively, belongs to this group. For of the L1 prepositions may cause
example: mistakes because of the differrent
concept between the L1 prepositions to
She will make a good teacher
the English. For example, the
She was enthusiatic Indonesian expression ‘tertarik dengan
However larger group of intransitive verbs ‘ is literary transferred to English
can be followed only by a predicate adjective, ‘interested with’; whereas ‘interested in’
for example: will be difficult to remember because
preposition ‘in’ is equivalent to
The flowers smell fragrant or The food
Indonesian ‘di’. So, it is a learning
tastes awful.
burden to Indonesian learners to decide
which English preposition/particle to
2.3. Possible Problems of Grammatical
transfer di or dengan.
Collocations to Indonesian Learners
c. Moreover, it is sometimes difficult to
Among the above collocation patterns, decide whether the verbs of phrasal verbs
the problems of verb transitivity and phrasal are transitive or intransitive before they
verbs seem overwhelming. In relation to can decide whether the phrasal verbs
English verb transitivity, learner may get can be separated (such as, call your
confused to decide (a) which verbs are dog off) or not (take in lodgers). Learners
always transitive or always intransitive, and will likely generalize the rule of
which ones can occur in both types, and (b) separating the transitive verb from its
which structure (infinitive with or without to, preposition and insert the object. For
gerund or that-clause) can follow certain example : It was too late to call in an
transitive verbs. It takes time for learners to electrician can also be expressed – It
memorize which verbs require which structure was too late to call an eletrician in or It
or which alternative structure are possible. was too late to call him in. This sentence
The other problem in grammatical pattern of phrasal verb “call in” will be
collocation is that of pattern 2.2.8.d. verb + over-generalized in the inseparable
adverbial particles combinations. The phrasal transitive verb, such as “call on”
combinations are confusing to English (ask to speak) The chairman called on
learners, including Indonesian students, due Mr. Sudjana to give report. The chairman
to the following problems as observed by Side called on him to give report (which is
(1990: 144-5): still correct); Learners may also produce
a. Many English verb + adverbial particle The chairman called him on to give report
combinations (also called phrasal verbs) (which is incorrect) (Thomson and
have more than one meaning, such as Martinet, 1980: 102). Wallace (1987:
make up (‘to decide’ ‘to invent’ and ‘to 120-1) distinguishes phrasal verb from
put on cosmetics’ and the ‘cosmetics prepositional phrase, in which the latter
itself) and are often idiomatic. The is definitely inseparable. Compare the
seemingly endless list of such following examples: He turned down the
combinations with their various offer (a phrasal verb or verb-adverb
meanings is indeed threatening. combination) and He turned down the
b. Adverbial particles, whose forms are road (prepositional phrase or verb-
similar to preposition, of the phrasal preposition combination). “Turn down” in
verbs seem to be random. Therefore, the first sentence is separable whereas
learners tend to transfer the prepositions that in the second is not ( Stageberg,
of their L1 phrasal verbs to English ones 1971: 225).
d. To give more confusion, the fact that The co-occurence of two or more words
there is sometimes no direct equivalent in a lexical collocation has two important
in the L1, some phrasal verbs can give features. Firstly, there may be a constant
learners more difficulties in collocational relationship between the two
understanding their meanings, such as words that collocate although several words
“I am done in.” go in between them. For example, collocation
“collect stamp” can be separated as :They
collect stamps; They collect foreign stamps;
2.4. Lexical Collocations They collect many things, but chiefly
In contrast to grammatical collocations, stamps, (Greenbaum, 1970 in Carter and
lexical collocations do not contain McCarthy, 1988:34). Secondly, lexical
grammatical elements. Benson, Benson, collocation does not seem to depend on
and Ilson (1986 in Bahns, 1993) list various grammatical types. So, collocation ”strong
combinations of lexical collocations: verb + argument” can be expressed, for example:
noun (start a family; keep a secret); adjective He argued strongly; or The strength of his
argument: or His argument was strengthened
+ noun (good work, strong tea); adverb +
(as exemplified by Halliday, 1966 in Carter
adjective (heavily influenced, amazingly
and McCarthy, 1988:35).
gorgeous); verb + adverb (walk slowly, laugh
nervously).
In lexical collocations, too, there are 2.4. Types of Lexical Collocations
fixed and loose combinations. Especially in
The following are types of lexical
verb + noun combinations, the combinations
collocations as categorized in Benson, et al
are fixed in which the choice of words that
The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English
collocate each other is definite, such as: (1986: xxiv – xxviii):
commit a murder, or break the law and these
combinations: do a murder, or damage the
2.4.1. verb (usually transitive) + noun/
law are unlikely. This fixed structure are
pronoun (or prepositional phrase)
idiomatic, however their meanings are still
predictable from the elements of the Most of 2.4.1 collocations are called CA
combination. In comparison, in loose collocations because they consist of a verb
collocations the collocates are freely denoting creation or activation and a noun/ a
combined, such as: analyze/study/witness pronoun. For example:
a murder and practice/study law. The
meanings of these loose collocations can still (denoting creation) come to an
be derived from their individual words. In agreement, compose a music, etc
contrast, there are fixed combinations (denoting activation) set an alarm, launch
consisting of several lexical items which are a missile, etc
relatively frozen expressions and whose However, not all verbs denoting creation
meanings are sometimes hardly derivable and activation can be considered collacable
from their component words, such as to to any nouns. Combinations of verbs, such
scream blue murder (‘to complain very loudly’) as build, cause, cook, make, prepare, etc +
or get away with murder (‘someone who can nouns are limitless, their meanings are
do whatever they like) (Nattinger, 1987:949); predictable. Therefore these combinations
and lay down the law (“give other people order are not considered collocations. For
in a bossy way”) or take the law into example: build a house (a bridge, roads),
someone own hand (‘deliberately break the cause damage (death, deafness). Similarly,
law’) (ibid: 817). These fixed structures and there are some nouns with polysemous
meanings collocations are called idioms. meanings, such as line needs different verbs
to collocate: form a line (meaning to line up) 2.4.5.b. the specific, concrete, small unit
and drop smb a line (meaning write smb a of something larger, more
letter) general. For example:
a bit of advice, an article of
2.4.2 verb (meaning eradication and or
clothing, etc
nullification) + a noun
In some instances, more than one Although lexical collocations seem more
adjective (or more than one form of the same flexible, its greater possibility of formation
adjective) can collocate with the same noun. may make learners feel they have the most
For example: freedom in combining words. Therefore
collocational errors the learners are likely to
strong / weak tea; kind /kindest / best commit are the transfers of L1 elements in
regards their combinations which unfortunately are
not always acceptable collocations. The
2.4.4. noun + verb following are possible L1 transfers
The verb names an action characteristic
a. Learners will transfer L1 verbs in English
of the person/things designated by the noun.
verb + noun collocation.
For example:
For example, Indonesian learners will
alarms go off; bees buzz; bomb explode
think ‘make a conclusion’ is the only
Predictable combinations, such as acceptable word combination because
boxers box, dancers dance are considered in BI ‘membuat kesimpulan’ is an
free combinations acceptable collocation. They will hesitate
to adopt ‘to draw a conclusion’.
2.4.5. noun + noun Moreover ‘membuat persetujuan’ has its
acceptable English equivalent: ‘make an
This type of collocations indicates the agreement’. Therefore learners transfer
unit that is associated with a noun the verb ‘membuat’ as ‘make’ which is
not always acceptable verb for certain
2.4.5.a. larger unit to which a single
nouns, or avoid using ‘make’ + noun
member belongs. For example:
because in BI structure other verbs are
a herd of buffalo, a bouquet of more likely used. For example: English
flowers, etc. ‘make the bed’ requires different use of
noun ; adverb + adjective; verb + noun, etc. Nattinger, J. (ed). 1987. Collins Cobuild
Each type of collocation may impose English Language Dictionary. London:
difficulty or confusion on learners of English. Collins
This is due to the fact that there is hardly
Nattinger, J.R. and DeCarrico, J.S. 1992.
clear-cut guideline for non-native learners to
Lexical Phrases and Language Teaching
decide which combinations are exactly
London: Longman
acceptable and whose co-occurence are
highly predictable; or which ones are possibly Side, R. 1990. “Phrasal verbs: sorting them
acceptable for creative purpose, or which one out” in ELT Journal 44(2): 145 - 152.
are simply unacceptable. The only way to Oxford: Oxford University Press.
get better grasp of English collocations is Stageberg, N.C. 1971. An Introductory
building up awareness of it and experiencing English Grammar. New York: Holt,
it receptively and productively. Rinehart and Winston, Ltd.
Thomson, A.J. and Martinet, A.V. 1980. A
REFERENCES Practical English Grammar.Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Bahns, J. 1993.”Lexical collocations: a
contrastive view” ELT Journal 47(1):56- Wallace, M. 1987. Teaching Vocabulary.
63. Oxford :Oxford University Press. London: Heinemann.
Kennedy, G. 1990. “Collocations: where
grammar and vocabulary teaching
meeet” in Language Teaching
Methodology for the Nineties, RELC,
Anthology Series 24.