Common English collocations and their usage What is collocation?

Difficulties in the use of collocations

• First difficulty:
• Collocation is not only a matter of association of ideas.
• For example:
• We should not often say white milk , though the expression white paint is common enough.

• Second difficulty:
• Words may have more specific meanings in particular collocations.
• For example:
• An exceptional child is not an abnormal child
• Exceptional being used for greater than usual ability and abnormal to relate to some kind of defect.

Third difficulty:

• It would be a mistake to create a distinguishing line between those collocations that are predictable from the meanings of words that co-occur and those that are not.
• For Example:
• Pretty describes only a feminine kind of beauty
• Rancid is to be defined in terms of the very specific, unplanned, taste associated with butter and bacon

Referencess

• Aisenstadt, E. E. (1979). Collocability Restriction in Dictionaries. ITL: Review of Applied Linguistics, 45, 71-74.
• Aisenstadt, E. E. (1981). Restricted Collocations in English Lexicology and Lexicography. ITL, 53, 53-62.
• Cowie, A. P. (1981). The Treatment of Collocations and Idioms in Learner Dictionaries. Applied Linguistics
• Collocations in English and Arabic: A Comparative Study Khalil Hasan Nofal
• Bc. Pavla Stodůlková
• On Collocational Restrictions (A Case Study) Master‟s Diploma Thesis