Free-word combinations

FREE-WORD COMBINATIONS

• Definition of a word-group and its basic features
• Structure of word-groups
• Meaning of word-groups
• Motivation in word-groups

Word-Group

• the largest two-facet language unit
• consists of more than one word
• studied in the syntagmatic level of analysis

Word-Group

• the degree of structural and semantic cohesion may vary
• e.g. at least, by means of, take place – semantically and structurally inseparable
• e.g. a week ago, kind to people – have greater semantic and structural independence

Free-Word Combination

• word-groups that have a greater semantic and structural independence
• freely composed by the speaker in his speech according to his purpose

Features of Word-groups

• Lexical Valency
• Grammatical Valency

Lexical Valency (Collocability)

• The ability of a word to appear in various combinations with other words, or lexical contexts
• e.g. question – vital/pressing/urgent/etc.,
• question at issue, to raise a question, a question on the agenda

Lexical Valency (Collocability)

• words habitually collocated in speech make a cliché
• e.g. to put forward a question

Lexical Valency (Collocability)

• lexical valency of correlated words in different languages is different
• e.g. flower цветок
• garden flowers садовые цветы
• hot-house flowers оранжерейные цветы
• pot flowers комнатные цветы

Lexical Valency (Collocability)

• different meanings of one and the same word may be revealed through different type of lexical valency
• e.g. heavy table, book
• heavy snow, rain
• heavy drinker, eater
• heavy sorrow, sleep
• heavy industry