Theory of Translation 1 Introduction

(VI) Collocative meaning 
 
Collocative meaning is made up of the associations words acquire because of the 
meanings of other words which are likely to occur in their environment. In the words 
of Firth, a renowned linguist: “You shall know a word by the company it keeps” (qtd. 
in Palmer, 76). His familiar example was that of the word ‘ass’ which occurred in 
“you silly ass!” or “Don’t be such an ass”. The adjectives ‘pretty’ and ‘handsome’ 
share common ground but may be distinguished by the range of nouns with which 
they co-occur or collocate. Some examples of collocative words are ‘tremble’ with 
fear, but ‘quiver’ with excitement’. Palmer gives some more examples of collocative 
words: flock of sheep, herd of cows, school of whales, pride of lions, etc. (77).
 

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77 
(VII) Thematic Meaning
This type of meaning is communicated by the way in which a speaker organizes his 
message from the points of view of focus and emphasis. Thematic meaning is a matter 
of choice between alternative grammatical constructions. For example, an active 
sentence and its passive equivalent may have same conceptual meaning but they may 
have different communicative values because they suggest different contexts. 
(1)
The first prize was given to him. ↔ He was given the first prize. 
Thematic meaning is mainly a matter of choice between alternative grammatical 
constructions. For instance: 
(2)
A man is waiting in the hall. ↔ There’s a man waiting in the hall.
The kind of contrast implicit in ordering and emphasis in the above examples can also 
be obtained by lexical items, e.g., by substituting ‘belongs to’ for ‘owns’ as in: 
(3)
My brother owns the house. ↔ The house belongs to my brother. 
By changing syntax, the stress effect can be achieved for emphasis as in the example: 
(4)
Vishal uses wooden chair. ↔ The kind of chair Vishal uses is wooden. 
The sentences in pairs above have the same meaning, but they differ in terms of their 
communicative effect. May be a little different; but they will not each be equally 
appropriate in the same context.