Why is the study of collocations important?
To understand the importance of collocations in language use, you have to fully understand what collocations are all about. Collocation refers to the natural combination of closely affiliated words in English speech and writing. It refers to a group of two or more words that are often used together. For example, the words write and letter are frequently used together because they are closely affiliated. That’s why we always say: I’ll write a letter to Mary. Why can’t we say: I’ll cook a letter to Mary? It’s simply because cook and letter are cannot collocate. So, we can talk about writing a letter and cooking a meal. You can see that cooking and meal can collocate. A doctor can diagnose a disease, prescribe a treatment or perform an operation. These words not only belong to the same medical register but also do collocate in the way they have been used together in the sentence.
From the above examples, you can see clearly that the study of collocations is of central importance to achieving proficiency in the use of English. Collocations make your language sound natural because collocations are a natural combination of words that are closely related. By mastering collocations, you will be able to communicate your ideas more clearly, and your English will be more similar to the way it is spoken by native speakers.
The study of collocations will not only enable you to convey your intended meaning more clearly but will also enable you to interpret more clearly what others have said or written. This is because collocation in itself is a meaningful word combination that often occurs in natural language. According to the British Linguist Firth, “the company a word keeps” helps you to know its meaning easily. Firth defined collocation as “the company words keep.” In other words, you can easily identify the actual meaning of a word from the company it keeps – that is, from other words combined with it in a sentence or text.
To appreciate the importance of collocation, let’s consider concepts like synonyms and antonyms. We know that synonyms are words nearest in meaning; however, the exact synonyms can only be identified in the very context in which the word is used. For example, the words pretty and beautiful are synonyms, and each of them can be used to mean good-looking. However, each of them can have different meanings depending on other words they co-occur with. When you talk about a pretty woman, the word pretty is similar to beautiful. This means you can talk about a pretty woman or a beautiful woman. The situation is different when you use the word pretty with sure, as in “I’m pretty sure he’ll accept our proposal.” Here, the meaning of pretty is no longer similar to beautiful. That’s why you cannot say “I’m beautiful sure he’ll accept our proposal.” The reason is simple: pretty and sure can collocate whereas beautiful doesn’t collocate with sure. When pretty is combined with sure, it gives the meaning fairly or more than a little. You will discover a similar situation if you consider antonyms, which are words most opposite in meaning. Consider the words handsome and ugly. They are both antonyms when used in the following sentence: Jack is a handsome young man. You can insert the word ugly in place of handsome (an ugly young man) if the opposite meaning is intended. This implies that both handsome and ugly are contextual antonyms when used with “a young man”. They both collocate with the phrase “a young man”. However, the situation is completely different when you use the same word handsome with profit, as in Benson managed to make a handsome profit out of the deal. Here, the meaning of handsome has changed to large instead of good-looking. That’s why you cannot say “Benson managed to make an ugly profit out of the deal. Again, the reason is simple: handsome and profit can collocate, whereas ugly doesn’t collocate with profit.
As an ESL learner, mastering the collocational patterns of lexical items will help you to avoid all sorts of collocational errors that are capable of distorting the meaning of what is being said or written. Your knowledge of appropriate collocations will enable you to use proper words in proper places, which will greatly improve your grammatical competence. In fact, a notable scholar once noted that knowledge of appropriate collocations is “part of the native speakers’ competence.”
The study of collocations is indispensable if you really want to be clear and precise in your use of language. Most of the grammatical errors people commit are attributable to inadequate knowledge of appropriate collocations. Consider the following: “Please borrow me some money” or “borrow me a loan.” Obviously, someone who speaks or writes such expressions knows something about the finance register but has some difficulty in using appropriate collocations. What we discover here is that inappropriate collocations distort meanings, whereas appropriate collocations help to convey meanings clearly. The word “borrow cannot collocate with “me” in the sense in which it has been used here. Instead, the word “lend” is what you need to convey that intended meaning: “Please lend me some money.” Alternatively, you can use “I” with “borrow” as follows: “Can I borrow some money from you?” Word order is important here as well: Can I borrow some money from you (not: can you borrow me some money). You can “give me a loan” (not borrow me a loan) As you can see, the words borrow, money and loan belong to the same register, but you must use each of them with the exact words that collocate with it in order to communicate your intended meaning clearly.
For a more detailed audiovisual explanation of how to apply the principle of collocation in answering real grammatical questions, watch the following video lecture: ANTONYMS AND COLLOCATIONS IN WASSCE ENGLISH
The following eBooks will give you further insight into other areas of language proficiency, such as grammatical structures, essay writing – letter writing, article writing, speech writing, report writing, story writing – comprehension, summary writing, vowel and consonant sounds, and so forth:
0 Comments