ISSN: 2255-3703
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The role of collocation in the RA
Eva Lucía Jiménez Navarro
Universidad de Córdoba
l42jinae@uco.es
Fecha de recepción: 30.06.2012
Fecha de aceptación: 01.09.2012
Abstract: A collocation is a combination of two or more words which frequently occur
together (McCarthy and O’Dell 2008). In this paper, we will show how the mastery of
these word combinations is a must if one is to publish in a second language at an
international level. As English has become the language of science (Crystal 2005;
Montgomery 2009), and over 80% of scientific publication is done through this
language, researchers who have a good command of it should aim at publishing in
English. The work presented here aims at providing some tips on how non-native
researchers who want to publish RAs at an international level can improve their
collocational competence in English.
Keywords: collocation, collocational competence, international level, scientific
publication, research article.
El papel de la colocación en el artículo científico
Resumen: Una colocación es una combinación de dos o más palabras que
frecuentemente aparecen juntas (McCarthy y O’Dell 2008). En este artículo,
mostraremos cómo el dominio de estas combinaciones de palabras es
imprescindible para publicar a un nivel internacional en una segunda lengua. Puesto
que el inglés se ha convertido en el lenguaje de la ciencia (Crystal 2005;
Montgomery 2009), y más del 80% de las publicaciones científicas se hace a través
de este idioma, los investigadores que tienen un buen dominio de éste deberían
proponerse publicar en inglés. El trabajo que presentamos pretende dar algunos
consejos sobre cómo los investigadores no nativos que quieren publicar artículos
científicos a un nivel internacional pueden mejorar su competencia colocacional en
inglés.
Palabras clave: colocación, competencia colocacional, nivel internacional,
publicación científica, artículo científico.
Sumario: Introduction. 1. Towards a definition of collocation. 1.1. Approaches to the notion of
collocation. 1.2. General characteristics of the collocations. 1.3. Syntactic types of
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collocations. 2. The importance of mastering collocations for English academic writing.
3. Some notion on collocation learning. Conclusions.
Introduction
A collocation is a combination of two or more words which frequently
occur together (McCarthy and O’Dell 2008). Their learning has proved to be
an area that has not received the attention it deserves as these units have
traditionally been neglected in the teaching of second languages in favour of
the teaching of more idiomatic units, such as phrasal verbs and idioms, and
grammar. For this reason, students are sometimes unaware of this type of
combinations, regardless of their mastery of the language since “Even very
advanced learners often make inappropriate or unacceptable collocations”
(McCarthy 1990: 13). However, collocational knowledge becomes essential
for producing natural sounding English both in the spoken and written types
of discourse. According to Nation (2001: 56), the correct use of word
sequences makes second language learners (henceforth L2L) sound like
native speakers. It also contributes to the fluency with which language can
be used. In addition to this, the largest part of the English speaker’s lexicon
consists of collocations (Pawley and Syder 1983), and many words are
recurrently used in a limited set of collocations. Therefore learning these
combinations involves learning the words that constitute them (Nation 2001:
56). In this regard, Kjellmer suggests: “In all kinds of texts collocations are
essential, indispensable elements (…) with which our utterances are very
largely made” (1987: 140). This way, knowing these word combinations
means that learners know the language better and can use vocabulary in
more appropriate set of contexts.
Although collocations do not depend on grammatical or semantic
rules, what makes them very difficult to be learned by non-native speakers, it
is generally accepted that they should be learned as “chunks”
1
of language
so that they can be stored in our brain. This viewpoint is supported by
Palmer who points out: “Each [collocation] (…) must or should be learnt, or
is best or most conveniently learnt as an integral whole or independent
entity, rather than by the process of piecing together their component parts”
(1933: 4). By the same token, Pawley and Syder (1983) claim that L2L, apart
from knowing the rules of a language, should store thousands of
preconstructed clauses as chunks in the memory and draw on them in their
language use. Similarly, Ellis argues that both language knowledge and
language use are based on associations of words stored in our brains. Ellis’s
1
This term was coined by M
ILLER
(1956) to refer to permanent sets of associative connections
in long-term storage.
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point of view is summarized in the following statement (2001: 45): “Thus
native-like selection is not a matter of syntactic rule alone. Speaking natively
is speaking idiomatically, using frequent and familiar collocations, and
learners thus have to acquire these familiar word sequences.”
1. Towards a definition of collocation.
1.1. Approaches to the notion of collocation.
In the study of collocations we can distinguish three main approaches:
(1) the Firthian approach, (2) the Russian phraseology, and (3) the mixed
approach. The first one, also known as “statistical approach”, goes back to J.
R. Firth (1957) and has been further developed by the neo-Firthians M. A. K.
Halliday and J. Sinclair. The two main notions they support are: (a)
collocations must be identifiable on the basis of their frequency, and (b)
collocations are independent of any grammatical structure. For instance,
Firth defines collocations as follows: “Collocations of a given word are
statements of the habitual or customary places of that word in collocational
order but not in any other contextual order and emphatically not in any
grammatical order” (1957: 12). By habitual or customary the author means
that both of the constituent elements of a collocation tend to co-occur with
each other.
The second approach, also known as “linguistic approach”, is born to
a group of Russian scholars, led by V. V. Vinogradov, in the 1940s. Unless
the statistical approach, they emphasize the linguistic status of collocations.
So they consider a main inclusive category, which is the “phraseological
unit”, and classify the different phraseological units according to the degree
of semantic cohesion between their component elements. These authors
regard collocations as combinations of lexical units where one of their
constituents is used in its literal sense while the other one has a non-literal
meaning (Cowie 1981, 1994; Mel’čuk 1981, 1988).
Thirdly, the last approach is known as mixed approach (Moreno 2009)
since it combines the two approaches previously mentioned. The authors
sharing this view (Greenbaum 1970, 1975; Kjellmer 1994; Carter 1998;
Gyllstad 2007) take into account the frequency of occurrence of a collocation
as well as the linguistic “environment” in which they occur (Carter 1998: 51).
For example, Howarth (1996: 29) states: “(…) collocation is not purely a
matter of probability of linear co-occurrence, since there are grammatical
and semantic or purely lexical factors that constrain lexical co-occurrence in
a large number of cases.” Therefore the mixed approach might be
considered as a way to remedy the shortcomings of the statistical and
linguistic approaches.
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1.2. General characteristics of the collocations.
As we can see, each of the approaches described in the previous
section puts more emphasis on some of the properties of collocations than
on others, but even so several common characteristics can be put forward.
First of all, the frequency of occurrence is the most important feature since
collocations are considered this way because the linguistic elements that
constitute them repeatedly co-occur. If it was not so, they would simply be
“free combinations.” Besides, the more we use collocations, the quicker they
become “institutionalized” (Corpas 1996: 21; Seretan 2011: 15). According
to Howarth (1996: 36), “(…) institutionalization is the feature that first makes
a collocation noticeable to the analyst before other criteria are applied.”
Nevertheless, Corpas (1996: 22) justifies the institutionalization of repeated
combinations of words by arguing that “(…) los hablantes (…) no van
creando sus propias combinaciones originales de palabras al hablar, sino
que utilizan combinaciones ya creadas y reproducidas repetidamente en el
discurso” [speakers do not create their own original combinations of words
while speaking, but they use combinations which have already been created
and are repeatedly reproduced in speech, translation mine].
Secondly, most collocations consist of two words, but in theory there
is no length limitation. As Sinclair (1991: 170) points out: “In most of the
examples, collocation patterns are restricted to pairs of words, but there is
no theoretical restriction to the number of words involved.” On the other
hand, the component units of a collocation do not need to appear one
immediately after the other, i.e. the constituent elements of a collocation
might appear within a span of words. Sinclair argues that this span should
be at most of four words: “The usual measure of proximity [between the
words within a collocation] is a maximum of four words intervening” (1991:
170).
Finally, arbitrariness seems to be another significant feature as these
units are apparently created according to “arbitrary word usages” (Smadja
1993: 1), so their lexical items cannot be predicted because “the affinity of a
word for a particular collocate (…) is unpredictable” (Seretan 2011: 16).
Nevertheless, once they are used and conventionalized, alternative options
are blocked, even if they were substituted by words considered synonyms
out of context. That is, there are some combination restrictions as the
presence of one element “often implies or suggests the rest of [the elements
of] the collocation” (Smadja 1993: 147) given that “[their] constituent
elements are, to varying degree, mutually selective” (Cruse 1986: 40).
Taking these characteristics into account, a collocation can be defined
as follows: “a recurrent, arbitrary and unpredictable combination of two or
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more linguistic elements which becomes institutionalized due to frequent
usage.”
1.3. Syntactic types of collocations.
Following some of the most notable authors (Benson et al. 1986,
Hausmann 1989, Corpas 1996, Hill 2000, Koike 2001), collocations can be
classified into seven different syntactic types:
(1) adjective + noun: bright idea, close friend, indoor game.
(2) verb + noun / noun + verb: accumulate knowledge, break a rule, a
bomb explodes.
(3) adverb + adjective: deeply moved, fully aware, perfectly healthy.
(4) verb + adverb / adverb + verb: act accordingly, happen
spontaneously, hardly expect.
(5) verb + adjective: sound strange, feel tired, stay awake.
(6) noun + of + noun: attack of hiccups, bar of chocolate, twist of fate.
(7) verb + prepositional phrase: put into practice, bear in mind, be
under investigation.
2. The importance of mastering collocations for English academic
writing.
As we have already said, L2L should learn collocations in order to
sound like native speakers since these word combinations cannot be
learned on any basis, but naturally co-occur. In Pawley and Syder’s opinion,
if a language learner is to achieve nativelike control, they need to distinguish
“those usages that are normal or unmarked from those that are unnatural or
highly marked” (1983: 194). Apart from this, as English is considered a
lingua franca nowadays (also known as “international language”, “global
language” or “world language”) (Seidlhofer 2005: 339), a good command of
these linguistic units is essential if one aims at speaking and writing using
this language in a fluent and natural-sounding way.
English is the most widely spoken language around the world with
about 400 million native speakers and 1.4 billion who use it as a second or
third language (Crystal 2005). Consequently, English has become the
language of science (Gómez 2010: 289; Montgomery 2009: 13; Pérez 2001:
1), i.e. most prestigious international scientific publications (Nature, Science,
New England Journal of Medicine) use this language and over 80% of
scientific publication is done through English, as is the vast majority of
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international scientific meetings, symposia, research programmes and other
academic exchanges (Crystal 2005). In this sense, Swales (1990: 99)
declares: “(...) there is no doubt that English has become the world’s
predominant language of research and scholarship.”
For these reasons, researchers should aim at publishing in indexed
journals in English, as well as for the reasons mentioned below:
(1) Spread of knowledge and knowledge display. As Ishiyama (2010:
12) suggests, publishing is essential in order to communicate research
results. Also, it helps authors to demonstrate their knowledge on a topic and
the quality of their research, so they would gain intellectual satisfaction from
external recognition which would contribute to authors’ self-esteem and
encourage them to continue doing research and publishing.
(2) Visibility and leadership. Publications can prevent authors from
being anonymous. In this regard, Ishiyama (2010: 2) claims: “Lo que se hace
o se piensa, si no se publica ni se difunde, no existe” [What is done or
thought, if it is not published or spread, it will not exist, translation mine].
Likewise, authors conducting groundbreaking research into a particular topic
may become a leader in this field for other researchers.
(3) Contribution to the scientific community, humanity and their
institution. One of the main characteristics of published research articles is
the fact that they supply their field of study with something new. In this
sense, not only do publications contribute favourably to the subjects they
deal with, but also to the knowledge of their readers. Similarly, they help the
universities where authors come from be known worldwide.
3. Some notions on collocation learning.
As we have already mentioned, the teaching of collocations has been
peripheral in the teaching of second languages, hence it still remains unclear
how they should be taught. In addition to learning collocational units as
chunks of language, some linguists claim that teaching should focus on
common collocations rather than unusual or advanced collocations, “even
though the latter might seem more attractive at first sight” (Nesselhauf 2005:
259). In other words, teachers should concentrate on expanding knowledge
of what is only half-known by teaching students new collocates of a known
word, so teaching new and rare words should not be prioritized. Another
author who supports this viewpoint is Lewis who remarks: “(...) time spent on
half-known language is more likely to encourage input to become intake than
time spent on completely new input” (2000: 24). Similarly, Hill promotes the
idea that L2L should be taught collocations of familiar words by claiming:
“(...) the main thrust of vocabulary work in most classes should be to make
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students more collocationally competent with the words with which they are
already partly familiar” (2000: 67).
On the other hand, Hatch and Brown (1995) and Nation (2001)
propose some vocabulary learning strategies which can be applied to the
learning of collocations as they are also considered to be vocabulary. For
instance, Hatch and Brown (1995, based on Payne 1988) suggest the
following five steps in the process of second language vocabulary
acquisition (1995: 374): (1) encountering new words; (2) getting the word
form; (3) getting the word meaning; (4) consolidating word form and meaning
in memory, and (5) using the word. That is, the first step to acquire
vocabulary is encountering new words which can be provided from different
sources, e.g., books, television, the Internet, magazines, music. Then, L2L
must connect the new word form to its meaning so that they can store this
word in their brain. Ultimately, they must start to use this word in their
everyday language in order not to forget it. These steps are also present in
the process of collocation learning, i.e. L2L (1) will encounter the collocation
maybe for the first time, they (2) will get the idea that the word they must use
is an only unit whose meaning results from the combination of the meanings
of their components (3), and they (4) will have to memorize the collocation
as a chunk of language which should be repeatedly used (5).
On the other hand, Nation (2001: 218-222) proposes a more complex
taxonomy of kinds of vocabulary learning strategies so that L2L could learn
new vocabulary autonomously. He suggests three general types consisting
of several sub-types. Firstly, L2L have to decide on what vocabulary they are
going to focus on depending on the goals they want to achieve (for instance,
if they are dealing with tourism, they will have to choose vocabulary related
to this field). After this, they must be aware of the meanings and uses of the
chosen words, and use these words so that they do not forget them.
Secondly, in order to get information about the target words, L2L should take
into account the context where the word appears since it is crucial when
unveiling the meaning of a word or a collocation as the same word can
acquire different meanings depending on the context of use (Firth 1957;
Halliday 1961; Sinclair 1996, 2004). They might also try to find parallel
patterns or items in the first or second language. Lastly, some strategies to
remember vocabulary are: (i) to notice that a word is an item to be learned,
(ii) to recall previously met items and establish a connection between them
and the target words, and (iii) to generate sentences containing the word
and use the word in different contexts across the four skills, i.e. listening,
speaking, reading, and writing.
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Conclusions
Regarding the study of collocations, we can consider three main
approaches: the first one which emphasizes their frequency of occurrence,
the second one which highlights their linguistic status, and the last one which
is a mixture of both. This way, although there is not an agreement on what a
collocation is, most authors generally agree that it is an unpredictable
combination of two or more lexical units which frequently appear together
and is restricted by grammatical or semantic constraints.
Their teaching has traditionally been neglected in the second
language teaching, in spite of the fact that a good command of them is
extremely important for natural sounding English. L2L have still problems to
learn them since they tend to memorize their constituent elements as single
units instead of as chunks of language, such as most linguists suggest.
Collocational knowledge is also of paramount importance for academics
when writing research articles as it helps them sound like native speakers.
On the other hand, English is considered the language of science nowadays
and most prestigious international publications are done through it. For this
reason, academic writers should aim at publishing in this language as it is
the best way to reach as much audience as possible.
Finally, some tips on how to learn collocations have been provided.
Students should learn them as chunks of language instead of memorizing
their constituent elements as isolated words. Besides, the context in which
they appear should be taken into account when unveiling their meaning as
they can acquire different meanings depending on the linguistic environment
around them. Once these combinations are learned, they should be used
repeatedly across the four skills, i.e. written and oral production and
comprehension, to prevent the non-native speaker from forgetting them.
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