Transcript rule

Episode 11
Association and Collocation
Pre-questions:
* How to understand syntagmatic and
paradigmatic relations?
* Semantically, what does association mean?
* How does association vary from
collocation?
* Which feature of collocation is the most
important in application? Why?
* What are the uses of association and
collocation?
Ⅰ. Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic
Relations
Ⅱ. Association
1. Definition
2. Paradigmatic & Syntagmatic Rules
3. Exemplification of Association
Ⅲ. Collocation
1. Definition
2. Features of Collocation
3. Types of Collocation
4. Significance
Ⅳ. Application of Association and
Collocation
Ⅰ. Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic
Relations
De Saussure(1959: 110) made the
distinction between syntagmatic and
paradigmatic relations.
Syntagmatic relations are those that a
unit contracts by virtue of its
occurrence with similar units;
Paradigmatic relations are those into
which a linguistic unit enters through
being contrasted or substitutable, in a
particular environment, with other
similar units.
John R. Firth regarded paradigmatic
relations as “system”, syntagmatic
relations as “structure”.
“系统”是一组聚合性单位在结构
里的一个位置上的替代；“结构”
是语言成分的组合性排列。
According to Lu Guoqiang(2001, 344),
elements which combine to form a
larger unit are said to be in
syntagmatic relationship; sets of
elements which can be substituted one
for another in a given context are said
to be in paradigmatic relationship.
The following two sentences can best
illustrate the syntagmatic and paradigmatic
relations: (F.R. Palmer, Semantics)
The cat is on the mat.
The dog is on the mat.
A
puppy
floor
This kitten
chair
That ball
couch
My toy
cot
In Palmer’s two sentences, “cat” and “mat”
have established syntagmatic/horizontal
relation; “cat” can be replaced by “dog”,
therefore, they are in paradigmatic/vertical
relation.
Paradigmatic relations can be illustrated by
the the substitution of “the” by
“a/this/that/my”, “cat” by
“puppy/mitten/ball/toy”, and “mat” by
“floor/chair/couch/cot”.
In paradigmatic relations, the elements
concerned usually are of the same unit, as
can be seen in the substitution abovementioned.
However, in syntagmatic
relations such as that between “cat” and
“running” in the sentence “ The cat is
running.”, the two elements are not
necessarily the same units.
Thus,
Saussure’s understanding of syntagmatic
relations
needs
to
be
desired.
Ⅱ. Association
1. Definition:
Association is expansion/proliferation
of words by means of syntagmatic and
paradigmatic relations.
2. Paradigmatic & Syntagmatic Rules
In his article Word Associations and
Linguistic Theory included in New
Horizons in Linguistics edited by John
Lyons, Herbert H. Clark proposes four
paradigmatic rules and two syntagmatic
rules to account for word association.
Paradigmatic Rules
A. The minimal-contrast rule(最低特征对
比规则）
This rule can be described as the rule of
“changing the sign of one feature
beginning with bottommost feature.”
e.g. man: [+Concrete] ﹥[+Countable]
﹥[+Human] ﹥[+Adult] ﹥[+Male]
So when looking at “a diligent man”, “a
diligent woman” will be naturally
associated.
B. The Feature-deletion/addition rules
Deletion of semantic features of a noun
generally leads to the transformation
from the subordinate to superordinate,
while addition of semantic features
undertakes the opposite process.
C. The Marked Rule
This rule means the unmarked item
usually elicit the marked item, and vice
versa.
D. The Category-preservation Rule
• This rule means when making associations, try
to maintain the most distinctive feature, namely,
the part of speech of the word, and its
subcategorization feature.
• Take “frighten” for example, the feature [+verb]
should be preserved most, and the
subcategorization features such as [+ －NP],
and the more exact [+ －Det[+Animate] should
also be attended to.
Actually, paradigmatic rules can be
seen as the realization of making
associations by means of sense relations
such as synonymy, antonymy and
hyponymy(meronymy,
troponymy),
which provide an effective way to
enlarge vocabulary.
Please make associations of the following words:
• wet
• animal
• apple
• laugh
• day
• enjoyment
• petal
• success
• deep
• vegetable
• jump
This small investigation has verified the
assumption. (Total Number:199)
• Coming across “wet”, “laugh”, “day”,
“success”, “deep”, instinctively, the hefty
majority, 95% associated them with “dry”,
“cry”, “night”, “failure”, “shallow” respectively,
which displayed the application of antonymy
subconsciously. Only 5% connected “wet” with
“rain” or “cold”.
• 85% associated “enjoyment” with “joy/delight”,
which best indicated the innate exploitation of
synonymy. 15% associated it with “sadness”,
“misery”, or “suffering”.
• Running into “animal” and “vegetable”
everybody made associations of “cat/dog”,
and
“cabbage” respectively, which
revealed good use of hyponymy.
• 100% associated “petal” with “flower”,
which reflected their distinct preference
of meronymy.
• Everyone associated “apple”, “jump”
with their co-hyponyms “pear” and
“run”, which can make up of the
semantic fields of “fruit” and “activity”
respectively.
Syntagmatic Rules
E. The Selection Features Realization Rule
This rule pays attention to the selection
features(syntactic
and
semantic
restrictions) of a certain word that
partially characterize the meaning of the
potential context of the word.
F. The Idiom-Completion Rule
This rule aims to construct an idiom
of which the already existing word is
a certain part.
3. Exemplification of Syntagmatic and
Paradigmatic Rules of Association
surf
•
•
•
•
•
•
Rule F. go surf-riding
Rule E. surf on the Internet
Rule D. navigate/browse on the Internet
Rule C. navigated/navigating on the web
Rule B. The boy is surfing on cctv. com
Rule A. The girl is surfing online.
Ⅲ. Collocation
1. Definition:
Firth((1951:124)argued that “You shall
know a word by the company it keeps.”
He called this keeping company
collocation.
He encouraged collocation for semantic
association, colligation for syntactic
association.
In current usage, collocation generally
covers both types of association.
John Sinclare held collocation is the
occurrence of two or more words
within a short space of each other in
a text.
Collocation is the likelihood of cooccurrence between words. It is very
likely that “blonde” will occur with
“hair”, but unlikely that it will occur
with “wallpaper”, “blonde” and
“hair” are said to be collocates.
(McCarthy, 1990:158)
Collocation
cares
about
the
syntagmatic relations between lexical
items, i.e. the habitual co-occurences
( mutual expectancy) of individual
lexical items.
The lexical items
involved are collocates .
2. Features of Collocation
A. Co-occurrence/mutual expectancy
Co-occurrence refers to the
permitted syntagmatic combination
of words.
B. Selectional restrictions
Chomsky dealt with collocation within
the framework of syntax, paying
attention to its grammaticality and
meaningfulness.
There are many constraints on what
lexical items can combine with what
others, which are called selection
restrictions because they govern the
selection of lexical items for insertion
into underlying structures.
Selection
restrictions
include
grammatical rules and the semantic
features
of
lexical
items.
Additionally, selection restrictions
should address to the logic meaning
and the polysemic state of the lexical
items.
Compare:
milk the cows (logic)
milk the tigress/lioness(illogic)
green vegetables/mountain/tea
green apples/tomatoes/fruit
green hand
C. Idiosyncracy(特异性）&
Inexplicability
Although collocation is very largely determined
by meaning, it is sometimes fairly idiosyncratic
and cannot be predicted in terms of the
meaning of the associated words. One cannot
explain why this lexeme collocates with another
word, e.g.
take medicine √
eat medicine ×
drink/swallow medicine
blond hair √
rancid milk ×
a blond dress ×
rancid bacon √
rancid butter √
a blond door×
sour milk √
rotten milk ×
bad milk ×
addled egg √
addled brain √
addled bacon×
3. Types of Collocations
A. In terms of the degree of closeness,
collocations can be classified into:
• central collocations: e.g. wear a coat
• medial collocations: e.g. wear a watch
• peripheral collocations: e.g. wear
perfume
A fat kitchen makes a lean will.(B. Franklin)
B. In terms of function, collocations
can
be
divided
into
grammatical/syntactic collocations
and lexical collocations.
C. In terms of the quality of the
node(head word), there are verb
collocations,
noun
collocations,
adjective collocations, etc.
D. In terms of the range selection
restrictions, collocations can be
classified into: (McIntosh 1961)
• Unrestricted collocations: free phrases
• Semi-restricted collocations:
• Restricted/frozen collocations:idioms
Compare: (Chomsky)
在船上作出决定
决定买一艘船
decide on a boat(free phrase)
decide on a boat(semi-restricted)
He kicked the bucket out of the way. (free phrase)
He kicked the bucket last night. (restricted)
4. Significance
A. Collocation is the component of
mental lexicon.
B. Halliday and Hasan(1976) regarded
co-occurence of collocation as one of
the two lexical cohensives; the other
is reiteration(词项复现）
C. It encourages the predictability of
collocates.
D. It creates the distinctiveness of
polysemics.
e.g. break the vase/cup/window
break the law/a contract/promise
break heart/a man/spirit
fat pig/pork/lands/income/kitchen
E. It benefits the accuracy of synonyms in
application.
fat
plump
obese
stout
collocates
man
woman
baby
legs
fingers
chicken
apple
fat
plump
obese
stout
collocates
√
√
√
√
man
√
√
√
√
woman
√
√
×
×
baby
√
√
×
√
legs
√
√
×
√
fingers
√
√
×
×
chicken
√
×
×
×
apple
Ⅳ. Application of Association and
Collocation (Lu Guoqiang, 349-355)
1.
Association and collocation
synonymous structures:
• A. synonymous structures formed
words in different distribution
• B. synonymous structures based
changes in function
• C. synonymous structures formed
lexical groups and sentences
of
by
on
by
2. Association and collocation of
antonymous structures:
• A. antonymous structures opposite in
meaning but identical in structure
• B. antonymous structures opposite in
meaning and different in structure
3. Association and collocation
centering on a given subject:
• A. nouns and verbs
• B. nouns and adjectives
• C. verbs and adverbs
Matching Exercise 1
look at
watch
visit
read
see
films
the map
friends
newspapers
games
Matching Exercise 2
grow breed give birth to rear bring up raise
vegetables
animals
children
Correct the following sentences:
1. You must make full use of your time and
learn more knowledge. (acquire/obtain)
2. Some people think the best preparation for life
is to learn competition.
(learn how to compete/learn to be competitive)
3. You’d better provide him a pencil with which to
paint.
(draw/sketch)
4. In China, the mother can go to milk her baby
twice a day during her work time.(feed)
5. I hate such crowded traffic in the city.(heavy)