Transcript Collocation

Prepared by Joanna I. Omer
Sense Relations II:
Syntagmatic-
Pre-requisites for vocabulary building
Two Strands:
Topic
Strand
Collocation
Strand
focus on size
focus on
word combinations
paradigmatic
approach
syntagmatic
approach
4. Lexical relations
Assuming with Saussure that the meaning of a word is determined
by its structural relations with other words, the best way to
approach meaning is through investigation of the structural
relations in the vocabulary of a language.
Semantic fields
Paradigmatic: animal – quadruped – horse – roan
Syntagmatic:
horse – gallop, horse – ride, horse – whinny
Syntagmatic: relation between elements that form
part of the same form, sequence, construction, etc.
e.g.
Relation between s, p, and r in a form such as spring.
Or between a subject and a verb in constructions
such as Bill hunts.
(Matthews;2007,p.397)
Sense relation: any relation between lexical units within the
semantic system of a language. E.g. synonymy, antonym, etc.
(Matthews;2007,p.364)
Semantic (adj.): connected with the meaning of words and
sentences.
(Richards; 2002, p. 477)
Semantics (N.): is the study of meaning, including the way
words relate to the things that they refer to in the real world. Of
relevance to language teaching is the meaning relationships
between words- what are called semantic relations (sense
relations).
(Thornbury; 2006, p. 203)
Sense relation: any relation between lexical
units within the semantic system of a
language.
Sense relations are of two main types;
‘Paradigmatic’ and ‘Syntagmatic’.
Paradigmatic relations; hold between items
which can occupy the same position in a
grammatical structure: e.g.
I saw a bird/sparrow
Syntagmatic sense relations; hold
between items in the same grammatical
structure.
(Cruse; 2006. p.163-164)
SENSE RELATIONS:
Paradigmatic
Syntagmatic
Paradigmatic sense relations
days of the week
TODAY IS _ _____. [Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday. etc.]
SENSE RELATIONS:
Paradigmatic
Syntagmatic
Syntagmatic sense relations
o Oder of following, agreement, etc.
I wrote a letter. vs. *A letter wrote me.
o collocations is important class of syntagmatically
related words.
Syntagmatic relations between individual items are
as the following;
anomaly (e.g. a light green illness) and,
pleonasm (e.g. dental toothache).
(Cruse; 2006. p.164)
anomaly (semantic)
The term anomaly usually refers to cases where there is a
conflict in domains of applicability.
Interacting meanings in a grammatically well-formed
expression intuitively do not ‘go together’ normally, as
in feeble hypotenuses.
Expressions like these are not necessarily uninterpretable;
indeed,
anomaly in a literal interpretation of an expression is
often a sign that it is intended to be taken non-literally.
(Cruse; 2006. p.13)
anomaly (semantic):
Glossary 14
For instance,
it is hard to see how the notion of feebleness can be
associated in any meaningful way with hypotenuses.
There are three degrees of anomaly that are
sometimes called ‘inappropriateness’, paradox’, and
‘incongruity’, respectively.
As some anomalous expressions are more anomalous
than others.
Inappropriateness
The least anomalous are those in which the anomaly
can be cured by replacing one of the elements with a
synonym:
?My favourite cactus passed away while I was on
holiday;
My favourite cactus died while I was on holiday.
(Cruse; 2006. p.14)
Paradox
Somewhat odder are cases in which the anomaly can only be
cured by substituting an element with a Super ordinate or a
co-hyponym from the same domain:?I
heard a mouse barking;
I heard a dog/animal barking.
Incongruity
Oddest of all are cases in which none of these strategies effects
an improvement: feeble hypotenuses.
There are several ways in which an expression may be
semantically odd (including pleonasm and zeugma),
(Cruse; 2006. p.14)
pleonasm :
This is a type of semantic anomaly where some aspect of
meaning is felt to be unnecessarily duplicated.
For instance, in
?I kicked it with my foot. [with my foot ] is felt to be redundant
because it contributes no extra meaning: ‘with the foot’ is an
essential part of the meaning of kick.
?a female actress. [female] is redundant because ‘female’ is
adequately signalled by -ess.
.
(Cruse,2004; p.13-14)
But,
I kicked it with my left foot. is not pleonastic, because although
[kicked] incorporates the idea of ‘with the foot’, the noun [foot] is
necessary to allow [left] to be specified. Such repetition does
not necessarily lead to pleonasm.
That was very, very good is not pleonastic because the second
very makes a distinctive contribution to the meaning by
heightening the degree of goodness expressed.
(Cruse,2004; p.13-14)
Ungrammaticality vs. semantic
abnormality
We can show u the difference by only one example
from a slide from internet.
* Slept children the.
? The cat barked.
Semantics and Pragmatics
Semantics
The study of the meaning of words, constructions,
and utterances.
Divides into two parts:
 meaning of individual words ( lexical
semantics )
– one approach : how word meanings are related to
each other.
hypernymy , hyponymy , antonyms , meronymy ,
synonyms etc.
Semantics and Pragmatics
 meaning of sentences
–how meanings of individual words are combined.
( predicted from the meaning of the parts. )
–collocations
sum of the meaning of the part + additional meaning
Ex : white wine, white skin.
–idioms
the meaning of words and, the meaning of phrase is
completely obscure.
Ex : kick the bucket – meaning : a process, dying.
2. Definition of semantic abnormality
Semantic abnormality: refers to something which does not
usually
occur in a particular context. So, it is a measure of
unexpectedness.
Abnormality as defined in this way is context dependent.
• semantic abnormality is;
–sentence that semantic interpretation is incoherent.
–Ex : Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. The cat barked.
Informants cannot quantify degrees of abnormality; but they can distinguish a
fully normal sentence from one which is to some degree odd.
The following sentences 1. and 2. are arranged in order of normality:
1.
a. It's tea-time for my pet rabbit.
b. It's tea-time for my pet scorpion.
c. It's tea-time for my pet amoeba.
2.
a. The harpsichord needs re-tuning.
b. The jam-jars need re-tuning.
c. The banana needs re-tuning.
It perhaps ought to be pointed out here that an odd sentence is not
necessarily meaningless, or incapable of conveying a message; nor is the
case that such sentences never occur naturally. On the contrary, oddness of
one sort or another is frequently a signal that an expressi0n is being used
creatively, in a novel extension of its usual sense.
(Cruse, 1986. pp.11-12 )
principal varieties of semantic anomaly
A. Pleonasm
e.g;
Kick it with one of your feet.
A female mother.
He was murdered illegally.
B . Dissonance
Refers to a semantic clash, involving two or more lexical items in the
same sentence (or discourse).
e.g;
Arthur is a married bachelor.
Let us drink time.
Pipe . . . ditties of no tone. (Keats: Ode on a Grecian Um)
Kate was very married. (Iris Murdoch: The Nice and the Good)
(Cruse, 1986. pp.12,13)
principal varieties of semantic anomaly
C. Improbability internet
– The kitten drank a bottle of claret!
– The throne was occupied by a pipe-smoking alligator!
– Arthur runs faster than the wind!
principal varieties of semantic anomaly
D. Zeugma 21,
Is a type of semantic anomaly . It occurs when a single occurrence of an
expression has to be interpreted in two distinct ways simultaneously.
e.g.
- She was wearing a charming smile and a pair of slippers, He could well expire
before his passport does.
The possibility of zeugma is one of a number of criteria for the diagnosis of the
distinctness of lexical senses, and hence of ambiguity.
(Cruse, 1986. pp.192-193 )
e.g;
They took the door off its hinges and went through it
Arthur and his driving licence expired last Thursday.,
He was wearing a scarf, a pair of boots, and a look of considerable embarrassment.“
Normal sentences
One for which it is easy to think of a situation in which it
would constitute a normal utterance.
might well constitute an abnormal utterance in some
particular context:
For instance;
I was born in Gateshead. {is a normal sentence, but
would be odd as an answer to
- What time is it?
Solution
The following points are worth noting here as solution for such
semantic abnormality:
(i) A pleonastic expression can be normalized by replacing one of its
elements with something more specific:
- A female mother (odd), a lesbian mother? (nor-mal)
- Kick it with one of your feet (odd), - Kick it with your left foot.
(normal).
(ii)A dissonance, can only be cured, if at all, by replacing one
element by something less specific:
The cat balked (odd), The animal barked (normal).
(Cruse, 1986. pp. 21)
Solution
(iii) A zeugma can often be normalized by 'unyoking' the items
that have
been inappropriately linked:
e.g;
Arthur and his driving licence expired last Thursday,
Arthur and his driving licence should not be hitched
simultaneously to a single occurrence of expire, as they involve
different senses Separating them out cures the oddness:
Arthur expired last Thursday, his driving Iicence expired that
day, too
Collocations:
• Broad definition:
Words strongly associated with each other
–Example: hospital, insurance
• Narrow definition:
Two or more (consecutive) words functioning as a
(syntactic or semantic) unit
–Example: In broad daylight.
Collocations
Collocation: a relation within a syntactic unit between individual
lexical elements; e.g. computer collocates with hate in My computer
hates me. Used especially where words specifically or habitually go
together: e.g. blond collocates with hair in blond hair or their hair is
blond; drunk with lord in as drunk as a lord; run with riot in run riot.
Hence of idioms: e.g. blow and top are part of a ‘special collocation’
in She blew her top.
Collocation:(Choueka, 1988)
a sequence of two or more consecutive words, that has
characteristics of a syntactic and semantic unit, and whose exact
and unambiguous meaning or connotation cannot be derived
directly from the meaning or connotation of its components.
A collocational restriction is any restriction on the collocability
of one individual word with another.
Types of Collocations
A. Grammatical collocations
B. Semantical & lexical collocations
A. Grammatical collocations: refers to occurring combination of
a dominant word (noun, adjective or verb) and a function word (often
a preposition).
Typical verb collocations: abstain from, approve of (phrasal verbs)
Noun collocations: admiration for, amazement at
Adjective collocations: absent from, afraid of, angry with
Semantical & lexical collocations:
consists of a group of words (which have equal status set of collocates
for a given word ) with certain meaning that occur together.
e.g.
Run with object: a business, a company, a pizza parlour, etc.
Why is collocation important?
Essential to meaning: you really do ‘know a
word by the company it keeps’.
The link between typicality (correlates with
frequency in a corpus) and naturalness
fluency.
Criteria
A. non-compositionality
B. non-substitutability
C. non-modifiability
D. non-translatable word for word
Non-Compositionality
The meaning of the collocation cannot easily be predicted or derived
from the meanings of its individual words or parts.
Example: in broad daylight
– Literal meaning: during the day
– Subtle meaning: with no attempt to hide one’s actions.
Non-Substitutability
Near-synonyms cannot be substituted for the components of a
collocation.
Example:
– Strong is a near-synonym of powerful
strong tea ?powerful tea
– in broad daylight
– Can never be
?wide daylight
Non-modifiability
Many collocations cannot be freely modified with additional
lexical material.
–weapons of mass destruction --> ?weapons of massive
destruction.
Non-translatable (word for word)
• English:
–make a decision
? take a decision
• Kurdish?
(.‫بريار بدة‬
ِ - .‫بريار بكة‬
ِ ‫)؟‬
Example Classes
Names
Example: City University of New York
–Different from: [a] university in the city of New York
Technical Terms
Example: head gasket
–Part of a car’s engine
Verb Constructions
Example: to take a walk
Example Classes
Phrasal verbs
Example: we make up new stories
–Make: verb
–Make up: invent
Noun Phrases
Example: weapons of mass destruction
Idioms
Example: kick the bucket
Idioms
The term ‘idiom’ is usually applied to multi-word
phrases that can only be understood in context.
E.g/
In the mouth of the horse.
Connotation:
An idea suggested by a word in addition to its main
meaning.
E.g/ The word ‘professional’ has connotations of skill
and excellence.
(Cruse, 1986)
Metaphor
Is an expression in which something is described by
stating another thing with which it can be compared,
without using function words.
E.g;
Her words stabbed at his heart. = [the words did not
actually stab, but their effect is compared to the
stabbing of a knife.]
Denotation:
The act of naming something with a word; the actual
object or idea to which the word refers.
References
Seretan: Induction of Syntactic Collocation Patterns
from Generic Syntactic Relations (2005)
Richards, Jack C., Platt,J. and Platt, H.: Dictionary of
Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics. (1992)
Matthews, P.H.: Concise Dictionary of Linguistics
(2007)
Cruse, A.: A Glossary of Semantics and Pragmatics
(2006)
Trask, R.L.: Language and Linguistics (2007)
References
Thornbury, S.: An A – Z of ELT; A Dictionary of
Terms and Concepts (2006)
Cruse, D. A.: Lexical Semantics (1986).
Richards, J. C. and Schmidt, R.: Longman Dictionary
of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
(2002)
Alexander, L.G. 1992. Longman English Grammar.
http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/
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