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Questions tagged [collocation]

Collocation refers to the appearance or occurrence of groups or pairs of words, particularly when more frequent than random chance would suggest.

Wikipedia defines collocation this way: In corpus linguistics, a collocation is a sequence of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance.

Chance does not mean pure randomness or arbitrariness; in this sense refers to the preference for certain words being more commonly paired than other choices which have the same meaning.

Examples include:

  • Crystal clear
  • Forbidden fruit
  • Middle Management

In these cases, for example 'crystal' + 'clear' has become an established phrase.

There is a statistical definition of collocation, see the Wikipedia article for more information.

379 questions
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Use of "medicine students"

Recently I used the term medicine students to mean students of medicine. This was corrected to medical students. I googled and found that the term I chose is not really used. However I still hear computer science students or Japanese language…
liori
  • 535
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2 answers

Does " since forever" make sense?

I've heard "since forever" used by many. I can't get my head around the contradiction in terms. Is it correct?
Nadia
  • 89
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How to say I have played the main story of a game?

I just played a game from the start to the end of main story, there are many other challenges in the game left untouched, so I think I can't say 'game completed', can I? I know the following possible candidates 'completed' 'ended' 'walked…
shintaroid
  • 173
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"it took quite a lot of courage to.." What is the collocation?

I need some help! I've found this sentence in my CAE book. There was a word missing, I wrote "took". My answer was correct. In my opinion John needed a lot of courage to sing that time. However, the answer key says that the answer is "took" because…
Aniankha
  • 31
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Collocations for "compromise"

Fairly simple one this time: What’s the best collocation with compromise if I want to say that it has been reached and, hopefully, is going to last long? I’m looking for the most natural, the “first thing that comes to mind” kind of combination. …
jules
  • 1,503
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Is saying high/low (number) wrong?

I got this feedback of "wrong collocation" on my essay. Here is the line - The average level of computer ownership in 2002 was in the high fifties (in percentage). The teacher said that 'high fifties' is incorrect grammar (wrong collocation). I…
HarshDarji
  • 131
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3 answers

What's the difference between 'left out' and 'missed out'?

There is a sentence: Negative comments were left out. Can I say: Negative comments were missed out. ? What is general different between miss out and left out ? I'm not sure which tags I should include. Is collocation OK?
James121
  • 23
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Overwhelming majority

Is the term "overwhelming majority" popular in English? Plus, what is the difference between it and "vast majority"?
Minnie
  • 21
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Does "suggesting conclusions" sound odd to you?

I stumbled upon this collocation of words in the opening lines of Wikipedia's entry on Data analysis (emphasis added): ...a process of inspecting, cleaning, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information,…
m.a.a.
  • 1,621
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Which verb and preposition collocates with the word 'solidarity' in this context?

When solidarity exists among members of a group based on ideology and that solidarity gives birth to their allegiance to each other and their allegiance against those who oppose them what verb and preposition collocates with it? For example: 'The…
nicholas ainsworth
  • 8,708
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Why "knowledge of English" and not "English knowledge"?

Why is the following sentence correct: "A candidate with a good knowledge of English is required for this teaching position." And NOT this sentence: "A candidate with good English knowledge is required for this teaching position." ? I mean, I…
user43898
  • 810
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Can I bother someone "for" something?

If I want someone (in this case, a Professor) to do something for me that they don't need to do (in this case, a second opinion on another Professor's paper), can I ask whether I can "bother them for a second opinion"? The "for" would emphasize that…
Pekka
  • 1,996
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Can you ‘join an ideology’?

Obviously the verb join refers conventionally to a group of people, but what about ideologies? Can you ‘join veganism’? Or ‘join communism?’ A quick search showed me that this collocation is far from common, but is it outright wrong? The…
Arihol
  • 23
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suitable collocation

Do you have any idea for better collocation? So I chose decided to study chemical engineering at the university to pursue my passion since at high school we just studied basic concepts.
mina
  • 13
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Giant slayer, witch hunter: why the singular form?

It is clear that the meaning of the collocations is: slayer of giants hunter of witches But, why do they stay in singular when they are in a juxtaposition? What is their grammatical funticion? Which case is that?
Boriana Tcholakova
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