The Definition of Collocation
The term collocation was first used by Firth (1957), and the collocation of a given word is a statement of the habitual or customary associations with that word. Bolinger & Sears (1981) regarded collocations as a kind of habitual association of words and asserted that collocations resulted from the experiences of native speakers using these expressions, repeated again and again in certain circumstances.
In brief, collocations are those combinations of words which occur naturally with greater than random frequency (Lewis, 1997). James (1998) claimed that collocations are the words that particular words normally keep company with. So, we can say that collocations are the way in which one word comes together with another word, for no specific reason. Sometimes, a pair of words may not be absolutely wrong and people will understand what is meant, but it may not be the natural, normal collocation. If someone says “I did a few mistakes”, they will be understood, but a fluent speaker of English would probably say “I made a few mistakes”.
2.2 The Characteristics of Collocation
Yang & Hendricks (2004) summarized the characteristics of collocations as the frequent co-occurrence of items between which no word can be inserted, such as bread and butter; as a native English speaker is unlikely to say bread, cheese and butter. Secondly, the components of a collocation cannot be replaced by a synonym or a word of similar meaning, for example, business trip is more acceptable than business journey, as journey does not collocate with business. Thirdly, collocations are irreversible binomials (James, 1998), for example, bed and breakfast rather than breakfast and bed, more or less rather than less or more, and fish and chips rather than chips and fish. It is not grammatical to put the parts the other way around. Finally, collocations have a high degree of predictability (Hill, 2000), if you hear “more or...”, you automatically guess that “less” will follow.
Moreover, Smadja (1993) pointed out that collocations are typically characterized as arbitrary, a part of language and dialect; as well as specific, recurrent in context and common in technical language. The arbitrary nature of collocations persists across language and dialects. Thus, in American English the expressions set the table and make a decision are used, while in British English, the corresponding phrases are lay the table and take a decision.
The main characteristics of collocations are that their meanings reflect the meaning of their constituent parts (in contrast to idioms) and that they are used frequently, spring to mind rapidly and are psychologically salient, in contrast to free combination (Cruse, 1986). There are also some interesting properties of collocations; for example, the word cause typically collocates with words expressing negative concepts such as accident, damage and death. Conversely, the word provide occurs more often with positive words such as care, shelter and food (Stubbs, 1996).
2.3 The Causes of Collocational Errors
A number of recent studies have identified several factors that influence the performance level of learners regarding collocations. Experts and researchers have discovered that collocational errors are the result of numerous causes. Huang (2001) pinpointed two major factors; firstly, native language interference, which is greater when the learners use translation techniques, and secondly, the collocational competence of learners in comparison with their native English speaking counterparts, which indicated that EFL/ESL learners produced a lower percentage of conventional collocations, but a higher percentage of deviant combinations.
It can be concluded that there are numerous problems relating to the difficulties experienced by learners producing acceptable collocations. Liu (2000) suggested seven strategies for EFL/ESL learners to use when producing or comprehending collocations, which are as follows:
1. Retrieval; learners try to recall collocations from memory, but fail to store collocations in their memories, and therefore fail to use the proper collocations when communicating in both speaking and writing.
2. Literal translation; learners tend to transfer the thought word for word from L1 to L2. They use this strategy to produce both acceptable and unacceptable collocations.
3. Approximate translation; the process of paraphrasing a thought from L1 to L2. Learners rely on their intuition to create their own collocations, and choose this strategy more often than literal translation.
4. Use of de-lexicalized verbs; most learners use de-lexicalized words such as do, make and take carelessly, using them interchangeably in their writing.
5. Use of synonyms; learners produce erroneous collocations as a result of the insufficient collocational information provided about the synonyms that they use.
6. Appeal to authority; learners would prefer to ask a native English speaker or to consult a dictionary if they are unable to use the appropriate collocation.
7. Appeal for assistance; learners have a tendency to depend on guidance or instruction from the others.
Most linguists and researchers are in agreement that a learner’s first language greatly influences their collocational errors. Learners face many difficulties with collocations, such as intralingual problems; for example, the tendency to use the incorrect collocation, several thanks, rather than the correct one, many thanks. Learners must also deal with negative transfer from their mother tongue, and look for general rules for collocations that do not apply in all cases. When learners acquire vocabulary through definitions or in isolation; their chances of using the appropriate collocations or remembering the correct sequence of words decreases, and as a result, they fail to make sense of it. For example, the idiom, raining cats and dogs does not make sense to some learners because this idiom does not exist in their culture, so learners may not recognize collocations as meaningful phrases, which inhibits their understanding.