Lexical and Grammatical Collocations

---

Benson, Benson, and Ilson (1986) divided English collocations into two categories: lexical collocations and grammatical collocations (with seven and eight types, respectively). Lexical collocations are solely made up of verbs, adjectives, nouns, and adverbs in various combinations, whereas grammatical collocations include words such as verbs, adjectives, or nouns combined with a preposition or a a grammatical structure. A table of collocations (alongside 37 patterns) categorized based on their study follows:

Pattern	Example(s)
V + N/P (or prepositional phrase)	compose music; set an alarm
V + Adv	walk heavily; argue heatedly
V + N	make a decision; take place/part
Adj + N	strong/weak tea
N + V	bombs explode; alarms go off
N1 + of + N2	a pride of lions; a bunch of keys
Adv + Adj	quite safe; deeply absorbed
N + Prep	ability in/at; kind of; changes in
N + to + Inf	an attempt to do it; years to come
N + that-clause	He took an oath that he would do his duty.We reach an agreement that …; fact that
Prep + N	on purpose; in fact
Adj + Prep	tired of; bored with; angry with/at
Adj + to + Inf	ready to go; easy to learn; likely to be
Adj + that-clause	She was afraid that she would fail the exam; he was delighted that …
V + Prep	I believe in …
V + direct O + to + indirect O =V + indirect O + direct O	She sent the book to him. =She sent him the book.
V + direct O + to + indirect O(no movement for dative)	They mentioned the book to her.
V + direct O + for + indirect O =V + indirect O + direct O	She bought a shirt for her husband. =She bought her husband a shirt.
V + Prep + O	They came by train;
V + O + Prep + O	We invited them to the meeting.
V + to Inf	She continued to write.
V + bare Inf	Mary had better go.
V + V-ing	They enjoy watching TV.
V + O + to Inf	We forced them to leave.
V + O + bare Inf	She heard them leave.
V + O + V-ing	He felt his heart beating.
V + a possessive and V-ing	I cannot imagine their stealing apples.
V + that clause(rather uncommen)	The doctor suggests me that I take vitamins.
V + O + to be + C	We consider her to be well-trained.
V + O + C	She dyed her hair red.
V (+ O1) + O2	The teachers asked (the students) questions.It took/cost (us) ten minutes/cents.
V + O + Adverbial	You carry yourself well [/like a soldier].
V (+O) + wh-clause/wh-phrase	She asked (us) why we had come.
It + V + O + to Inf	It surprised me to learn of her decision.
It + V + O + that-clause	It surprised me that our offer was rejected.
V + C (Adj or N)	He was a teacher.
V + C (Adj)	The food tastes good.

The table illustrates different collocations across patterns. Examples are given for each combination.

—

Reference

Benson, M., Benson, E., & Ilson, R. (1986). The BBI combinatory dictionary of English: A guide to word combinations. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.