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