http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g/Colligation.

htm
Page 1 of 2 Aug 05, 2014 12:59:23AM MDT
colligation about.com
Definition:
A grouping of words based on the way they function in a structure--i.e., a syntactic pattern. Verb: syntactic
. colligate
As linguist Ute Rmer has observed, "What is on a level of analysis, colligation is on a collocation lexical
syntactic level. The term does not refer to the repeated combination of concrete word forms but to the way
in which co-occur or keep habitual company in an " ( word classes utterance Progressives, Patterns,
, see below). Pedagogy
Etymology:
From the Latin, "tie together." The term was first used in its sense by British linguist John Rupert linguistic
Firth (1890-1960), who defined as "the interrelation of in syntactical colligation grammatical categories
structure."
Examples and Observations:
"According to Firth (1968:181), refers to the relations between words at the colligation
level, i.e. the relations of 'word and sentence classes or of similar categories' instead of grammatical
'between words as such.' But nowadays the term colligation has been used to refer not only to
significant co-occurrence of a word with grammatical classes or categories (e.g. Hoey 1997, 2000;
Stubbs 2001c:112) but also to significant co-occurrence of a word with grammatical words (e.g.
Krishnamurthy 2000). The patterning with grammatical words, of course, can be observed and
computed even using a raw corpus."
(Tony McEnery, Richard Xiao, and Yukio Tono, Corpus-Based Language Studies: An Advanced
. Routledge, 2006) Resource Book
"Although based on Firth's concept, the more widespread Sinclairian use of colligation
describes the co-occurrence of a class of grammatical items with a specified node. For instance,
regarding the node , [John McH.] Sinclair notes that 'there is a strong colligation with a true feelings
. . ..' Other kinds of colligation might be a preference for a particular verb , possessive adjective tense
, , , , and so on. The notion that words may negative particles modal verbs participles that- clauses
prefer (or, indeed, avoid) particular positions in text is picked up by [Michael] Hoey ([ ,] Lexical Priming
2005) in his more detailed definition of colligation:
The basic idea of colligation is that just as a lexical item may be primed to co-occur with
another lexical item, so also it may be primed to occur in or with a particular grammatical
function. Alternatively, it may be primed to avoid appearance in or co-occurrence with a
particular grammatical function.
(Hoey 2005:43)
Hoey attributes his use of colligation also to refer to position as derivative from Halliday . . .; sentential
it can, of course, also be seen as a natural extension of considering as a grammatical punctuation
class, because punctuation is one of the most obvious indicators of positioning in text."
http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g/Colligation.htm
Page 2 of 2 Aug 05, 2014 12:59:23AM MDT
class, because punctuation is one of the most obvious indicators of positioning in text."
(Gill Philip, . John Colouring Meaning: Collocation and Connotation in Figurative Language
Benjamins, 2011)
"The class of verbs of perception such as enters into with hear, notice, see, watch colligation
the sequence of object + either the or the ; e.g. bare infinitive form -ing
We heard the visitors leave/leaving.
We noticed him walk away/walking away.
We heard Pavarotti sing/singing.
We saw it fall/falling.
The term [ ] is far less general than the contrasting term ." colligation collocation
(Sylvia Chalker and Edmund Weiner, . Oxford University Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar
Press, 1994)
Collocation and Colligation in Language Instruction
"[C]ontext is not only central in linguistic analysis and description but in language pedagogy too. I
strongly believe that it makes sense to pay attention to collocation and in language colligation
instruction and to teach lexical items in their typical syntactic and semantic contexts. This belief
clearly echoes one of [John McH.] Sinclair's (1997:34) . . . data-centered precepts: '[i]nspect
contexts,' in which he 'advocate[s] a much closer inspection of the verbal environment of a word or
phrase than is usual in language teaching.'
"A corpus-driven study of , especially when it is in part pedagogically motivated, thus progressives
has to closely examine the contexts of the respective items under analysis and investigate which
terms are normally selected together by the competent speaker of English."
(Ute Rmer, Progressives, Patterns, Pedagogy: A Corpus-driven Approach to English Progressive
. John Benjamins, 2005) Forms, Functions, Contexts and Didactics
2014 About.com All rights reserved.