SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURESOF ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS CONTAINING THE VERB “KEEP” WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ CHÂM
SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES
OF ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS CONTAINING THE VERB
“KEEP” WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE
EQUIVALENTS
(ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA CÁC CÁCH
KẾT HỢP CHỨA ĐỘNG TỪ ―KEEP‖ TIẾNG ANH VỚI CÁC
TƢƠNG ĐƢƠNG TIẾNG VIỆT)
M.A. THESIS
Field: English Language
Code: 8220201

Supervisor : Dr. Pham Thi Tuyet Huong

Hanoi, 2018


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Statement of authorship ........................................................................................... i
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................... ii
Abstract .................................................................................................................... iii
Abbreviation ............................................................................................................ iv
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................1
1.1 Rationale for the study ..........................................................................................1
1.2 Aims and objectives of the study ..........................................................................2
1.3 Research questions ................................................................................................3
1.4 Methods of the study .............................................................................................3
1.5 Scope of the study: ................................................................................................3

1.6 Significance of the study .......................................................................................4
1.7 Design of the study................................................................................................4
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .....................................................................6
2.1 Review of previous studies ...................................................................................6
2.2. Theoretical background ........................................................................................7
2.2.1. Theories of syntax .............................................................................................7
2.2.2 Theory of semantics ...........................................................................................8
2.3 Theoretical framework ..........................................................................................9
2.3.1 English collocation .............................................................................................9
2.3.1.1 The origin of the word ―collocation‖ ..............................................................9
2.3.1.2 Definition of collocation .................................................................................9
2.3.1.3. The distinction between compounds, idioms and collocations ....................10
2.3.1.4 Types of collocations ....................................................................................12
2.3.1.5 Characteristics of collocation ........................................................................14
2.3.2 The concept of sentence components ...............................................................16
2.3.2.1 The concept of phrase ...................................................................................16
2.3.2.2 English verbs .................................................................................................21
2.3.2.3 Phrasal Verbs ................................................................................................22
2.3.2.4 Classification of sentences in terms of sentence elements and verb
complementation .......................................................................................................24
2.3.3. Idioms ..............................................................................................................25
2.3.3.1 Definition of idioms ......................................................................................25
2.3.3.2 Features of English idioms ............................................................................26
2.4 Summary .............................................................................................................27
Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY ..............................................................................28


3.1 Setting of the study..............................................................................................28
3.2 Research questions ..............................................................................................28
3.3 Research methods................................................................................................29

3.4 Instruments .........................................................................................................29
3.5 Data collection and Data analysis .......................................................................29
3.5.1 Data collection .................................................................................................29
3.5.2 Data analysis ....................................................................................................30
3.6 Summary .............................................................................................................30
Chapter 4: SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH
COLLOCATIONS
CONTAINING
THE
VERB
“KEEP”
WITH
REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS ...........................31
4.1. Syntactic features of the English collocation containing the verb Keep ...........31
4.2. Semantic features of the English collocation containing the verb Keep ...........34
4.2.1. Conveying the meaning of staying in a particular place or condition. ...........36
4.2.2. Conveying the meaning of continuing to do something. ................................37
4.2.3. Conveying the meaning of having or continuing to have in your possession. ....... 38
4.2.4. Conveying the meaning of delaying somebody or preventing somebody from
doing something. .......................................................................................................38
4.2.5. Conveying the meaning of providing yourself or supporting another person. ....... 38
4.2.6. Conveying the meaning of owning and managing a small shop. ...................39
4.2.7. Expressing other meanings. ............................................................................39
4.3. Comparison between the English collocation containing the verb Keep and
their Vietnamese equivalents. ...................................................................................41
4.3.1. In terms of syntactic features ..........................................................................42
4.3.2. In term of semantic features ............................................................................43
4.4. Implications for teaching, learning and translating the English collocation
containing the verb Keep ..........................................................................................47
4.5. Summary ............................................................................................................49

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION ................................................................................50
5.1. Summary of finding ...........................................................................................50
5.2. Concluding remarks ...........................................................................................50
5.3. Recommendations/Suggestions for a further research .......................................51
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................52
APPENDIX ..............................................................................................................55


LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1: Function and Form of Adjective Phrase ..................................................18
Table 2.2: Function and Form of Noun Phrase .........................................................19
Table 2.3: Function and Form of Verb Phrase ..........................................................23
Table 4.1: Syntactic features of the English collocation containing the verb Keep .32
Table 4.2: Semantic features of the English collocation containing the verb Keep. 35


STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled
“Syntactic and Semantic Features of English Collocations containing the verb
KEEP with reference to the Vietnamese Equivalents” submitted in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language.
Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‘s work has been used
without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.
Hanoi, 2018

Nguyen Thi Cham

Approved by
SUPERVISOR

Dr. Pham Thi Tuyet Huong
Date:……………………

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
During the process of doing the thesis, I have received a lot of precious lessons,
necessary support and timely encouragement from my teachers, family and friends.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Pham Thi
Tuyet Huong, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me
through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and
suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic
researcher.
Besides, I would like to thank all my respectable lecturers for teaching me all the
courses that I have taken at Hanoi Open University.
Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my husband for the sacrifice
they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work.

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ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate the syntactic and semantic features of
English collocations containing the verb KEEP with reference to the Vietnamese
equivalents‖, especially in the novels ―Gone With The Wind‖ by Margaret Mitchell
and ―Jane Eyre‖ by Charlotte Bronte. The study is aimed at three points: (1) finding
the syntactic and semantic features of the ―keep‖ collocations in English and those
of the verb ―giữ‖ collocations in Vietnamese, especially in the bilingual novels
―Gone With The Wind‖ by Margaret Mitchell and ―Jane Eyre‖ by Charlotte Bronte,

(2) finding the similarities and differences between the ―keep‖ collocations in
English and those of the verb ―giữ‖ collocations in Vietnamese and (3) providing
some recommendations for the teaching and learning as well as translation of
―keep‖ collocations and ―giữ‖ collocations into the target language. Data used for
analysis in this study were mainly collected from books, literary works, and
dictionary. Data analysis is based on descriptive, quantitative, qualitative and
contrastive methods. According to the data analysis, the results of the study show
that the verb ―keep‖ and the verb ―giữ‖ collocations coincide in their general
meanings. However, the verb ―giữ‖ in Vietnamese collocations seems to have much
more meanings than that in English collocations.

iii


ABBREVIATION
OAL‘ED : Oxford Advanced Learner‘s Encyclopedic Dictionary
EFL
SLA
Sb

: English as a foreign language
: second language acquisition
: somebody

Sth

: something

iv

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the background of the study, reasons for choosing the topic,
statements of the problem, objectives of the study, significance of the study, and
outline of the study.
1.1 Rationale for the study
In English language as well as any other languages in the world, collocations are
one of the issues that have never been studied exhaustively due to their
interestingness and popularity. Collocations make the communication livelier and
probably more effective.
British linguist Wilkins (1972:111) once stated ―While without grammar very little
can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed‖. This argument has
been supported by many researchers in the field of second language acquisition
(SLA) who have emphasized the significance of vocabulary and agreed that
vocabulary is equally, if not more, important than language structure in language
acquisition.
Although collocation has become the subject of a linguistic study only recently, it
arouses a growing interest in numerous linguists and is defined in various ways.
Accordingly, there is no exhaustive and uniform definition or categorization of
collocation. Therefore, it tends to be one of the most problematic and important area
of vocabulary, especially for second language learners. Hill (1999:5) goes so far as
to suggest: ―We are familiar with the concept of communicative competence, but
perhaps we should add the concept of collocation competence to our thinking‖. He
also claims that non-native speakers have problems ―not because of faulty grammar
but a lack of collocations‖. Along with Hill, McCarthy (1990:12) claims that
―collocation deserves to be a central aspect of vocabulary study‖. These pieces of
evidence done can show the great importance of collocation in acquisition of a
language. The author would like to investigate the possibility of combining words
into fixed expressions.
According to Palmer (1965:1), ―learning a language is, to a very large degree, how

to operate the verbal forms, the pattern and the structure of the verb in that
language‖. There is a question which need to be answered is that how verbs
collocate with other classes of word. A verb can collocate with a noun, a

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preposition, an adjective or even another verb. Verb phrases are then created.
Investigating the combinations of verbs must be necessary for improving the
students‘ knowledge and lessening their difficulties.
However, the knowledge of collocations is vast so this study only focuses on
―Syntactic and Semantic Features of English Collocations containing the verb
KEEP with reference to the Vietnamese Equivalents‖. We choose the study
―Syntactic and Semantic Features of English Collocations‖ because the verb ―keep‖
is one of the most commonly used verbs in English and when it collocates with
other words, Vietnamese learners often feel confused, especially about meaning of
the verb ―keep‖ collocations. Besides, a great number of teachers have unsuitable
way of teaching collocation due to the limited awareness of its importance, leading
to the limitation in using collocation of the students. Without the knowledge of
collocations, students are not bound to approach the native-like level of proficiency
in language. In fact, students have not paid appropriate attention to learning
collocations. The collocations with ―keep‖ is very popular in English, however,
students still have difficulty in using them. To solve this problem, learners should
be fully aware of the importance of collocations, raising the awareness of teaching
and using collocations. For these reasons, I decided to choose this as the theme for
my MA thesis. The study is so entitled ―Syntactic and Semantic Features of English
Collocations containing the verb KEEP with reference to the Vietnamese
Equivalents‖.
1.2 Aims and objectives of the study
This study aims at pointing out the syntactic and semantic features of the English

collocation containing the verb Keep with reference to their Vietnamese
equivalents in order to help to teach and learn the English collocation containing
the verb Keep more effectively.
This study is intended to:
- Point out the syntactic and semantic features of English collocations containing
the verb ―keep‖.
- Figure out the similarities and differences in collocations containing the verb
―keep‖ in English and their Vietnamese equivalents.
- Provide some suggestions for the teaching, learning and translation of English
collocations containing the verb ―keep‖ in English.

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1.3 Research questions
In this study, the author is going to investigate the semantic and syntactic features
of English collocations with the word KEEP as well as its equivalents in
Vietnamese by reading through a great number of sources such as newspaper and
literature. While analyzing the entire terms, conclusions will be pointed towards
what these above-mentioned features are and what pedagogical applications should
be suggested. Such knowledge has to base on the ways grammarians and linguists
of each time look at the word KEEP particularly and it is what the study aims at in
the first place.
In view of that, there are 3 questions prepared guardedly for this study. They are
listed as follows:

1. What are the syntactic and semantic features of the English collocation
containing the verb Keep?
2. What are the similarities and differences to their Vietnamese in term of
syntactic and semantic?

3. What are implications and suggestions for teaching and learning the
English collocation containing the verb Keep?
1.4 Methods of the study
- Descriptive method is used to describe in details syntactic and semantic features of
English collocations through examples of English collocations containing the verb
―keep‖.
- Contrastive method will be used to identify the similarities and differences
between English collocations containing the verb ―keep‖ and their Vietnamese
equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features.
1.5 Scope of the study:
The study focuses on analyzing ―Syntactic and Semantic Features of English
Collocations containing the verb ―keep‖ then Vietnamese equivalents of
collocations of ―keep‖ will be later discussed through analyzing EnglishVietnamese examples in different context. It is better if English collocations with
more verbs are analyzed and totalized, contributing considerably to English learning
and teaching in Vietnam. This study, therefore, suggests them to learn about
English collocations with different types of parts of speech and discover the rules to

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make use of them. The effects will be vital to students and should be encouraged to
be applied at school as well as for self-learners of English.
1.6 Significance of the study
With the aim of investigating the semantic features of English collocations verb
―keep‖ with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents, it could be a considerable
contribution to different groups:
Firstly, the result of the research is expected to give a positive result for the readers
so that they will have a deeper understanding of collocations ―keep‖ found in this
novel as well as enrich their vocabulary and apply those collocations in their writing
and speaking activities. The verb ‗keep‘ and the verb ‗giữ‘ are highly frequently

used for Vietnamese learners, therefore, knowing semantic features of these two
verbs in collocations as well as their similarities and differences can facilitate the
learners‘ process of learning vocabulary.
Secondly, this research would be beneficial to the novelists who will get important
information about collocation expressions. Therefore, this research is expected to
make a useful contribution in helping novelist to choose the collocation expressions
which are easily comprehended by the readers of the novel.
The third contribution is the formulation of some implications for teaching
collocations in general. As a result, these implications can be applied as a general
framework or model for teaching all collocations. This is extremely significant for
EFL learners in particular.
Last but not least, since there is no study conducted to investigate the collocation
―keep‖ in our school context; hence, this study may be a springboard for those who
want to do further research in the same area.
1.7 Design of the study
The study is divided into 5 chapters:
Chapter I – Introduction: gives a brief overview of the research with the rationale
for choosing the topic of the research, aims, objectives, scope of the research, and
the structural organization of the thesis.
Chapter II – Literature Review: reviews the previous studies related to the research
topic, a variety of pragmatic concepts most relevant to the research topic such as

4


speech acts, cultural communication, politeness, etc and the framework, base on
which the research is conducted.
Chapter III – Methodology: presents the research-governing orientations and the
research methods used in implementing and developing the study. This chapter
focuses on research questions, research setting, approaches to investigate the

research problem, the principles, techniques to collect and analyze data, etc.
Chapter IV – Findings and Discussion: shows the findings which address the
research questions through the data gathered and analyzed. This section also
discusses the results obtained in relation to the research questions and some
previous studies. The research implications for teaching and learning English as a
foreign language can be found as the last part of this chapter.
Chapter V – Conclusion: summarizes major findings of the study, points out the
limitations and proposes some suggestions for further research.

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Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
The literature review serves two main purposes. The first part gives a review of
previous study related to English collocation in general. The second part presents
and discusses the theoretical background which guide and inform this research.
2.1 Review of previous studies
Collocations can be frequently encountered in daily conversation as well as written
texts, and to a certain extent, they form a part of the core values of the culture. Since
collocations convey meaning quickly and enable language users express themselves
more efficiently, they should be integrated into the translating and learning process
of foreign languages. The ready-made production of these figurative expressions
contributes to the fluency making it possible for the speaker to be more
concentrated on the message that needs to be delivered than on the formation of a
sentence with a long literal explanation.
The author also realized that the errors being made were a result of the candidates'
lack of knowledge of English collocations, whether they are grammatical or lexical.
Moreover, in the frame of M.A. thesis at Vietnam National University, Hanoi –
University of Languages and International Studies, there are also studies of
collocations. Works by Chu Thị Phƣơng Vân (2005), Lê Thanh Hà (2007), Đào Thị

Ngọc Nguyên (2007), Hồ quang Trung (2015), Bùi Thị Kim Anh (2016) and
Nguyễn Thị Toàn (2016) are some of typical examples. They are all interested in
the collocation issue. They investigated the collocations definition, classification
and the students‘ knowledge about collocations.
Chu Thị Phƣơng Vân (2005) analyzed the collocations of one English textbook on
Electronics and Telecommunications. Pham Thi Nga (2012) carried out common
errors related to the usage of ―do‖ and ―make‖ collocations by English non – major
students at Thai Nguyen university of economics and business administration.
Together with the study on semantic features of English expressions with reference
to the Vietnamese equivalents (nghiên cứu đặc trƣng ngữ nghĩa của các thành ngữ
Tiếng Anh chỉ màu sắc trong sự liên hệ với tƣơng đƣơng Tiếng Việt) Nguyễn Thị
Hòa (Hanoi Open University) makes clear the semantic features of color
expressions, especially Red and Green, with the similarities and differences
between English and Vietnamese as well.

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However, a detailed investigation into the collocations of the verb keep has not been
taken. There has neither been any works that gave the insights to the comparison
between English collocations and Vietnamese ones. In the frame of an M.A. thesis,
the author would like to contribute a very minor investigation focusing on the
collocation with the verb keep in order to facilitate students overcome difficulties
while translating and learning English as a foreign language. Also, the Vietnamese
equivalents are given to compare and contrast.
2.2. Theoretical background
2.2.1. Theories of syntax
The word syntax comes from Ancient Greek word. In linguistics, syntax is a
collection of rules, standards as well as methods which regulate the structure of
sentences in a certain language, specifically order of words. (Oxford University

Press, 2014).
The word of syntax had been written long before modern grammar official
fixed and appeared. In old times, syntax concept was ruled by a structure name by
grammaire générale which was discovered by Antoine Arnauld in ―Grammaire
Générale‖ in 1660. This framework states that human brain thinking processes will
reflect straightly into language. As a result ―there is a single, most natural way to
express a thought‖ (Antoine, 1660). That framework lasts until the 19th century
which been replaced by the development of linguistics and by the argument of
progressive linguists. They recognize that it is not true about the state ―there is a
single, most natural way to express a thought‖ because of the impact of internal and
external environment on human thinking. And so theologic base for studying
language‘s structure had been denied (Bickerton, 1992).
It only became clear when linguists discovered and adapted modern theories
of syntax in the late 20th century. The famous work ―generative grammar‖ of
professor Noam Chomsky is considered as the most popular framework to study
and analyze about syntax with the main hypothesis that ―language is a configuration
of the human mind‖ and ―syntax is based upon the component structure of
sentences‖, following the concept that syntax features certainly focus on the
arrangement of a sentence more than its communication purposes (Chomsky, 2002).

7


Syntax is the grammar, structure or order of the elements in a language statement
(semantics is the meaning of these elements). Syntax applies to computer languages
as well as to natural languages. Usually, we think of syntax as ―word order‖.
Syntax is also a set of rules in a language. It dictates how word from different parts
of speech are put together in order to convey a complete thought.
In this research, syntax is used to convey the meaning of expressions and
expressions containing the verb keep and explain the rules for grammatical

arrangement of expressions.
Syntax refers to the ways in which we order specific words to create logical,
meaningful sentences. While the parts of speech are all the different types of words
that we can use, syntax is the set of rules, patterns, or processes by which we can
put them together.
2.2.2 Theory of semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning in language. It primarily focuses on the
correlation between the symbolic constituent of a sentence such as words and
phrases and what they demonstrate for, their references. First discovered by French
linguist Michel Breal, the word semantics relates series of awareness from normal
using to higher application. In simple meaning, it describes a range of
understanding which could carry out the word choice. According to Breal (1890),
the difference between semantics and syntax is syntax is just an formal arrangement
of constituents of a language without their own meanings, while semantics requires
the critical meaning for every use of words.
There are many theories of semantics which has been studied and analyzed
for centuries and they could generally be classified into three basic concepts:
Model theoretic semantics: Discovered by Richard Montague in the late
1960s, this formal theory of ordinary language semantics is about how and in which
expressions reflect their relational meaning among themselves. And more
amazingly, the truth values of a sentence and its reasonable denotations to other
sentence are analyzed to a model (Montague, 1960).
Truth conditional semantics: First mentioned by the linguist Donald
Davidson in 1973, the theory tries to find the language connection with the reality
which differenates it from model theoretic semantics. Its result shows that every
component of a sentence must rely and reflect the truth conditions of itself in order

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to carry out the true meaning of the combination. There is a simple example for this
theory: ―winter is cold‖ is true only when winter is cold, if two conditions of the
meaning ―winter‖ and ―cold‖ are not logical with each other then the semantics
could not be performed.
Lexical semantics: is the theory of context. It states that the meaning of a
word is totally revealed by its situation. Each component of the sentence must
collaborate with others in terms of meanings which could depend on their own level
and form in order to carry out the meaning of the sentence. As a result, it would be
easier for the speakers to conveniently deliver their thoughts depending on the
current context (Levin, 1991).
2.3 Theoretical framework
2.3.1 English collocation
2.3.1.1 The origin of the word “collocation”
The term collocation was first introduced by Firth (1957), a British linguist. He
was the first person to look lexis at its syntagmatic, left-to-right unfolding of
language. According to Firth (1957), the collocation is defined as a combination of
words associated with each other, for example to take a photo, to do homework, to
play football... The term collocation has it origin in the Latin verb collocate which
means to set in order/to arrange.
2.3.1.2 Definition of collocation
In Oxford Collocations Dictionary (2003), collocation is defined as the way words
combine in a language to produce natural-sounding speech and writing. [19] or a
particular combination of words used in this way.
―The term collocation refers to combinations of two lexical items each of which
makes a distinct semantic contribution‖ (Stephan Gramley and Kurt – Michael
Patzold, 2002) [10]
Cruise (1987) defines collocations as ―sequences of lexical items which habitually
co-occur, but which are nonetheless fully transparent in the sense that each lexical
constituent is also a semantic constituent. Such expressions as (to pick a semantic
area at random) fine weather, torrential rain; high winds are examples of

collocations.

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The semantic cohesion of a collocation is the more mark if the meaning carried by
one (or more) of its constituent elements is highly restricted contextually, and
different from its meaning in more neutral contexts. From Cowie‘s viewpoint
(1994), words which combine with other words, or with idioms, in particular
grammatical constructions are said to collocate with those words or idioms.
Collocations are of two kinds:
b1. Restricted collocations: Restricted collocations are sometimes referred to as
‗semi-idiom‘. In such combinations, one word has a figurative sense not found
outside that limited context. The other element appears in a familiar, literal sense.
For example, the verb and noun, respectively, in to jog one‘s memory and the
adjective and noun in a blind alley. Some members of this category allow a degree
of lexicon variation, for instance to have a cardinal error/ sin/ virtue/ grace and in
this respect ‗restricted‘ collocations resemble ‗open‘ ones. Another point of
similarity is that the literal element is sometimes replaced by a pronoun, or deleted
altogether, in sentence where there is an earlier use of the full expression:
For example: The Board didn‘t entertain the idea, and the Senate wouldn‘t
entertainit either. (Cowie, Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms)
In other respects, however, restricted collocations are idiom-like. The particular
sense which jog has in to jog one‘s memory occurs in no other text.
b2. Open collocations: Most sharply and easily distinguished from idioms in the
strict sense are combinations such as to fill the sink and a broken window. The use
of the term ‗open‘, ‗free‘, or ‗loose‘ to refer to such collocations reflects the fact
that, in each case, both elements (verb and object, or adjective and noun) are freely
recombinable, as for example in to fill/ empty the sink and to fill the sink/ basin.
Typically also, in open collocations, each element is used in a common literal sense.

2.3.1.3. The distinction between compounds, idioms and collocations
To attain a clearer understanding of collocations, it is helpful to try to distinguish
them from idioms on the one hand and from free combinations on the other.
Apparently, collocations, free compounds and idioms share one important feature
in their form, that is to say they all refer to combinations of words that go together
very often. However, the case is that they differ from each other in both meaning
and form.

10


In terms of form, McCarthy (1990) claims that collocation items can be separated
by several words while words of a compound are always syntactically bound to one
another. Such is the case, for example, in make a decision. We could separate make
and decision with some words:
He made an extremely important decision.
(Quirk, Randolph, 1985)
On the contrary, as for compounds, we could never make any manipulation to
change its word order as in workshop. Workshop could not be separated by a word
of any kind. We can see that compounds function as a single unit while collocations
remain a combination of words even if these words go together with very high
frequency. The collocational relationship, according to McCarthy, could appear in a
variety of syntactic realizations as shown in the following examples:
They reject my appeal.
The rejection of his appeal was a great shock.
(McCarthy M & O‘Dell F, 2005)
Looking at idioms, Bolinger (1975) argues that some idioms are virtually
unchangeable; others follow a limited amount of manipulation. McArthur (1992)
agrees with Bolinger when he makes the point that idioms are often fixed in form.
It can rain cats and dogs but never dogs and cats. According to them, collocations

are looser groupings than idioms. Collocational items can be contiguous as with
head and ache in headache or proximate to each other as with cat and purr in The
cat was purring.
In terms of meaning, Benson, Benson & Ilson (1986) use combinations with the
noun murder to illustrate the main distinguishing features of the three categories.
The least cohesive type of word combination are the so-called free combinations.
The noun murder, for example, can be used with many verbs (to analyze, boast of,
condemn, discuss, (etc.) a murder), and these verbs, in turn, combine freely with
other nouns. Idioms, on the other hand, are relatively frozen expressions whose
meanings do not reflect the meanings of their component parts. An example
containing the noun murder would be to scream blue murder (to complain very
loudly). Between idioms and free combinations are loosely fixed combinations (or
collocations) of the type to commit murder. The main characteristics of collocations
are that their meanings reflect the meaning of their constituent parts (in contrast to

11


idioms) and that they are used frequently, spring to mind readily, and are
psychologically salient (in contrast to free combinations).
2.3.1.4 Types of collocations
There is general agreement in the literature on the division of collocates into lexical
or grammatical categories.
Lexical collocations
Lexical collocation is defined by Lewis & Hill (1998) as having five main
categories: adjective/noun, verb/noun, noun/verb, adverb/adjective and verb/adverb.
Gitsaki (1996:23) is able to define 37 categories of collocation, eight of which could
be considered lexical collocation and 29 grammatical (she thus largely accepts the
structural view of collocation). A lexical collocation is a type of construction where
a verb, noun, adjective or adverb forms a predictable connection with another word,

as in:
Adverb + Adjective: e.g. completely satisfied (NOT downright satisfied)
Adjective + Noun: e.g. excruciating pain (NOT excruciating joy)
Noun + Verb: e.g. lions roar (NOT lions shout)
Verb + Noun: e.g. commit suicide (NOT undertake suicide)
In contrast to grammatical collocations, lexical collocations do not contain
grammatical elements. They can be classified into three types.
Open collocations: are characterized by a combination of two words or more
occurring together with no specific relation between them. This means that the word
can cluster with a large range of other words. For example, the verb ―catch‖
collocates with bus, train, cold, and fire.
Restricted collocations: are considered to be the most commonly used one. That is,
the word can collocate with limited and fixed words. Restricted collocations are
defined by Aisenstadt (1979, p.71) as ―combinations of two or more words used in
one of their regular, nonidiomatic meanings‖. Restricted collocations differ from
free combination collocations in that they co-occur with a small number of words.
Evelyn, et al. (1986, p.253) provide ―to commit a murder‖ as an example where the
verb collocates with a few nouns such as ―murder, crime‖.
Bound collocations: are, as Cowie (1981, p.228) decribes them as ―a bridge
category between collocations and idioms‖. The significant feature of this group is
that one of the elements of the collocations is, as Emery states (1987, p.9), ―unique

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selective‖ of the other. One example is ―to shrug one‘s shoulders‖. Collocations are
found in various types of syntactic configurations (Emery, 1987, p. 8-9),
Subject/-Verb, e.g. the water freezes.
Verb/-Object, e.g. break a code.
Adjective/-Noun, e.g. best wishes.

Grammatical collocations
A grammatical collocation is a type of construction where, for example, a verb or an
adjective must be followed by a particular preposition, or a noun must be followed
by a particular form of the verb, as in:
Verb + Preposition: e.g. depend on (NOT depend of) Adjective + Preposition: e.g.
afraid of (NOT afraid at).
Noun + Particular form of verb: e.g. strength to lift it (not strength lifting it).
By Michael Mc Carthy and Felicity O Dell (2005: 9-12), collocations are classified
as following;
Adjectives and nouns
Some adjectives are typically used with particular nouns.
―Jean always wears red or yellow or some other bright colour.‖
―We had a brief chat about the exams but didn't have time to discuss them
properly.‖
Nouns and verbs
Some nouns and verbs often go together. The following examples are all to do with
economics and business.
―The economy boomed in the 1990s.‖ [the economy was very strong]
―The company has grown and now employs 50 more people than last year.‖ ―The
company has expanded and now has branches in most major cities.‖ ―The two
companies merged in 2003 and now form one very large corporation.‖
―The company launched the product in 2002. [introduced the product]‖ ―The price
increase poses a problem for us. [is a problem]‖
―The Internet has created opportunities for our business, [brought new
opportunities]‖
Mc Carthy, M. & Felicity O Dell, F. (2005:12)
Noun + noun
There are a lot of collocations with the pattern a ... of....

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―As Sam read the lies about him, he felt a surge of anger, [literary: a sudden angry
feeling]‖
―Every parent feels a sense of pride when their child does well or wins something.‖
―I felt a pang of nostalgia when I saw the old photos of the village where I grew
up.‖
Mc Carthy, M. & Felicity O Dell, F. (2005:12)
- Verbs and expressions with prepositions
Some verbs collocate with particular prepositional expressions.
―As Jack went on stage to receive his gold medal for the judo competition you
could see his parents swelling with pride, [looking extremely proud]‖
―I was filled with horror when I read the newspaper report of the explosion.‖
―When she spilt juice on her new skirt the little girl burst into tears, [suddenly
started crying]‖.
(Mc Carthy, M. & Felicity O Dell, F. (2005:12))
Verbs and adverbs
Some verbs have particular adverbs which regularly collocate with them.
―She pulled steadily on the rope and helped him to safety, [pulled firmly and
evenly]‖
―He placed the beautiful vase gently on the window ledge.‖
―I love you and want to marry you,' Derek whispered softly to Marsha.
―She smiled proudly as she looked at the photos of her new grandson.‖
Mc Carthy, M. & Felicity O Dell, F. (2005:12)
Adverbs and adjectives
Adjectives often have particular adverbs which regularly collocate with them.
―They are happily married.‖
―I am fully aware that there are serious problems. [I know well]‖
―Harry was blissfully unaware that he was in danger. [Harry had no idea at all, often
used about something unpleasant]‖

Mc Carthy, M. & O Dell, F. (2005:12)
2.3.1.5 Characteristics of collocation
In discussion of the nature of collocation, the author bases on her knowledge with
reference to the linguists‘ works to generalize what characteristics collocation has
in common. Generally, collocation has three major features as follows.

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Collocations are arbitrary, a question often raised by speakers of English as a
foreign language is what underlies native speakers‘ choice of words or why they
choose one word among a list of possibilities to combine with another so often that
they become collocation. Lewis (1997) points out that collocation is not determined
by logic or frequency but is arbitrary, decided only by linguistic convention. In the
first characteristic, words are not often combined with each other at random.
Collocation cannot be invented by a second language user. A native speaker uses
them instinctively.
According to Gairns & Redman (1986), a statement on collocation is never
absolute. As they maintain, lexical items may co-occur simply because the
combination reflects a common real world state of affairs. Such is the case, for
instance, pass and salt which collocate since people want others to pass them the
salt. However, they added, there may exist in collocation an element of linguistic
convention or native speakers‘ habitual preferences in their choice of words among
a number of possibilities. It is because lexical collocations bear linguistic
convention that joining together semantically compatible parts does not always
produce a typical collocation. A native English speaker, for example, would say the
lion roared rather than bellowed.
Sharing the point of view with Gairns & Redman, McCarthy (1990) states that
knowledge of collocation is a question of typicality. The notion of typicality is
important, for without it we could not recognize untypical collocations, which are

part of the creativity and the imaginative dimension we find in literature.
Definitely, there is no rule of collocation and it is difficult to group items by their
collocational properties. Thus, they are best dealt with isolation as they arise or
depending on notion of typicality to decide what acceptable and unacceptable
collocations are.
Collocations are language-specific, as discussed earlier, the thing mat matters is
that the way words are chosen to combine together is conventional and lexical
collocations in English bear their own linguistic convention. Larson (1984)
describes that English, like other languages, interprets the physical worlds in its
own way and has it own convention; therefore, it governs different collocability of
words. Therefore, learners have difficulties when acquiring knowledge of
collocational appropriacy in cases where collocability is language-specific and
does not seem solely determined by universal semantic constraints (McCarthy,

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1990). English collocations are therefore specific to the English language itself.
The fact is that what is perfectly acceptable collocation in one language may be
unacceptable in another. Take the case of the verb làm in Vietnamese as an
example. Vietnamese speakers say làm bánh and làm bài tập with the same verb
làm but their equivalent meanings in English are make a cake and do the homework
by using two different verbs do and make. Then, phrases such as do a cake and
make the homework is unacceptable. Also, instead of saying ride bicycle,
Vietnamese learners sometimes says go bicycle because đi xe đạp is totally correct
in Vietnamese.
In brief, an acceptable collocation is not always made by joining semantically
compatible parts. The ability of a word to combine with another is restricted by
linguistic convention specific to the English language itself which is highly
unlikely to totally overlap with any other languages.

Collocations are not necessarily adjacent. According to McCarthy (1990),
collocations can be contiguous or proximate, not necessarily adjacent. He presents
that the collocational relationship still applies, even though several words may
separate the collocating items. The following extracts from a newspaper report
concerning a planning application for a new shopping centre who collocation at
work over clause-boundaries:
The study of planning appeals for similar centres in the past, most of which were
rejected, suggests that the furniture is more hopeful for developers... Now that the
Secretary of State for the Environment has said that applications should be
approved unless there are good reasons against them, many more should succeed.
The collocational relationship between reject and appeal; application, approve and
succeed, as he argues, is strong, despite the intervening words.
2.3.2 The concept of sentence components
2.3.2.1 The concept of phrase
According to the Oxford Advanced Learner‘s Dictionary (2005), ―A phrase is a
group of words which have a particular meaning when used together‖. It is a
syntactic structure that consists of more than one word but lacks the subjectpredicate organization of a clause. The meaning of phrases, the free combinations of
words, is the free addition of the meaning of the words existing in a given phrase.

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Adjective phrases
According to Greenbaum in the English Grammar [14, p.288], the adjective
phrase has as its head an adjective, which may be preceded by pre-modifiers and
followed by post-modifiers."
An adjective phrase does the work of an adjective. They describe, modify, or
give some information about a noun or a pronoun.
The adjective phrase in English has four functional constituents:
 Pre-modification,

those modifying,

describing,

or qualifying

constituents which precede the head.
 The head, which is an adjective or participle serving as the focus of the
phrase.
 Post-modification, that modifying constituent which follows the head.
 Complementation, (the major subcategory of post-modification here) that
constituent which follows any post-modification and completes the
specification of a meaning implied by the head.
To see some examples of adjective phrases, examine the table below.

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