Syntactic and semantic features of english collocations containing the word “free” with reference to the vietnamese equivalents

2018 – 2020 (1)
English language
Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Dung

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS
SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF
ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS CONTAINING
THE WORD “FREE” WITH REFERENCE TO
THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA
CÁC KẾT HỢP TIẾNG ANH CÓ CHỨA TỪ
“FREE” VỚI CÁC TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG
TIẾNG VIỆT)
NGUYEN THI NGOC DUNG
Field: English Language
Code: 8220201

Hanoi - 2020
i


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS
SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF
ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS CONTAINING
THE WORD “FREE” WITH REFERENCE TO

THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA
CÁC KẾT HỢP TIẾNG ANH CÓ CHỨA TỪ
“FREE” VỚI CÁC TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG
TIẾNG VIỆT)
NGUYỄN THỊ NGỌC DUNG
Field: English Language
Code: 8220201
Supervisor: Dr. PHẠM THỊ TUYẾT HƯƠNG
Hanoi - 2020
ii


STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled
“The syntactic and semantic features of English collocations containing the word
“free” 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, 2020
Student’s Signature

Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Dung

Approved by
SUPERVISOR

Dr. Phạm Thị Tuyết Hương
Date:……………………

iii


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from
my supervisor, teachers and closest relatives.
I would like first and foremost to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation
to my supervisor, Dr. Phạm Thị Tuyết Hương, for her inspiring and invaluable
guidance, advice, encouragement and everything that I learnt from her throughout my
work. Without her this thesis would not have been possible.
My sincere thanks also go to all lecturers and the staff of the Faculty of Post
Graduate Studies at Hanoi Open University for their useful lectures, assistance and
enthusiasm during my course.
Special acknowledgement is also given to my lecturers at National College for
Education for their precious knowledge, useful lectures in linguistics, which lay the
foundation for this study.
Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family for their patience, endless
love, and devotion. Whatever choices I have made, they have always stood by me
and believed in me. I am immensely thankful for all the assistance they have given
me.
There are many others I should mention here, people who helped me along the
way and provided me support, without whose support and encouragement it would
never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished.

iv


ABSTRACT

Collocation is a big area in linguistics, it has become the subject of a linguistic
study only recently, and it arouses a growing interest in numerous linguists and is
defined in various ways. However, Vietnamese students meet difficulties when using
English collocations. Therefore this paper aims at investigating “The syntactic and
semantic features of English collocations containing the word “free” with reference
to the Vietnamese equivalents.” It was conducted with the hope of finding out the
equivalents of the collocations containing the word “free” in Vietnamese. The result
of the thesis can be applied as a generic framework or a model for teaching English
collocations in secondary and high schools. Data used for analysis in this study were
mainly collected from books, literary works, and dictionaries. Data for analysis were
based on descriptive, quantitative, qualitative and contrastive methods.

v


ABBREVIATION
OAL’ED:

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic Dictionary

EFL:

English as a foreign language

SLA:
Sb:

second language acquisition
somebody

Sth:

something

vi


LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Table 1: Syntactic features of English collocations containing the word “FREE” _28
Table 2: Semantic features of English collocations containing the word “FREE”……..34

vii


TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ......................................................................................iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................. iv
ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................... v
ABBREVIATION ................................................................................................................ vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS.....................................................................................................vii
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ..................................................................................viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 1
1.1. Rationale ......................................................................................................................... 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 research ............................................................................................ 3
1.7. Design of the study ......................................................................................................... 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................... 5
2.1. Review of previous studies ............................................................................................. 5
2.2. Review of theoretical background .................................................................................. 6
2.2.1. Theory of syntax .......................................................................................................... 6
2.2.2. Theory of semantics ..................................................................................................... 7
2.2.3. English collocation ...................................................................................................... 8
2.2.3.1. The origin of the word “collocation” ....................................................................... 8
2.2.3.2. Definition of collocation ........................................................................................... 8
2.2.3.3. The distinction between compounds, idioms and collocations ................................. 9
2.2.3.4. Classification of collocation ................................................................................... 11
2.2.3.5. Characteristics of collocation ................................................................................. 13
2.3. Review of theoretical framework ................................................................................. 15
2.3.1. An overview of Adjective .......................................................................................... 15

viii


2.3.2. An overview of Adverb ............................................................................................. 18
2.3.3. The word “free” in English ........................................................................................ 20
2.3.4. The word “tự do” in Vietnamese ............................................................................... 21
2.4. Summary ....................................................................................................................... 22
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................... 24
3.1. Research approaches ..................................................................................................... 24
3.1.1. Research questions ..................................................................................................... 24
3.1.2. Research setting ......................................................................................................... 24
3.1.3. Data collection and data analysis ............................................................................... 25
3.2. Methods of the study..................................................................................................... 25
3.2.2. Supporting methods ................................................................................................... 26
3.3. Data collection and data analysis .................................................................................. 26
3.3.1. Data collection techniques ......................................................................................... 26

3.3.2. Data analysis techniques ............................................................................................ 26
3.4. Summary ....................................................................................................................... 26
CHAPTER 4: SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH
COLLOCATIONS CONTAINING THE WORD “FREE” WITH REFERENCE TO THE
VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS ....................................................................................... 28
4.1. Syntactic features of English collocations containing the word “FREE” ..................... 28
4.2. Semantic features of English collocations containing the word “FREE” ..................... 33
4.2.1. Meaning of “FREE” as costing nothing .................................................................... 34
4.2.2. Meaning of “FREE” as not limited or not controlled ................................................ 35
4.2.3. Meaning of “FREE” as not held in a fixed position .................................................. 36
4.2.4. Meaning of “FREE” as not or no longer a prisoner or an enslaved person....................... 36
4.2.5. Meaning of “FREE” as not doing anything planned or important, or available to be
used ...................................................................................................................................... 36
4.2.6. Meaning of “FREE” as not joined to anything .......................................................... 37
4.2.7. Meaning of “FREE” as having unlimited movement ................................................ 37
4.2.8. Meaning of “FREE” as giving or using often or in large amounts ............................ 37
4.2.9. Meaning of “FREE” as using something that belongs to someone else a lot ................. 38
4.2.10. Meaning of “FREE” as “without” with the use at the end of word ......................... 38

ix


4.2.11. The use of “FREE” in idioms .................................................................................. 39
4.3. A comparison between English collocations containing the word “FREE” and the
Vietnamese equivalents ....................................................................................................... 39
4.3.1. In terms of syntactic features ..................................................................................... 39
4.3.2. In terms of semantic features ..................................................................................... 43
4.4. Implications for teaching and learning the English collocation containing the word
“free” .................................................................................................................................... 46
4.5. Summary ....................................................................................................................... 48

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ............................................................................................ 49
5.1. Recapitulation ............................................................................................................... 49
5.2. Concluding remarks ...................................................................................................... 49
5.3. Limitations of the current research ............................................................................... 50
5.4. Recommendations/Suggestions for a further research .................................................. 51
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................... 52
APPENDIX .......................................................................................................................... 54

x


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
In Vietnam, English has long been regarded as a tool of international
communication, and together with its rising importance, the need of learning English
is becoming more and more urgent. It can't be denied that all foreign learners in
general and Vietnamese learners in particular desire to master English as the native
speakers; however, they usually face a lot of difficulties that prevent them from
gaining successful conversations.
Vocabulary in general plays an important role in any language as we cannot
communicate without words. British linguist Wilkins (1972) once stated without
vocabulary nothing can be conveyed. There is a common assumption that the more
words a learner know, the larger the learner’s vocabulary knowledge is. However,
words are not used alone and separately but go with each other and depend on each
other. Words are combined into phrases. There are free phrases and fixed phrases.
The latter often confuse learners because there are not any fixed rules for all the
combinations. English-as-a-second-language learners often have difficulties treating
fixed phrases in their learning process. That is why many learners cannot
communicate fluently although they know a lot of words. One of the reasons for these
problems lies in the way people perceive and use collocations.

Collocations are widely used in English and Vietnamese both in daily
conversations and literary works. The differences between English and Vietnamese
culture resulted in many differences in their languages. One of the most effective
ways to transfer culture is the use of collocations which, however, causes many
troubles for English learners because of their meanings. In order to help learners to
have a better understanding of collocations, particularly collocations containing the
word “free”, this study will point out similarities and differences between English
and Vietnamese collocations in terms of syntactic and semantic features of English
collocations containing the word “free”. In addition, it also offers some implications
for teaching and learning English more effectively. Numerous examples of
collocations have been analyzed cautiously by applying qualitative approach;
descriptive and contrastive methods are followed to achieve the set objectives.
Although collocations have 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

1


collocation. Therefore, it tends to be one of the most problematic and important area
of vocabulary, especially for second language learners. Hill (1999) 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) 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.
As mentioned above, phrases are formed by words together. Words in English are
classified into different classes in which verbs have always been one of the most

complex classes of words because verb, or rather, phrasal verb is the central to the
structure of the sentence.
According to Palmer (1965), 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 answer is that how verbs collocate with other
classes of word. A verb can collocate with a noun, a 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.
As can be seen from the discussion above, collocation is a big area in linguistics. In
the frame work of this study, the focus of this study is only on the collocations
containing the word “free”, a rather special and complex word in English. Since the
research is carried out against the Vietnamese backgrounds, the corresponding
Vietnamese equivalents are also provided. The research is so entitled “The syntactic
and semantic features of English collocations containing the word “free” with
reference to the Vietnamese equivalents.”
1.2.

Aims and objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to point out the syntactic and semantic features of
English collocations containing the word “free” with reference to the Vietnamese
equivalents in order to help to teach and learn the English collocations containing the
word “free” more effectively.
In order to gain the aim of the study, the following objecitves are put forward:

2


- To point out syntactic and semantic features of English collocations
containing the word “free” with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents.

- To find out the similarities and differences of English collocations containing
the word “free” and the Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic
features.
- To suggest some implications to help Vietnamese learners of English learn
English collocations containing the word “free” effectively.
1.3. Research questions
i. What are the semantic and syntactic features of English collocations
containing the word “free” with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents?
ii. What are the similarities and differences of English collocations
containing the word “free” in English and the Vietnamese equivalents?
iii. What are the implications for teaching and learning English collocations
containing the word “free” in English?
1.4. Methods of the Study
- Descriptive method is used to describe in details syntactic and semantic
features of English collocations containing the word “free” with reference to the
Vietnamese equivalents
- Contrastive method will be used to identify the similarities and differences
between English and Vietnamese collocations in terms of syntactic and semantic
features of English collocations containing the word “free”.
- Qualitative method focus on identifying syntactic and semantic features of
English collocations containing the word “free” and the Vietnamese equivalents.
1.5. Scope of the study
- Collocation is an issue that is studied in many different fields. It is
unfeasible to discuss collocations in all aspects. This study only focuses on
analyzing syntactic and semantic features of English collocations containing the
word “free”
- The collocations with the word “free” are studied in such levels as phrases,
proverbs, idioms and set expressions.
- Data in this thesis are taken from dictionaries, vocabulary and idiom books.
1.6. Significance of the research

3


Theoretically, the study supplies a comprehensive understanding of semantic and
syntactic features of the collocations containing the word “free” in order to help the
English teachers and learners use the meanings and structure of the English
collocations containing the word “free” exactly and effectively.
Practically, the study provides the collocations of the word “free” with
reference to the Vietnamese equivalents in order to help the teachers of English to
teach better and help the learners of English to study better.
1.7. Design of the study
This thesis is designed with five chapters:
Chapter I, Introduction, gives the general overview of the thesis including
rationale, aims, objectives, scope, significance as well as organization of the study
Chapter II, Literature review, presents the previous study and theoretical
background about collocations.
Chapter III, Methodology, focuses on presenting research questions and
research method.
Chapter IV, Findings and Discussion, presents the semantic and syntactic
features of English collocations containing the word “free” with reference to their
Vietnamese equivalents and suggests some implications for teaching and learning.
Chapter V, Conclusion, summarizes the major findings of the thesis along
with the practical implications, the limitations of the study and the suggestion for
further study
References and Appendices come at the end of the study.

4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Review of previous studies
Indeed, the term collocation is known very early, along with the language itself.
At the beginning, this issue has been neglected in teaching and learning vocabulary
for English language students. The vocabulary was being learnt and taught only with
the words in isolation. However, with the development of society and that of
pedagogical methodology as well as with the learner’s need, there have been several
studies of English collocations in the field of English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL)
teaching. Many linguists deal with the notion of collocations and its importance in
vocabulary acquisition and teaching process such as Firth (1957), Gains & Redman
(1986), Halliday (1966), Sinclair (1966), McCarthy (1990), Hill (1999) … Studying
collocations is an interesting topic, touching on the key issue of what students really
need to learn. Clearly, any student who wishes to communicate like native – speakers
will have to come to terms with the challenge of collocation.
Recently, the issue of collocation has been highly estimated. In the book English
collocations in use, Mc Carthy and O’dell (2005) gave simple definitions of
collocation with examples as well as exercises for learners to practice. Bahns and
Eldaw (1993), in the article, should we teach EFL students collocations, highlighted
the importance of collocations. Similarly, Farghal & Obiedat (1995) addressed the
issue of collocations as an important and neglected variable in EFL classes. A modern
Course in English Syntax by Wekker, H. and Haegeman, L. (1985), The Study of
Language by Yule, G. (1985), English Syntax: An Introduction by Radford, A.
(2004), Grammar of Spoken and Written English by Biber, D. et al.
Moreover, in the frame of M.A. thesis at Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies, Ha Noi Open University, there
are also studies of collocations. Works by Chu Thị Phương Vân (2005), Lê Thanh
Hà (2007), Đào Thị Ngọc Nguyên (2007) and Nguyễn Thi Toàn (2016) are some of
typical examples. They are all interested in the collocation issue. They investigated
the collocation’s definition, classification and the students’s knowledge about
collocations. Chu Thị Phương Vân (2005) analyzed the collocations of one English
textbook on Electronics and Telecommunications. In her works, various types of

collocations with different frequency of use and their characteristics are found out.
A test is followed in order to obtain information about students’ knowledge of

5


collocation. Likewise, the common errors and the causes for these errors are also
drawn from the test result analysis. Lê Thanh Hà (2007) carried out the lexical
collocations and implications for the translators of English-Vietnamese when
meeting with lexical collocations. More concretely, Đào Thị Ngọc Nguyên (2007)
investigated collocations of only two adjectives (hard, happy) in English. The major
findings of this research are various distinguished senses of hard and happy in
different collocations and the students’ restricted collocation competence on the two
adjectives in particular and on English lexemes in general. Nguyễn Thi Toàn
(2016) analyzed the English collocation containing the verb Set. In her works, the
syntactic and semantic features of English collocations containing the word Set with
reference to the Vietnamese equivalents are pointed out. Indeed, they are all great
useful referential works for researchers, teachers and students who are going to
investigate the issue of collocation in English.
However, a detailed investigation into the collocations of the word free 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 collocations (lexical collocation) with the word free in order to facilitate
students when dealing with these combinations of words. Also, the Vietnamese
equivalents are given to compare and contrast.
2.2. Review of theoretical background
In order to get the aims, English collocations need to be made clear.
2.2.1. Theory of syntax
Syntax is a set of principles in language. It dictates how words from different

parts of speech are put together with the aim of conveying a complete thought.
R.M.W.Dixon (1991) states that syntax deals with the way in which words are
combined together. Verbs are different grammatical properties from language to
language but there is always a major class verb, which includes word referring to
motion, rest, notice, giving and speaking.
Syntax is considered to be the theory of the structure of sentence in a language.
This notion has its direct antecedents in the theory of immediate constituents, in
which the function of syntax is to mediate between the observed forms of a sentence
and its meaning.

6


According to Bloomfield (1993), “we could not understand the form of a
language if we merely reduced all the complex forms to their ultimate constituents”.
He pointed that in order to account for the meaning of a sentence, it is necessary to
recognize how individual constituents such words and morphemes constitute more
complex forms.
Syntax is now the study of the principles and rules that govern the ways in which
words are combined to form phrases, clauses and sentences in a language. Syntax,
which is a subfield of grammar, focuses on the word order of a language and
relationships between words. In other words, morphology deals with word formation
out of morphemes whereas syntax deals with phrase and sentence formation out of
words.
Syntax structures are analyzable into sequences of syntactic categories or
syntactic classes, these being established on the basic of the syntactic relationships
and linguistic items have with other items in a construction. Every language has a
limited number of syntactic relations. Subject and object are probably universal of
syntactic relations, which apply to every language. However, just as the criteria for
the major words class noun and verb differ from language to language, so do the ways

in which syntactic relations are marked.
In brief, after putting all theories into consideration, Blooming field’ one should
be used because his theory is suitable to identify the form of English idioms and their
Vietnamese equivalents.
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 a 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:

7


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 it in order 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).
2.2.3. English collocation
2.2.3.1. 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.
2.2.3.2. 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]

8


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.
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, respect 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 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
entertain it 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.
2.2.3.3. 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

9


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.
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 Bollinger when he makes the point that idioms are often fixed inform. 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 is 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

10


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 idioms) and that they are
used frequently, spring to mind readily, and are psychologically salient (in contrast
to free combinations).
2.2.3.4. Classification of collocation
There are many different ways to classify the collocation. The classification in
terms of frequent use, of structure and of strength is described as follows:
In terms of frequent use, Sinclair (1991) divides collocation into two categories:
the upward and downward collocations. The first group consists of words more
frequently used in English than they are themselves, e.g. back collocates with at,
down, from, into, on, all of which habitually collocate with words that are less
frequent than they are, e.g. words arrive, bring are less frequently occurring collocates
of back. Sinclair makes a sharp distinction between those two categories claiming
that the elements of the upward collocation (mostly prepositions, adverbs,
conjunctions, pronouns) tend to form grammatical frames while the elements of the
downward collocation (mostly nouns and verbs) by contrast give a semantic analysis
of a word. These two terms are called respectively significant and casual collocations.

In terms of structure, Benson, Benson & Ilson (1977) divide collocations into
two groups: grammatical and lexical collocations. The first category consists of the
main word (a noun, an adjective, a verb) plus a preposition or to-infinitive or thatclause and is characterized by eight basic types of collocations:
The first type of collocation is noun plus preposition. For example:
Blockade against apathy towards.
The second type is noun plus to-infinitive. See the following examples:
He was a fool to do it.
They felt a need to do it.
(McCarthy M & O’Dell F, 2005)
The third is noun plus that-clause. For example
We reached an agreement that she would represent us in court.
He took an oath that he would do his duty.
(McCarthy M & O’Dell F, 2005)
The fourth type is preposition plus noun. For example: by accident, in agony.

11


The fifth type is adjective plus preposition. For example: fond of children,
hungry of news.
Adjective plus to-infinitive is the next type of collocation:
It was necessary to work
It’s nice to be here.
(McCarthy M & O’Dell F, 2005)
The next type is adjective plus that-clause. See the following example:
She was afraid that she would fail
It was imperative that I be here.
(McCarthy M & O’Dell F, 2005)
The last type of collocation is different verb patterns in English, such as verb
plus to-infinitive: they began to speak, or verb plus bare infinitive: we must work and

other.
Lexical collocations do not contain prepositions, infinitives or relative clauses
but consist of nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. This group is of seven types as
follows:
Firstly, verb (which means creation/
action) plus noun/ pronoun/
Prepositional phrase. For example: come to an agreement, launch a missile.
Secondly, verb (which means eradication/cancellation) plus noun. For example:
reject an appeal, crush resistance. Thirdly, [adjective plus noun] or [noun used in an
attributive way plus noun]: strong tea, a crushing defeat, house arrest, land reform.
The next type is noun plus verb naming the activity which is performed by a
designate of this noun, such as: bombs explode, bee’s sting. Quantifier plus noun is
the next type. For example: a swarm of bees, a piece of advice
The next type is adverb plus adjective. For example: hopelessly addicted, sound
asleep.
The last type is verb plus adverb. For example: argue heatedly, apologize
humbly.
In terms of strength, it is worth noting that it is not reciprocal, which means that
the strength between the words is not equal on both sides, e.g. blonde and hair. Blonde
collocates only with a limited number of words describing hair colour whereas hair
collocates with many words, e.g. brown, long, short, and mousy. It happens very often

12


that the bond between the words in unilateral, e.g. in the phrase vested interest, vested
only ever collocates with interest but interest collocates with many other words.
According to Lewis (2000), there are very few strong collocations and he makes
a distinction between strong collocation e.g. avid reader, budding author; common
collocation which makes up numerous word combinations, e.g. fast car, have dinner,

a bit tired and medium strong one, which in his view account for the largest part of
the lexis a language learner needs, e.g. magnificent house, significantly different.
Sharing the view with Lewis, Hill (1999) adds one more category - unique
collocation. In his article, Hill (1999) divides collocations into
four kinds: unique collocations; strong collocations; weak collocations and
medium-strength ones. To foot the bill, shrug one’s shoulders are the examples of the
unique collocations. These are unique because foot (as a verb) and shrug are not used
with any other nouns.
2.2.3.5. 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.
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 do not always produce a typical

13

collocation. A native English speaker, for example, would say the lion roared rather
than bellowed.
Sharing the point of view with Gains & 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 collocation 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 its 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, 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 are 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

14


concerning a planning application for a new shopping center 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. Review of theoretical framework
2.3.1. An overview of Adjective
Adjectives are words that are used to describe or modify nouns or pronouns. An
adjective is a word you use to describe a person, place, or thing. Without adjectives,
we wouldn't know if you had a serene vacation or a disastrous vacation. For example,
red, quick, happy, and obnoxious are adjectives because they can describe things—a
red hat, the quick rabbit, a happy duck, an obnoxious person.
Adjectives take many forms. Some common adjectives are formed when we add
a suffix to a noun or verb. For example, when we add the suffix -ful to the noun
beauty makes the adjective beautiful, and adding the suffix -able to the verb read
makes the adjective readable. Other suffixes often used to create adjectives include al, -ary, -able and –ible, –ish, -ic, -ical, -less, -like, -ous, -some, and -y. Some
adjectives take the form of participles (verbs ending in -ed or -ing), and many others

are not formed from nouns or verbs but are original in themselves—for example,
close, deep, slow.
Let's dive into the intricacies of this important part of speech so you can identify
an adjective when you see one.

Adjectives Are Information Gatherers
What are adjectives? When it comes to function, adjectives are information
gatherers. Specifically, they provide further information about an object's size, shape,
age, color, origin or material. Here are some examples of adjectives in action:
It's a big table. (size)
It's a round table. (shape)

15