COLLOCATIONS

AND
IDIOMS
Grammar II – Instituto Superior Lenguas Vivas
 IDIOMS

Grammar II – Instituto Superior Lenguas Vivas

 What is an idiom?
An idiom can be defined as a set expression of two or
more words that mean something other than
the literal meanings of its individual words.

"Often defying the rules of logic, they pose great difficulties for
non-native speakers" (The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, 2013).

For example:

"Some of the places they used for repairs, Bill said, had taken to
calling themselves 'auto restoration facilities' and charging an arm
and a leg.“ (Jim Sterba, Frankie's Place: A Love Story. Grove, 2003)
 FUNCTIONS
OF
IDIOMS

Grammar II – Instituto Superior Lenguas Vivas

"People use idioms to make their language richer and more
colorful and to convey subtle shades of meaning or intention.
Idioms are used often to replace a literal word or expression, and
many times the idiom better describes the full nuance of
meaning. Idioms and idiomatic expressions can be more precise
than the literal words, often using fewer words but saying more.

the expression it runs in the family is shorter and more succinct tFor
example, han saying that a physical or personality trait 'is fairly
common throughout one's extended family and over a number of
generations.'"

(Gail Brenner, Webster's New World American Idioms Handbook. Webster's

New World, 2003)
 LEVELS OF
TRANSPARENCY
Grammar II – Instituto Superior Lenguas Vivas
"Idioms vary in 'transparency':

That is, whether their meaning can be derived from

the literal meanings of the individual words.
For example, make up [one's] mind is rather
transparent in suggesting the meaning 'reach a
decision,' while kick the bucket is far from transparent
in representing the meaning 'die.'"

(Douglas Biber et al., Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and

Written English. Pearson, 2002)
 IDIOMS AND
COLLOCATIONS
WITH SPECIFIC
WORDS AND VERBS

Grammar II – Instituto Superior Lenguas Vivas

There are certain nouns and verbs that
are used in a number of idioms and
expressions; these idioms are said to
collocate with a specific word such as
"put" in "put a fork in it" or "all" in "all in a
day's work." These general nouns are used
repeatedly in English.
COLLOCATIONS

Grammar II – Instituto Superior Lenguas Vivas

A collocation is a familiar grouping of words,
especially words that habitually appear together
and thereby convey meaning by association.
The term collocation (from the Latin for "place
together") was first used in its linguistic sense by
British linguist John Rupert Firth (1890-1960), who
famously observed, "You shall know a word by the
company it keeps." Collocational range refers to
the set of items that typically accompany a word.
The size of a collocational range is partially
determined by a word's level of specificity and
number of meanings.
Examples

"Once upon a time there was a Martian named

Valentine Michael Smith."
—Robert Heinlein, "Stranger in a Strange Land“

"Once upon a time and a very good time it was

there was a moocow coming down along the
road and this moocow that was coming down
along the road met a nicens little boy named
baby tuckoo."
—James Joyce, "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"
Examples

"The mule has more horse sense than a horse. He

knows when to stop eating—and he knows when
to stop working."
—Harry S. Truman.

"I'm an incredible man, possessing an iron

will and nerves of steel—two traits that have
helped me become the genius I am today as well
as the lady killer I was in days gone by."
—William Morgan Sheppard as Dr. Ira Graves, "Star Trek: The
Next Generation"
 "The "Wheel of Fortune" Lexicon

"Collocations and clichés are strings of words that

are remembered as wholes and often used
together, such as gone with the wind or like two
peas in a pod. People know tens of thousands of
these expressions; the linguist Ray Jackendoff refers
to them as 'the Wheel of Fortune lexicon,' after the
game show in which contestants guess a familiar
expression from a few fragments."
—From "Words and Rules" by Steven Pinker
PREDICTABILITY
OF
COLLOCATIONS

Grammar II – Instituto Superior Lenguas Vivas

""Every lexeme has collocations, but some are
much more predictable than others.
For example: blond collocates strongly with hair,
flock with sheep, neigh with horse.
Some collocations are totally predictable, such
as spick with span, or addled with brains . . ..
Others are much less so: letter collocates with a
wide range of lexemes, such
as alphabet and spelling, and (in another
sense) box, post, and write. . . .
"Collocations should not be confused with
'association of ideas.' The way lexemes work
together may have nothing to do with
'ideas.' We say in English green with
jealousy (not blue or red), though there is
nothing literally 'green' about 'jealousy.'“

—From "How Language Works" by David Crystal

 RETRIEVED FROM:
https://www.thoughtco.com/idiom-words-term-
1691144

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-collocation-
words-1689865

Grammar II – Instituto Superior Lenguas Vivas