What Are You Celebrating Today? :)

[princess_in_pink]

wooohhoooo!!! ofiicially the easter holiday!!!

[Sunny Girl]

I just found out today I've got a new job! Finally!!

[Kimmy]

I'm going to see Kid Courageous play..they are like my 5th favourite band! WOO

[MarMar]

I got an A on my last lexicology assignment... But I won't bore you with posting it here.

[aejdude]

I got an A on my last lexicology assignment... But I won't bore you with posting it here.

Well Done!

[MarMar]

Thank you.

[Guevara01]

I think you should post it. It would probably be interesting reading.

xxx

[MarMar]

I can if you want me to...

[Jess]

Yeah post it! I dare say you could teach us all more English lol

[MarMar]

Hmm.. Will do. Just have to locate it on the hard drive.

Assignment 2 Lexicology - ENG150 Uses of English.

Question 1

Explain and give a brief example of what a collocation is.

The OALD defines a collocation as “a combination of words in a language, that happens very often and more frequently than would happen by chance” and “the fact of two or more words often being used together, in a way that happens more frequently than would happen by chance…”.

Some words used in collocations can not easily be used ‘outside’ the collocation, because they are so closely connected to the meaning given by the collocation, and it is then possible to talk about how strong or weak a collocation is. A way to do this is with the “measure of association” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collocation), “which evaluates whether the co-occurrence is purely by chance or statistically significant.” Examples of this can be “blond hair” vs. “nice dog”; You’d be more inclined to say that “blond” goes with “hair” than “nice” goes with “dog”, this because the two words are used so often together that they make a “unit”. This can be said to be collocations which are “roughly predictable ... yet restricted to certain specified items”. (http://www.gabrielatos.com/Collocation.htm) Collocations such as “nice dog” are not so predictable, because “nice” can be used with a number of other words, like “weather”, “day” and so forth.

Collocations, and how to apply them in the language, is a subject that should be devoted a fair amount of time in the educational system, especially as students advance from the beginner- or intermediate level to become more advanced learners with a good grasp of the language in question. This is because collocations are used extensively by native speakers in every-day speech as well as academic language. Advanced students should strive to achieve a native-like and fluent manner of speech, and collocations can be one way of reaching this goal. Because single words in a language convey and embrace so many different meanings, some more specific than other which blend into related, but not synonymous, meanings, collocations can be used to specify the information you are communicating in a more precise way.

By using a collocation dictionary, both native – and foreign speakers can be made aware of new collocations, which may inspire them to use these in sentences, both written and orally. Collocation dictionaries let the student/reader learn collocations in their most widely used form, by going from words they know, to words they know partially, and finally teaching and making them aware of new forms, and how to use them as collocations. (The Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students of English)

Collocations can be made with different structures (examples):

1 Feeling (noun)

Adj + noun - nagging feeling; I had a nagging feeling that I had forgotten something

Verb + feeling – arouse; A case that have aroused strong public feeling.

Feeling + verb – be mutual; ‘I’m going to miss you.’ ‘The feeling’s mutual.’ (= I feel exactly the same.)

Feeling + preposition – About; I don’t have any strong feelings about it one way or the other.

(The Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students of English)

2 Paper (noun)

Adj. + paper – blank paper; I stared at the blank paper, not knowing how to start the letter.

Quant. – scrap; I scribbled down his number on a scrap of paper.

Verb + paper – fold; Fold the paper in half.

Paper + verb – be strewn; There was paper strewn all over the floor

Prep. – on; I’ve had nothing on paper (=in writing)

Phrases – put pen to paper; I’ve thought about what I’m going to write, but I haven’t yet out pen to paper.

(The Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students of English)

Question 2

Comment on the differences between the nouns wound and injury, taking meaning, style, use and collocations into consideration. Present your answer as systematically as possible.

Wound is used to refer to an injury to the body (from violence, accident, or surgery), often when a weapon has been used, which results in breaking the skin. It can also be used to describe emotional hurt.

Injury means damage to the body, or parts of it, for example, in an accident. It can also be used in reference to emotional hurt.

As for using wound and injury to refer to emotional hurt, they are both used metaphorically. Emotions, feelings and other aspects of the soul are not tangible, yet you can still be hurt by words and actions of others. This hurt is sometimes, as we have seen, described in terms of wounds and injuries. The problem with this, from the perspective of wound being damage where the skin has been broken, a specification of the more general injury, is that the soul, which is hurt or damaged, does not have skin, and we must ask ourselves; can it then be hurt in such a manner? Should we instead have words referring only to the psychological aspects of our lives, instead of converting physical terms for this use? I will not try to find the answer to those questions now, because this is not exactly what the task given to me is about, even though it is an interesting question in relation to collocations, their use and how we use words in the English language.

Both wound and injury are singular and countable nouns, but are used in different contexts. The OALD emphasises that wound is when the skin is broken or the damage is visible, where as injury is most often used when talking about damage to the body through an accident, which is not necessarily visible. The difference can be seen though example sentences from OALD and Oxford’s Collocation dictionary;

“It was a clean wound, and it healed quickly” “There were no injuries in the car crash”

“The nurse cleaned the wound” “They scored two goals in injury time”

“The wound healed slowly” “She is unable to play because of injury”

(OALD and the Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students of English)

In the column to the left, you can clearly see how the noun wound is used about damage to the body where the skin has been broken; the nurse had to clean the wound (for blood) etc, while in the column on the right, you see how the noun injury is not specified to damage where the skin is broken. It is a more general term, whereas wound is a specification.