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Czech and English Dictionaries of Collocations Master‟S Diploma Thesis

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Czech and English Dictionaries of Collocations Master‟S Diploma Thesis Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Lucie Koumalová Czech and English Dictionaries of Collocations Master‟s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: PhDr. Jarmila Fictumová 2011 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author‟s signature Acknowledgement I would like to thank to my supervisor PhDr. Jarmila Fictumová for the advice she gave me. “You shall know a word by the company it keeps” (Firth) Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 1 1 THE IMPORTANCE OF CREATING A DICTIONARY OF COLLOCATIONS ..................................................................................................... 3 2 HOW TO JUDGE INDIVIDUAL DICTIONARIES ................................................ 6 3 CHUNKS ....................................................................................................................... 8 3.1 Collocations ............................................................................................................. 9 3.1.1 Distinction of Collocations ............................................................................. 11 3.1.2 Function of Collocations ................................................................................ 15 3.1.3 Special Terms ................................................................................................. 16 3.2 Phrase and Idiom ................................................................................................... 17 3.3 Phraseology ........................................................................................................... 18 3.4 Slovník české frazeologie a idiomatiky ................................................................. 19 3.4.1 Slovník české frazeologie a idiomatiky 1 ....................................................... 24 3.4.2 Slovník české frazeologie a idiomatiky 2 ....................................................... 25 3.4.3 Slovník české frazeologie a idiomatiky 3 ....................................................... 27 3.4.4 Slovník české frazeologie a idiomatiky 4 ....................................................... 27 3.5 Phrasal Verbs ......................................................................................................... 29 3.6 Risks of Translating Collocations .......................................................................... 29 4 HOW TO ARRANGE COLLOCATIONS IN A DICTIONARY .......................... 31 4.1 Which Collocations to Include .............................................................................. 34 5 OTHER PEOPLE’S RESEARCH ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF COLLOCATIONS DICTIONARIES..................................................................... 39 6 THE DEVELOPMENT OF COLLOCATIONS OVER TIME ............................. 42 6.1 Collecting Data Then and Now ............................................................................. 44 7 COMPUTATION OF COLLOCATIONS ............................................................... 46 7.1 The COBUILD Project .......................................................................................... 48 8 VARIOUS DICTIONARIES OF COLLOCATIONS ............................................. 50 8.1 Znáte anglická slovesa? ......................................................................................... 50 8.2 Znáte anglická přídavná jména? ............................................................................ 52 8.3 Czech-English Combinatory Dictionary: Noun and Verb ..................................... 54 8.4 The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English ........................................................ 57 8.5 LTP Dictionary of Selected Collocations .............................................................. 60 8.6 Oxford Collocations Dictionary ............................................................................ 64 8.7 Macmillan Collocations Dictionary for Learners of English ................................ 68 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 71 BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................................. 75 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................... 80 INTRODUCTION Over the years, English has become a worldwide language. Millions of people study English as a foreign language in order to be able to communicate when they travel abroad, in order to do business with other countries or just to be able to watch films in original sound. England was the centre of Christian learning in history and had to create a way of teaching monks and priests to become new effective teachers. As Latin was the official language of learning, there was a need for creating dictionaries. English lexicographers started writing dictionaries as early as 700 AD and became experts in lexicography. (Ilson, 1986) As a result, nowadays, there are a number of good English dictionaries. People who, for various reasons, want to study English are in need of a dictionary. The most efficient way of learning a foreign language, according to linguists, lexicographers and teachers, is learning chunks of language rather than individual words. A term related to the vague word “chunks” is collocations. The latter statement may prop upon Firth‟s statement that “meaning of individual words is established through their collocability with other words and is very much linked to their functional values.” (in Barfield, Gyllstad, 2009: 3) Native speakers and second language adult learners cope with language learning in different ways. Whereas native speakers face collocations from childhood, second language learners must face the challenge of putting the right words together without actually knowing the correct pairs. (Barfield & Gyllstad, 2009) To make the learners‟ life easier there were several attempts to 1 include collocations in monolingual and bilingual dictionaries; and what is more important for this thesis, dictionaries of collocations have been published. In this thesis existing collocations dictionaries are presented and the aim is to describe their development throughout the period of time. My hypothesis is that the latest dictionary should be the best as its authors and editors have had the advantage of learning from the mistakes of their predecessors, i.e. The Oxford Collocations Dictionary (2009) and The Macmillan Collocations Dictionary (2010) have eliminated all flaws and are the best from the point of user-friendliness, comprehensibility and informativeness. 2 1 THE IMPORTANCE OF CREATING A DICTIONARY OF COLLOCATIONS The English language is full of collocations and students who want to sound natural when speaking English have to use them. Using wrong collocations does not mean that the speaker will not be understood, but the listener will have to concentrate hard on the speech and this already creates some communication problems. When the speaker chooses to use the correct collocation, their utterance will be better understood and will contain lots of information in a shorter context. (McIntosh, Francis & Poole, 2009) Handl emphasizes the fact that learners of English as a second language are not exposed to the linguistic inputso they need to acquire the knowledge either from textbooks, teachers, or dictionaries. (in Barfield & Gyllstad, 2009) Many general dictionaries, either monolingual or bilingual, offer learners help with understanding a text but as soon as it comes to creating a text, their capacity is not sufficient. Collocations dictionary can provide learners with suitable word combinations they will need for spoken or written communication. (McIntosh et al., 2009) In recent times many researchers have realized that collocations create an important part of the language and therefore must be included in teaching approaches. Thanks to this fact there can be seen some changes in the creation of study materials and textbooks. (Barfield & Gyllstad, 2009) Up to a few decades ago English textbooks presented individual vocabulary as the most essential part of language. Although there were various exercises for practicing it, there was no emphasis on using the words together with their natural partner. Collocations were in many cases overlooked as Coady and Huckin mentioned: “A key element of most language courses, other highly frequent 3 patterns – which is precisely what collocations are – have usually been ignored or at best been seen as marginal to courses.” (in Barfield & Gyllstad, 2009: 103/104) Willis says that “many learners are not consciously aware of collocation, or of the importance of fixed phrases.” (in Barfield & Gyllstad 2009: 14) Linguists think that this should be changed and learners‟ knowledge on existing materials and consequently on collocations themselves must be improved. (Barfield & Gyllstad, 2009) According to Michael Rundell, “identifying suitable collocations and understanding collocation restrictions is one of the most important productive needs of learners.” (in Barfield & Gyllstad, 2009: 11) Rundell claims in Macmillan Collocations Dictionary for Learners of English (MCD) that collocations are “as important as grammar because they are a central feature of language”; they
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