Collocations as a language resource A functional and cognitive study in English phraseology Sonja Poulsen Ph.d. dissertation Institute of Language and Communication University of Southern Denmark 2005 Supervisors Associate professor Fritz Larsen, University of Southern Denmark Associate professor John M. Dienhart, University of Southern Denmark Associate professor Alex Klinge, Copenhagen Business School Front cover Peter Harder’s analogy (1996a: 91) between the functional role that wings play for the survival of birds in biology and the functionality of linguistic constructions inspired me to use birds for my front cover illustration. My thanks to Kurt Normann for letting me use parts of his etching of flying rooks. Sonja Poulsen Institute of Language and Communication University of Southern Denmark DK-5230 Odense M Tel.: +45 6550 2188 E-mail: [email protected] © Sonja Poulsen 2005 Contents: Typographical conventions 3 Abbreviations 3 Tables 4 Figures 4 English résumé 6 Preface and acknowledgements 10 PART ONE 1. Introduction 11 1.1. Phraseology: the traditional approach 12 1.2. Definitions of ‘collocation’ 14 1.3. Methodology and classification in phraseology 17 1.4. Motivation for a functional and cognitive approach 23 1.5. What should a theory of collocations be able to account for? 28 1.6. Overview 33 PART TWO 2. The foundations of a traditional approach to phraseology 34 2.1. Theoretical influences on phraseology 35 2.1.1. A practical concern: teaching English as a foreign language 35 2.1.2. Firthian linguistics 38 2.1.3. Underlying assumptions 48 2.1.3.1. Structuralist dichotomies 48 2.1.3.2. Generative principles 52 2.1.3.3. Classical categories 55 2.1.4. Russian phraseology 57 2.1.5. A cognitive strand 61 2.2. Collocations in a framework of phraseological categories 72 2.2.1. Grammatical well-formedness 73 2.2.2. Institutionalization 76 2.2.3. Full compositionality 79 2.2.4. Restricted compositionality 84 2.2.5. Analysability, compositionality and the literal/figurative distinction 91 2.3. Summary and conclusions 99 1 PART THREE 3. Collocations in a functional and cognitive framework 102 3.1. What is ‘cognitive’ and what is ‘functional’ about language? 102 3.2. Methodology 109 3.2.1. Corpus studies and frequency 109 3.2.2. Linguistic evidence of cognitive routines 111 3.2.3. Synchronic evidence of diachronic processes 113 3.3. Introduction to the empirical part 113 3.3.1. Research questions and motivation 114 3.3.2. Design of case study 114 3.3.3. A general presentation of the data 115 3.4. Case study: break an appointment 117 3.4.1. How to approach the analysis of a complex category 117 3.4.1.1. How many meanings does a word have? 117 3.4.1.2. Domains, image schemas and construction types 126 3.4.2. The internal structure of BREAK 129 3.4.2.1 Abstract domains and referential range 131 3.4.2.2 Image schemas and event structure 140 3.4.2.3 Construction types 149 3.4.2.4 How many meanings does break have? 159 3.4.3 The internal structure of APPOINTMENT 185 3.4.3.1 Abstract domains and referential range 187 3.4.3.2 Image schemas and event structure 192 3.4.3.3 Construction types 204 3.4.3.4 How many meanings does appointment have? 212 3.4.4 The integration of BREAK and APPOINTMENT 224 3.4.4.1 Break an-appointment as a composite structure 225 3.4.4.2 Evidence of entrenchment 232 3.4.4.3 Can a support-verb function be posited for break? 245 3.4.4.4 To what extent is break an-appointment grammaticalized? 254 3.5. Summary of findings and evaluation of methodology 264 3.5.1. Findings related to research questions 264 3.5.1.1. To what extent are entrenched collocations like other composite structures? 264 3.5.1.2. In what respects are entrenched collocations special? 271 3.5.1.3. Verbs in entrenched collocations as grammaticalized support verbs 273 3.5.2. Evaluation of methodology 276 2 PART FOUR 4. Collocations as a language resource 279 4.1. Conclusion 279 4.2. Further research 281 Danish résumé 283 References 289 *** Typographical conventions Technical terms are marked by single quotes when first introduced and when there is a need to set them apart from the surrounding text: ‘collocation’ Linguistic meanings are also marked by single quotes: put off meaning ‘postpone’ Linguistic forms are printed in italics: record Lexical categories are printed in capital letters: BREAK Citations are marked by double quotes Titles are printed in italics Additions to, or omissions from, a citation are marked with square brackets: […] Key words in the text are printed in bold type Conceptual metaphors are printed in small capital letters: LIFE IS A JOURNEY Abbreviations The British National Corpus BNC The Oxford English Dictionary OED something (in tables and examples) sth somebody (in tables and examples) sb occurrence(s) (in tables) occ. Abbreviations used only in some sections, are explained where they are used 3 Tables 1. Syntactic patterns of collocation 16 2. Basic level categories 29 3. Subcategories within the phraseological spectrum 57 4. Russian categories 58 5. Levels of context 78 7. Phraseological categories 94 8. Literal and metaphorical conceptualization in different domains 127 9. BREAK domains I 138 10. BREAK domains II 139 11. Location event-structure in the sensorimotor domain (break into) 145 12. Location event-structure in the nonsensorimotor domain (break into) 146 13. Phrasal verbs and related constructions analysed as location event-structure 147 14. Construction types in two BREAK domains 151 15. Deverbal nominalizations of break 157 16. APPOINTMENT domains 189 17. Levels of categorization: APPOINTMENT I 194 18. Levels of categorization: APPOINTMENT II 194 19. Frequencies of co-occurrence in two APPOINTMENT domains 196 20. Prepositional phrases in the APPOINTMENT domain ‘arranging/arrangement for a meeting’ 199 21. Prepositional phrases in the APPOINTMENT domain ‘(placing sb in) a position’ 201 22. Construction types in two APPOINTMENT domains 206 23. Basic level predications types in two APPOINTMENT domains 208 24. Readings of appointment 222 25. Five instantiations of break (an) appointment 227 26. Key words evoking an APPOINTMENT frame 230 27. Schematicity and salience related to likelihood of entrenchment 236 28. The idiom status of selected expressions in three different typologies 243 29. A continuum of expression types (based on Bybee 1985: 11-13) 260 Figures 1. Overlapping lexical sets 21 2. Integrated levels of meaning 37 3. A scale of idiomaticity 59 4. A modified variant of Bühler’s Organon Model 107 5. Different meanings or different active zones 120 6. A partial network for open 121 7. Full-verb vs. support-verb readings of hold 126 8. Distribution of data by construction type 130 9. BREAK domains 133 4 10. Subdomain: artefacts and natural things (damage) 134 11. Subdomain: body parts 136 12. Sensorimotor domain as target domain: breaking in boots 137 13. Entrenched collocations using object event-structure 144 14. Entrenched collocations using location event-structure 144 15. Construction types in two domains 156 16. Proposed readings of break 160 17. Blueprint for figures 21-31 160 18. Damaging physical objects + violation of social institutions and constructs 161 19. Specific ways of breaking physical objects & social institutions & constructs 164 20. Overcoming physical and psychological barriers 166 21. Opening physical and metaphorical containers 169 22. Damaging body parts & causing psychological damage 171 23. Interrupting an activity & changing from a way of doing something 175 24. Starting an activity & changing to a new way of doing something 175 25. Conflation of readings (6/16 + 7/17): Interrupting & starting an activity 176 26. Interrupting auditory experience & interrupting a pattern 177 27. Becoming visible & entering consciousness 179 28. Interrupting a physical state & interrupting a psychological state 180 29. Readings of break: revised proposal 182 30. BREAK as a complex category 183 31. Distribution of data by construction type 186 32. APPOINTMENT domains 188 33. Subdomain: social institutions & constructs (‘arranging/arrangement for a meeting’) 190 34. Subdomain: social institutions & constructs (‘position’) 191 35. Object event-structure in two APPOINTMENT domains 198 36. Location event-structure in APPOINTMENT domain: ‘arranging/arrangement for a meeting’ 200 37. Past participles of basic level verbs as premodifiers 209 38. Basic level predications in two APPOINTMENT domains 211 39. Schematic frame APPOINTMENT I: ‘arranging/arrangement for a meeting’ 215 40. Schematic frame APPOINTMENT II: ‘(placing sb in) a position’ 217 41. APPOINTMENT as a complex category and a network of meanings 223 42. The composite structure break an-appointment 226 43. A/D alignment of break an-appointment construed as an entrenched collocation 234 44. A/D alignment of break an-appointment construed as a free collocation 235 45. Range of collocational variability in the specific frame ‘break an-appointment’ 237 46. A typology based on continua of salience and schematicity 241 47. The frame semantics of support verbs I 251 48. The frame semantics of support verbs II 252 5 English résumé This thesis addresses the question of what constitutes a suitable theoretical framework for entrenched collocations, focusing on expressions consisting of a verb and its nomi- nal object. The overall claim is that a functional and cognitive approach is descriptively more adequate and has greater explanatory potential than the traditional approach according to which phraseological expressions are arbitrary, because they are conven- tional and are moreover characterized as deviating from an assumed norm of full compositionality. Part 1 includes an outline of the traditional approach to phraseology as well as an overview of definitions of ‘collocation’ as a technical term.