Oxford Collocations Dictionary : for students of English.
Sheila Dignen, Jonathan Crowther, and Diana Lea (Managing Editors).
- New York : Oxford University Press, 2002.
- xiii, 897 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
"Imagine a student writing an essay on the environment. She knows the themes she wishes to cover and the ideas and arguments to get across. She already has a stock of useful vocabulary, especially high-content nouns like environment, pollution, ozone layer. What is missing are the words that can link these high-content vocabulary items together into a coherent whole - a narrative or an argument. Pollution is a problem, but what needs to be done about it? Looking up the entry for pollution in the Oxford Collocations Dictionary and skimming down to the verbs section offers the choice of avoid/prevent, combat/control/fight/tackle, cut/limit/minimize/reduce or monitor. With the back-up help of a good monolingual learner's dictionary (such as the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary) if need be, the student can choose the most appropriate verb, the one that expresses most exactly what she wants to say. What is collocation? Collocation is the way words combine in a language to produce natural-sounding speech and writing. For example, in English you say strong wind but heavy rain. It would not be normal to say heavy wind or strong rain. And whilst all four of these words would be recognized by a learner at pre-intermediate or even elementary level, it takes a greater degree of competence with the language to combine them correctly in productive use. To a native-speakers these combinations are highly predictable; to a learner they are anything but. Why use a Collocations Dictionary? A normal dictionary, whether monolingual or bilingual, splits up meaning into individual words: it has a lot of power in dissecting the meaning of a text. Its power is more limited when it comes to constructing texts. Good learner's dictionaries give as much help as they can with usage, with grammar patterns clearly explained, register labels and example sentences showing words in context. Modern dictionaries are increasingly giving attention to collocation. But they are still hampered by trying to provide a whole range of information about any word besides its collocations. A grammar provides an analysis of the general patterns that exist in a language. But its productive power is limited by the degree to which it generalizes in order to come up with 'grammatical rules'. A collocational dictionary doesn't have to generalize to the same extent: it covers the entire language (or a large part of it!) on a word by word, collocation by collocation basis. It manages this by not attempting to account for every possible utterance, only for what is most typical. By focusing on the specific rather than the general, a collocations dictionary is also able to 're-digest' a lot of the grammar involved, presenting collocates in their most typical form in context, even if this is not the usual dictionary citation form. For example at the entry for baby, you will find the collocation be teething, reflecting the fact that this verb is always used in the progressive tenses. Use the collocations dictionary systematically and you become much more aware of the extent to which English makes use of the passive, an aspect of grammar that even advanced students may be reluctant to put to full productive use. By covering the language systematically from A-Z, a collocations dictionary allows students to build up their own collocational competence on a "need-to-know" basis, starting from the words they already know - or know in part. Occasional, or even regular, collocations exercises in coursebooks cannot fulfill this role, although they do a useful job of raising the profile of collocation as an essential feature of the language, and teach some useful collocations in the process." (Introduction, p. vii-viii) CONTENTS list of usage notes and special pages preface acknowledgements introduction guide to the entries the dictionary study pages between ideas into words using a noun entry using a verb entry using an adjective entry common verbs natural disasters criminal justice education driving politics jobs money key to the study pages inside front cover
key to abbreviations, symbols and labels
9780194312431 (pbk) 0194312437
Collocation (Linguistics)--Dictionaries.
English language--Idioms--Dictionaries.
PE1464 / .O94 2002
423.1 OXF
"Imagine a student writing an essay on the environment. She knows the themes she wishes to cover and the ideas and arguments to get across. She already has a stock of useful vocabulary, especially high-content nouns like environment, pollution, ozone layer. What is missing are the words that can link these high-content vocabulary items together into a coherent whole - a narrative or an argument. Pollution is a problem, but what needs to be done about it? Looking up the entry for pollution in the Oxford Collocations Dictionary and skimming down to the verbs section offers the choice of avoid/prevent, combat/control/fight/tackle, cut/limit/minimize/reduce or monitor. With the back-up help of a good monolingual learner's dictionary (such as the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary) if need be, the student can choose the most appropriate verb, the one that expresses most exactly what she wants to say. What is collocation? Collocation is the way words combine in a language to produce natural-sounding speech and writing. For example, in English you say strong wind but heavy rain. It would not be normal to say heavy wind or strong rain. And whilst all four of these words would be recognized by a learner at pre-intermediate or even elementary level, it takes a greater degree of competence with the language to combine them correctly in productive use. To a native-speakers these combinations are highly predictable; to a learner they are anything but. Why use a Collocations Dictionary? A normal dictionary, whether monolingual or bilingual, splits up meaning into individual words: it has a lot of power in dissecting the meaning of a text. Its power is more limited when it comes to constructing texts. Good learner's dictionaries give as much help as they can with usage, with grammar patterns clearly explained, register labels and example sentences showing words in context. Modern dictionaries are increasingly giving attention to collocation. But they are still hampered by trying to provide a whole range of information about any word besides its collocations. A grammar provides an analysis of the general patterns that exist in a language. But its productive power is limited by the degree to which it generalizes in order to come up with 'grammatical rules'. A collocational dictionary doesn't have to generalize to the same extent: it covers the entire language (or a large part of it!) on a word by word, collocation by collocation basis. It manages this by not attempting to account for every possible utterance, only for what is most typical. By focusing on the specific rather than the general, a collocations dictionary is also able to 're-digest' a lot of the grammar involved, presenting collocates in their most typical form in context, even if this is not the usual dictionary citation form. For example at the entry for baby, you will find the collocation be teething, reflecting the fact that this verb is always used in the progressive tenses. Use the collocations dictionary systematically and you become much more aware of the extent to which English makes use of the passive, an aspect of grammar that even advanced students may be reluctant to put to full productive use. By covering the language systematically from A-Z, a collocations dictionary allows students to build up their own collocational competence on a "need-to-know" basis, starting from the words they already know - or know in part. Occasional, or even regular, collocations exercises in coursebooks cannot fulfill this role, although they do a useful job of raising the profile of collocation as an essential feature of the language, and teach some useful collocations in the process." (Introduction, p. vii-viii) CONTENTS list of usage notes and special pages preface acknowledgements introduction guide to the entries the dictionary study pages between ideas into words using a noun entry using a verb entry using an adjective entry common verbs natural disasters criminal justice education driving politics jobs money key to the study pages inside front cover
key to abbreviations, symbols and labels
9780194312431 (pbk) 0194312437
Collocation (Linguistics)--Dictionaries.
English language--Idioms--Dictionaries.
PE1464 / .O94 2002
423.1 OXF