Just the word combinations

JustTheWord is a completely new kind of aid to help you with
writing English and choosing just the word.

If English is your first language, JustTheWord can help
you express that elusive idea with le mot juste.

If you’re learning English, JustTheWord can justify your choice
of words or suggest improvements — and JustTheWord knows about some common
errors made by speakers of your mother tongue.

When we write, we search our knowledge of words in two ways. We choose
between words that mean similar things. A thesaurus gives us access to
this sort of knowledge. But our choice constrains and is
constrained by the other words in the sentence. We know, or need to know,
which word combinations sound natural. A dictionary gives us access to some of this
sort of knowledge.

By analysing a huge amount of English text, we’ve
built up a highly detailed knowledge base of the word combinations
whose mastery is at the heart of fluent English.

Show combinations

Type a word into the box and hit return or Show Combinations. JustTheWord will
give you a detailed description of the company which that word keeps
in modern-day English. To help you find your way to the information
you need, in the right-hand frame you’ll find the part(s)-of-speech
and the types of relation that the word is found in. If you’re looking
for the right adjective to modify a noun you’ve chosen, click on the
‘ADJ mod <word>’ link. If you want a verb with the noun as its object,
follow the ‘V obj <word>’ link. Within many types of relation you’ll find the uses of the word
clustered into groups with a similar meaning. The words that are not
assigned to a cluster are grouped together at the end of the relation.

After each combination you’ll find its frequency in our corpus, about 80,000,000 words of the British National Corpus (BNC).
The green bar
by each combination gives a measure of how strong it is.
Technically, the bar indicates the t-score. A larger t-score means that the
combination occurs more often than you’d expect given the frequency of the
parts. What you see is only those combinations whose frequency and t-score
exceed certain thresholds. These vary dynamically as we try to show you something
for every word, and not too much for the commoner words.

If you see an inflected form of a word in a combination (or a form
preceded by ‘.’), this means that the combination includes this
precise form. But if a word is in its dictionary form, it may need to
be inflected. Nouns in their dictionary form might also need an
article (and conversely, if an article is present, then the form of
the noun will be as given). You can check the variability of a form, or
any other properties of a combination, by clicking on the combination itself.
This will show you some sentences from our corpus that have been analysed as
containing examples of this combination.

If you want to find out longer combinations involving two words, type
the two words into the box and choose ‘Show Combinations’.

Suggest alternatives

If you type several words into the box and hit return or Suggest
Alternatives, JustTheWord will give you an idea of how well these
words go together — a red bar indicates that the combination is unlikely (the
longer, the unlikelier) — and some suggestions for improvements. For
each word in the input, JustTheWord will try replacing it with a
related word, and show you the strength of the combination in the
usual way (green bars). The blue bars represent the similarity betwen
the original word and its replacement. This feature is still under
development, and you may find it a bit slow. Don’t type too many
words, but do include articles (‘a’, ‘the’, etc.) as this will help
the system to get the right answer.

Confusibles

In the demo we’ve used two types of confusible. Choosing the
‘Thesaurus’ button will use only semantic proximity as a measure of
confusability. Choosing ‘Learner Errors’ will use a corpus of actual
learner errors of all types by speakers of various first languages.
In the future, the learner errors category could be split up into
different types of confusability relation, such as real-word spelling
errors (phonological, orthographic and keyboarding confusibles) and
alternative translations in some context (bilingual confusibles). Such
sets could be further augmented with unattested but predictable
confusibles; and sub-classified into those typified by learners at
certain levels or with certain L1’s.

Credits

By Robby

If you are new here please read this first.

If you ask an average English speaker what a collocation is, they’ll probably shrug their shoulders and will ask you to provide an explanation. Well, I’ve no problems doing it for you!

Collocations are words that normally go together in written and spoken English. They make your English sound more fluent and native-like, and it’s when you get a collocation wrong when people would say – “Well, it doesn’t sound right, they don’t say it like that in English…”

The tricky part is that there are no English Grammar rules stipulating how and when certain words go together, you simply have to develop “the feel” of how words are naturally used. Basically you have to learn English collocations and incorporate them into your spoken and written English.

For instance, when you go back to work after a few days illness, you’d tell your work colleagues that you’re “fully recovered”. If you use any other word with “recovered” – “completely recovered”, “absolutely recovered” or “totally recovered” – it doesn’t sound as good as the natural collocation “fully recovered”. The two words – “fully” and “recovered” are the ones that naturally go together in English language, so we can say that those words collocate with each other.

Collocations are somewhat similar to English idioms. Just like idioms they’re word combinations that are used by native English speakers and you just have to learn those phrases to be able to use them; you can’t just translate the same meaning from your native language and stick relevant English words together ❗

However, it won’t make you a better English speaker if you only KNOW what a collocation is. Knowing alone doesn’t make you fluent, and that’s obvious to me now after my years long pursuit of English fluency!

So let’s cut the rant, and let’s get straight down to the business! 😉

Why should I care about English collocations, why can’t I just keep speaking the way I’ve done until now?

You can.

You don’t have to become an English Grammar nerd and bury yourself in English collocation books to be able to use them in real-life communication. Even if you’ve never heard of English collocations before doesn’t mean you don’t use them! You see – constant communication and exposure to English alone will imprint a lot of natural speech patterns into your mind.

Also whenever you learn new English vocabulary along with context you’ll automatically remember what other words collocate with the words you learn. Let’s say for instance, you came across a new way of using the verb “to bear”. Most likely you heard this word used in context, not just on its own. The phrase you heard could have been “please bear in mind” – meaning “please remember”.

So if you learn this new English word’s “to bear” meaning as part of a collocation “bear in mind”, it settles in your brain much firmer and you’ll be able to use it naturally. This brings us to the next point:

It’s easier to learn new vocabulary as part of collocations than on their own!

One of the biggest mistakes foreign English speakers make is by learning new vocabulary words seperately. Years ago I used to carry pocket dictionaries with me where I wrote new English words followed by translations in my native Latvian – and I memorized thousands of words this way.

I was very disappointed and surprised upon realizing that I couldn’t use most of them – but I still kept cramming separate words into my brain. Now it’s clear to me that the lack of contextual associations inhibited my ability to use all those English words in my daily conversations – which means that I didn’t acquire them as part of naturally occurring collocations!

Just take the word “to bear” as an example. If you learn its all meanings translated into your native language, you may think you’ve done a great job. Yet every time you speak you’ll have to translate the particular sentence from your own language and you’d have to pick the corresponding English words in the process. It’s going to take a whole lot more time compared to using a ready-to-go phrase “bear in mind”.

In other words – when you improve your English contextually by learning collocations, your speech becomes more fluent. You’re able to speak using word combinations rather than sticking separate words together ❗

You see, most likely you won’t be even able to use the word “to bear” correctly, if the only way of putting it into an English context is by direct translation from your own language. There are many meanings for the verb “to bear” – “to carry” like in “to bear arms”, “to endure” like in “I can’t bear it”, and also the most popular “to be born” – like “I was born in 1979”. However, if you don’t know what other words “to bear” collocates with, you simply won’t be able use all those word combinations!

TIP OF THE DAY:

When you look up new English words in a dictionary, always pay attention to collocations in which they’re naturally used! Dictionary.com for instance always provides collocations next to the search results, please refer to the screenshot below:

What to do if I can’t think of a proper collocation containing the particular world?

Don’t forget that you can always paraphrase what you intended to say if you get stuck for words. In other words – you’ll still speak decent English even if you don’t know a proper collocation with the particular word you want to use.

There are thousands upon thousands of English collocations, and learning them all would be a very time-consuming process that would take you long years of study to accomplish. It would be an epic task indeed to purposefully learn a huge number of collocations and then being able to USE them all when communicating!

I’ve always opposed the idea of focusing too much on technical aspects of English improving and learning such as grammar rules and then trying to implement them later on. It has a detrimental effect on your spoken English fluency because fluent English speech is more about improvising and producing instantaneous speech.

Therefore you don’t have to be too hard on yourself – if there’s something you’re not sure how it can be said, put it in your own words! I’m telling you – the art of paraphrasing is equally important to being able to use naturally occurring English collocations, and never be ashamed of sounding unique and using your own way of describing things!

And this brings as to yet another point I want to make in connection with English collocations –

Most English collocations aren’t as strong as they may seem!

Let’s take a typical collocation – “to borrow heavily”. This is how a fact of huge borrowings would be described in fluent English – you can’t say “I borrowed strongly” or “I borrowed intensively”. Well… To be more precise – you CAN say it, but it just doesn’t sound right, remember what the whole collocation thing is about? Someone who hasn’t spent enough time among native English speakers would probably find it more difficult to distinguish between a “good” and a “bad” English word combination, but over time you’ll definitely develop that “sixth sense”.

Anyway, “I borrowed heavily” is how most English speakers would describe the process of taking out massive bank loans, and I would say it’s a fairly strong English collocation. In other words – you can’t easily replace the adverb “heavily” with another adverb.

But here’s a very important thing for you to bear in mind – many foreigners make a mistake of getting too much focused on details such as – “what adverb can I use with the verb “to borrow”? And they’ll keep thinking only “inside of the box” without seeing that one doesn’t necessarily have to use an adverb to describe the fact of heavy borrowings!

If you’re not sure how it’s said naturally, you can always put it in very simple words – “I borrowed a lot!” You see – we transformed the problem of breaking the bond in the strong collocation “to borrow heavily” into something completely different – how to say it in the simplest way possible!

So as you can see, it’s a stick with two ends – English collocations are part of a natural and fluent English, but at the same time – even if you don’t know what a particular word collocates with – you can nearly always put it in different words!

Robby

P.S. Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE! – it’s packed full of English collocations, by the way!

P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out the English Harmony System HERE!

Compare the thesaurus’s “similar words” for the verb “laugh”:

The similar words allow you to choose from among words for more specific kinds of laugh: from a quiet titter to a hearty guffaw. The Word Combinations allow you to choose from among adverbs that writers frequently use to modify the verb “laugh.” “Ashley laughed uneasily at the cruel joke,” you might write. Or, “Ashley laughed good-naturedly when her error was pointed out.” (Ashley’s a likable person, evidently.)

Word Combinations are the most frequent companions of the headword in published writing and broadcast speech. Thus, they represent the many ways in which the headword-concept is typically talked about and the words typically used to talk about them.

In the entries, word combinations are organized by part of speech combination. Take, for example, the word “election.” The word combinations for the noun “election” fall into four kinds:

adjective + (n.) election

verb + (n.) election 

(n.) election + verb   

noun + (n.) election

These formulas show you the kind of word (part of speech) and the position (before or after “election”) in which it appears in the corpus of texts. Notice that “election” has some verbs that appear before it and some that appear after it. Here are the full word combinations entries, with some comments in red:

adjective + (n.)election     coming, competitive, congressional, contested, democratic, direct, disputed, fair, federal, forthcoming, fraudulent, free, general, gubernatorial, judicial, legislative, local, mayoral, mid-term, multi-party, multiracial, municipal, nationwide, nonpartisan, off-year, parliamentary, periodic, presidential, primary, provincial, scheduled, statewide, transitional, upcoming

verb + (n.)election     boycott, cancel, certify, contest, delay, disrupt, influence, hold, monitor, oversee, overturn, postpone, precede, rig, schedule, steal, supervise  (These verbs that frequently have the word “election” as their object will give you a glimpse at all the things we can do to an election. )

(n.)election + verb      loom, near

(Which of these two verbs would you choose to talk about a coming election? It really depends how you feel about it.)

noun + (n.)election   ballot, boycott, candidate, eve, fall, financing, landslide, legitimacy, midterm, month, outcome, poll, primary, recall, registration, round, run-up, runoff, turnout, vote, voting

If you have read through these words, you may have noticed that some make sense when placed immediately before or after the headword “election”: “a fair election,” “postponed the election,” and “a fall [i.e., autumn] election.” True, you have to insert an article, “the” between “postpone” and “election,” but generally these are recognizable phrases that make sense.

Others, especially in the noun+noun category, don’t seem like a chunk of a sentence: “legitimacy election” and “voting election,” for example. Often a preposition will need to be inserted between the words: “the legitimacy of the election,” “voting in this election” are some possible ways the word combinations will work in these cases.

If you don’t know how to fit the two words together, a Google search on the two words will often return a number of similar examples of how they do.

You can try this little exercise to get a feel for how to fill out a word combination:

Complete these common noun + noun word combinations with the correct prepositions and articles.

1. the eve   ____    ____   election

2. the outcome  ____    ____   election

3. the turnout   ____    ____   election

 Word Combinations is a subscription feature, but you can try it by signing up for a 15-day free Trial Subscription, no strings attached. (There is a Trial Subscription button on most pages of the Wordsmyth website.) We also include Word Combinations with many Academic Vocabulary of the Day posts.

Read more about collocations here.

выполните тест .
1. Translate the word combinations.
1. Eat candy floss –
2. Go souvenir shopping –
3. Fly in pirate trip –
4. See famous landmarks –
5. Shake hands with cartoon characters –
6. Explore a haunted mansion –
7. Ride on a rollercoaster –
2. Put the words in the correct order to make up sentences/перевод
1. you / arrived / just / have?
2. hasn’t / she / yet / packed / suitcase / her.
3. Have / I / to / camp / adventure / an / been / before.
4. You / have / ever / with / characters /shaken /cartoon /hands?
5. Never /I/ seen /robot / have /a.
3. Use the words to make up sentences in the Present Perfect Tense/перевод
1. I /tidy up /my / room
2. She /eat/ candy floss
3. He /go / souvenir / shopping
4. We / read / this / book
5. They / travel / Europe
4. Correct the mistakes/перевод
1. unactive –
2. ilbelievable–
3. inresponsible–
4. irlogical –
5. ilpossible –
6. imforgettable–
7. inbalanced –

Within
the domain of syntax two levels should be distinguished: that of
phrases and that of sentences.

The
phrase can generally be defined as a combination of two or more words
which is a grammatical unit but is not an analytical form of some
word. The constituent elements of a phrase may belong to any part of
speech. A word-combination can also be defined as a compound
nominative unit of speech which is semantically global and
articulated.

The
difference between a phrase and a sentence is a fundamental one. A
phrase is a means of naming some phenomena or processes, just as a
word is. Each component of a phrase can undergo grammatical changes
while a sentence is a unit with every word having its definite form.
A change in the form of one or more words would produce a new
sentence.

Grammar
has to study the
aspects of phrases which spring from the grammatical peculiarities of
the words making up the phrase, and of the syntactical functions
of the phrase as a whole, while lexicology has to deal with the
lexical meaning of the words and their semantic groupings. For
example from
the grammatical point of view the two phrases
read
letters and
invite
friends are
identical (the
same pattern verb +
noun
indicating the object of the
action).

Phrases
can be divided according
to their function in the sentence into:

(1)
those
which
perform the function of one or more parts of the sentence (predicate,
or predicate and object, or predicate and adverbial
modifier, etc.)

(2)
those
which do not perform any such function
but whose function is equivalent to that of a preposition, or
conjunction, and which are equivalents
of those parts of speech.

1.3. Syntagmatic Connections of Words.

Words
in an utterance form various syntagmatic connections with one
another:

1. syntagmatic
   groupings of notional words alone,

Such
groups (notional phrases) have self-dependent nominative destination,
they denote complex phenomena and their properties (semi-predicative
combinations): a
sudden trembling; a soul in pain; hurrying along the stream;
strangely familiar; so sure of their aims.

1. syntagmatic
   groupings of notional words with functional words,

Such
combinations (formative phrases) are equivalent to separate words by
their nominative function: with
difficulty; must finish; but a moment; and Jimmy; too cold; so
unexpectedly.
They are contextually dependent (synsemantism).

1. syntagmatic
   groupings of functional words alone.

They
are analogous to separate functional words and are used as connectors
and specifiers of notional elements:
from out of; up to; so that; such as; must be able; don’t let’s.

Combinations
of notional
words
fall into two mutually opposite types:

1)
combinations of words related to one another on an equal rank
(equipotent
combinations)

2)
combinations of words which are syntactically unequal (dominational
combinations)

Equipotent
connection
is realised with the help of conjunctions (syndetically), or without
the help of conjunctions (asyndetically):
prose and poetry; came and went; on the beach or in the water; quick
but not careless; —
no
sun, no moon; playing, chatting, laughing; silent, immovable, gloomy;
Mary’s, not John’s.

The
constituents of such combinations form coordinative consecutive
connections.

Alongside
of these, there exist equipotent connections of a non-consecutive
type. In such combinations a sequential element is unequal to the
foregoing element in its character of nomination connections is
classed as (cumulative connections): agreed,
but reluctantly; satisfied, or nearly so.

Dominational
connection
is effected in such a way that one of the constituents of the
combination is principal (dominating/headword) and the other is
subordinate (dominated/adjunct, adjunct-word, expansion).

Dominational
connection can be both consecutive
and cumulative:
a
careful observer; an observer, seemingly careful; definitely out of
the point;
out
of the point, definitely; will be helpful in any case will be
helpful;
at
least, in some cases.

The
two basic types of dominational connection are:

1. bilateral
   (reciprocal, two-way) domination (in predicative connection of
   words);

2. monolateral
   (one-way) domination (in completive connection of words).

The
predicative connection
of words, uniting the subject and the predicate, builds up the basis
of the sentence. The nature of this connections is reciprocal (the
subject dominates the predicate and vice versa).

Such
word combinations are divided into:

1. complete
   predicative combinations (the subject + the finite verb-predicate);

2. incomplete
   predicative/semi-predicative/potentially-predicative combinations (a
   non-finite verbal form + a substantive element): for
   the pupil to understand his mistake; the pupil’s understanding his
   mistake;
   the
   pupil understanding his mistake.

Monolateral
domination is considered as subordinative since the syntactic status
of the whole combination is determined by the head-word:
a nervous wreck. astonishingly beautiful.

The
completive connections fall into two main divisions:

1. objective
   connections

2. qualifying
   connections.

Objective
connections
reflect the relation of the object to the process. By their form
these connections are subdivided into:

1. non-prepositional;

2. prepositional.

From
the semantico-syntactic point of view they are classed as:

1. direct
   (the immediate transition of the action to the object);

2. indirect
   or oblique (the indirect relation of the object to the process).

Direct
objective connections are non-prepositional, the preposition serving
as an intermediary of combining words by its functional nature.
Indirect objective connections may be both prepositional and
non-prepositional.

Further
subdivision of objective connections is realised on the basis of
subcategorising the elements of objective combinations, and first of
all the verbs; thus, we recognise objects of immediate action, of
perception, of speaking, etc.

Qualifying
completive connections
are divided into

1. attributive
   (an
   enormous appetite; an emerald ring; a woman of strong character, the
   case for the prosecution);

They
unite a substance with its attribute expressed by an adjective or a
noun.

1. adverbial:

   1. primary
      (the verb + its adverbial modifiers):
      to talk glibly, to come nowhere; to receive (a letter) with
      surprise; to throw (one’s arms) round a person’s neck; etc

   2. secondary
      (the non-verbal headword expressing a quality + its adverbial
      modifiers):
      marvellously becoming; very much at ease; strikingly alike; no
      longer oppressive; unpleasantly querulous; etc.

Completive
noun combinations are directly related to whole sentences
(predicative combinations of words): The
arrival of the train → The train arrived. The baked potatoes →
The potatoes are baked. The gifted pupil → The pupil has a gift.

Completive
combinations of adjectives and adverbs (adjective-phrases and
adverb-phrases) are indirectly related to predicative constructions:
utterly
neglected — utter neglect — The neglect is utter; very carefully
— great carefulness — The carefulness is great; speechlessly
reproachful — speechless reproach
— The reproach is speechless.

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Слайд 1
TOPIC 6: WORD COMBINATIONS
Points for discussion:
6.1.Word-combination as the minimal unit

of syntax theory: the definition, its main characteristics, the main criteria for classifying.
6.2 The main principals for structural classifying . The existing structural oppositions of word –combinations.
The main principals for semantical classifying. The existing semantical oppositions of word-combinations.
The main principals for semantical classifying. The existing semantical oppositions of word-combinations.

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Слайд 2
6.1. Syntax as part of grammar: the range problems to

study, its main notions, historical review of syntax theory development

The points to clarify….
1) WHAT DOES SYNTAX STUDY?
2) WHAT NOTIONS DOES IT INCLUDE?
3) WHERE LIE THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN SYNTAX AND OTHER DISCIPLINES?

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Слайд 3
The first point for discussion
Word-combination as the minimal unit

of syntax theory: the definition, its main characteristics, the main criteria for classifying

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Слайд 4
The difinition to follow
a word-combination is any syntactical group, consisting

of at least two notional words which are combined either into free word-combinations, predicative or prepositional structures and based either on the coordinative or subordinate relations.

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Слайд 5
The main characteristics of word-combinations

WORD-COMBINATION vsWORD
WORD-COMBINATIONvsSENTENCE
1. The meaning of the

word-combination doesn’t equal the sum of meanings of the words it includes.
2. the word –combination is supposed to have some syntactical function in a sentence what the separate words can’t .

word- combinations don’t have both communicative purpose and phrase stress.
The word-combination cant consist of one word but sentence can
The word –combination just name but doesn’t reflect some situation, correlated with the reality. It doest have the categories of voice, tense and aspect.

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Слайд 6
The main criteria for word-combination defining

POSITIONAL (any changes within

the structure of the word-combination)

SEMANTICAL (context connections)

SYNTACTCAL (connections within the word-combinations, the origin )

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Слайд 7
POSITIONAL CRITERION INCLUDES
The behavior of the elements in the combination

(adnocentrical – exocentirical)

the hierarchy in the combination
(nuclear – nuclear free)

the position of the dependant towards the nucleus (nuclear only)
( regressive — nucleus centered – progressive)

morphological structure (nuclear free only)
( morphologically-similar morphologically diversed )

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Слайд 8
SEMANTICAL CRITERION INCLUDES

the degree of stylistic determination presented
(connotative —

non-connotative)

The degree of semantical connection presented
(idiomatic phraseological units — neutral(free) word-combinations

The degree of contextual determination
(typical word-combinations — isolated)

The degree of social determination
(sociolinguistically determined — sociolinguistically undetermined)
The degree of frequent usaging in speech (clicheed — non-clicheed)

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Слайд 9
SYNTACTICAL CRITERION INCLUDES

The syntactical connections
(subordinate — coordinate)

The degree of

the origin presented
( originally made — derivatively made)

The degree of nominalisation presented
(fully nominalized — partly nominalized )

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Слайд 10
THE SECOND POINT FOR DISCUSSION
The main principals for classifying the

word-combinations on their structure.
The existing structural oppositions.
The existing structural classifications.

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Слайд 11
THE MAIN PRINCIPALS FOR STRUCTURAL CLASSIFYING

The POSIBILITY TO REPLACE other

elements
(possible to replace non possible to replace )

The NUCLEUS of the word-combination
( nuclear- nuclear free)

The POSITION TOWARDS NUCLEUS (before- around –after)

The degree of MORPHOLOGICAL DIVERSION (diversed non diversed)

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Слайд 12
THE THIRD POINT FOR DISCUSSION
The main principals for semantical classifying

the word-combinations
The existing semantical oppositions.
The existing semantical classifications.

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Слайд 13
THE MAIN PRINCIPALS FOR SEMANTICAL CLASSIFYING

1. CONNOTATIVENESS
(connotative non-connotative)

2.

REPRODUCUBILITY
(clicheed non-clicheed)

3. IDIOMACITY (idioms neutral)

4. CONCEPTUAL DETERMINATION (typical word-combinations isolated)

5. SOCIOLINGUISTIC DETERMINATION (sociolinguistically determined undetermined

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Слайд 14
THE LAST POINT FOR DISCUSSION
The main principals for syntactical classifying

the word-combinations
The existing syntactical oppositions.
The existing syntactical classifications.

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Слайд 15
THE MAIN PRINCIPALS FOR SYNTACTICAL CLASSIFYING

1. SYNTACTICAL CONNECTIONS in the

word-combination
(subordinate connected coordinate connected)

2. ORIGIN (connection to the sentence expressing the same situation)
( originally made- derivatively made)

3. NOMINALISATION ( the degree of being presented)
(fully nominalized partly nominalized)

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Слайд 16
Thanks for cooperation!!!

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