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Blocking & Collocation

The document discusses two linguistic concepts: blocking and collocation. Blocking refers to when a possible word form is blocked or prevented from occurring due to the presence of an existing, similar form. For example, the plural form "childs" is blocked for the word "child" because the form "children" already exists. Collocation refers to words that typically occur together based on their meaning. Collocations fall into grammatical categories like verb-preposition pairs or lexical categories like adjective-noun pairs. Understanding collocations is important for fully comprehending and using words in a language.

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Muhammad Baqi Muhammad Baqi
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45 views

Blocking & Collocation

The document discusses two linguistic concepts: blocking and collocation. Blocking refers to when a possible word form is blocked or prevented from occurring due to the presence of an existing, similar form. For example, the plural form "childs" is blocked for the word "child" because the form "children" already exists. Collocation refers to words that typically occur together based on their meaning. Collocations fall into grammatical categories like verb-preposition pairs or lexical categories like adjective-noun pairs. Understanding collocations is important for fully comprehending and using words in a language.

Uploaded by

Muhammad Baqi Muhammad Baqi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Blocking

In linguistics, blocking refers to the morphological phenomenon in which a possible form for a


word cannot surface because it is "blocked" by another form whose features are the most
appropriate to the surface form's environment. More basically, it may also be construed as the
"non-occurrence of one form due to the simple existence of another.
Word formation employs processes such as the plural marker in
English s or es (e.g. dog and dogs or wish and wishes). This plural marker is not, however,
acceptable on the word child (as in *childs), because it is "blocked" by the presence of the
competing form children, which in this case inherits features from an older morphological
process.
Blocking may also prevent the formation of words with existing synonyms, particularly if the
blocked form is morphologically complex and the existing synonym is morphologically simple,
e.g. *stealer which is blocked by the existing simple form thief.
One possible approach to blocking effects is that of distributed morphology, which asserts
that semantic and syntactic features create slots or cells in which items can appear. Blocking
happens when one cell is engaged by one form as opposed to another. Blocking has been
explained along two primary dimensions: the size of the blocking object, and the existence
of ungrammatical forms.
Collocation
To understand a word fully we must also know its relation to the other elements of vocabulary,
its ability to combine with other words. Words can usually be combined (collocated) only with
certain words. If we want to master a language properly we should know what words of the
language are most likely to occur together – what are the typical collocations. E. g. the
noun rain may be collocated with adjectives: driving, heavy, pouring, soaking, torrential,
freezing, intermittent, light, steady.
Collocations fall into two major groups: grammatical collocations and lexical collocations.
A grammatical collocation is a phrase consisting of a dominant word (noun, adjective, verb)
and a preposition or grammatical structure such as an infinitive or a clause. E.g. decide on - not
“decide at”, accuse (somebody) of – not “accuse on”. Typical grammatical collocations are verb
patterns with infinitive, bare infinitive or – ing form,
Lexical collocations normally do not contain prepositions, infinitives, or clauses. They consist
of nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. E.g. warmest regards not “hot regards” or “ hearty
regards”.
Classification
1. A verb usually denoting creation, activation or eradication, nullification + a noun/pronoun.
E.g. reach a verdict, fly akite, execute a will, reverse a decision, revoke a licence.
These collocations are highly important for polysemantic nouns.
E.g. perform an operation (ina hospital), carry out (conduct) anoperation (on the
battlefield).
2. An adjective + a noun.
E.g. warm, warmest (not “hot”), kind, kindest, best (not “good”) regards; a rough estimate; a
formidable challenge.
3. A noun + a verb.
E.g. alarms go off (ring, sound), blizzards rage.
4. A unit associated with a noun.
E.g. a pack of dogs, a pride of lions, a school of whales, a bit (piece, word) of advice, a lump of
sugar, apinch of salt.
5. An adverb + an adjective
E.g. strictly accurate, sound asleep, keenly (very much) aware.
6. A verb + an adverb.
E.g. amuse thoroughly, argue heatedly, appreciate sincerely.

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