International Journal of Education & Literacy Studies

ISSN: 2202-9478
www.ijels.aiac.org.au

Understanding the Collocation Issues and Problems in Turkish Language

N. Tayyibe Ateş*
Faculty of Education, Selçuk University, Konya, Turkey
Corresponding author: N. Tayyibe Ateş, E-mail: [email protected]

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Article history Collocations make it possible to use and understand the language in an effective way. In this
Received: June 15, 2022 context, understanding collocation issues is important for both native speakers and language
Accepted: September 08, 2022 learners. This study aims at revealing certain determinations and problems with regard to the
Published: October 31, 2022 classification of word combinations in Turkish. For this purpose, descriptive analysis, content
Volume: 10 Issue: 4 analysis, and category and frequency analyses have been employed herein. The sample of the
study is composed of narrative (tale, story, and novel) texts selected through the cluster sampling
method according to the level of 5th-8th grade students. Linguistic input of (+/-) 624,089 words
Conflicts of interest: None has been entered into the research corpus as a result of the process involving the import of the
Funding: None texts into the electronic environment via a scanner, their digitization through conversion to text
Publication Note: This study was format, and their coding to be processed in Turkish language (ISO). The study involves the
created through the doctoral individual evaluation of word combinations in terms of their syntactic, semantic and pragmatic
thesis titled “Word Combinations aspects. Then, the classification of these combinations has been applied as semi-restricted
in Narrations: Observations on collocations, restricted collocations, figurative idioms, and pure idioms in terms of semantics,
Turkish Education”. according to their structure whether it is syntactic dual or multiple. Generally, the semantic order
of word combinations in narrative texts has been found to be as follows: Free combinations
> semi-restricted collocations > restricted collocations > figurative idioms > pure idioms. The
findings obtained reveal certain problems specific to the Turkish language with regard to the
detection of word combinations, especially collocations, via programs. The study contributes
to the literature as descriptions of word combinations in Turkish. More importantly it is thought
that it will contribute to the development of literacy skills of students both in mother tongue
education and foreign language learning.

Key words: Collocation, Word Combinations, Co-occurrence, Turkish Education, Literacy

INTRODUCTION be a morpheme, word, or phrase and includes all variations.

1
Collocations appear when words are used in combination Accordingly, collocation, which is defined on a more ab-
and convert into stereotypes without any semantic reason stract plane, is independent of the inflectional suffixes (such
and obtain a nature of a specific indicator in conceptual as plural suffix and possessive suffixes) taken by the units.
terms as a result. The common aspects of various definitions For example, in Turkish, the combinations of kapı çal- [to
created through different approaches to explain the concept knock on a door] and kapı çalın- [a door to get knocked on]
of collocation in the literature are that these combinations are not considered as two separate nodes, but as different al-
should consist of at least two units and there should be a lomorphs of the same unity. Halliday’s approach differs from
syntactic relationship between these units2. Firth’s in that it treats collocations as lexical units rather than
It is seen that collocation is considered from two dif- as lexemes. In addition, Halliday deals with collocations
ferent perspectives: First, the statistically oriented/the fre- within the framework of the text. Accordingly, two units in
quency-based approach3; the second one is the significance two different sentences or even in different paragraphs can
oriented/phraseological approach4. be considered to have collocation. Sinclair (1991, p. 170) de-
The statistically oriented approach was first used by Firth fines collocation as two or more words co-occurring within a
(1951). Firth (1957) suggests that collocations consisting of short interval of ± 4 words to the right and left of the node in
words used in combination to a certain extent differ from a sentence5. For example, if the word dog is taken as a node
other combinations in terms of frequency of use. Firth (1951, in a sentence, in a sentence such as “s/he had not noticed for
1957) does not consider collocations as lexemes but believes a long time that there was a barking dog in the garden of the
that each word form is a separate collocation. Halliday (1961, next-door neighbor”, the words s/he, had, not, noticed, for,
p. 274), on the other hand, suggests that the lexical item can a, long, time, that, there, was, a, barking, in, the, garden, of,

Published by Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.

Copyright (c) the author(s). This is an open access article under CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.10n.4p.139
140 IJELS 10(4):139-152

the, next-door, neighbor all have collocations with the word 2011; Ağca, 2020). In order to make determinations about
dog. In this example, the combination of a and dog is not the processing of word combinations and to obtain gener-
determined as meaningful but the words barking and dog are alizations about language, first of all, the appearance of the
determined as meaningful collocations since they are com- information in the language must be described. The aim of
patible in terms of semantics6. Stating that a single method this study is to address and evaluate the difficulties in deter-
is not sufficient to explain collocations, Sinclair (1991) pro- mining collocational patterns in Turkish.
poses two different linguistic interpretation principles: the
open-choice principle and the idiom principle.
Research Questions
Statistically-oriented studies involve the basic criterion
as the units to be used together at certain distances. In signifi- The research questions created in line with the subject and
cance-oriented approaches, on the other hand, for collocation, aims of the study are as follows:
only being used side by side and frequency is not sufficient, 1. What are the factors affecting the stereotypes of word
requiring semantic criteria as well. The most important rep- combinations?
resentative of the significance-oriented approach is Cowie 2. What kind of problems arise in Turkish in terms of de-
(1981, 1988, 1991, 1994, 1998). Cowie (1988, 1994) divides tecting word combinations?
word combinations into composites and formulae in general
and classifies collocations, a sub-type of composites, with METHOD
the criteria of transparency and commutability/substitutabil-
Designed through descriptive and relational models, this
ity. According to Cowie (1981), a collocation is by defini-
study employs descriptive analysis, content analysis, cate-
tion a composite unit which permits the substitutability of
gory and frequency analyses7. Category analysis is one of
items for at least one of its constituent elements (the sense of
the first techniques used in content analysis. Category anal-
the other element, or elements, remaining constant). Cowie
ysis generally refers to dividing a particular message into
(1981, 1988, 1994) argues that collocations are transparent
units and then grouping these units into specific criteria.
and can be substituted in most cases with some restrictions
Frequency analysis is to reveal the frequency of appearance
Cowie (1994) entitles free combinations where substitut-
of units or items in numerical, percentage and proportion-
ability is usual with constraints due to semantic properties.
al manner. This allows to understand the intensity and im-
Combinations in which this restriction is somewhat or com-
portance of a particular item. At the end of the frequency
pletely unreasonable are called collocations. For example,
analysis, a classification is made based on the importance
in the case of çorba içmek [to drink soup], the verb iç- [to
and frequency of the items. The validity of the study was
drink] requires a noun that contains +liquid feature semanti-
ensured via depth-oriented data collection and in terms of
cally in the noun+verb combination, the unit that can replace data sources, via triangulation, and expert review methods8.
çorba [soup] must have this feature as well. Even though Triangulation using more than one method to collect data on
soup and ashura have a structure that can be consumed with the same topic is a way of assuring the validity of research
a spoon, in Turkish, ashura is used together with the verb through the use of a variety of methods to collect data on
ye- [to eat] and soup with the verb iç- [to drink]. This re- the same topic, which involves different types of samples
striction may be encountered to a certain extent at the seman- as well as methods of data collection. The expert review is
tic level. However, the option for substitution at the usage an expert-based research method. Multiple experts analyze
level is more restricted. Similarly, boza and salep are used in independently the test product seeking to identify the ma-
combination with the verb to drink. Even though one of them jority of its usability problems. In this study, two experts on
has a thicker consistency than the other and even though it is Turkish Education and a linguist analyzed collocation cate-
not entirely fluid, it is observed that the word that meets both gories independently.
concepts in Turkish is combined with the same verb. This The reliability of the study was ensured through the per-
situation, which is a reasonable case for salep to some ex- formance of consistency and confirmation analyses with
tent, may be considered more unreasonable for boza. In this feedback from various experts during the creation of data
case, it can be said that the combination boza iç- [to drink collection tools, data collection, and analysis stages9. Cluster
boza] forms a collocation in Turkish. This restriction is not and random sampling methods, which are among the prob-
the result of the semantic features of the units that make up ability sampling methods, were used. The texts were deter-
the combination but the result of the arbitrary consensus in mined randomly from three narrative genres (tale, story, and
the language. For instance, in case combinations such as çor- novel) selected by cluster sampling.
ba ye- [to eat soup] or boza ye- [to eat boza] in Turkish were
consensually accepted, it could be said that the units are col-
locations independent of their semantic features. Data Collection and Analysis
It is observed that the topic of collocation in Turkish The database of the study was obtained from the texts of
is generally handled as a corpus-based dictionary review tales, stories, and novels for 5-8 grader primary school stu-
(Özkan, 2007; Dedeoğlu and Şen, 2010; Özkan, 2010, 2011, dents. The texts were selected from among the frequently
2014a, 2014b, 2014c; Tüfekçioğlu and Özkan, 2014) or recommended and read texts at primary education level10.
within the scope of text-linguistic studies (Yağcıoğlu, 2002a, A database of ± 624,089 words, 204,000 (± 2%) from each
2002b; Taşıgüzel, 2004; Adalar, 2005; Çıkrıkçı, 2009; Torun, text type, was created and the word combinations in the
Understanding the Collocation Issues and Problems in Turkish Language 141

database were evaluated according to their semantic and us- Table 1. Dispersion of the texts that make up the database
age characteristics. The text types that make up the structure according to their types
of the study and the number of words they contain are shown TEXT Book Title ‑ Author Number Number
in Table 1. TYPE Name of words of texts
The texts were transferred to the computer via a scan- TALES Allı ile Fırfırı 40,382 25
ner, converted into TEXT format through optical character (Oğuz Tansel)
recognition software, digitized and coded to be processed
Altın Işık (Ziya Gökalp) 9,999 7
in Turkish (ISO). Linguistic input of approximately (+/-)
624,089 words was provided to the corpus of the research. Az Gittik Uz Gittk 48,269 48
(Pertev Naili Boratav)
In the study, the token numbers were calculated via the
AntConc 3.2.4w 2011 program. In the phase of data analysis, Billur Köşk Masalları 65,634 14
category and frequency analyses related to word combina- (Tahir Alangu)
tions were performed. Word combinations are listed through Evvel Zaman İçinde 21,538 10
the Microsoft Excel 2011 database and categorized in con- (Eflatun Cem Güney)
sideration of the contexts in which they are used. Keloğlan (Tahir Alangu) 33,307 19
Sevdalı Bulut 16,926 12
(Nazım Hikmet)
Category Analysis
TOTAL 236,055 135
TS Turkish Corpus and Turkish National Corpus were used
STORIES Ay’ı Boyamak 22,970 20
in order for clarifying the unique combinations reflecting the
(Semih Gümüş)
author’s style and one-time uses in the database. In case a
combination is encountered at least five times in the corpus, Dikkat Kırılacak Eşya 21,571 20
(Semih Gümüş)
it is assumed that the relevant combination is used in the
language, otherwise, it is removed from the list. Following Eyvah Kitap 19,644 35
this elimination process, the semantic content of the words (Mine Soysal)
was clarified via the TDK Contemporary Turkish Dictionary, Keskin Naneli Öyküler 17,827 10
and first of all, free combinations were separated on the ba- (Tolga Gümüşay)
sis of the distinctions determined by Cowie (1994). Units Kırmızı Yoyo 18,573 16
with many substitute options and combinations that can be (Oktay Akbal)
brought together for logical or semantic reasons were evalu- Odada Yalnız 18,632 13
ated within the scope of free combinations and were excluded (Mine Soysal)
from the limitations of the study. Other word combinations Ötesi Yok (Suzan 17,936 9
were classified into sub-types in line with Cowie’s (1994) Geridönmez)
principles of transparency and commutability/substitutabili- Öykü Öykü Gezen Kedi 32,044 8
ty. In this study, different from Cowie’s (1994) classification, (Zeynep Cemali)
another distinction is made under the title of semi-restricted Sessiz Yürek 17,886 7
collocations in order to determine less restricted combina- (Necati Güngör)
tions that appear to be free combinations according to the
TOTAL 187,083 138
transparency criterion but are close to restricted collocations
according to the substitutability criterion. The combinations, NOVELS Ankaralı (Zeynep Cemali) 25,183 13
which can be explained based on the internal structure of Defne’yi Beklerken (Aslı 24,986 22
the concept in which they are collocated and whose lexical Der)
substitution options are more restricted compared to free Hazırlıksız (Tolga 25,484 22
combinations due to the internal structure of the concept, Gümüşay)
are classified as semi-restricted collocations. For example, İçimdeki Ses (Gaye 57,780 23
in Turkish, the verb sokmak [to sting] in the combination Boralıoğlu)
of arı sok- ([a bee] to sting) is considered a verb specific to Sınıfın Yenisi (Behçet 23,480 24
venomous animals such as insects and snakes, which means Çelik)
that the name of a venomous creature, arı (bee), in this case, Yalancı Şahit (Müge 19,978 13
is included in the verb’s internal structure. Such combina- İplikçi)
tions get combined within the framework of semantic pros- Yolun Başındakiler (Cemil 24,060 17
ody. Yet, the same verb is not used with another venomous Kavukçu)
animal, the jellyfish. In this context, it is classified as collo-
TOTAL 200,951 134
cation due to the restriction in the lexical substitution option.
GRAND TOTAL 624,089 407
According to the classifications made with semantic restric-
tions, it was determined that the majority of semi-restricted
collocations were brought together on the basis of semantic explained that it is used in combination with the verb ak- [to
prosody. For instance, since water is a liquid substance, it flow]. This restriction is also stated in the dictionary meaning
conceptually exhibits a fluid feature, so it can be logically of the verb ak- [to flow]. In the TDK Contemporary Turkish
142 IJELS 10(4):139-152

Dictionary, the semantic content of the verb ak- [to flow] is programs used in the research should be reviewed. In the
explained as “liquid substances or very fine-grained solids programs, the number of n-grams depicts the combination
to go from one place to another, liquids to head down, liquid value consisting of n number of units in the selected range.
substances to come out of a place, and a container or a place Since combinations consisting of two or more words are the
to leak the liquid in or above it”. In the explanations, the subject of this study, a query was made by multiplying the
displacement of liquid substances, which generally exhib- number of n-grams in order to determine combinations con-
it fluid properties, is emphasized. In other words, there is taining more than two words, so that the margin of error in
a logical causality in the semantic internal structures of the the research was attempted to be minimized.
two words in question and a requirement relationship arising Since the determinations made via the programs take
from the nature of the concept. Some of such combinations the degree of combination of words according to syntactic
may include a more restricted substitution option compared combination conditions as criteria, free combinations are
to others. For example, the verb ak- [to flow] can be used frequently encountered in these determinations. Therefore,
with many concepts that are liquid and fluid. However, due the elimination of these word combinations according to se-
to its semantic restrictions, the verb yağ- [to fall, to rain] has mantic criteria is possible through review and manual scan
an option of words such as rain, snow, and hail that do not of the texts. Accordingly, for example, the frequency of two-
offer many substitution options. The inherent restriction of word combinations detected by AntConc in this study was
the verb yağ- [to fall, to rain] when used with concepts such 390,315, while the frequency of two-word combinations
as rain, snow, hail, and avalanche can be explained within detected by manual elimination was determined as 31,407.
the framework of secondary causation when the same verb is It is observed that the most frequently used words in the
used with the word money. Due to the fact that they are trans- texts are generally function words. This finding is in par-
ferred, many verbs can gain dual causality as well as causal- allel with the word frequency rankings in Turkish National
ity in different indexes and can be used with metaphors or Corpus (TNC), Aksan et al. (2017) and Göz’s (2003) word
connotations. In the study, word combinations were taken frequency rankings. However, in this study, since the func-
as the lemma, and quantitative analyses were carried out tion words were left out of the limitations, collocation anal-
according to the types and sub-types of the combinations. yses were made on the basis of the combinations formed by
Word combinations are divided into categories according to the content words in the texts.
their structural (two-word or multiple combinations) and se- Considering the probability of forming genre-specific
mantic features (semi-restricted collocation, restricted collo- collocations, two-word and multiple n-gram analysis was
cation, figurative idiom, pure idiom) according to the degree
performed in order to reach meaningful combination struc-
of restriction.
tures. During the performance of these collocation analyses,
certain usages specific to the text type were determined. For
FINDINGS AND REMARKS example, stereotype word combinations specific to the genre
When the free combinations (elma ye- [to eat apple], siyah draw attention in tale texts. It has been observed that the
göz [black eyes], siyah saç [black hair]) and co-creations word combinations in the tales are generally stereotype word
(mavi zaman [blue hour], susuz yağmur [dry rain]) in the combinations such as rhymes, reduplications and formulaic
texts were eliminated, 8,690 different word combinations words, certain specific word combinations are preferred at
consisting of semi-restricted collocations, restricted collo- the beginning and of the text (bir varmış bir yokmuş. [once
cations, figurative idioms and pure idioms were found in the upon a time.], onlar ermiş muradına [they have come to their
database of the study. This number denotes different word will], gel zaman git zaman [a long time afterwards], etc.),
combinations that are considered a lemma, regardless of the and the descriptions of the characters specific to the tales
frequency of use. Considering the raw frequency values, (such as dev anası [mother giant], dev baba [father giant],
namely the number of tokens, there are a total of 35,630 etc.) form collocations. In addition to these, it is notewor-
word combinations in the texts. thy that collocations formed with qualifiers like üç [three],
In the study, the number of tokens was calculated via kırk [forty], bin [thousand], yedi [seven], ak [white] such as
AntWordProfiler 1.4.0w (Anthony, 2013) and AntConc ak saç [white hair], ak sakal [white beard], al yazma [red
3.4.3w programs. However, since Turkish is an agglutinative turban], kara yazı [black destiny] and exaggerated expres-
language, the suffixes on the word cause different inflections sions (kırk gün kırk gece [forty days and forty nights]) are
of the word in question to be counted as different words in used, combinations reflecting religious (namaz kıl- [to per-
such programs. Synonyms also pose a problem in this respect. form salaat], abdest al- [to perform ablution]) and cultural
For example, since the verb de- [to say] and the conjunction elements (düğün alayı [wedding procession], gelin hamamı
de cannot be labeled separately, these two words, which have [bride bath]) are intense. Collocations usually co-occur in
two different functions, are detected as a single token by tale texts with intensive and reduplicative structures (such as
programs, thus resulting in some deviations in the numerical kapkara göz [coal-black eyes], kara mı kara göz [eyes black
results. Since there is no wordlist for Turkish, the classifica- as pitch])11.
tion of these words into their types cannot be done via such As shown in Table 2, according to their syntactic fea-
programs, in other words, the analyses for this case do not tures, certain collocations are seen as two-word combina-
always give accurate results. Therefore, in order to minimize tions, while others may contain three or more units. Most
such mistakes, the words and combinations calculated by the of such collocations may consist of two or three pairs of
Understanding the Collocation Issues and Problems in Turkish Language 143

Table 2. Examples of collocations in fairy tales

Examples of collocations in fairy tales
Fairy tale rhymes bir varmış bir yokmuş... [once upon a time...], onlar ermiş muradına [they have come to
their will], gel zaman git zaman [a long time afterwards], etc.
Qualifiers and quantifiers in fairy tales dev anası [mother giant], dev baba [father giant], ak saç [white hair], ak sakal [white
beard], al yazma [red turban], kara yazı [black destiny], kara göz [black eyes], kapkara
göz [coal-black eyes], kara mı kara göz [eyes black as pitch], kara baht [black destiny],
kırk gün kırk gece [forty days and forty nights], etc.
Religious elements in fairy tales namaz kıl- [to perform salaat], abdest al- [to perform ablution], etc.
Culturel elements in fairy tales düğün alayı [wedding procession], gelin hamamı [bride bath], etc.

combinations, or there may be a single collocation in mul- word “sorgu” [interrogation] in the meaning of “to press
tiple structures. For example, the sequence to pay close someone to understand the background of something”, with
attention can be decomposed into two collocations: to pay the word “saf” [line] in the meaning of “to take back some-
attention (a support verb construction) and close attention one or something”, with the word “set” [barricade/barrier]
(an intensive, “Magn-like” collocation in ECD words, ac- in the meaning of “to set up any obstacle” and it is stereo-
cording to Mel’čuk’s terminology). Though close attention typed with the inclination suffix when used with the word
very often collocates with pay, this collocation can be en- interrogation [sorguya çek-], and with the possessive and
countered in other contexts: a rapid Google search yields inclination case suffixes when used with the word line [safı-
for example close attention is required, to recommend close na çek-]. Regardless of the meaning of the word, the verb
attention, this issue needs close attention (For detailed çek- is used in combination with the words uyku [sleep],
descriptions, see Tutin, 2008)12. Among the collocations sıfır [zero], rol [role], and sine [bosom]. It is observed that
formed with the word kara [black], which is one of the it forms an idiom by being stereotyped with the inclination
most frequently used noun words, there are noun phrases suffix in its use in combination with the word sine [bosom]
formed through the combination of two words such as kara (sineye çek- [to put up] in Turkish), and it forms restricted
baht [black destiny], kara göz [black eye], kara kız [dark collocations and figurative idioms with other words.
skinned girl], as well as triple collocation structures formed As another most frequently used verb, it is observed that
through the combination of two-word collocation structures the verb al- is used as a restricted collocation in the form of
such as kara kara düşün- [to brood over something], kara satın al- [to buy] within the framework of the restrictions
yağız delikanlı [dark skinned boy/young man]. These are specified in the dictionary, and as a figurative idiom in the
generally characterized as multiple complex collocation form of soluk al- [to breathe in]. In addition to the two-word
structures in which it cannot be determined which part of uses of the verb al- such as ablukaya al- [to make blockade],
the combination is the head and which part is the adjunct. aferin al- [to win welldone], it is also observed that it is used
Internally multiple collocation structures are also frequently in triple-word combinations such as soluğu...DA al- [to get
encountered. Kara kaplı kitap [black book] is an example of (somewhere) in no time flat] as well.
multiple collocation structures that cannot be broken down In the study, the semantic distinctiveness of suffixes is a
into smaller parts internally. The collocation of cehennem significan finding. The semantic difference of “aklını al-”
azabı çek- [to suffer hell torment] actually includes two [take their mind] and “akıl al-” [to consult] makes this issue
collocation pairs as well: Azap çek- [to suffer torment] and clearly evident. While distinctiveness is provided by suffix-
cehennem azabı [hell torment]. Even though the combina- es, in some cases, positive and negative semantic content is
tion of cehennem azabı [hell torment] is often used with the presented in the internal structure of the verb. An example to
verb çek- [to suffer], both units are used with other units in the types of word combinations that have negative semantic
other contexts: kabir azabı çek- [to suffer the torment of the connotations in their internal structure is the combination
grave], cehennem azabına dön- [to turn into a hell torment], “akıl almaz” [inconceivable]. The use of it in the form “akıl
etc. In certain examples, complex and multiple collocation alır gibi değil” [it isn’t conceivable] can be given as an ex-
structures can be reduced to two-word combinations but in ample to these structures.
others, these multiple-word structures cannot be separated In the program analysis of word combination, it can be
into units. There are some examples of collocations with observed that sometimes, problems occur with syntactic
most frequently used words (nouns and verbs) in the texts words. For example, in addition to the verb al-, other nouns
below in Table 3 and Table 4. and verbs starting with the noun al, which is synonymous
One of the most frequently used words in the verb type in with the word kırmızı [red], and even the letters “a” and
the texts is the verb çek- [to pull, to suffer, to feel, to endure, “l”, cause uncertainty in terms of quantity and quality.
etc.]. It is observed that this verb is generally used within The aforementioned types of ambiguity arising from the
the framework of the restrictions stated in the dictionary and structure of Turkish are also frequently encountered in the
used in combination with the words “zorluk, yabancılık, TNC. Ambiguity types and frequencies classified by Aksan
acı” [difficulty/hardship, alienation, pain] in the meaning et al. (2011) within the scope of TNC Creation Project
of “to endure difficult situations”, with the word “rutubet” have been determined and rule-based clarification samples
[moisture] in the meaning of “to take in, to absorb”, with the that can eliminate ambiguities have been presented. These
144 IJELS 10(4):139-152

Table 3. Examples of collocations with frequently used verbs in texts

Frequently Examples of collocations with frequently used words
used verbs Semi‑restricted collocations Restricted collocations Figurative idioms Pure idioms
çek- zorluk çek- rutubet çek- set çek- sineye çek- [to put
[to pull, [to experience difficulty], [to be in moisture], [to build a barrier], up]
to suffer, yabancılık çek- uyku çek- [to sleep], sorguya çek-
to feel, [to feel alienation], sıfır çek- [get zero] [to interrogate],
to endure, etc.] acı çek- safına çek-
[to be in pain] [to take to his/her side]
al- aferin al- satın al- [to buy], ablukaya al- soluk al- soluğu .DA al-
[to get, [to win welldone] [to make blockade], akıl al- [to breathe in] [to get (somewhere)
to take, [to consult] dersini al- in no time flat],
to have, [to learn one’s lesson], aklını al-
to gain, etc.] makaraya al- [take his/her mind],
[to take the rise out of akıl almaz
someone/something], [inconceivable]
ele al-
[to discuss, to go about]
ver- tepki ver- [to react], anlam ver- Yanıt/cevap ver- pas ver- omuz ver-
[to give] [to give meaning], mola ver- [to give answer], talimat ver- [to pass the ball/to give [to support/to give a
[to take a break], değer ver- [to give instructions], karar ver- somebody the glad eye], helping hand],
[to give value], [to make a decision], izin ver- renk ver- gözdağı ver-
moral ver- [to give permit] [to encolour/to enliven], [to intimidate]
[to give morale, spirits], hak ver-
zarar ver- [to give right/to justify]
[to damage, to harm],
önem ver-
[to give importance]
gel- anlamına gel- . gibi gel- göze gel-
[to come] [to mean], [to feel like], [to be affected by
duymazdan gel- kendine gel- the evil eye],
[to turn a deaf ear], [to come round/to regain göz göze gel-
üstesinden gel- consciousness], başına gel- [to come eye to eye]
[to overcome], [to experience]
daral gel-
[to get fed up with, to get
bored],
razı gel-
[to accept, to consent],

language-specific probabilities should be taken into account such as anlamına gel- [to mean]., gibi gel- [to feel like], duy-
when listing collocations. mazdan gel- [to turn a deaf ear], üstesinden gel- [to over-
According to the analysis of the verb ver- [to give], which come], göz göze gel- [to come eye to eye], başına gel- [to
is one of the most frequently used words in the verb type, it experience], daral gel- [to get fed up with, to get bored], razı
is seen that it is most frequently used together with names gel- [to accept, to consent], kendine gel- [to come round, to
such as tepki [reaction], anlam [meaning], mola [break], regain consciousness] as well as idioms such as göze gel- [to
değer [value], cevap [answer], moral [morale, spirits], be affected by the evil eye], göz göze gel- [to come eye to
gözdağı [intimidation], hak [right], zarar [damage, harm], eye].
yanıt [response], karar [decision], önem [importance]. One of the most frequently used words in the noun type
It has been determined that the verb ver- [to give], which is the word göz [eye]. According to collocation analysis,
forms predicate relations, is frequently used within restricted it can be said that this word is frequently used with verbs
collocation structures such as yanıt ver- [to give answer], such as at-, kırp-, aç-, gezdir-, yum- [throw, crop, open,
talimat ver- [to give instructions], karar ver- [to make a de- wander, clench], and nouns such as hapis [jail] and şeh-
cision], izin ver- [to give permit], figurative idioms such as la [asquint]. Accordingly, it is observed that the word göz
pas ver- [to pass the ball, to give somebody the glad eye], [eye] is frequently seen in idioms (göz dik- [to set one’s eyes
renk ver- [to encolour, to enliven], and pure idioms such as on], göz kulak ol- [to look after, to keep eye on]), figurative
omuz ver- [to support, to give a helping hand]. idioms (gözleri kan çanağı gibi [eyes got bloodshot], göz
It has been determined that the verb gel- [to come], an- ucuyla bak- [to glance at, to cut one’s eyes at someone]),
other frequently used verb, forms predicative combinations restricted collocations (gözünü dik- [to gaze upon], gözden
Understanding the Collocation Issues and Problems in Turkish Language 145

Table 4. Examples of collocations with frequently used nouns in texts

Frequently Examples of collocations with frequently used words
used nouns Semi‑restricted Restricted Figurative idioms Pure idioms
collocations collocations
göz şehla göz göz hapsi göz yum- göz dik-
[eye] [skew-eye], [probation], [to turn a blind eye], [to set one’s eyes on],
göz aç- göz at- gözleri kan çanağı gibi göz kulak ol-
[to open eyes] [to take a look], [eyes got bloodshot], [to look after/to keep eye on],
göz kırp- [to blink], göz ucuyla bak- göze al- [to take a risk],
göz gezdir- [to glance at/to cut one’s eyes at göze gel-
[to take a glance], someone] [to be affected by the evil eye],
gözünü dik- göz açıp kapayıncaya kadar göz göze gel-
[to gaze upon], [in the blink of an eye] [to come eye to eye]
gözden kaçır-
[to miss out/to
overlook
yol [way/ yol ağzı dört yol [crossroad], yol al-
road] [road junction] [to went one’s way], yol aç-
[to cause/to make way for],
yol göster-
[to lead the way/to guide],
yol ver- [to give way]
el el arabası [handcart, el çırp- [to clap] el salla- [to shake], el et- [to wave]
[hand] trolley], el koy- [to put]
el çantası [purse, ele al-
handbag], [to discuss, to go about],
el hareketi elde et-
[hand gesture] [to achieve, to acquire]
kafa kafa salla- [to bob], kafasını kafa yor-
[head] karıştır- [to puzzle one’s brains],
[to confuse], kafa patlat-
kafaya tak- [to mind, to have a [to rack one’s brains], kafayı
bee in the bonnet], ye- [to go nuts], kafayı kır- [to
kafasından geçir- trip out], kafayı çek-
[to think of], [to drink heavily]
kafası karış-
[to get confused], kafası çalış-
[to have a quick mind]

kaçır- [to miss out, to overlook]), phrasal usages ([göz açıp such as yor-, patlat-, salla- (kafa yor- [to puzzle one’s brains],
kapayıncaya kadar [in the blink of an eye]), and predicate kafa patlat- [to rack one’s brains], kafa salla- [to bob]). It is
relations (göze al- [to take a risk], göze gel- [to be affected observed that the word kafa [head] also forms verbal com-
by the evil eye], gözüne iliş- [to catch someone’s eye]). binations such as kafayı ye- [to go nuts], kafayı kır- [to trip
One of the most frequently used nouns is the word yol out], kafasını karıştır- [to confuse], kafaya tak- [to mind, to
[way/road]. In the analyses made, it has been determined have a bee in the bonnet], kafasından geçir- [to think of],
that this word forms restricted collocations and figurative id- kafayı çek- [to drink heavily], kafası karış- [to get confused],
ioms within solid noun phrases such as yol ağzı [road junc- kafası çalış- [to have a quick mind], and the suffixes are ste-
tion], dört yol [crossroad], as well as verbal combinations reotyped in these combinations.
such as yol al- [to went one’s way], yol aç- [to cause, to make Even though collocations are cultural elements, they are
way for], yol göster- [to lead the way, to guide], yol ver- [to shaped according to the phrase structure rules of Turkish in
give way]. terms of their syntactic features. It is observed that idioms
Another most frequently used words in the noun type in Turkish are stereotyped to a certain extent. Especially in
is the word el [hand]. It is seen that this word establishes the case of Turkish, it is seen that suffixes are stereotyped
collocations and figurative idioms such as salla- [to shake], as a part of word combinations and create semantic differ-
çırp- [to clap], koy- [to put], and forms noun phrases such as ences. It has been determined that the possessive and case
el arabası [handcart, trolley], el çantası [purse, handbag], suffixes on the nouns in the member structure of the verb
el hareketi [hand gesture]. are stereotyped as a part of the collocation structure and ex-
Another frequently used noun is the word kafa [head]. It hibit distinctive features dersini al- [to learn one’s lesson],
can be said that the noun kafa [head] collocates with verbs makaraya al- [to take the rise out of someone/something],
146 IJELS 10(4):139-152

ele al- [to discuss, to go about], el et- [to wave], elde et- [to here]” is frequently used in text contexts. Again, word
achieve, to acquire], etc.). This stereotype involves certain combinations such as adını ağzına al- [to mention some-
semantic and structural restrictions. It is observed that one’s name], adını söylemeye/demeye dili var- [to have the
the suffixes in the stereotypes cannot be substituted in the urge to mention someone’s name] bear negativities in their
collocations and idioms, they are structurally stereotyped internal structures and it is observed that they are used in
and they have a distinctive feature, as in the examples of contexts with negative semantic content, with the negative
(birinden) taraf ol- [to stand up for someone/something]/ suffix such as “adını ağzıma almam [I won’t mention his/
(birinin) tarafında ol- [to be on somebody’s side]. Halliday her name], adını söylemeye dili varmaz [I don’t have the
(1961) suggested that collocations must be evaluated inde- urge to mention his/her name]” or “adını ağzıma alırsam
pendently of the suffixes they take. Accordingly, the exam- namerdim! [I’ll be damned if I mention his/her name once
ples of “gönlünü aldı [made up to him/her]”, “gönlünüzü again!]”.
alamam [I cannot make it up to you]” should be described While the conditional suffix mostly creates free combi-
as different variants of the collocation gönül al- [to make nations, it is observed that the so-called indefinite objects
it up to]. All of these examples are considered different often form collocations. However, this may sometimes dif-
forms of the same collocation, and since they do not carry fer depending on the context. This situation can be embod-
any semantic or conceptual distinction, they are considered ied by examples (1) and (2). The use of accusative case
as different lexical forms depending on the lexeme gönül suffix in example (1) causes the structure to be classified as
al- [to make it up to]. On the other hand, it is observed a free combination. In example (2), however, it is observed
that the combinations of göz dik- [to set one’s eye on] and that the same suffix and the same combination structure
gözünü dik- [to bore into] or the word combinations of ad form restricted collocation this time. This situation shows
koy- [to name, to call] and adını koy- [to make clear, to the importance of context in the clarification of colloca-
give a name] are formed with the same words, but due to tional meaning.
the suffixes they take, they form different collocation struc- (1) Çarşı bedesteninde bir halı dükkânımız, bir de fırınımız
tures. All these examples clearly show that suffixes have vardı. Babam halıcılık eder, ilâ amcam da fırını çalıştırır-
distinctive semantic and usage characteristics and that in lardı. Ama hepsi de hesabı dedeme verirlerdi. [We had
Turkish, they are stereotyped as a part of collocation. It a carpet shop and a bakery in the covered bazaar. My
can be said that all word combinations that exhibit a ste- father was a carpet maker, and my uncle used to run the
reotyped structure in Turkish also contain suffixes in this bakery. But they all gave the account of their business
stereotype structure and become stereotypes through suf- to my granfather.] (Sessiz Yürek)
fixes. For example, in the combination of nouns and ad- (2) Bugün burada olmamın hesabını size verecek değilim.
jectives, formal changes occur according to the position of [I will not give the account of my being here today to
the words. In cases where the adjective comes before the you.] (Sessiz Yürek)
noun, there is no adjunct but if the adjective comes after The importance of context in the determination of word
the noun, it is observed that the possessive suffix is stereo- combinations can also be supported by the following exam-
typed and is a part of the collocation. For example, when ple. In example (3), the combination of burnundan solu- [to
the units are substituted in the combination kara göz [black be steamed up] can be considered as an idiom when taken
eye], a possessive suffix must come on the noun, resulting into account independent of the context. However, when
in the word gözü kara [reckless, fearless]. In such cases, evaluated in the context in which it is used, it is observed
such a lexical substitution in collocation units also carries that it is a free combination.
a distinctive feature. It is observed that the combinations (3) Aslan, durum değerlendirmesi için birazcık soluk-
of gözü kara [reckless, fearless] and kara göz [black eye] lanıyor. Yavrunun aşağılarda kaldığını, kendisinin bu
form different collocations. Among these combinations, it kayalık alana çekildiğini anlıyor. Geyik hâlâ birkaç
can be clearly observed that the possessive and case suffix- adım ötesinde. Burnundan soluyor kesik kesik. Aslan,
es are stereotyped, especially in fixed combinations such as avının soluğunu yüzünde hissediyor gibi. [The lion gets
idioms. When such combinations are evaluated according a second wind a little to assess the situation. It gets that
to both semantic criteria and substitution criteria, they are the cub is left below and that it is drawn to this rocky
characterized as different structures. Just as is the case in area. The deer is still a few feet away. Its lungs work
the possessive suffixes and the noun case suffixes, the ne- nonstop like a fast bellow. It is gasping through its
gation suffix is also observed as a part of collocations in nose intermittently. The lion seems to feel the breath of
certain cases [such as burnundan kıl aldırmamak [to have its prey on its face.] (Sessiz Yürek)
tickets on oneself], yüzüne bakmamak [to not look at one’s Such structures were considered free combinations in
face]). However, it has been observed that these structures the collocation classification made in this study, there-
do not always give the meaning containing the negative fore they did not affect the numerical results of the study.
suffix with suffixes, and that there must be an intuition with However, in collocation determinations made via pro-
the meaning of negativity. For example, instead of “geld- grams, such structures, especially encountered side by side,
iğimizden beri yüzümüze bakmadı [s/he hasn’t looked at can be accepted as collocations in case they are classified
us since we came here], “geldiğimizden beri yüzümüze only according to the statistical data, regardless of their
bakan olmadı [there is nobody looking at us since we came meaning. One of the problems arising in the determination
Understanding the Collocation Issues and Problems in Turkish Language 147

of collocations in all text types covered via computer pro- It is seen that certain collocation examples are used to-
grams is the probability of determining all adjacent units gether with dialect features as in Example (9) in narrative
as collocations. This is clearly seen in Example (4). The text, especially in tales.
adjacentness of the nouns tatlı [sweet] and uyku [sleep] (9) Gusura galma amma, merak etmişimdir. [I’m sory but
causes these units to be perceived as collocations, thus I was just wondering.] (Ankaralı)
misleading when determining via programs. However, Depending on the structural features of Turkish, el-
here, “tatlı” [sweet] is not an adjective describing the liptical structures are frequently encountered in narrative
noun uyku [sleep], but rather a part of reduplication in the texts. In Example (10), it is observed that the object that
descriptive function of the verb sız- [to fall into sleep, to is a part of the collocation fotoğraf çek- [to take a pho-
leak, to slip in]. tograph] is reduced and a reference is made to the first
(4) Tatlı tatlı uykuma sızıyordu, Kendimi çocukluk yıl- sentence.
larımın sıcacık pazar sabahlarından birinde zannettim. (10) Çenesinden aşağı inen yaş, kucağına damlarken yine
[It was creeping into my sleep sweetly, I thought I was gülümsedi, “Babanın albümünde olmayan fotoğrafları
in one of the warm Sunday mornings of my childhood görmek ister misin?” Kurumla kasıldı. “Hepsini ben
years.] (Hazırlıksız) çektim.” [He smiled again as the tears trickled down his
In some combinations, it is not possible to determine chin, “Would you like to see photos that aren’t in your
whether words are transferred or not independently of the dad’s album?” He got into a tizz. “I took all of them.”]
context of the text. Examples (5) and (6) can be given that (Ankaralı)
the use of the same word combination in different text con- Such situations, which can be encountered due to the el-
texts leads to collocational errors. It is observed that the liptic feature of Turkish, may cause problems for studies
word combination yelkenleri indir- [to lower sails, to come that take into account the single-sentence determination
round], which is encountered in the context of two separate range of collocations between two points. Quantitatively,
texts, is used as a free combination in the context of the first the use of two collocations can also be overlooked by such
text and as a figurative idiom in the context of the second elimination.
text. It is observed that the verbal combination ad koy- [to
(5) “Geminin kaptanı korkar, yelkenleri indirir, demir atar. name] in the example (11) consists of the verbal combina-
Tayfaları ve yolcuları toplar; sorup soruşturur” [The tion of the noun in the previous sentence and the verb in the
captain of the ship gets afraid, he lowers the sails and next sentence. In other words, the combination ad koy- [to
anchors. He gathers crew and passengers and asks about name] has undergone object omission in the second sen-
the situation] (Billur Köşk Masalları) tence, again due to the structure of Turkish. It is observed
(6) İşte, onun bütün afrası tafrası buraya kadardı. Biri çıksın, that the name in the member structure of the verb, which
ona hak versin, hemen yelkenleri indiriverir. [You see, is a part of the collocation, is used by omission. However,
all his bluster was thus far. Just as someone deems him native language speakers can complete and make sense of
right, he comes around immediately.] (Ankaralı) these elliptical structures in collocations. There is a similar
Different variants of the same collocation can sometimes situation in Example (12). Since the word combinations söz
appear in the same text, and sometimes in different texts. ver- [to give a promise] and söz tut- [to fulfill one’s prom-
There are two different uses of the collocation hayal kırıklığı ise] are collocations with the same object, they are used
[disappointment] in example (7). in a sentence with a single noun by forming an elliptical
(7) Yine de sabah ve akşam etütlerini, gündüz ders structure.
gördüğüm sınıfta yapacağımı öğrendiğimde hayal (11) “Adı da var demek,” dedi büyükanne, kinayeli kinayeli.
kırıklığına uğramadım. Daha doğrusu, öylesine param- “Kırçıl! O mu söyledi?” “Yoo,” dedi çocuk, saf saf,
parçaydım ki, böyle bir konu için kırılacak hayalim “ben koydum.” Annesine döndü: “Ekmek versem mi?”
kalmamıştı. [However, I was not disappointed when I [So it has a name as well, huh,” said the grandmother
learned that I would be doing the morning and evening allusively. “Kırçıl! Did it say that?” “Nah,” said the kid,
studies in my daytime class. Or rather, I was so shattered and continued, “I named it.” He turned to his mother
that I couldn’t get more disappointed for such a thing] and said, “Should I give it some bread?”] (Kırçıl: Dikkat
(Hazırlıksız) Kırılacak Eşya).
In the context of intertextuality, collocations related to (12) Dayım unutmazdı, söz verirse tutardı. [My uncle
other texts can be found within a text type. For example, didn’t forget, when he gave a promise, he fulfilled it.]
it is known that the phrase “kırk katır mı istersin kırk satır (Tiyatrolar, Aynalar: Dikkat Kırılacak Eşya).
mı?” [do you choose forty mules or forty cleavers?] in the One of the conditions of collocation is that a limited
example below chosen from a novel type text is a frequently number of units can be inserted between the words that
encountered usage in tale texts. This situation is also empha- make up the combination. However, in the texts covered, it
sized in the text. is observed that many words can enter especially between
(8) Masallardaki kurbanlara tanınan seçme hakkı gibi yani: collocation units. According to Sinclair’s (1987, p. 325)
Kırk katır mı istersin, kırk satır mı? [It’s like the right views that collocations are not adjacent structures, this
of choice given to the victims in tales: Do you choose makes it possible to make certain determinations regarding
forty mules or forty cleavers?] (Hazırlıksız) the degree of restriction of collocations. The collocations
148 IJELS 10(4):139-152

ilgi çek- [to arouse interest], aklına gel- [to come to mind], stereotyping among their types. It is observed that all of
içinden geçir- [to think to oneself] in the contexts of the these word combinations have the same verb (ver-) but in
texts in (13), (14), (15), and (16) function as examples to line with the semantic and substitutional limits, the degree
this situation. stereotyping and accordingly the type of each combina-
(13) İsmetin ilgisini en çok, içinde çizimler ve formüller olan tion differs.
fizik ile tek sözcüğünü bile anlamadığı Fransızca kita- Semantic and syntactic restrictions can be counted
pları çekmişti. [The thing that aroused the interest of among the factors affecting the degree of stereotyping of col-
Ismet the most was physics, which contained drawings locations. It is observed that the restricted exhibits a gradual
and formulars, and French books, which he did not un- structuring according to the substitutability of the words in
derstand a word of.] (Yolun Başındakiler) the combination, the comprehension of the meaning of the
(14) Aklıma en değerli eşyamız, borcu henüz biten renk- word combinations from the meaning of the words that make
li televizyonumuz geldi. [Our most valuable item, our up the combination, and the ability to add another word be-
color television whose debt has just been paid off came tween the collocation.
to my mind.] (Hazırlıksız) In addition to this, it is noteworthy that the negation
(15) Vahit, yuvarlak masanın başına geçip otururken için‑ suffix in Turkish, as seen in the examples adını ağzı-
den, ‘Oğlum, Jale’yi düşün. Acaba Bir gün sabah kah- na alma- [to not mention one’s name], aklının ucundan
valtısı hazırlamış mı Cavit’e?’ diye geçirdi. [As Vahit geçme- [to never occur to], aman verme- [aman ver-
sat at the round table, he thought to himself, ‘Think mez/*aman verir] [to give no quarter/*to give quarter]13
of Jale. I wonder if she prepared a single breakfast for and the negative, possessive, and case suffixes exhibit
Cavit.’] (Ankaralı) semantic and usage-based distinctive features, as seen in
(16) Galip Pehlivanoğlu Gündüz Bakımevi ve Kız Yurdu’nu the examples kılını kıpırdat-/*kıl kıpırdat- [to move a mus-
gezerken içimden, onunla nasıl yalnız kalırım, yüz yüze cle], aklı havada [to be head-in-the-clouds], başa gel- [to
nasıl konuşabilirim diye geçirdim durdum. [As I vis- experience], başı şiş- [to get confused], başından at- [to
ited the Galip Pehlivanoğlu Daytime Nursing Home brush off] and therefore that it is stereotyped as a part of
and Girls’ Dormitory, I thought to myself about how I the combination. This stereotyping structure can also be
can get alone with her, how I can talk to her in person.] embodied through the semantic distinction in the exam-
(Ankaralı) ples of el et- [to wave a hand] and elde et- [to achieve, to
It is also observed that sometimes another collocation pair acquire], el ver- [to lend a hand] and ele ver- [to blow the
can be inserted in such a range between a collocation pair in
whistle on].
the same sentence. Collocations in the sentence in (17) can
As it will be noted in example such as u dönüşü [u-turn],
be given as an example.
there is a change in the type and difficulty levels of the com-
(17) Tam o sırada karşımıza, geride bıraktığımız hayalet
binations in direct proportion to the transfer of meaning of
yapıdan daha ufak, arka cephesi İsli bir bina çıktı. [Just
the units that make up the word combination. Accordingly,
then, we came across a building with a sooty back
if a hierarchy including semantic transference is made, it
façade, smaller than the ghostly structure we left be-
can be said that free combinations (süt iç- [to drink milk],
hind.] (Hazırlıksız)
çiçek al- [to take flowers]) are the least restricted, easiest
The findings reveal that the classification of word com-
and therefore most frequently used combinations, colloca-
binations by reviewing them one by one according to their
tions as more restricted combinations (sigara iç- [to smoke
use in the context of the text will give more precise results.
cigarette], abdest al- [to perform ablution]), and figurative
The analyses made according to the frequency of use of
words and word combinations in the texts show that word idioms (ders al- [to take a lesson], u dönüşü [u-turn]) and
combinations cannot be determined based on frequency pure idioms (aklını al- [to fascinate], nalları dik- [kick the
alone. bucket]) as the least used and most difficult units. As the
substitution option in free combinations decreases, semi-re-
stricted collocations emerge, and as the semantic restric-
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION tions in semi-restricted collocations increase, restricted
Word combinations in the database were classified as free collocations emerge. It is known that as one moves towards
combinations, semi-restricted collocations, restricted col- idioms, the effects of socio-cultural structure on the lan-
locations, figurative idioms and pure idioms according to guage are reflected more. Figurative idioms are mostly met-
their semantic features on the basis of Cowie (1994), and aphor-based word combinations and restricted collocations
free combinations were excluded from the restrictions of are described as word combinations that contain complete-
the study. Considering word combinations on the basis of ly different restrictions from idioms and free combinations
their semantic features, it can be said that there is a hier- in terms of clarity and modifiability. The combination of
archy that we can observe between the examples of çiçek units in semi-restricted combinations can generally be ex-
ver- [to give flowers] - free combination - < acı ver- [to plained logically and semantically to a certain extent, as in
inflict pain, to grieve] - semi-restricted collocation - < se- free combinations but semi-restricted collocations include a
lam ver- [to greet] - restricted collocation - < ders ver- [to more restricted substitution option than free combinations.
give a lesson] - figurative idiom - <akıl ver- [to give ad- This stereotype structure can be embodied through the col-
vice to someone] - pure idiom in terms of the degree of location at bin- [to ride a horse] and the free combination
Understanding the Collocation Issues and Problems in Turkish Language 149

ata bin- [to mount a horse]. In terms substitutability, the It is observed that predicative combinations formed
first one creates a more restricted collocational combina- with borrowed words are mostly formed with light verbs
tion, and the second one forms a relatively less restricted (yap-, et-, ol- [do, make, be], etc.). Words coined from
combination due to the presence of the inclination suffix. In other languages, regardless of their lexical functions/tasks
this context, the fact that examples such as arabaya bin- [to in the source language, are mostly used by nomenclature
ride a car], eşeğe bin- [to ride a donkey], deveye bin- [to when transitioning to Turkish as a target language, there-
ride a camel], etc. can be reproduced is an indication that fore they need a light verb or an auxiliary verb in order
there is no restriction on the substitutability of the noun as to be used in the verb function. Combinations formed by
in the example of at bin- [to ride a horse]. Since the sub- auxiliary verbs or light verbs constitute another problem.
stitution option is relatively higher in the combination ata It is observed that auxiliary verbs are sometimes handled
bin- [to mount a horse], the restriction works inversely. It within the category of idioms and sometimes under com-
is seen that substitutions such as *katır bin- [to ride mule], pound words formed with auxiliary verbs, and there is no
*eşek bin- [to ride donkey] are not possible in the combina- consistent explanation on this issue either. Collocations
tion at bin- [to ride a horse]. It can be said that the degree consisting of borrowed words should be queried in larger
of restriction between these two examples differs depending corpus studies regarding the degree of restriction, determi-
on the orientational suffix. nations should be made and the results should be supported
Semi-restricted collocations include collocations that by etymological findings.
do not allow phrasal or stereotyped uses, have few substi- In Turkish dictionaries, word combinations such as
tution options, and have many restrictions but have fewer paha biç- [to estimate a price, to value], acemilik çek- [to
restrictions compared to restricted collocations. Idioms, on suffer from inexperience], çile çek- [to suffer a lot], yanıt
the other hand, correspond to the structures that contain the ver- [to respond], ilişki kur- [to establish a relationship,
most phrasal usage and exhibit stereotypes with the opposite to make contact], fotoğraf çek- [to take a photograph] are
grade. Most word combinations accepted as idioms in the sometimes described and explained as compound words
Turkish dictionary were not evaluated as idioms in this con- and sometimes as idioms. For this reason, certain prob-
text, but were handled in restricted collocations within the lems may arise in terms of language users’ access to col-
framework of semantic and substitution-based criteria (such locations and their use of these structures. For instance,
as ad tak- [to nickname], ad ver- [to name], ad koy- [to give güneş çarpması [sunstroke] is given as a compound noun
a name], güven ver- [to reassure], haber ver- [to let know, to in the Turkish dictionary under the compound words sec-
inform], hakkını ver- [to do justice to], fotoğraf çek- [to take tion, while güneş çarpmak [to have sunstroke], which is
a photograph] etc.). a different variant of the same lexical unit, is given in the
The fact that Turkish has a flexible syntactic structure idioms section. The combination kura çekmek [to draw
provides a basis for the conclusion that word combinations lots] is under the section of compound words but the com-
can be determined and their types can be clarified only by binations acı, azap, ağrı çekmek [to feel pain, to suffer
questioning at the sentence and context level. The type of torment, to feel discomfort, etc.] are handled under the id-
a word combination can only be determined depending on ioms section.
the context. For example, combinations such as burnun- Synonyms also pose a problem in some cases. For ex-
dan solu- [to be steamed up], yelkenleri indir- [to lower the ample, it is striking that there is no consistency in the dic-
sails] may exhibit idiom, collocation, and free combination tionaries between the combinations in which ad [name]
features depending on the context. On the other hand, con- and isim [name, noun] words take place. In the dictionary
trary to the assumption adopted in statistically-oriented ap- of idioms, even though there are combinations established
proaches, it draws attention in the process of determining with the word ad [name] such as adı duyulmak [to become
word combinations that collocations in Turkish can include prominent], adı geçmek [to be mentioned], adı kalmak [to
words according to the degree of restriction and the number be remembered after one is dead], adı karışmak [to be in-
of these words cannot be specified with definite limits due volved], ad takmak [to nickname], ad yapmak [to make a
to the flexibility in the syntax of Turkish. Word combina- name], it is seen that there are no combinations such as
tions in Turkish can be clarified at the sentence level and ismi duyulmak, ismi kalmak, ismi karışmak, isim vermek
context-dependent. [be heard, stay in the name, mix the name, submit name].
In general, the headword is expected to be a verb in While satın almak [to buy] combination is at the item head
noun + verb combinations. However, for Turkish, espe- of the al- verb, it is observed that combinations ad almak,
cially in the case of word combinations formed with bor- isim almak [to be given a name] are not. In addition to
rowed words, the opposite is the case. It is observed that this, it is seen that while the word combination soluk al-
the headword in combinations formed with pure actions is madan [in one breath] is included as the headword of the
the noun, not the verb. This situation is explained on the verb al- among the compound words, soluk al- [to take a
basis that the verb is a light verb when associated with its breath] combination is not included there. In fact, the con-
power in combination. This result is supported by the fea- texts in which the collocation soluk al- [to take a breath]
tures and functions stated by Akşehirli (2013) regarding and the collocation soluk almadan [in one breath] are used
light verbs. and their meanings are also different from each other. It is
150 IJELS 10(4):139-152

noteworthy that some word combinations are not included items/units/lexical phenomena, routine, set phrases, ste-
in Turkish dictionary. For example, the combination zengin reotypes, stereotyped phrases, stock utterances, unana-
kalkışı [(to take) a french leave] is neither found in the dic- lyzed multiword chunks/units (Wray, 2002).
tionary of idioms nor in the current Turkish dictionary. In 2. For detailed information on the definition and classifi-
addition, there is no consistent explanation in Turkish dic- cation of word combinations and collocations, see Eken
tionaries of the subject of which word combinations should (2016).
be searched based on which part of the combination in the 3. It has been adopted by researchers such as Firth, Halli-
dictionary. For instance, the combination ekmek parası day, and Sinclair.
[bread and butter] is not found as the headword of the 4. It has been adopted by researchers such as Cowie, How-
word para [money] but only as the headword of the word art, Mel′čuk.
ekmek [bread], while the combination kan parası [blood 5. While Sinclair (1966) considers three units on each side
money] is found both as the headword of kan [blood] and (at the beginning and the end) of the node, in 1970s, four
para [money]. In dictionaries, it is a problem that should be units on each side of the node were considered and col-
clarified that such word combinations should be evaluated location determinations were made accordingly (Hori,
within the scope of which word combination type and at 2004, p. 5).
which article they should be included. It should be clari- 6. Brought together by nature, such word combinations are
fied that the collocations should be reached on the basis of considered within the framework of semantic prosody
which word of combination. and to a certain extent as causal combinations in this
Since Turkish is an agglutinative language, the agglu- study. For example, dog is a concept that is used togeth-
tinations on the word cause different conjugations of the er with the verb to bark by its nature, in other words,
word in question to be counted as different words in such there is the presupposition that the word to bark is an
programs. Synonyms also mostly pose a problem in this re- action performed by a dog by nature. Therefore, such
spect. For example, since the verb de- [to say] and the con- words are used in combination within the framework of
junction de cannot be labeled separately, these two words, semantic prosody.
which have two different functions, are detected as a sin- 7. Analyses were performed based on Bilgin (2006) and
gle token by programs, thus resulting in some deviations Büyüköztürk et al. (2013).
in the numerical results14. Since Turkish does not have a 8. Validity and reliability checks were performed based on
comprehensive wordlist15 as in English, the analyses made Yıldırım and Şimşek (2011).
do not always give accurate results, since these words can- 9. Validity and reliability checks were performed based on
not be separated into their types by computer programs16. Yıldırım and Şimşek (2011).
Therefore, in order to minimize such mistakes, the words 10. See Okur & Arı (2014).
and combinations calculated by the programs should be 11. The translation of collocational expressions is some-
reviewed. times made by combining a verb and a noun, sometimes
Collocations make it possible to use and understand by finding the counterpart words used in the target cul-
the language in an effective way. In this context, specif- ture, and sometimes by giving new meaning to words.
ic-purpose collocation dictionaries should be created by See Sarıkaş (2006), Seymen&Kalkan (2019) and Soyer
making use of the outputs of such descriptive studies. This (2017) for more information about translation of collo-
way, the problems that students/native speakers may expe- cations.
rience while internalizing collocations can be minimized. 12. According to Hausmann (2007), these are called “col-
As with all the rules of the language, lexical-based rules locational chains” According to Spohr (2005), they are
are also intuitively acquired and used by native speakers. called “collocational clusters”. For detailed descrip-
However, teaching stereotyped word combinations such as tions, see Tutin (2008)
collocations and idioms will help native speakers to classify 13. “*aman verir” [to give quarter] is unacceptible to use
phrases and patterns they use in daily life in their memo- in Turkish. It is only acceptible with negative suffix as
ry. For this reason, such combinations must first be defined “aman vermez”.
fully and accurately. Teaching under what conditions word 14. For studies and detailed information on the subject, see
combinations are collocations, under what conditions idi- Mersinli and Aksan (2011), Aksan et al. (2011).
oms, and under what conditions are compound words will 15. Such as BNC (British National Corpus)
increase students’ awareness of the words they use. It will 16. For detailed information on morpheme and word type
also contribute to the development of literacy skills of stu- marking in Turkish, see Mersinli and Aksan (2011). For
dents both in mother tongue education and foreign language the classification and distribution of uncertainties in
learning. morpheme studies, see Aksan et al. (2011).

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