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In:Current Issues in Phraseology
Edited by Sebastian Hoffmann, Bettina Fischer-Starcke and Andrea Sand
[Benjamins Current Topics 74] 2015
► pp. 135–164

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50-something years of work on collocations

What is or should be next …

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Published online: 10 July 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.74.07gri
This paper explores ways in which research into collocation should be improved. After a discussion of the parameters underlying the notion of collocation, the paper has three main parts. First, I argue that corpus linguistics would benefit from taking more seriously the understudied fact that collocations are not necessarily symmetric, as most association measures imply. Also, I introduce an association measure from the associative learning literature that can identify asymmetric collocations and show that it can also distinguish collocations with high and low association strengths well. Second, I summarize some advantages of this measure and brainstorm about ways in which it can help re-examine previous studies as well as support further applications. Finally, I adopt a broader perspective and discuss a variety of ways in which all association measures – directional or not – in corpus linguistics should be improved in order for us to obtain better and more reliable results.
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