10/03/2015

ACADEMIC
WRITING I
Ninuk Dian K

OBJECTIVES: students will be able

to
Paraphrase
Analyse topics
Find and select ideas
Organise ideas
Academic word list
Collocation
Write an essay
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Characteristics of Academic
Writing

1 Audience
Consider the people who will read or hear the
essay
2 Tone
Consider the style of writing, such as choice of
words, grammatical structure, the length of
sentences, etc. Academic writing has a highly
formal and impersonal tone.

Formal Language

Avoid using the following informal usage:

Exclamations
Sentence fragments
Modal contractions
Initial and
Initial but

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Processes of Writing
1 Prewriting

2 Planning

3 Searching References

4 Handling References

5 Data Collection and Analysis

6 Writing and Revising Drafts

PARAPHRASING
Paraphrasing is the use of anothers ideas in our own work.
To paraphrase, we need to rewrite in our own words the ideas
taken from the source.
Paraphrases avoid excessive reliance on quotations and
demonstrate that writer understand the source authors
argument.
A paraphrase always has a different sentence structure and word
choice.
When done well, it is much more concise than the original.

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technique

Paraphrases are signalled through clauses

Example: Nursalam (2013) argues that.
These phrases indicate the source of the paraphrase
and help integrate the borrowed ideas into essay.
Paraphrases must be cited
Not in quotation mark

The Wrong Way to Paraphrase #1:

Failure to Cite Source

Original Passage: They desire, for example, virtue and the absence of
vice, no less really than pleasure and the absence of pain.
Source: Mill, John Stuart. Utilitarianism. On Liberty and
Other Essays. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1998. Quote is from page 169.
Paraphrase: People want morality just as much as they want happiness.
Explanation: This paraphrase is an accurate summary of the above
passage, but is incorrectly paraphrased because it does not cite
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The Wrong Way to Paraphrase #2:

Lack of Significant Rewording

Original Passage: To the young American architects who made the

pilgrimage, the most dazzling figure of all was Walter
Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus School. Gropius opened
the Bauhaus in Weimar, the German capital, in 1919. It
was more than a school; it was a commune, a spiritual
movement, a radical approach to art in all its forms, a
philosophical center comparable to the Garden of
Epicurus.
Source: Wolfe, Tom. From Bauhaus to Our House. New York:
Farrar Straus Giroux, 1981. Quote is from page 10.
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Paraphrase:

As Tom Wolfe notes, to young American architects who went to

Germany, the most dazzling figure was Walter Gropius,
founder of the Bauhaus School (10). Gropius opened
the Bauhaus in the German capital of Weimar in
1919. It was, however, more than a school; it was a
commune, a spiritual movement, a philosophical
center like the Garden of Epicurus.

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Explanation:

This excerpt is not a paraphrase at all; it is too similar to the

source. Rather than summarizing the ideas, it uses the
same words and structure as the original. This author
has committed plagiarism by misrepresenting
anothers work as his own.

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The Right Way to Paraphrase

Original Passage: The Republican Convention of 1860, which

adopted planks calling for a tariff, internal improvements, a
Pacific railroad and a homestead law, is sometimes seen as
a symbol of Whig triumph within the party. A closer look,
however, indicates that the Whigs triumph within the
party was of a very tentative nature.
Source: Foner, Eric. Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology
of the Republican Party Before the Civil War. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1970. Quote is from page 175.
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Paraphrase:

Contrary to many historians, Eric Foner argues that the

Republican platform of 1860 should not be understood
as an indication of Whig dominance of the party
(175).
Explanation: This paraphrase is properly cited and represents an
accurate and concise summary of the source.

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Note taking and Paraphrasing

Good note-taking can improve paraphrases.

When taking notes, do not copy words from a source
read carefully, think, and then write, in your own
words, the main ideas you have read.
Be sure to note the source for proper citation.

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Example, original

Essay Oliver Sacks "An Anthropologist on Mars":

The cause of autism has also been a matter of dispute. Its incidence is
about one in a thousand, and it occurs throughout the world, its features
remarkably consistent even in extremely different cultures. It is often not
recognized in the first year of life, but tends to become obvious in the
second or third year. Though Asperger regarded it as a biological defect of
affective contactinnate, inborn, analogous to a physical or intellectual
defectKanner tended to view it as a psychogenic disorder, a reflection of
bad parenting, and most especially of a chillingly remote, often
professional, "refrigerator mother." At this time, autism was often regarded
as "defensive" in nature, or confused with childhood schizophrenia. A
whole generation of parentsmothers, particularlywere made to feel
guilty for the autism of their children.

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PARAPHRASE 1
The cause of the condition autism has been disputed. It occurs in
approximately one in a thousand children, and it exists in all parts
of the world, its characteristics strikingly similar in vastly differing
cultures. The condition is often not noticeable in the child's first
year, yet it becomes more apparent as the child reaches the ages of
two or three. Although Asperger saw the condition as a biological
defect of the emotions that was inborn and therefore similar to a
physical defect, Kanner saw it as psychological in origin, as
reflecting poor parenting and particularly a frigidly distant mother.
During this period, autism was often seen as a defense mechanism,
or it was misdiagnosed as childhood schizophrenia. An entire
generation of mothers and fathers (but especially mothers) were
made to feel responsible for their offspring's autism (Sacks, 2010).

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PARAPHRASE 2

In "An Anthropologist on Mars," Sacks lists some of the known facts about autism. We
know, for example, that the condition occurs in roughly one out of every thousand
children. We also know that the characteristics of autism do not vary from one culture
to the next. And we know that the condition is difficult to diagnose until the child has
entered its second or third year of life. As Sacks points out, often a child who goes on
to develop autism will still appear perfectly normal at the age of one (Sacks, 2010).
Sacks observes, however, that researchers have had a hard time agreeing on the causes
of autism. He sketches the diametrically opposed positions of Asperger and Kanner.
On the one hand, Asperger saw the condition as representing a constitutional defect in
the child's ability to make meaningful emotional contact with the external world. On the
other hand, Kanner regarded autism as a consequence of harmful childrearing practices.
For many years confusion about this condition reigned. One unfortunate consequence
of this confusion, Sacks suggests, was the burden of guilt imposed on so many parents
for their child's condition (Sacks, 2010).
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What is your analysis on those two

paraphrases?
Please Write your analysis!!

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ESSAY WRITING STAGES

1. Pre writing
Topic selection
Topic analysis
Brainstorming key ideas
Literature research
Statement formulation
Developing outline
2. Writing drafts
3. Editing and proofreading

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Pre-writing

Before you begin to write, you need to think of ideas

to write about.

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ESSAY TOPICS

Topics for an essay

Many essays can be written on a single theme. They
can differ in their essence, form, style of writing,
meaning, trend and having different aims. These
differences depend on the essay types.

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Types of essay

Argumentative, Compare and Contrast, Narrative,

Persuasive, Descriptive, Cause and Effect,
Expository, Reflective, definitions, classification and
Division, Symbolism, College Application, Analytical,
Critical, Literary Analysis, College Admission,
Interview, Character Analysis, Observation, Film
analysis, Summary.

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Argumentative

Argumentative essays suits the topics that usually

acquire a strong social response and arguments as
they deal with the protection of a certain point
referred on the vital issues for the society.
Correspondingly it becomes rather easy to choose a
proper argumentative essay topic: its simply enough
to remember a social issue which causes a lot or
arguments, confrontations and usually has two
opposite sides arguing one against the other.
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Abortion and social responsibility.

Topic: Analyze whether it is appropriate to make an

abortion.
Questions: What reasons may lead a woman to make
an abortion?
Can the decision to make an abortion be justified?
What responsibilities does a woman take when she
decides to make or not to make an abortion?

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Euthanasia. Who has the right to

decide?

Topic: Analyze the phenomenon of euthanasia and its

moral issues.
Questions: Can euthanasia be given the same status
with homicide? Why not?
Does the family have the right to decide to stop the
life of their member?
Can euthanasia be justified by any means?
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Analysing topic, finding and

organising ideas

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Analysing topic

The first and the most important step in writing an

essay is topic analysis and defining those aspects that
should be covered in the future essay and in what way
the outline must be developed. The task seems very
difficult. However, if you consider any topic carefully,
you will see that it usually has clear clues of what you
should write and how you should do it.

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Topic analysis

Read the topic carefully.

Underline the key words.
Explain the topic in your own words, but using the
underlined keywords as well, to yourself.
Try to answer the question What should I write? How
should I write it?
If you cannot answer, you might try to choose other
keywords.
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Steps of topic analysis

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What type of company would you most like to see built in your
home town or city. Give reasons to support your response.

Now consider the underlined keywords. Reformulate them in your own way,
for instance: I must write about the company I would be happy to see in my city and
explain the reasons.
OUTLINE:
Introduction.Brief outline of the city, mentioning the possible sphere for a
company.
First supporting paragraph.Explain why this company is good for the city.
Second supporting paragraph.Explain how you personally can benefit from this
company.
Concluding paragraph.Brief summary of what has been said and a clear
opinion formulation.

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Topic analysis

Using mind map to analyse topic, 2

http://www.studygs.net/writing/prewriting.htm

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EXERCISE Analysing topic

The importance of immunization

The problem of importance of the differentiation of geriatric
and pediatric patient pathologies.
Difficulties in HIV management
With partners, please discuss the topics: what types of essay
can be generated from the topics? What ideas you need to
write in the essay?

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FOUR WAYS TO ORGANIZE

IDEA
Sometimes it is difficult to think of things to write
about. There are four common ways to help you
think of new ideas:

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FOUR WAYS

1. Brainstorming
2. Clustering
3. Making Lists
4. Asking Yourself Questions
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Brainstroming ideas

A process of a very intensive mental work when you

must think of and note down all ideas and associations
concerning the topic that appear in your mind

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Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a way to think of new ideas.

Brainstorming means you write every idea
that is in your head (your brain). When you
brainstorm, you write all your ideas and all
the words you can think of about a topic. Do
not say "This idea is a bad idea." When you
are brainstorming, all ideas are good ideas.

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Brainstorming ideas
Start with asking yourself a lot of questions like Who?, What?,
Where?, When?, Why?, How?.
Write down everything that comes into your head without evaluating
the idea as being good or bad. Do not try to structure the notes in any
case at this stage, just note down anything that you can imagine.
Then, read the list carefully. Now try to find the words that have
something in common thematically and unite them together using
some special symbols. For example, use a circle around all the words
referring to the same ideas.
See how they correlate with the topic. If you can see the way it can be
applied, try to make up a topic sentence out of the key words
belonging to one group.
Then do the same for the second group and so on.
After this, use the sentences for an outline of your essay. 37

BRAINSTORMING:
daily routine

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Clustering

Clustering is another way to think of new ideas. The word

"cluster" means a group of similar things. Clustering means
putting words into groups. Each group, or cluster, has a number
of words that are related to each other.

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CLUSTERING-
BRAINSTORMING

Clustering is similar to brainstorming. You try to

think of many words and phrases. When you make a
cluster map, you write the words and phrases in
groups.

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EXAMPLE

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Write the topic in

the centre of your
page, inside a circle.

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Write general ideas

about the topic
around the
circle.

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. Write more ideas about each

general idea

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Continue until you can think of no

more ideas.

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Making Lists

Making lists is a way to think of new ideas. When

you make a list, try to think of ideas in an organized
way. For example, you can make a list of actions, a
list of places, a list of people.

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EXAMPLE

Here is an example of three lists about daily routine:

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Actions

Wake up
Get up
Shower
Get dressed
Eat breakfast
Brush teeth
Take the bus
Buy coffee 48

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Places

Bedroom
Bathroom
Kitchen
Bus stop
Coffee shop
Office building

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People

Bus driver
Waitress
Co-worker
Boss
Customer
Friend
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Asking Yourself Questions

Asking yourself questions is another way to think of

new ideas. When you answer the questions, you think
of ideas.

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????

Here is an example of some questions about daily

routine :

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QUESTIONS:
When do I get up?
What do I do in the morning?
When do I go to work?
What do I do at work?
When do I have lunch?
Where do I have lunch?
When do I go home from work?
How do I get home from work?
What do I do after work?
What do I do in the evening?
When do I go to bed?

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Choosing a Topic

Practicality
Course requirement
Time limitation
Interest
Motivation
Future research

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Narrowing the Topic

Narrowing the Scope of Focus

Subject Domain
Region, Location
Time Period
Other Social Attributes

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Literature Search

Search for information based on the topic analysis and the

key words useful for the Internet browsing & library
cataloging systems.
Look through the materials you have found and evaluate
them critically. looks interesting? save a copy or make
detailed notes for reference. A printed book note down the
pages, need for quoting.
After having studied the requirements for citation, prepare a
reference section page. 56

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Reading Tips

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Organise Idea
Associated
Principle of Patterns of
Sample Transitions***
Organization* Development
or Rhetorical Modes**

narration, process, examples

next; later; the following Tuesday; afterwards; by noon; when
chronological order and illustrations, cause &
she had finally digested the giant burrito; as soon as; in 1998
effect

just to the right; a little further on; to the south of Memphis; a

description, examples & few feet behind; directly on the bridge of his nose and a
spatial order
illustrations centimeter above his gaping, hairy nostrils; turning left on the
pathway

more importantly; best of all; still worse; a more effective

examples & illustrations,
approach; even more expensive; even more painful than passing
climactic order description, comparison &
a kidney stone; the least wasteful; occasionally, frequently,
contrast, analogy
regularly

classification & division,

comparison & contrast, the first element; another key part; a third common principle of
topical order
analogy, definition, examples organization; Brent also objected to Stella's breat
& illustrations 58

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Organise Ideas

SequentialThis style is particularly conducive when telling a story or

relaying events chronologically. Simply double-check that your events are
written in the order in which they happened.
SpatiallyThis arrangement is a perfect fit when describing a scene.
Depending upon what works best, you can describe from left to right,
bottom to top, center to edge, near to far, or the opposite. These structures
will help you take your reader along with you as you explore your
observations.

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Organise idea

ImportanceWhen writing persuasively or trying to

make a point, you'll first want to consider what works
best: hooking your reader with your main point and
then following up with supportive details, or setting
the reader up with the details to lead to your main
point. Similarly, do you want to move from your
most to your least important point, or vice versa?

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Organise Idea
ComparisonWhen comparing two objects or situations to
each other, there are two basic organizational patterns. One
is to focus on the separate items, describing them in their
entirety based on individual characteristics that they have in
common. A second pattern is to focus on the characteristics
themselves, describing the items as they apply to those
characteristics.
Cause and EffectTo explain the connections between an
event and what caused it, you can begin with a general
statement (either the cause or the effect) and then support
that statement with details that represent the other.

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ORGANISING IDEAS

General to specific: The general-to-specific

approach opens an idea with a general statement
and then leads into details that support and explain
the general statement.
The specific-to-general approach leads the reader
to a general conclusion by first presenting detailed
support of that conclusion.

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GENERAL TO SPECIFIC
Writing is a complex sociocognitive process involving the construction of
recorded messages on paper or on some other material, and, more recently,
on a computer screen. The skills needed to write range from making the
appropriate graphic marks, through utilizing the resources of the chosen
language, to anticipating the reactions of the intended readers. The first
skill area involves acquiring a writing system, which may be alphabetic (as in
European languages) or nonalphabetic (as in many Asian languages). The
second skill area requires selecting the appropriate grammar and vocabulary
to form acceptable sentences and then arranging them in paragraphs.
Third, writing involves thinking about the purpose of the text to be
composed and about its possible effects on the intended readership. One
important aspect of this last feature is the choice of a suitable style.
Because of these characteristics, writing is not an innate natural ability like
speaking but has to be acquired through years of training or schooling
(Swales & Feak, 1994, p. 34).

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Organising essay

The problem-cause/process-solution approach

will first describe the problem, then analyze the cause
or responses to the problem, and then will lead to a
solution.

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ESSAY OUTLINING

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Argumentative essay outline:

Outline #1
Supporting arguments # 1
Supporting argument # 2
Opposing argument or arguments with further refutation
Outline #2
Opposing argument or arguments with further refutation
Supporting arguments # 1
Supporting argument # 2
Outline #3
Opposing argument #1 with further refutation
Opposing argument #2 with further refutation, etc.

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Essay outline
5 (Five) Paragraph Essay Outline
1. Essay Title
2. Table of contents (optional)
3. Motto Quote (optional)
4. Introduction
5. Prove Your Run-downs
6. Body Paragraphs
7. Conclusion
8. Bibliography and References
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Essay outline
1. Essay Title
It is very significant to choose the essay name. This should be done due to the main ideas
you want to highlight in your essay, i.e. the ideas to be revealed in the essay should be
noted in the name. That is when one reads the name of the essay he should understand it
and wait what will be written there for. A successful name is a passport to success work.
2. Table of contents (optional)
Table of contents is a main essay part, too. Mostly it directs readers' ideas. Understanding
your essay depends on the table of contents, should one simply look through the text.
That means you should endeavor into the table to intrigue the readers.
3. Motto Quote (optional)
You have to find a Motto with a quote of a famous person. This will create an impression
of a serious person that reads interesting and cognitive books. Thus, the attitude to you
will be changed.

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Essay Outline
4. Introduction
After all these points look at the Introduction. It mainly tunes people to read
your text. That means that the introduction should interest in order to make
the text easy-to-read.
5. Prove Your Run-downs
Now you can prove your run-downs. Setting the chosen run-downs is a hard
work. Many small details shouldn't be overlooked and the main ideas should be
revealed after the Introduction only.
6. Body Paragraphs
Don't forget about Body paragraphs. They should be divided, but fastened
with other paragraphs, not to have the essay idea lost. The body paragraphs are
divided onto 2-3 parts - these are the Bodies ## 1 and 2. There should be
some Run-in paragraphs in between.
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Essay outline
7. Conclusion
There is a Conclusion after the text, were you summarize
everything. That means that you should enunciate and add
together everything in the very end, sui generis ratiocination
on the essay basis.
8. Bibliography and References
Bibliography or References should be written after the
Conclusion, though, both are possible. Actually the more
you show you are interested in the theme the better will be
the readers' attitude to your essay
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ACADEMIC WORD LIST

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What is the Academic Word List?

List of 570 words with their families

Does not include first 2000 most commonly used English words

Result of Averil Coxheads MA work at the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New
Zealand

Find a copy at: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/wordlists.htm

Find lists with families: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/staff/Averil-Coxhead/awl/sublists.html

Find list with hyperlinked definitions: http://simple.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Academic_word_list#Sublist_1

Find list with hyperlinked definitions to multiple (25-30) online dictionary definitions: http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/CiLL/eap/wordlists.htm

For detail on the development and evaluation of the AWL, see Coxhead, Averil (2000) A New Academic Word List. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2):
213-238.

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Where did the words come from?

Academic corpus covering 28 subjects

Corpus had 3.5 million words from journal articles, book chapters,
course workbooks, laboratory manuals, and course notes
Words divided into 4 main subject headings: Arts, Commerce, Law
and Science
These were further divided into seven sections each
Words additionally had to appear in at least half of the 28 subject
areas and be represented in all 4 main areas
94% of AWL words appeared in 20 or more subject areas of
corpus
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What words were excluded?

First 2000 most commonly used English words

Latin forms et al, etc, ie, and ibid

Proper nouns

Words which occurred in fewer than 4 faculty sections

of the Academic Corpus or which occurred in fewer
than 15 of the 28 subject areas
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What are the first 2000?

In part, this is heavily influenced by The General

Service List (GSL) created by Michael West in 1953
Words were selected based on frequency and
semantic value
To see: http://jbauman.com/gsl.html
Use of corpora continues to inform vocabulary study

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Use any text to teach AWL

http://www.nottingham http://www.nottingham
.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab
/awlhighlighter.htm
Enter text
Choose word list
All words from this list
will appear in boldface
.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab
/awlgapmaker.htm
Enter text
Choose words list
All words from this list
will appear as a gap and
words appear as list on
bottom of page
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How can this be applied to

classroom instruction?
Use articles, book passages, benchmark passages
Enter text into highlighter and choose AWL 1
Read text together, using context clues to understand
meaning
Enter text into gap maker
Without using highlighted text, can students enter correct
word from choices?
For texts with AWL words already highlighted:
http://www.uefap.com/vocab/exercise/exercise.htm
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Research-based Principles of
Vocabulary Instruction

Introduce and discuss words

Ensure affective engagement
Engage students in using the words
Ensure recurrent exposures
Celebrate successes
Encourage experimentation

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How do we choose specific words to

teach directly?
Use information gleaned from AWL highlighter
Choose at random from AWL list
Introduce about 5 per week to focus on
Direct instruction on Monday
Continue to focus on throughout week
Use frequently!
Whenever possible draw attention to the word in a text
Encourage students to use the words in context
Create a Word Wall to remind everyone
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How can a Word Wall contribute to

vocabulary instruction?
Must be visible to all students
Must grow organically as well as methodologically
Must be consistently referred to by teacher
For ideas on dealing with space issues:
http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-
bin/articles/index.pl?noframes;read=2625
To see a video of a teacher implementing this strategy:
http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=8
b375a3269223e13dab5

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How do I build a Word Wall?

Choose a format that works for you

Half sheets of scrap paper
Chart paper
White or chalk board

Add words daily. Refer to the words whenever possible.

Add words that are directly taught or which come up in
discussion of text.
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How can the students use the Word

Wall?
Students will look to the wall when teacher draws
attention to a word
Students will remember where the word is, and use
the wall as a reminder for recall and for spelling
Students can take the burden off the teacher by
being responsible for adding that days words

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Can students study on their own?

Note cards
Computer note cards
Vocabulary notebooks
Foldables

A way of presenting information that is fun and creative

For ideas see:
http://www.lauracandler.com/reading/VocabFoldDir.pdf

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Knowledge Rating Scale

Know It Well Have Seen or Have No Clue
Word Heard It

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Knowledge Rating Scale

Know It Have Seen Have What It Means
Word Well or Heard It No
Clue

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How can students learn and remember the meaning of the words?

Look up the meanings of the words in the dictionary

Link the words to previous knowledge
Make a spider diagram for each word
For example, a spider diagram for concept could look like this:

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What about dictionaries?

Dictionaries are of course useful, but direct instruction on how

to use is imperative
Have students work in small groups to find meanings
Try having dictionary races to decrease amount of time spent
looking up words

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Which Dictionary?
Lower Levels
The Oxford Students Dictionary
The Longman Active Study Dictionary
The Macmillan Essential Dictionary
The Oxford Wordpower Dictionary

More advanced levels

The Longman Contemporary English Dictionary
The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary
The Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners
The Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary

Many dictionaries have study skills pages, CD-ROM and on-line resources for students.

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Dictionaries on the Web

Macmillan
www.macmillandictionaries.com
Oxford University Press
www.oup.com/elt/catalogue/teachersites/oald7/
?cc=tr
Longman
www.longman.com/dictionaries/international.ht
ml
Cambridge University Press
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

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Using a Vocabulary Profiler

lextutor.ca
Allows us to see what level the words in a text are
Can help inform vocabulary instruction

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How to use lextutor.ca

Use Internet Explorer as a browser
Go to http://lextutor.ca/
In the second column, click on Vocabprofile
Click on VP English v. 2.9
Highlight everything in textbox
Paste your copied text into box (Control + V)
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COLLOCATION

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What is collocation?
COLLOCATION refers to a relationship between words
that frequently occur together
The words together can mean more than the sum of their
parts (The Times of India, disk drive)
- other examples: hot dog, mother in law
Examples of collocations
noun phrases like strong tea and weapons of mass destruction
phrasal verbs like to make up, and other phrases like the rich and
powerful.
Valid or invalid?
a stiff breeze but not a stiff wind (while either a strong breeze or a strong
wind is okay).
broad daylight (but not bright daylight or narrow darkness). 94

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Why do you say deep water and not

profound water?
A word is known by the company it keeps
(JR Firth)

- tremble with fear tremble with excitement*

- quiver with excitement quiver with fear*

There is no definable reason why we choose to say

tremble with fear but not quiver with fear. It is
simply a question of COLLOCATION.
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Collocational meaning (1)

Collocational meaning refers to the associations that a word
acquires in its collocation:
e.g.
girl boy
boy man
woman car
pretty flower handsome overcoat
garden airline
colour typewriter
village vessel
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Collocational meaning (2)

A word can gain different collocational meaning in different
contexts:

e.g.
green on the job white man
green fruit white wine
green with envy white noise
white coffee

These different meanings of green and whiteare

polysemous but they are caused by the different
collocation, i.e. the change in verbal context
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Criteria for collocations

Typical criteria for collocations:
- non-compositionality
- non-substitutability
- non-modifiability.

Collocations usually cannot be translated into other

languages word by word.

A phrase can be a collocation even if it is not consecutive

(as in the example knock . . . door).
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Non-compositionality

A phrase is compositional if the meaning can predicted

from the meaning of the parts.
e.g. new companies
A phrase is non-compositional if the meaning cannot be
predicted from the meaning of the parts
e.g. hot dog
Collocations are not necessarily fully compositional in that
there is usually an element of meaning added to the
combination. e.g. strong tea.
Idioms are the most extreme examples of non-
compositionality. e.g. to hear it through the grapevine.
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Non-substitutability
We cannot substitute near-synonyms for the components
of a collocation.
e.g. We cant say yellow wine instead of white wine even though yellow
is as good a description of the color of white wine as white is
(it is kind of a yellowish white).

Many collocations cannot be freely modified with

additional lexical material or through grammatical
transformations (Non-modifiability).
E.g. white wine, but not whiter wine
mother in law, but not mother in laws
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Linguistic Subclasses of Collocations

Light verbs:
- Verbs with little semantic content like make, take and do.
- e.g. make lunch, take easy,
Verb particle constructions
- e.g. to go down
Proper nouns
- e.g. Bill Clinton
Terminological expressions refer to concepts and objects in
technical domains.
- e.g. Hydraulic oil filter
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Collocations at a distance
Many collocations occur at variable
distances. For example knock collocates with
door but at a distance
- she knocked on his door
- they knocked at the door
- 100 women knocked on Donaldsons door
- a man knocked on the metal front door
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Finding collocations

Software is able to scan texts for the most frequently

collocated words using the criterion of frequency, i.e.
by counting the words which most frequently appear
together
This usually produces a lot of function words which
need to be filtered out

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An example of a frequency count

This shows the most frequent
collocations of pairs of
words (bigrams) in a corpus
of newspaper articles.
The are all function words
(except New York)

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Frequency count after filtering

This chart shows the

most frequent collocations
after filtering out the
function words. The
capital letters refer to the
part of speech
(A = Adjective, N = Noun)

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Idioms - characteristics (1)

Idioms are strictly non-compositional
Although the word that make up the idiom have their
own literal meanings, in the idiom they have lost
their individual identity. You canot predict the
meaning of an diom from the sum of its parts:
e.g. how do you do?
Im under the weather
to wear your heart on your sleeve
red herring

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Idioms - characteristics (2)

Structural stability (syntactic frozenness)

1. Constituents cannot be replaced

e.g. as good as gold / as good as play ?
2. Word order cannot be changed
e.g. tit for tat / tat for tit?
3. Constituents cannot be deleted or added to
e.g. out of the question / out of question ?
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ACTIVITIES

Write your own essay draft: analyse topic, find idea,

organise ideas
Topic: My nursing experience during last semesters
by incorporating academic word list and collocation

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