CAMBRIDGE Collocations Advanced How words work together for fluent and natural English Self-study and classroom use Felicity O'Dell Michael McCarthy English Sin Use Advanced ~~~ How words work together for fluent and natural English Self-study and Classroom use Felicity O'Dell Michael McCarthy is] CAMBRIDGE Sf) UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, So Paulo, Delhi Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK www.org Information on this title: www.org/9780521707800 © Cambridge University Press 2008 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. 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Contents Acknowledgements 3 Using this book 4 Learning about collocations 1 Introducing collocations 2 Strong, fixed and weak collocations 3 Grammatical categories of collocation 4 Using your dictionary and other resources 5 Finding and working on collocations in texts 6 Register Varieties of collocations 7 Metaphor foot the bill, heavy burden, run into trouble 8 Intensifying and softening adverbs deeply offensive, spotlessly clean, wildly inaccurate 9 Make and verbs that mean make make a contribution, make a habit of, turn in a profit 10 Communicating generally speaking, talk business, get a message across 11 Collocations with phrasal verbs take up office, work up an appetite, see off an intruder Topics: work and study 12 Working life make a living, take up a post, move up the ladder 13 New employment fit the job description, land a new job, menial tasks 14 Thoughts and ideas bear in mind, widespread belief, jump to conclusions 15 Business reports fierce competition, stimulate growth, hike in prices 16 Customer services fit for purpose, kick up a fuss, grounds for complaint 17 Student life gifted child, mature student, thirst for knowledge 18 Writing essays, assignments and working hypothesis, confront issues, critical analysis reports Topics: leisure and lifestyle 19 Social life call for a celebration, social whirl, play host to 20 Talking juicy gossip, broach the subject, opening gambit 21 News declare independence, reach agreement, bow to pressure 22 Current affairs refuse point-blank, decline to comment, gauge reaction 23 Festivals and celebrations date back to, movable feast, propose a toast 24 Advertisements and fashion set the trend, fashion victim, flawless complexion 25 Traffic and driving lengthy delays, grind the gears, bear left 26 Travel and adventure get itchy feet, off the beaten track, leg of the journey 27 Sport keep in shape, reach fever pitch, score an own goal 28 Plans and decisions toy with an idea, tentative suggestion, deciding factor 29 Film and book reviews star-studded cast, glowing reviews, hold one’s attention English Collocations in Use Advanced | Topics: the modern world 30 Regulations and authority minimise danger, grant permission, faceless bureaucrats 31 The environment dump waste, searing heat, offset carbon emissions 32 Town and country life back of beyond, rural idyll, urban regeneration 33 Personal finance clear one’s debts, agreed credit limit, identity theft 34 The economy curb inflation, safeguard one’s interests, plummeting profits 35 Social issues antisocial behaviour, dysfunctional family, unfit for human habitation 36 Science and technology harness technology, cutting edge design, wireless hotspots 37 Health and medicine build up resistance, adverse reaction, shake off a cold 38 Criminal justice custodial sentences, beyond reasonable doubt, trumped-up charges 39 War and peace deploy troops, pre-emptive strike, collateral damage Topics: people 40 Friendship lifelong friends, platonic relationship, heal the rift 41 Youth and age child prodigy, go through a midlife crisis, senior moment 42 Celebrities and heroes go into rehab, kiss and tell, heap praise on 43 Criticising people bone idle, poison the atmosphere, nasty piece of work 44 References act as a referee, accumulate experience, financial acumen 45 Appearance and personality boundless energy, stubborn streak, act one’s age Basic concepts 46 Time and space cramped conditions, waste of space, go down in history 47 Sound husky voice, incessant noise, let out a cry 48 Making things easier viable options, simplicity itself, take the easy way out 49 Difficulty severe blow, hinder progress, encounter difficulties 50 Quantity and size finite number, endless supply, unknown quantity 51 Change sweeping changes, would make a change, sudden shift Functions 52 Stopping and starting bring a halt to, close off a street, dispel rumours 53 Cause and effect root cause, provoke an outcry, dire consequences 54 Describing groups and amounts swarm of bees, flurry of activity, stroke of genius 55 Comparing and contrasting bear little resemblance to, polar opposites, draw a comparison between 56 Making an effort give it one’s best shot, abortive attempt, worth a try 57 Social English not lose any sleep, to be brutally honest, be on the go 58 Discussing issues make a commitment, give a straight answer, miss the point 59 Negative situations and feelings nasty shock, take exception to, suffer at the hands of 60 Positive situations and feelings sense of achievement, state of euphoria, derive pleasure from Key 126 Index 162 2 English Collocations in Use Advanced Acknowledgements The authors wish above all to thank their editors at Cambridge University Press, especially Caroline Thiriau and Frances Disken whose expertise and unfailing guidance and encouragement have supported the project from beginning to end.
We also thank Alyson Maskell for all her professional skills in steering the book through its final stages. Linda Matthews, too, deserves our thanks for organising the production schedules for the book. We must also thank the Corpus team at Cambridge University Press for their help in providing lists of frequent collocation errors made by learners taking advanced exams. Special thanks also must go to Liz Walter for her invaluable feedback and suggestions while we were compiling the lists of collocations.
Also, as always, we thank our domestic partners for their patience and support during the writing of this book. We have also received invaluable feedback from both students and teachers. Their comments have had a great influence on the final manuscript and we are very grateful to them. In particular, we would like to thank the following teachers from all over the world who have reviewed the material throughout its development: Garan Holcombe, UK Terry Nelson, Korea Brendan O’Se, Ireland Paul Pauwels, Belgium Artur Polit, UK Mark Tondeur, UK Produced by Kamae Design, Oxford Illustrations by Kathy Baxendale, Jo Blake, Robert Calow, David Mostyn and Sam Thompson English Collocations in Use Advanced 3 Using this book What is a collocation? Collocation means a natural combination of words; it refers to the way English words are closely associated with each other.
For example, pay and attention go together, as do commit and crime; blond goes with hair and heavy with rain. Why learn collocations? You need to learn collocations because they will help you to speak and write English in a more natural and accurate way. People will probably understand what you mean if you talk about making a crime or say there was very hard rain this morning, but your language will sound unnatural and might perhaps confuse. Did you mean that there was a lot of rain or perhaps that there was a hailstorm? Learning collocations will also help you to increase your range of English vocabulary.
For example, you’ll find it easier to avoid words like very or nice or beautiful or get by choosing a word that fits the context better and has a more precise meaning. This is particularly useful if you are taking a written exam in English and want to make a good impression on the examiners. In advanced level exams, marks are often specifically awarded for the appropriate handling of collocation. At an advanced level an appreciation of collocation can also be helpful in terms of appreciating other writers’ use of language.
Skilled users of the language may choose to create effects by varying the normal patterns of collocation, with the aim of either startling or amusing their audience. This technique is particularly popular with poets, journalists and advertisers. From an appreciation of the way in which creative writers play with language, you may then even want to move on to use words in more original ways yourself. You are more likely to be able to do this effectively if you have assimilated the standard patterns of language use presented in this book.
How were the collocations in this book selected? The collocations presented in this book were all selected from those identified as significant by the CANCODE corpus of spoken English, developed at the University of Nottingham in association with Cambridge University Press, and the Cambridge International Corpus of written and spoken English. We also made extensive use of the Cambridge Learner Corpus, a corpus of student language which showed us what kind of collocation errors learners tend to make. These corpora show that there are many thousands of collocations in English. So how could we select which ones would be most useful for you to work on in this book? Firstly, of course, we wanted to choose ones that you might want to use in your own written and spoken English.
So, in the unit Health and medicine we include, for example, shake off a cold and respond well to treatment but not grumbling appendix, which is a strong collocation, but one which — we hope — most of you will not feel the need for. Secondly, we decided it would be most useful for you if we focused on those collocations which are not immediately obvious. A pretty girl, a modern car or to buy a ticket are all collocations, but they are combinations which you can easily understand and produce yourself without any problems. So we deal here with less obvious word combinations, for instance, flatly contradict (not steengly contradict) and bitter enemies (not serious enemies).
4 English Collocations in Use Advanced Some of you may have already used our English Collocations in Use Intermediate. In general, we have tried to avoid focusing on collocations that we dealt with in that book. The one exception is with collocations that the Cambridge Learner Corpus highlighted as causing frequent problems for students, even in advanced level exams. We felt that it would be useful to draw attention to such collocations again, even if we had dealt with them previously.
Idioms can be seen as one type of collocation. We deal with them separately in English Idioms in Use, and so do not focus on them here. How is the book organised? The book has 60 two-page units. The left-hand page presents the collocations that are focused on in the unit.
You will usually find examples of collocations in typical contexts with, where appropriate, any special notes about their meaning and their usage. The right-hand page checks that you have understood the information on the left-hand page by giving you a series of exercises that practise the material just presented. The units are organised into different sections. First we start with important information relating to learning about collocations in general.
Then there is a section focusing on different types of collocation. The rest of the book deals with collocations that relate to particular topics such as Student life and Film and book reviews, concepts such as Sound or Difficulty and functions such as Cause and effect or Comparing and contrasting. The book has a key to all the exercises and an index which lists all the collocations we deal with, and indicates the units where they can be found. How should I use this book?