A study on common errors related to the usage of DO and MAKE collocations by english non major students at thai nguyen university of economics and business administration (TUEBA)

To improve my own teaching of English at TUEBA To achieve these aims, the following objectives are pursued forward:  Establishing the types of errors related to DO and MAKE collocations

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

- 

-PHẠM THỊ NGÀ

A STUDY ON COMMON ERRORS RELATED TO THE

USAGE OF DO AND MAKE COLLOCATIONS BY ENGLISH

NON-MAJOR STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHỮNG LỖI THƯỜNG GẶP TRONG VIỆC DÙNG QUÁN NGỮ

CHỨA ĐỘNG TỪ DO VÀ MAKE CỦA SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH

Ở TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH TẾ & QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH THÁI NGUYÊN)

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS CODE: 60.22.15

Hanoi - 2012

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

- 

-PHẠM THỊ NGÀ

A STUDY ON COMMON ERRORS RELATED TO THE

USAGE OF DO AND MAKE COLLOCATIONS BY ENGLISH

NON-MAJOR STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHỮNG LỖI THƯỜNG GẶP TRONG VIỆC DÙNG QUÁN NGỮ

CHỨA ĐỘNG TỪ DO VÀ MAKE CỦA SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH

Ở TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH TẾ & QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH THÁI NGUYÊN)

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS CODE: 60.22.15

SUPERVISOR: ASSOC PROF DR VÕ ĐẠI QUANG

Ha noi - 2012

TABLE OF CONTENT

Page

Part A: INTRODUCTION ……… 1

1 Rationale of the study ……… … 2

2 Aims and objectives of the study ……….……… 2

3 Scope of the study ……… …… … 2

4 Significance of the study ……… ………… … 3

5 Structure of the study ……….……… ………… … 3

Part B: DEVELOPMENT ……… ……….…… 4

Chapter 1: Literature Review 1.1 Review of previous studies related to the research area of the thesis … 5

1.1.1 Related research 1……… … 5

1.1.2 Related research 2 ……… 5

1.1.3 Related research 3 ……… 5

1.1.4 Related research 4 ……… 6

1.1.5 Related research 5 ……… 6

1.1.6 Related research 6 ……… 6

1.1.7 Related research 7 ……… 7

1.1.8 Related research 8 ……… …… 7

1.1.9 Related research 9 ……… 8

1.1.10 Related research 10 ……… 9

2 Theoretical background ……… …… 10

2.1 Collocations ……… 10

2.2 Types of collocations ……… …… … 13

2.3 Characteristics of collocations ……… ………… 16

2.4 Collocations, free compounds, and idioms ……… 17

2.5 Collocations with Do and Make ……… ……… 20

3 Summary ……… 27

Chapter 2: Methodology 27 2.1 Research – governing principles……… ……… … … 28

2.1.1 Research questions ……….………….………… 28

2.1.2 Sampling ……… ……… 28

2.1.3 Research setting……….…… … 28

2.1.4 Research types……….…… … 28

2.1.5 Research approaches ……… ……… 29

2.1.6 Principle/criteria for intended data collection and data analysis ……… 29

2.2 Research methods……… 30

2.2.1 Major methods and supporting methods ……… 30

2.2.2 Research procedure ……… 30

2.2.3 Data collection instruments ……….……… 31

2.2.4 Data analysis techniques ……… 33

2.3 Summary ……….…… 33

Chapter 3: Analysis, Findings and Discussion ……… … 34

3.1.Criteria for classification of the findings……….… 34

3.2.Finding 1 & Discussion on this finding……… … 34

3.3.Finding 2 & Discussion on this finding……… ….……. 36

3.4.Finding 3 & Discussion on this finding……… …. 38

3.5.Summary ……….……….… 40

Part C: CONCLUSION ……….……… 41

1 Recapitulation……… …… 42

2 Concluding remarks……… …… 42

2.1 Concluding remarks on objective 1……… … 42

2.1.1 Objective 1 restated 42

2.1.2 Remarks ……… ……… 42

2.2 Concluding remarks on objective 2……… 43

2.2.1 Objective 2 restated……… …….… 43

2.2.2 Remarks……… … 43

2.3 Concluding remarks on objective 3……….…… 43

2.3.1 Objective 3 restated……… … 43

2.3.2 Remarks……….……… 43

3 Limitations of the study ……….…….… 45

4 Suggestions for further studies ……….…… 45

REFERENCES ……… …… … 46

Appendix 4: Tables of the collocations under investigation …….… … … XI

List of abbreviations

CALD: Cambridge Advanced Learners‟ Dictionary

CUP: Cambridge University Press

OCD: Oxford Collocations Dictionary

OCU: Oxford Collocations in Use

OUP: Oxford University Press

TUEBA: Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration

List of Tables

Table 1: Collocations under investigation in the thesis

Table 2: Nouns as object constituent in DO collocations

Table 3: Nouns as object constituent in MAKE collocations

Table 4: A summary of the results of the test on learners‟ understanding of DO

meanings

Table 5: A summary of the results of the test on learners‟ understanding of MAKE

meanings

Table 6: A summary of the results of the test on learners‟ understanding of nouns

as object constituent in DO collocations

Table 7: A summary of the results of the test on learners‟ understanding of nouns

as object constituent in MAKE collocations

Table 8: A summary of the results of the test on learners‟ use of both DO and

MAKE

Definition of key technical terms

In this thesis, the key technical terms are to be employed in the senses as statedbelow:

i Error = Misuse or breach of the code arising from incompetence in the target language

ii Context = the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood (Oxford Dictionary)

iii Pragmatic meaning = Meaning in context

iv Collocation= a group of words or phrase which is frequently used withanother word or phrase, in a way that sounds correct to people who have spoken thelanguage all their lives, but might not be expected from the meaning (CALD, 2005)

3

Part A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

“No piece of natural spoken or written English is totally free of collocation” (OCD,2009) Therefore, learning collocation is important for EFL learners For students,choosing the right collocation will make his/her speech and writing sound muchmore natural, more native-speaker-like Poor collocation in exams is also likely tolead to lower marks However, during the time working as a teacher of English atThai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration (TUEBA), Ihave found out that English non- major students at different levels often makemistakes in using DO and MAKE collocations For this reason, I decided to choosethis as the theme for my MA thesis

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The ultimate purposes of the research are:

i To help English non-major students gain an insight into DO and MAKE collocations

ii To examine the influenced factors to possible errors made by the studentsiii To improve my own teaching of English at TUEBA

To achieve these aims, the following objectives are pursued forward:

 Establishing the types of errors related to DO and MAKE collocations

commonly committed by English non-major students at TUEBA

 Finding out the causes of students‟ errors related to the usage of DO and

MAKE collocations

 Working out possible solutions to the problems encountered by students in using collocations with DO and MAKE

3 Scope of the study

The survey was conducted at TUEBA The population was not large, only 300Accounting students who were at pre-intermediate level of English Only errors

related to the uses of DO and MAKE collocations in the form of “verb + noun”

pattern were taken into consideration

4 Significance of the study

It is much to the author‟s expectation that the research results will help studentsgain a more insightful look into English MAKE and DO collocations And, onaccount of this, well-formed utterances containing DO and MAKE collocationsmight be produced And, this constitutes the practical value of the research

5 Structure of the thesis

The thesis consists of three main parts: Part A, B and C Part A is an introduction that gives a rationale behind the study It also presents the aims, objectives, the significance as well as scope of the study Part B is divided into three chapters; chapter 1 both reviewed some previous studies related to the research area of the thesis and provides theoretical background to the concerning matters In chapter 2, the methodology of the thesis including research-governing principles and research methods are introduced Chapter 3 analyzes data collected from the students‟ tests Additionally, some significant findings of the study are written up and discussed Part C concludes the main issues which dealt with in the previous parts

Accordingly, some concluding remarks are drawn out

Part B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1

LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Review of previous studies related to the research area of the thesis

Prior to this thesis, there have been the following related studies:

1.1.1 Related research 1

- Title of the research: Applying semantic theory into vocabulary teaching

- Issue raised: The researcher carried out the study to examine collocational

knowledge of eight advanced EFL learners of English

- Contribution: The results showed that these students did not succeed in completing

a collocational grid that included adjective-noun collocations although vocabulary wasnot a problematic matter The researcher emphazised that presenting highly frequentcollocates for learners when they start is really important

- Contribution: The researcher came to such a conclusion that there was asignificant positive relationship between learners‟ general knowledge of vocabularyand their knowledge of collocations The knowledge of the learners‟ on receptivecollocation tasks of was better than their productive ones, and the learner haddifficulty with some collocation categories, such as adjective-noun collocations incomparison with others

1.1.3 Related research 3

- Title of the research: Research methods in education and psychology: Integrating diversity with quantitative & qualitative approaches

- Issues raised: By using two instruments: pretreatment and post-treatment translationtests, Marton investigated Polish learners‟ knowledge of collocations and

their abilities to use them

- Contribution: The researcher found that there were no significant differences inthe participants‟ scores on the two translation tests, which confirmed learners‟ poorproductive knowledge of collocations Marton, therefore, concluded that learners‟limited exposure to collocation could not improve their productive knowledge ofthose structures

1.1.4 Related research 4

- Title of the research: The Acquisition of Basic Collocations by Japanese Learners

of English

-Issues raised: In Matsuno and Sugiura‟s study, the researcher probed the question

of whether the collocational expressions of L1 Japanese learners of Englishresemble those of native speakers Two types of corpora were used to compare theperformance of the two groups The Japanese learners were asked to write about acertain topic as fast as possible and they were allowed to use dictionaries

- Contribution: The researcher‟s conclusions also confirmed that Japanese learners

of English were poor at collocational knowledge

1.1.5 Related research 5

- Title of the research: Should we teach EFL students collocations

- Issues raised: The pretreatment and post-treatment translation tests, consisting of atranslation task and a gap-filling task were conducted among advanced learners ofEnglish with German as a native language

- Contribution: The study showed that the students‟ knowledge of collocations hadnot developed at the same rate as their knowledge of vocabulary in general

1.1.6 Related research 6

- Title of the research: Prefabricated patterns in Advanced EFL writing: collocations and formulae in A P Cowie (ed.): Phraeology Theory, analysis and applications

- Issues raised: The researcher investigated the role of the first language and

acquisition of collocations among French learners of English

- Contribution: Granger‟s study confirmed the important role that learners‟ L1 plays

in the use and acquisition of collocations In this study, the researcher studied thedifference between native speakers of English and French learners of English in

producing English collocations, in particular adjective amplifiers, such as totally and highly It was found that amplifiers with direct translation equivalents in French

were the most frequent ones She attributed that finding to the L1 positive transferthat facilitated learners‟ acquisition of the similar amplifiers to their L1 (French)

1.1.7 Related research 7

- Title of the research: Do English language learners know collocations?

- Issues raised: Martynska conducted the study of English collocation competenciesamong intermediate high school Polish students To collect data, the researcher useddifferent types of tests, for example, matching, a completion, circling the correct option,and identifying and correcting errors in underlined parts of sentences

- Contribution: The findings showed that the students performed poorly on all tasks.One important result was that their collocation competence did not depend on the length

of time of learning English because the student studying English for a short timeperformed better on the English tests than those who studied English for longer time.Moreover, in comparison between two types of task, it was found that some students gothigher scores on the multiple-choice tasks but lower scores on the completion tasks Thisconfirmed that the production of collocation among the students was much lower thantheir receptive skills Therefore, more attention to collocations when teaching Englishshould be paid in the teaching and learning process

1.1.8 Related research 8

- Title of the research: The acquisition of collocation by Turkish EFL learners.

- Issues raised: Elyildirm examined the comprehension and production of the targetcollocations of the first language (L1) Turkish learners of English By using three

10

collocation tests: correct or incorrect test, translation test and a gap-filling testincluding two collocation categories, i.e verb-noun collocations and adjective-nouncollocations,

- Contribution: The researcher found that the negative influence of L1 on theproduction of collocations was quite clear In fact, participants tended to generalizeunfamiliar combinations in reference to the familiar ones that learners frequentlyencountered in the textbook Learners also have a tendency to incorrectly overgeneralizetheir L1 collocational knowledge with unknown collocations, which resulted in L1negative transfer The researcher also confirmed that acquiring collocations that have L1equivalent was easier than that of acquiring collocations that have no L1 equivalents.Additionally, comparing two types of test it was observed that the participants performedbetter on the adjective-noun collocation test than verb-noun-collocation test, which theyfound to be more difficult The researcher recommended the teaching of commoncollocations and suggested learners to spend much time reading and listening to improvetheir knowledge of collocations instead of avoiding them

verb-learners‟ L1 on the production of collocations

- Contribution: The research showed that the highest rate of mistakes occurs incombination with a medium degree of restriction in combination where the verb onlytakes a few nouns, they are less aware of restrictions in combination where the verb takes

a wider range of nouns And, in free combinations and idioms, only a few minor types ofmistakes that were not observed in the analysis of collocation

11

were identified The findings pointed out that the major types of mistakes thatoccurred were the same as in collocation The degree of restriction does not have amajor influence on the types and amount of mistakes learners make, except thatcollocations with a low degree of restriction are the most difficult kind ofcombination for the learners In short, the results showed that almost a quarter of thecombinations contained one or several mistakes with non-lexical elements like thearticles and prepositions belonging to a combination, not only verb-nounmismatches However, the most common type of mistake was the wrong choice ofverbs Therefore, the researcher recommended that teachers should focus on theverb in the teaching of verb-noun collocations.

1.1.10 Related research 10

- Title of the research: A study of collocation behaviors on lexical pragmatics

- Issues raised: The study described how collocation behaviors of near synonymscan be recognized from contextual usage data in corpora to improve L2 lexical meaning.Concordance and computational techniques were used to analyze collocates in corpora.Three transitive verb; cause, promote and commit in students‟

corpus were analyzed to explore the potential of lexical collocation information, and

to observe their collocation behaviors and pragmatic implications

- Contribution: The study showed that the use of collocation profile as an effectiveinstrument in recognizing and learning semantic meaning and pragmatic implications oflexical items was necessary The findings suggested that it could be beneficial for L2learners to observe the collocates of near synonyms so that recognition of pragmaticcharacteristics could help improve their lexical usage

Taken together, these studies focused on studying collocations in use, and examinedlearners‟ competence of using English collocations The instruments used to collectresults were mainly the application of different tests It could be said that the use oftests was effective for researchers to evaluate learners‟ errors on using collocations.Most of the researchers reached conclusions that collocation knowledge of learnersstudying English as foreign language was insufficient and teaching or learning

collocations should be paid more attention due to the assumption that collocation teaching and learners‟ development of their collocation competence are necessary and important in order to achieve the globalized standards of English My research differs from these previous studies in the following ways;

- First, its scale was much narrower and more specific and limited in a small piece

of language use, but directly relevant to students‟ collocation learning

- Second, the research was carried out in the real EFL classroom where Vietnamese

is the learners‟ native language

- Finally, the study investigated errors related to the usage of collocations by

examining the use of each element

2 Theoretical background

2.1 Definitions of “collocation”

Forming a precise definition of collocation is not easy, though there is a vastliterature on this subject because there are both conflicting definitions andconflicting terminologies: „Regrettably, collocation is a term which is used andunderstood in many different ways‟ (Bahns, 1993:57)

There have been a lot of ideas when considering the term „collocation‟ Differentlinguists have their own ways to define what a collocation is A collocation ismainly considered as a lexical relationship between words It is assumed that wordsreceive their meanings from words they occur with One of the works should be

noticed is Second Interim Report on English Collocation (1933) by H.E.Palmer who

is considered the first linguist to use the term Collocation in the present-day sense.

According to Palmer, collocation is defined as word combinations containing one ormore words having meanings only in that collocation According to Halliday(1966:152), collocation is one of the main components and central part in his lexico-grammatical system He defines collocation as syntagmatic relation of words which

is linear co-occurrence together with some measure of significant proximity

It is a sequence of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected

by chance In phraseology, collocation is a sub-type of phraseme An example of aphraseological collocation, given by Michael Halliday, is the expression „strongtea‟ Although the expression „powerful tea‟ could be roughly conveyed the samemeaning, it is considered incorrect by English speakers Or the correspondingexpression for computer, „powerful computers‟ is widely used rather than „strongcomputers‟

In his study, Greenbaum approaches collocation as an integration between lexis andgrammar which are different in lexical and syntactic patterning but interrelated

“Collocation meaning is changed according to different syntactic patterning”(Greenbaum, 1960:12) The term „collocation‟ introduced by Firth (1957) is oftendefined as a characteristic word combination whose lexical constituents developed

an idiomatic relation based on their frequent co-occurrence According to Cruse,

1984 a collocation, along with a lexeme and an idiom, is a kind of lexical item and

is “Sequences of lexical items, which habitually co-occur, but which are nonethelessfully transparent in the sense that each lexical constituent is also a semanticconstituent” (Cruse, 1986:40) Although there are a variety of views on the concept

of collocation, variously defining it as a lexical, grammatical or researchphenomenon, all contain a focus on the co-occurrence of words According toMicheal Mc Carthy and Felicity O‟Dell (2005:4)

“a collocation is a pair or group of words that are often used together These combinations sound natural to native speakers, but students of English have to make a special effort to learn them because they are often difficult to guess Some combinations just sound 'wrong to native speakers of English For example, the adjective fast collocates with cars, but not with a glance.”

Cambridge Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (CALD, 2005) defines collocation as

„a word or phrase which is frequently used with another word or phrase, in a

way that sounds correct to people who have spoken the language all their lives, but might not be expected from the meaning In the phrase 'a hard

frost', 'hard' is a collocation of 'frost' and 'strong' would not sound natural‟

or „the combination of words formed when two or more words are frequently used together in a way that sounds correct but difficult to guess.‟

Here are some different definitions given by Oxford Collocations Dictionary (2009)(OCD)

“- The habitual juxtaposition of a particular word with another word or words with frequency greater than chance

- A pair or group of words that are juxtaposed in such a way

- the action of placing things side by side or in position”

- A grouping of words in a sentence

- Juxtaposition: the act of positioning close together (or side by side); "it is the result of the juxtaposition of contrasting colors"

- (Collocate) have a strong tendency to occur side by side; "The words 'new' and 'world' collocate"

- (Collocate) group or chunk together in a certain order or place side by side

- Within the area of corpus linguistics, collocation defines a sequence of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance.

- Collocation is a procedure used in remote sensing to match measurements from two or more different instruments.

- The grouping or juxtaposition of things especially words or sounds

- The tendency for words to occur regularly with others: sit/chair,

house/garage.

- The phenomenon of words/lexical items tending to co-occur in close proximity to one another in spoken/written discourse (i.e habitual or greater-than- chance co-selection of words).

- The likelihood that a particular word will occur in the neighborhood of another word.

- The action of setting in place, especially arranging in relation to others.

- Group of words associated together as an expression in the lexicon Our

class has decided "in this particular case" is a collocation in McGowan's idiolect.

- A collocation consists of two or more words that are commonly associated

in a particular language, such as „read about‟ or „white lies‟ A word may take on a specific meaning when collocated with certain other words.

- Refers to how words occur together regularly and in a restricted way – e.g blonde hair, lean meat, etc.

Although there are different ways to define what collocation is, these definitionsshare a common view that a collocation is a word or phrase used frequently in acombination but it is not easy for learners to guess

be considered as lexical collocation and 29 grammatical (she thus largely acceptsthe structural view of collocation) A lexical collocation is a type of constructionwhere a verb, noun, adjective or adverb forms a predictable connection with anotherword, as in:

Adverb + Adjective: e.g completely satisfied (NOT downright satisfied)

Adjective + Noun: e.g excruciating pain (NOT excruciating joy)

Noun + Verb: e.g lions roar (NOT lions shout)

Verb + Noun: e.g commit suicide (NOT undertake suicide)

 Grammatical collocations

A grammatical collocation is a type of construction where, for example, a verb or anadjective must be followed by a particular preposition, or a noun must be followed

by a particular form of the verb, as in:

Verb + Preposition: e.g depend on (NOT depend of)

Adjective + Preposition: e.g afraid of (NOT afraid at)

Noun + Particular form of verb: e.g strength to lift it (not strength lifting it)

By Michael Mc Carthy and Felicity O‟Dell (2005: 9-12), collocations are classified

as following;

- Adjectives and nouns

Some adjectives are typically used with particular nouns

“Jean always wears red or yellow or some other bright colour.”

“We had a brief chat about the exams but didn't have time to discuss them properly.”

- Nouns and verbs

Some nouns and verbs often go together The following examples are all to do with economics and business

“The economy boomed in the 1990s.” [the economy was very strong]

“The company has grown and now employs 50 more people than last year.”

“The company has expanded and now has branches in most major cities.”

“The two companies merged in 2003 and now form one very large

corporation.”

“The company launched the product in 2002 [introduced the

product]” “The price increase poses a problem for us [is a problem]”

“The Internet has created opportunities for our business, [brought new opportunities]” Mc Carthy, M & Felicity O‟Dell, F (2005:12)

- Noun + noun

There are a lot of collocations with the pattern a of

“As Sam read the lies about him, he felt a surge of anger, [literary: a sudden angry feeling]”

“Every parent feels a sense of pride when their child does well or wins something.”

“I felt a pang of nostalgia when I saw the old photos of the village where I grew up.”

Mc Carthy, M & Felicity O‟Dell, F (2005:12)

- Verbs and expressions with prepositions

Some verbs collocate with particular prepositional expressions

“As Jack went on stage to receive his gold medal for the judo competition you could see his parents swelling with pride, [looking extremely proud]”

“I was filled with horror when I read the newspaper report of the explosion.”

“When she spilt juice on her new skirt the little girl burst into tears,

[suddenly started crying]”

Mc Carthy, M & Felicity O‟Dell, F (2005:12)

- Verbs and adverbs

Some verbs have particular adverbs which regularly collocate with them

“She pulled steadily on the rope and helped him to safety, [pulled firmly and evenly]”

“He placed the beautiful vase gently on the window ledge.”

„I love you and want to marry you,' Derek whispered softly to Marsha.

“She smiled proudly as she looked at the photos of her new grandson.” Mc Carthy, M & Felicity O‟Dell, F (2005:12)

- Adverbs and adjectives

Adjectives often have particular adverbs which regularly collocate with them

“They are happily married.”

“I am fully aware that there are serious problems [I know well]”

“Harry was blissfully unaware that he was in danger [Harry had no idea at all, often used about something unpleasant]”

Mc Carthy, M & O‟Dell, F (2005:12)

"kick the bucket" is Like "kick the bucket", most collocations which are very fixed form

a particular expected meaning rather than a structure

- A less fixed collocation is often a more structural - common pattern that helpsstructure a sentence but don't carry as much specific meaning by itself For example, this

is a commonly used structural pattern into which you can insert a variety of words andstill have commonly used patterns:

 Let's move on to the next point

 Let's go back to the last chapter

 Let's move away from this paragraph

 Let's look at tomorrow's homework

 Let's go on to the main point

19

Another example is “take a photo”, where no word other than take collocates with photo to give the same meaning Some collocations are more open, where several different words may be used to give a similar meaning, for example, “keep to/stick

to the rules.”

On the other hand, there are some less fixed collocations which are not as clearlystructural Words that are commonly used with other words are examples of lessfixed collocations which are not as structural in nature So for example, we use

"bus" and "car" with only certain sets of other words:

We say "get on a bus"/"climb on a bus" but usually not "enter a bus" or "get in a bus" However, we say "get in a car".

We say "take the bus"/"ride the bus"/"go there on the bus" but usually not "We can drive there on the bus" However we say "We can drive there in her car."

Degree of predictability

According to J R Firth, collocation can be classified as strong or weak due to thedegree of predictability in their association If we look deeper into collocations, wefind that not only do the words "go together" but there is a degree of predictability

in their association Generally, in any collocation, one word will "call up" anotherword in the mind of a native speaker In other words, if one word appears, we canpredict the other word, with varying degrees of success This predictability is notperfectly understandable, but it is always much higher than with non-collocates.The predictability may be strong: for example "auspicious" collocates with very few

words, as in: auspicious occasion, auspicious moment, and auspicious event Or the

predictability may be weak: for example, "circuit" collocates with a lot of words, as

in: racing circuit, lecture circuit, talk-show circuit, short circuit, closed circuit…

2.4 Collocations, free compounds, and idioms

In order to determine learners‟ difficulties with collocations, it is necessary todelimitate collocations from other types of word combination In his book, apractical guide to lexicography, Piet Van Sterkenburg assumed that if the userwants to look up a multiple-word item and his general- purpose dictionary does not

provide sufficient information, he has to decide whether the lexical unit in question

is to be classified as a collocation, an idiom or a phrasal verb in order to choose theright reference work Therefore, delimitating collocation from other types of wordcombinations would be useful for learners of foreign language In this paper, the

“collocation” is used to denote a type of word combinations This part mainlyfocused on three kinds of word combinations: collocations, free word combinationand idiom

Idioms are: „multi-word items that are not the sum of their parts: they have holisticmeanings which cannot be retrieved from the individual meanings of the component

words (Moon, 1997:46), for example, spill the beans However „idioms are by no

means as fixed as conventional accounts suggest‟

Collocation as mentioned above, however, corresponds to a conventionalcombinations of words, which are not necessary contiguous and whose meaning isroughly speaking compositional Conventional combinations mean that nativespeakers recognize such combinations as the „correct‟ way of expressing aparticular concept For instance, substituting one term of a collocation with asynonym or a near-synonym is usually felt by native speakers as being „not quite

right‟, although perfectly understandable For example, firing and burning are synonymous but firing ambition is different from burning ambition.

Free word combination can be defined as sequences of words that occur mostfrequently where the meaning of the whole is the sum of the meanings of itsconstituent words and any word of them can be substituted by a large class of

words (e.g., the noun murder can be used with many verbs: to analyze, boast of,

condemn, describe, film, forget, remember etc.) (Aisenstadt, 1979)

In addition, criteria to distinguish collocation from other types of combinations werediscussed here In fact, word combination is not clearly delimitable Differentresearchers have used different criteria but only the most widely accepted definingcriterion for collocation mentioned here is namely arbitrary restriction onsubstitutability In other words, a distinction is made in which a possible restriction

on the substitutability of elements is due to their semantic properties and acombination in which the restriction is to some degree arbitrary For example, we

have a combination between the verb read and a book (read a book) However, the substitution of read by drink (drink a book) in that combination is impossible or unusual because drink requires a noun with the semantic property of “liquid” and

read requires a noun with the semantic property of “containing written language” In

another combination, for example, make a decision, in contrast, decision can be substituted by a number of nouns such as, make a plan, make a point, make a profit, make a promise, make a remark, make a sound, make a speech This restriction

doesn‟t seem to be a result of the semantic properties of the two elementsconcerned, but a somewhat arbitrary convention on language However, it is oftendifficult to draw a distinction between semantic restriction and arbitrary restriction

In his research, Nadja stated that the distinction between these two types is evenimpossible to make with words which only combine with very few other words Theresearcher gave illustration of the combination „to dial a number‟ The meaning of

the verb dial is difficult to determine whether its meaning is so specific that it can combine with a number or whether there has an arbitrary restriction that dial cannot combine with radio station (not dial a radio station) Nadja created a notion called

„restricted sense‟, therefore, a sense of a verb is considered restricted if it appliesone of the two following criteria as follow,

 The sense of the verb is so specific that it allows combination with only a small set of nouns

 The verb cannot be used in this sense with all nouns that are syntactically

and semantically possible

The primary sense of the verbs DO and MAKE would be considered unrestrictedaccording to this definition because they can combine with a variety of nouns (do afavor, do harm, do business, do housework, and make a cake, make food, make afortune, make friends, make a fuss, make a journey…) and there are no arbitraryconstrains on its combinability

On the basic of this notion of restricted sense, three major classes of wordcombinations can be distinguished as following:

Free combination: the senses in which the verb and the noun are used are

unrestricted, so they can be freely combined according to these senses, for example,

want a book.

Collocations: The sense in which the noun is used is unrestricted, but the sense of

the verb used is restricted, so that the verb in the sense in which it is used could be

only combined with certain nouns E.g take a picture but take a film

Idioms: Both the verb and the noun used are in a restricted sense, so substitution is

either impossible or only possible to an extremely limited degree

Thus, a combination is classified as collocation if one of the criteria or both of themmentioned above applies to the verb or noun of the combination

2.5 Collocations with DO and MAKE

DO and MAKE are considered "light verbs" that lend relatively little semanticcontent For people who are learning English, or even who speak it moderatelywell, these two verbs present difficulties when it comes to many collocations Thispart attempts to clear up some of the most common doubts and errors As discussedabove, collocations with Do and Make can be grouped into lexical collocations with

the form as in: verb + noun, for example, do harm, make money… Some meanings

of these verbs are given by Cambridge Advanced Learners‟ Dictionary as follows:

 Usage of Do provided by Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

(CALD)

- To act or take action:

E.g "Was it wrong of me to go to the police?" "Oh no, I'm sure you did

right/did the right thing."

- To arrange something:

You've done those flowers beautifully.

- To be acceptable, suitable or enough (for):

Will this room do or would you prefer one with a shower?

This kind of behaviour just won't do.

- To provide or sell something, or to cause someone to have something: There's a special offer on and they're doing three for the price of two Do you do travel insurance

as well as flights?

The pub only does food at lunchtimes, not in the evenings.

- To cheat someone:

Fifty bucks for that old bike! You've been done!

He did me for a thousand quid for that car.

- To clean or tidy, or make something look attractive:

I want to do (= clean) the living room this afternoon

I cooked the dinner so you can do (= wash) the

dishes do your hair/make-up/nails

- To cook or prepare food:

Who's doing the food for your party?

- To deal with; to be responsible for:

Lucia is going to do the publicity for the school play.

If they ask any awkward questions, just let me do the talking.

If you say that you have done with something or someone, or have done performing

a particular action, you mean that you have finished what you were doing withsomething or someone, or what you were saying to someone, or that you havefinished the action:

Have you done with those scissors yet?

Where the hell are you going? I haven't done with you yet.

- To be unable to bear something, or to have no patience with it: I can't be doing with all this shouting and screaming Do as you would be done by.

- To happen:

This town is so boring in the evening - there's never anything doing.

24

- To make, produce or create something:

I can't come out tonight - I've got to do my history essay.

Can you do me 20 photocopies of this report/do 20 photocopies of this report for me?

- To develop or continue with the stated amount of success; to manage: Many shops

are doing badly because of the economic situation.

I did rather well when I traded in my car - they gave me a good price for

it Alexa has done well for herself (= has achieved great personal success), getting such a highly paid job.

- To perform, take part in or achieve something:

That was a really stupid thing to do.

Why were you sent home from school early? What have you done now? What are you doing over the weekend?

- To do sth about sth to take action to deal with something:

It's a global problem - what can individuals do about it?

- To have/not have a strong and positive effect on someone, or to be/not be

something or someone that they like or enjoy:

Watching that film really did something to me.

-To perform a play or to play the part of a character:

The children are doing a play at the end of term.

She's done all the important Shakespearean roles apart from Lady Macbeth

I hope she doesn't do a Helen (= do what Helen did) and get divorced six months after her wedding.

- To spend time in prison:

He did three years for his part in the robbery.

If you're not careful you'll end up doing time again.

- To punish someone:

If you mess with me again, I'll do you good and proper.

I got done (= stopped by the police) for speeding on my way home last night.

- To solve, or find the answer to something:

I've never been able to do crosswords/ to do a puzzle

- To enter a building illegally and steal from it: Our house was done while we were

away.

- To study a subject:

Diane did anthropology at university.

- To take an illegal drug:

- To travel a particular distance or to travel at a particular speed: It's an old car and it's done over 80 000 miles.

My new car does 50 miles to the gallon/30 km to the litre (= uses one gallon

of fuel to travel 50 miles, or one litre to travel 30 km).

We were doing 150 (km an hour) along the motorway.

- To complete a journey:

- To visit the interesting places in a town or country, or to look around an

interesting place:

We didn't manage to do Nice when we were in France.

 Usage of Make given by Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

(CALD, 2005)

- To arrive at or reach, especially successfully:

She made it to the airport just in time to catch her

plane He made it to the bed and then collapsed.

Could you make a meeting at 8 am? /Could you make 8 am for the meeting?

- To be or become something, usually by having the necessary characteristics:

I don't think he will ever make a (good) lawyer.

He's a competent enough officer, but I doubt he'll ever make general.

Champagne and caviar make a wonderful combination.

The story makes fascinating reading.

- To calculate as:

How much do you make the total?

I make the answer (to be) 105.6.

What do you make the time? /What time do you make it?

- To cause something:

The kids made such a mess in the kitchen.

The bullet made a hole right through his chest.

The photograph makes me look about 80!

- To cause to be, to become or to appear as:

It's the good weather that makes Spain such a popular tourist destination She had to shout to make herself heard above the sound of the music.

I'll have a steak - no, make that chicken.

- To take action so that you are certain that something happens, is true, etc: I'll just make sure I've turned the oven off.

Make certain (that) we have enough drink for the party.

I think I locked the door but I'll go back and check just to make sure.

- To produce something, often using a particular substance or material: Shall I make some coffee?

He'd made a chocolate cake

She makes all her own clothes.

 DO and MAKE with the same noun as object constituent but different meanings

DO and MAKE are two different lexical items; therefore, their meanings arespecific and not the same Based on the theory given in the previous part,

collocation of the verb do (e.g do time) is different from collocation of make (e.g make time) with regard to the meaning According to CALD, to do time means to be

a prisoner in prison, but to make time for an activity means to arrange one's agenda

so that there is enough time to do that activity Clearly, we cannot substitute do by make in the collocation to do time In other words, it seems unacceptable or wrong

to say to make time means to be a prisoner in prison, and to do time for an activity

means to arrange one's agenda so that there is enough time to do that activity Infact, it is difficult to say that the combination of a verb and a noun in a collocation iscorrect or wrong Native speaker norms seem to be particularly variable in the area

of collocations; speakers differ in what they find acceptable, individual speakers areoften uncertain about whether they find a combination acceptable or not Inaddition, there can be differences between the acceptability, judgments of speakersand their own uses The following examples are given to compare the meanings of a

pair of collocation with different verbs (do and make) but the same noun However,

their meanings in most cases are clearly differentiated as follows:

+„Do‟ for activities: „We use the verb 'do' to express daily activities or jobs These are usually activities that produce no physical object…‟ e.g do homework, do housework, do the ironing, do the dishes, do a job

+'Do' for General Ideas: „We use the verb 'do' when speaking about things in

general, in other words, when we do not exactly name an activity This form is

often used with the words 'something, nothing, anything, everything, etc.' e.g I'm not doing anything today.

He does everything for his mother.

She's doing nothing at the moment

+'Make' for Constructing, Building, Creating: „We use 'make' to express an activity that creates something that you can touch‟ E.g make food, make a cup of tea / coffee, and make a mess It is said that in light-verb constructions "make" implies an

active role by the subject, who causes something new to occur or come intoexistence from pre-existing material or a pre-existing situation or the normal course

of events However, "Do" implies that the subject is active, but fitting into a existing role.

pre-Cambridge Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary differentiates Do from Make as

following;

Do usually means to perform an activity or job

I should do more exercise vs I should make more exercise.

Make usually means to create or produce something.

Did you make the dress yourself? vs Did you do the dress yourself?

- Do one's best, make the best of:

If you do your best, it means you have acted correctly and that no-one can expect more from you

To make the best of a situation means to take as much advantage as possible from abad situation

- Do an experiment, make an experiment

Generally, one does an experiment in a laboratory

One makes an experiment when one tries out an idea to see if it works

- Do an operation on someone; make an operation

To do an operation means to operate medically on someone

To make an operation means to conclude a business transaction

- Do time, make time

To do time means to be a prisoner in prison

To make time for an activity means to arrange one's agenda so that there is enough time to do that activity

- Do (some) work, make work

If you do some work, you are working

You make work (for someone else, or for yourself) when your efforts are

counterproductive

3 Summary

This chapter provides general review of the related matters for the study It coverstwo main issues: literature review and theoretical background In the literaturereview, the researcher gives a brief summary of the research which has the sameissues to study The raised issues and the researchers‟ contributions are clearlyfigured out The theoretical background provides and discusses some acceptabledefinitions of collocation among researchers and linguists Although there aredifferent way to define what a collocation is, definitions of a collocation share onecommon characteristic that a collocation is the combination of words together, butthe meaning is difficult to guess, and collocations are important to become a native-like speaker Importantly, this chapter differentiates collocations from other types ofcombination This part also makes a difference between DO and MAKE.Accordingly, a lot of examples and usage are taken from reliable resources