In class this morning we did a little exercise to generate collocations, which we could then analyse and correct. In each case we started with nouns and then tried to add verbs and adjectives. Firstly we came up with the adjectives MAJOR, BASIC, IMPORTANT, CRUCIAL, VITAL, ESSENTIAL, and INFLUENTIAL to collocate with the noun FACTOR (MAJOR, CRUCIAL, and VITAL are all listed in the Oxford Collocations Dictionary). ADDRESS was suggested as verb, but more common collocations are CONSIDER and TAKE INTO ACCOUNT. We came up with some great verbs to collocate with PROBLEM - HAVE, SOLVE, ENCOUNTER, DEAL WITH, and even STUMBLE UPON, but our adjectives (striking, difficult, and sensitive) weren't so good...upon further consideration we decided that SERIOUS was more appropriate. Then Abdullah started talking about FORTY WINKS so we had to move on...Some nice collocations we produced at speed were:
- CARRY OUT GROUND-BREAKING RESEARCH
- PROTECT AND ENDANGERED ENVIRONMENT
- AN EASY TARGET
- COMMISSION RESEARCH
...but we didn't like these:
- have a public experiment
- study a prolonged study
- invent precise assessment
Do you have any better suggestions?
3 comments:
I will suggest :
1- conduct medical experiment.
2- take up independent study.
3- give precise assessment
:)
I would suggest:
make an experiment
involve in a prolonged study
give objective assessment
Have a look in a collocations dictionary (you can do so online via this link: http://llohe-ocd.appspot.com/) and you can find much better collocations for EXPERIMENT (it actually collocates with "do" rather than "make"). With "involve" I wonder if you were thinking of BE INVOLVED IN...
Post a Comment