Collocation and Extended Meanings

Abstract

Collocation can contribute to economic and systematic processing of significant linguistic topics, i.e., metaphor, metonymy and anomaly. Generalizing the application as well as the concept of collocation, this paper shows an efficient computational theory of collocation is feasible. An over-all picture of collocation can be captured through a view of collocation as continuum, e.g., a frozenness cline. Frozenness entails two kinds of expectation: rule-based and use-based expectation. The frozenness continuum is partitioned in terms of a 'collocational space' and partial functions which enable even the composition of meanings of frozen expressions.