Mr. Stockdale's Dictionary of Collocations

2586 Pages·2012·30.39 MB·English

DOCUMENT RESUME
FL 026 469
ED 447 693
Stockdale, Joseph Gagen, III
AUTHOR
Mr. Stockdale's Dictionary of Collocations.
TITLE
2000-00-00
PUB DATE
2583p.
NOTE
Vocabularies/Classifications (134)
Reference Materials
PUB TYPE
MF23/PC104 Plus Postage.
EDRS PRICE
Adult Education; *Classroom Techniques; Dictionaries;
DESCRIPTORS
Elementary Secondary Education; *English (Second Language);
Higher Education; Lexicography; Second Language Instruction;
Second Language Learning; Teaching Methods; *Vocabulary
Development
*Lexical Collocation
IDENTIFIERS
ABSTRACT
This dictionary of collocations was compiled by an
English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teacher in Saudi Arabia who teaches adult,
native speakers of Arabic. The dictionary is practical in teaching English
because it helps to focus on everyday events and situations. The dictionary
works as follows: the teacher looks up a word, such as "talk"; next to the
word is a list of words associated with that word, such as "peace, pep,
pillow, shop, trash, heart-to-heart, man-to-man, and small"; the teacher
explains the more interesting uses of the word. The teacher then asks for
other possible uses and contexts for the word. The introduction makes many
suggestions for the creative and productive use of this dictionary.
(KFT)
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
Mr. Stockdale's Dictionary
of Collocations
By
Joseph Gagen Stockdale III
AVAILABLE
BEST COPY
2
INTRODUCTION
I compiled the bulk of this list in my free time during the year I taught English to officers of the
Saudi Arabian National Guard and lived at Camp Vinnell, north of Riyadh, between King Fand
Stadium and Janidriyah. I compiled it for pleasure, and because it was of great practical help to
me in the classroom. It's real value, however, may be in holding up authentic English--as
opposed to the contrived, trivial book English we so often find ourselves teaching--as the battle
flag we carry into our classrooms each working day.
How I use this compilation to help me teach vocabulary in the classroom
My advice for any teacher wishing to use this list to help him or her teach vocabulary is quite
simple.
1. Look up the word you're teaching on this list.
2. Teach any collocations that seems useful.
Let's say it's Day W, Period X, Book Y, Lesson Z, and I'm introducing talk (noun). Of course, I
can say something like, "talk, you already know the verb, this is the noun." And, of course, the
text introduces the word in some manner, and may even recycle it once or twice later. I can have
a student who already knows what the word means give the Arabic translation to his classmates.
That's fast and easy for a word that isn't considered a problem, and keeps me on schedule, but is
it enough? I don't think so. It's up to me to make the word vivid and to get my students to use
and remember it. First I'll look up talk in this list and select some modifiers I suspect my Saudi
I'll write them on the board in the following format:
military students will be interested in.
peace
pep
pillow
ransom
shop
talk(s)
trash
heart-to-heart
man-to-man
small
secret
Thereafter, I'll take a few minutes to talk to my students about the collocations, explaining and
using them, asking questions, and answering theirs. In Saudi Arabia, I know my students will
understand and like the idea of a heart-to-heart talk, be titillated by the idea of pillow talk, and
perhaps be slightly uncomfortable with the idea of a man-to-man talk, as rank is very important
Mr. Stockdale's Dictionary (of Collocations)--Page 1--C Joseph Gagen Stockdale III
0
to them and directness can be unpleasant and impolite. Trash talk will delight them, as they enjoy
bantering.
I'll then ask my students if they can think of any collocations I haven't included and praise them
lavishly for their contributions. At this point, I almost always see students scribbling the
collocations down in the margins of their books or in their notebooks, unbidden.
Of course, a simple list like this does not do everything a good vocabulary teacher should do. If I
am teaching talk, I will also write the frame have a talk with sombody about something on the
board and try to elicit sentences from my students like, "I had a talk with my father last night
about money." While have is often the verb for talk, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that
for pep talk the verb would probably be give or receive, and for small talk it would be make.
I will also point out to my students that talk fits the "event" frame for words with duration and try
to elicit from them sentences using start, finish, last and during like the following:
The peace talks started on Monday
The peace talks ended on Wednesday
The peace talks lasted (for) two days
During the talks, they talked about the future of Jerusalem.
Or let's say I'm responsible for teaching eye.
I can point to my eye and say the word and ask how
many eyes I have, and what color they are. I like to do more. In Saudi Arabia and many other
countries, there are people who believe in or have heard of people possessing the evil
eye, and
that is something we can talk about. My students will understand the expression, "turn
a blind
eye towards something." I will praise the Bedouin for their eagle eyes, which will please many,
as the eagle is highly regarded in their culture, although comparing a person to an animal is
always problematic.
"The Bedouin sees everything and forgets nothing," I will say, and this
always elicits approval. "Her eyes are like the moon on the 15th of the month," is
a stock phrase
from Arabic poetry. One carried-away student, wishing to add a simile, astonished
me by saying,
"She has eyes like a cow!" He was crestfallen when I told he would get slapped if he
ever said
that to a Western woman. Of course, he was referring to eye color and size. Some things just
don't translate well.
Next, consider a word like English. Again, I'll teach this word in the usual
way and say, "English
is a language." But English is also a productive modifier. In fact, it is as a modifier that the
word most often occurs in out text. When I teach the word, I quickly write it
on the board in the
following format:
Mr. Stockdale's Dictionary (of Collocations)--Page 2--© Joseph Gagen Stockdale III
4
teacher
lesson
test
English course
class
school
language
Again, I will talk with my students, explaining and using these words, asking questions and
answering theirs, and ask them if they can think of any words to include on the list and praise
them lavishly for their contributions.
Words for school subjects introduced in the same lesson follow the same pattern, so I can make
listening completion sentences like the following:
Mr. Stockdale isn't a math teacher. He's an *
(T)
English teacher!
(Ss)
This isn't a math course. This is an *
(T)
English course!
(Ss)
On Wednesday, last period, we don't have a math test. We have an *
(T)
English test!
(Ss)
Listening-completion sentences are great, of course, because listening is an important skill my
students will need for the listening-comprehension portion of their tests.
Finally, consider a word like rainproof Again, the book introduces the word and provides a
simple definition and minimal context. Unfortunately, the book does not provide further
examples of words with the suffix proof No worries. This compilation provides plenty.
crashproof
childproof
bombproof
bulletproof
fireproof
flat-proof
escape-proof
cycleproof
rainproof
shatterproof
foolproof moisture-proof
thomproof
waterproof
stab-proof
soundproof
weatherproof
Again, all I do is to select a few examples from the list, write them on the board, explain and use
the words, ask and answer questions, and invite the students to add to the list.
Saudi Arabian
military men are naturally interested in bulletproof bombproof and shatterproof and stab proof
Prison guards wear stab proof vests during cell extractions, which are
might raise a question.
often videotaped.
Mr. Stockdale's Dictionary (of Collocations)--Page 3 - -© Joseph Gagen Stockdale III
Providing content for short talks on subjects I don't know much about or for experiences I've not
had or forgotten
People naturally have varying interests.
I can talk animatedly to anyone for hours about my
favorite sport, kayaking, or my favorite place, Graham County in Western North Carolina, but if I
had to give a short talk about outer space, I might be at a loss. This compilation helps. Referring
to the entries for space (outer), space shuttle and space station gives me things to talk about that
I might not otherwise have thought of.
Like the problem of space sickness, for instance. Or
space junk.
Just as people have varying interests, so too have they had varying experiences. Not all teachers,
for example, have been married. Again, this list can help. By glancing at the collocations with
marriage and wedding, a single teacher should be able to talk easily and comprehensively about
the experience. To take another example, few teachers have ever been to prison. A look at the
list of collocations for prison, however, will no doubt activate much knowledge from films and
books. What strikes me, looking at the list, is how a prison is a microcosm of the world at large.
For example, there's a prison doctor and prison gym and hospital and even a prison band!
Looking at the list, I also see there are different kinds of prison with different levels of security
and different populations of people. Of course, prisons may be quite different in other countries,
and this will come out as the students talk about prisons.
Also, people can simply forget experiences they've had, particularly if the experience occurred
long ago. I've reached the age when I simply don't remember much of high school, for example.
Looking over the list of collocations for school and high school, I remember that I never had
much high-school spirit, don't remember what our school colors were, and had totally forgotten
that I not only ate but scrubbed pots and pans at our high school cafeteria.
I do remember our
high-school gym, with its gleaming waxed floor, bleachers that folded into the wall, and its
trophy case. But then, I'm a Hoosier. Thankfully, one dismal collocation had not yet entered the
language when I attended school: school massacre. Who can forget Columbine? I'll never forget
sitting in a little park next to the Tukaseegee River in Bryson City and reading about it in the
newspaper. Where were you when you heard about it?
For me, introducing new vocabulary is a wonderful opportunity not merely to teach, but to learn
from my students. When I introduce village here in Saudi Arabia, I know I will hear from men
who actually come from villages.
I will ask students if their village has a village well, or if a
particular person is known as the village gossip! When the students understand that I am really
interested in village life, they open up and contribute to the list.
Speaking of villages reminds me of the time I stopped in Rumah, a village north of Riyadh.
While looking down one of the great grated village wells on the edge of a sand-filled, bone-dry
riverbed, I was startled by the small birds that came flying up out of its cool dark depths.
Mr. Stockdale's Dictionary (of Collocations)--Page 4
- -© Joseph Gagen Stockdale III
What we teach versus what we don't teach
When I use this compilation to help me prepare for daily lessons, I am always struck by how
interesting real language is. Take the words capital and country. Like most teachers, I
automatically think of capital in terms of statements like "Riyadh is the capital of Saudi Arabia"
and questions like, "What is the capital of Morocco?" Referring to this list, however, I see that
"capital" is commonly used in a booster-ish, chamber-of-commerce sort of way--Franklin, North
Carolina, the Gem and Mineral Capital of the World!--or to rate a city in some category, usually
negative--the murder capital of the U.S., the terrorism capital of the Arab World, etc.. Just the
other day, I heard a couple teachers talking about places in California, and one teacher mentioned
that such-and-such a city billed itself as the garlic capital of the world. You probably know its
name. It's the same with country. I'm so used to teaching statements like "Saudi Arabia and the
United States are countries" that I forget we can also talk about bear country, wine country,
wheat country or cattle country.
Or consider signature. We generally think of signature as the unique way a person signs his
name on a piece of paper, but a glance at the collocations for that word shows us that a missile
can have a signature, too. Of course, you wouldn't ask a missile for its autograph! When we
think of balloons, we usually thing of the ones that float in the air, but you can also insert one in a
vein. We generally think of parents and cousins in terms of kinship, but what about a chemical
cousin or a parent company? Who in this area of the world can forget the mother of all wars?
If a student asked you out of the blue what history meant, how would you define the word?
"Well, history is what happened before, in the past...I believe the Arabic for it is..." When we
think of the word, we usually think of world history, to include ancient history. But we can use
the word to talk about things that are much closer to home and more personal, like family history.
The doctor will be most interested in my medical history, the court in any history of violence I
may have, and a creditor in my payment or earnings history. These collocations don't naturally
spring to mind, though they seem perfectly natural when we hear them or encounter them in
speech or in a text. This list provides plenty of them for instant access.
As I suggested above, when I talked about prison, collocations like the ones found on this list
allow me to give an expanded analysis of words that my students ask me about, or that occur in a
text, but only in a single context. For example, let's say a student asks me about the word guy.
I'd probably say, "Well, a guy is a man...it's just another word for man. It's generally used by
younger people." After a quick examination of collocations on this list, however, I can tell my
students more: people who do jobs for us and whom we don't really know are often referred to as
guy: delivery guy and by analogy, "the guy who cleans / delivers / picks up / paints etc. Or guy is
used by young women to refer to their boyfriends: my guy, "I gotta great guy," etc. Or guy can be
used with an adjective to describe a person socially: he's a wild and crazy guy, a fun guy, a creepy
guy, or as an archetype: he's a mean guy, cruel guy, smart guy, good guy, bad guy, etc.
Examining collocations from this list, I realize that I often neglect the animal world for the
human, and vice versa. For example, a census is usually thought of in terms of people, but you
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Mr. Stockdale's Dictionary (of Collocations)--Page 5 - -© Joseph Gagen Stockdale III
can also take a census of moths and butterflies. Don't ask me how a moth or butterfly can fill out
a form! Most people think of community in terms of people, but we can also speak of
I
communities of plants and animals. In our texts population usually refers to people, but it is also
used to refer to animals. On the other hand, I am accustomed to teaching egg in reference to
chickens, in spite of the fact people throughout the world are intensely interested in the latest
advancements in human fertility and reproduction.
I also can't help but noticing the continuing usefulness of words and collocations relating to the
natural world and to more-traditional ways of life that are still used to express modern concepts,
such as brand, path, and footprint, etc. Students who brand camels, walk paths and study the
footprints to see who has been along before them don't have any problem with collocations like
brand name, career path or the concept expressed in a sentence like, "The battalion leaves a big
footprint." In fact, those students probably find those sorts of collocations more expressive and
satisfying than the native speaker who has lost their original meaning. In our curriculum we
teach kid in the sense of child, but I always enjoy pointing out that the word can also refer to a
baby goat. My students from rural and agricultural backgrounds always find the ambiguity of
"the kids are playing outside" interesting and amusing. And, more importantly, familiar.
Likewise, collocations referring to myths, legends, superstition and childhood still persist: last
night's soccer match was an epic game! The continuing saga of... Of course, none of our adult
students believe in giants, giants are from childhood storybooks! And yet, we can refer to Coca-
Cola as the beverage giant, and eBay as an online auction giant. We can refer to a game show's
monster ratings... An educated adult would probably scoff at the idea of ghosts inhabiting a
ghost town. And yet, is there anyone, from any culture, who hasn't looked out across the desert
or sea at night, or looked up at the stars, and not wondered about the mysterious lights they saw?
The word ghoul, by the way, comes from the Arabic. Algol, the eclipsing binary in the Perseus
Constellation which increases and decreases in brightness over a period of time, thus seeming to
wink, means, "The Ghoul." Don't be alarmed, but it wheels overhead at some time on most
nights.
111
Teaching collocations can mean the difference between a student merely learning a vocabulary
item (usually in translation) and actively using the word in normal speech. Consider direction.
In the curriculum I teach, that word is introduced in the exemplary phrase, "North, south, east and
west are directions." Like the other teachers in my school, I turn my back to the students, face
ii
the blackboard, and point to the ceiling. "What direction is this," I shout. "North!" the students
roar. I point down, I point to my right, I point to my left, I flap my arms as though I am waving
planes off the deck of an aircraft carrier as the students shout directions. While it is important
that students know the names of the four cardinal directions, it is just as important that they know
the main collocating adjectives for direction, which would be...you guessed it, the right direction
(versus the wrong direction). By the way, I wouldn't embark on an off-road trip in the desert
without at least two trucks equipped with GPS receivers and companions who possessed a good
sense of direction! My point is, when we teach direction, we should teach collocations like this
direction, that direction, the right direction, the wrong direction and sense of direction. At a
minimum, I would want a student to be able to say, "This is the wrong direction."
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Mr. Stockdale's Dictionary (of Collocations)--Page 6 -© Joseph Gagen Stockdale III
1
Life and language change, which is a real complication for a teacher such as myself, who, for a
number of years now, has been aging two days for every one spent in the classroom. In the past,
when I taught address, I would mention the street address, street number, city, state, zip, etc.
Nowadays, I must remember to teach e-mail address. A reference to an engine nowadays is as
likely to refer to a search engine (computers) as to something dirty that you can lose a finger in if
you're not careful. When I teach window, I must remember to mention Windows, as a computer-
savvy student slyly reminded me one day. Teachers who look up words on this list before
teaching them will often be surprised by the collocations they find. They are all natural and often
high frequency and aren't mentioned simply because whoever created the text didn't consider
them.
Students always seem to sense when language is natural, as opposed to the contrived and trivial
language they get fed from their text. I have seen students poring over the English on candy-bar
wrappers, soft-drink cans and the even the tags on clothing! They perk up when I give them
good, natural collocations, and, unbidden, write them down. I think it is because natural
language reflects the world, and learners are interested in the world, not just the book, even
though we all understand it is our common goal to get through the quizzes and tests successfully,
so we can keep our administrators happy.
Vocabulary versus grammar, lists and sets
Most curriculums spend far too much time on grammar at the expense of vocabulary. Consider
need (verb) and need (noun), for example. In my curriculum, both words are introduced in the
same unit, but the verb is highlighted and the pattern need + to + verb is stressed. The
curriculum makes the students create an endless series of sentences like "I need to buy a
toothbrush," "I need to go to the store," etc. with the emphasis on putting "to" before the verb.
Every once in a while I find myself reminding my students that need is also a noun, and writing
"wants, needs, desires" on the board. Every person has needs, there are basic human needs, and
these needs are worth discussing! Look up want and need and needed in this compilation and
you will find collocations of real value and interest to talk about with your students.
Best is another good example of a word that is introduced as grammar (irregular superlative) but
is more meaningfully taught as a vocabulary item. In the curriculum I teach, the students must
produce endless sentences like, "Ali's score was good, Sami's score was better, but Fahad's score
was the best." Students don't seem to be interested in the lesson until I write "my best friend" on
the board, and we start talking about our best friends, as opposed to...you guessed it! Our worst
enemies! In Saudi Arabia, I enjoy mentioning the saying, "A man's best friend is his dog." This
literally flabbergasts my students who have grown up in a culture with completely different
attitudes towards animals and pets and where comparing a person to an animal of any sort can be
a deadly insult. And this reminds me of a story.
I once had a student, small of stature, who was hitting his larger friend, and the situation seemed
about to get out of hand. "You're feisty," I told him, to gain his attention. When he asked me
Mr. Stockdale's Dictionary (of Collocations)--Page 7 - -© Joseph Gagen Stockdale III
9
what feisty meant, I told him to look it up in the big English-Arabic dictionary in the Warrant
Officer's room, thus separating him and the other young man. I was quite pleased with myself
over how I had handled a potentially disruptive situation until the student and the Warrant
Officer both paid me a visit. Unfortunately, the dictionary they had consulted, printed in an Arab
country, had no entry for feisty, but did list the noun. You don't know what a feist is? Neither
did I, nor did I feel very good, as a teacher and native speaker, having to admit ignorance of my
own language in order to keep my job!
Just the other day, I had to teach ordinal numbers, first one to twelve, and then, after a few pages,
from twelve up to 100. The students glumly accepted it as their lot, as did I. For practice, they
had to read a list of random dates. We were soon through it and on to other things. It was only
later that I consulted this work, to see what we might have talked about for first. Among other
things, I found: first car, first child, first date, and first name. Of course, it would not be
culturally appropriate to talk about a first date in Saudi Arabia; on the other hand, a man here can
take a second wife! In many other countries students, thought, learners would seize on frames
such as: my first date was with... on my first date we... I have witnessed taciturn guys turn
oratorical given the chance to talk about their first car. By the way, do you know the names of
the months that are also used as first names?
Or take a set like the names of the months. Here in Saudi Arabia, Ramadan is the name of the
month during which Muslims neither eat nor drink all day long. I used to feel sorry for my
students during this time, particularly when the month occurred during the blazingly hot summer,
until they told me about how much they enjoyed Ramadan nights, when they stay up at night,
eating, drinking and socializing with family and friends. That is a collocation that, along with its
associations, is now indelibly impressed into my mind. As I said, my students taught it to me,
and I thank them for it. Ramadan nights...
Many collocations are arbitrary
The way words collocate with other words often distinguishes words that otherwise might be
considered synonyms. In the curriculum that I teach, for example, earth and world are presented
as synonyms. And yet we don't say,. "the largest mosque in the earth" or "the largest airport on
world." Nor do we talk about the horrors of "Earth War II," the death toll from the latest
"worldquake" in Japan, or how the Saudi Arabian soccer team might do at the next "Earth Cup!"
On the other hand, we can (but too often don't) speak about the Muslim world or the world under
the sea (or, as an excited student once shouted out in class: "Sea World!"). This list provides a
selection of collocations for both earth and world and other words, like land and ground and guy
and individual, that have similar meanings but occur with different sets of collocations.
A response to commonly voiced criticisms
Some teachers disparage lists, especially the lists of unrelated single words the students often
carry about in their pockets and pore over in class before major tests, instead of paying attention
to the lesson at hand. "Students have got to learn how to figure words out from context," those
Mr. Stockdale's Dictionary (of Collocations)--Page 8 -© Joseph Gagen Stockdale III
,
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