Familiar Collocations

Abstract

As discussed in Part I, J.R. Firth (1957: 195) suggested that the study of collocations of common words was a necessity in stylistics, and that ‘this kind of study of the distribution of common words may be classified into general or usual collocations and more restricted technical or personal collocations’. Greenbaum (1970: 81) also endorsed the study of collocations of common words, as well as unique or peculiar collocations of literary works: ‘In the stylistic analysis of literary works, a study of collocations may reveal the predilection of individual writers or genres for particular collocations, their avoidance of collocations that are frequent elsewhere, and their selection of collocations that are rare or unique.’