Getting Collocations

You can get the collocates of a word using the Collocations function. (Note: We also covered Collocations in the last session.)

The BNCweb server may give you a warning about unreliable results which you should read.

When you get to the screen below, press [Submit].

You will then see a screen with a list of collocates and a set of options at the top. We recommend that you look at collocates using the following settings:

• Set Statistics to Log likelihood

For begin/start plus TO0:

• Set Window size to 2 words
• Set Tag restriction to Any verb

This means you will be looking just at the verbs that can follow begin to/start to.

For begin/start -ing:

• Set Window size to 1 word
• Set Tag restriction to VVG

This means you will be looking just at the ing-form verbs that follow begin/start.

When you have changed the settings, press [Submit] to run the collocation again.

You should end up with a window something like this:

Click on the links in the list of collocates to look at them in more detail.

Make a note in the table of what you have discovered.