Chapter 1 the study of collocations

1.5  A Framework for the Study of Collocations 
 
 
For the investigation of the acquisition of collocations, this study adopts 
a framework based on the structuralist approach.  The framework comprises 37 
patterns of collocation.  33 of these patterns are from the BBI, 2 patterns are 
extensions of the BBI patterns, and 2 are adapted from Zhang (1993).  The use of 
structural patterns for the study of collocations has been employed in previous 
studies (Zhang 1993; Bahns & Eldaw 1993; Biscup 1992).  These patterns are 
 
163

---

utilised in this study in order to operationalise the notion of collocation and to 
examine the development of English collocational knowledge in L2 learners.  In 
order to avoid a confusion between structural/collocational patterns and 
grammatical patterns, the patterns used in this study are, from now on, referred 
to as 'types'.  'Type' with a capital 'T' is used for reference to individual 
collocation types.  For a complete list of the 37 types of collocation with 
examples, see Table 4 below.