Phraseology and Culture in English

word 
total left right L5 L4 L3 L2 L1 * R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 
spirits
17 0 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 17 
0 0 0 0 
deities
7 3 
4 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 
1 1 2 0 
spirit
7 1 
6 0 1 0 0 0 0 6 
0 0 0 0 
African 5 3 
2 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 
0 1 1 0 
land
5 1 
4 0 0 1 0 0 0 4 
0 0 0 0 
realm
4 2 
2 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 
0 0 0 2 
age
3 3 
0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 
0 0 0 0 
belief
3 3 
0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 
0 0 0 0 
lands
3 0 
3 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 
0 0 0 0 
parents
3 0 
3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 
1 1 0 0 
self-hood
3 0 
3 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 
0 1 0 0 
spiritual
3 2 
1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 
0 0 0 1 
world 
3 1 
2 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 
0 0 0 1 
Clearly, with 23 occurrences, ancestral spirit* is a fixed expression in Cam-
eroon English (and in other varieties of AE). While this seems to be the 
only one of the collocations with ancestral, other collocations, like age (3)
parents (3), spiritual (3), and world (3) point again to the relevant concep-
tualizations, i.e., 
ANCESTORS AS SPIRITS
, the continuation of the kinship order 
and the line of command and respect, so to say. Again in FLOBFROWN, 
no content word collocates with ancestral more than one time. 
Significantly, the keywords listed in table 3 form clusters of interrelated 
collocations. For example, rite* collocates with rituals 3 times, and with sac-
rifices 3 times, while ritual* collocates with sacrifices 5 times, though none 
of these items appear in sufficient proximity and frequency to be called a 

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426
Hans-Georg Wolf and Frank Polzenhagen
fixed expression. Others within the cluster, however, do, as many colloca-
tions with traditional, and, to a lesser extent, indigenous. If used as an at-
tribute, these items signal exactly the incorporation of “modern” elements 
into the conceptual network of the community model (see Wolf 2001: 271–
272). Expressions relevant to our discussion are traditional doctor* (9), 
which, interestingly enough, occurs more frequently than medical doctor*
(8), traditional healer (3), traditional medicine (4), indigenous medicine
(4), indigenous practitioners (3). Traditional or indigenous medicines are 
the herbs prepared by the witch doctors.