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Computational Phraseology
Edited by Gloria Corpas Pastor and Jean-Pierre Colson
[IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 24] 2020
► pp. 247–272

Too big to fail but big enough to pay for their mistakes

A collostructional analysis of the patterns [too ADJ to V] and [ADJ enough to V]

| Freie Universität Berlin |
| Université de Neuchâtel |

In this paper, we illustrate the usefulness of the family of methods collectively known as Collostructional Analysis for phraseological research. Investigating two patterns, [too ADJ to V] and [ADJ enough to V], we show how a technique originally developed for the investigation of words and constructions can be fruitfully applied to issues pertinent to phraseology, such as the co-existence of compositional and idiomatic semantics and the analysis of semantically complementary patterns more generally. To this end, we use the three conventional methods (Simple, Distinctive and Co-varying Collexeme Analyses) and propose a novel extension (Distinctive Co-varying Collexeme Analysis) particularly suitable for the investigation of complementary patterns. We show that collostructional analysis is suitable for confirming hypotheses derived from qualitative analyses, as well as uncovering subtle differences that are otherwise inaccessible for non-empirical research.

Keywords: Collostructional Analysis, Simple Collexeme Analysis, Distinctive Collexeme Analysis, Co-Varying Collexeme Analysis, Distinctive Co-varying Collexeme Analysis, association, collostructions, collocations
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Descriptive background
    • 2.2Methodological background
  • 3.Case studies
    • 3.1Data: Source, extraction, cleaning
    • 3.2Case study: Simple collexeme analysis (SCA)
    • 3.3Case study: Distinctive collexeme analysis (DCA)
    • 3.4Case study: Co-varying collexeme analysis (CCA)
    • 3.5Case study: Distinctive co-varying collexeme analysis (DCCA)
  • 4.Summary
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 8 May 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ivitra.24.13ste
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