Chapter 18 Lexical Functions: Description of Lexical Relations in a ...

Means noun ((δ) = (means [for L]))
—Chapter 18. Lexical Functions— 9
Sew ~ thread; wash ~ water, soap, shampoo, detergent; fry ~ oil, butter; shoot ~ ammunition; ...
[none of these is a morphological derivation]
1.3 Collocations
Syntagmatic lexical correlates {L´i | 1 ≤ i ≤ n}SYNTAGM of L, combined with L, form collo-
cations, that is, phraseological expressions of the type of those underscored in (1) [L is in
small capitals]:
(1) a. The President imposed a CURFEW on three areas ... in order to stamp out 〈= put
down〉 the VIOLENCE.
b. The panel issued a REPORT to the Secretary of State.
c. The President rejected PLEAS to open TALKS with striking US air traffic controllers.
d. The heaviest prison TERMS in Kansas history have been handed down against two men.
e. Government troops have spread a DRAGNET across the country in a SEARCH for three
heavily ARMED guerillas. The FARC has claimed RESPONSIBILITY for the ATTACK
launched Tuesday in which four ROCKETS were fired at an ARMY camp.
Syntagmatic lexical correlates can be considered as a sort of ‘addition’ to L or ‘charac-
terization’ of L. If L designates a situation or an object, an L´ designates a property or a state of L
or else an action that the referent of L can accomplish or that can be carried out on the referent of
L. Thus:
• L = SCHOOLN
{L´ j }SYNTAGM = {HIGH (school), ELEMENTARY/GRAMMAR (school), TEACH (elementary/high
• L = ESCAPEN
school), GO (to school), GRADUATE (from a school), ...}
{L´ j } SYNTAGM = {DARING (escape), GREAT (escape), MAKE (an escape), THWART (an escape), ...}
These lexical correlates of L are, as a rule, used in text together with L.
Texts—from colloquial to artistic to journalistic to technological—swarm with expressions
of the type illustrated in (1): phrases containing L and lexical correlates of L that show colloca-
tional relationships with L. Collocations are described in Chapter 19; here I will limit myself to
simply reproducing, for the reader’s convenience, the definition of the notion.