Collocations quest – The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison – page 59
Part 1: Vocabulary Research
Part 2: Focus on Collocations
a) Nouns
… a cliff of snow
fell down a cliff → On the left the slope broke off and fell down a cliff to the river
chucking someone off cliffs → 'Crawling down holes, or chucking yourself off cliffs ?
The cliff path → They walked up the steep cliff path.
… the proper distribution
upgrading the distribution → We are constantly upgrading our distribution network to ensure that the right product is delivered to the right customer at the right time
extent distribution → Guinness has a long history in the African continent and has progressively extended its distribution in the last 30 years
control distribution → But gravity is not the only factor controlling the distribution and movement of water in rock or soil
hang by a thread → All their lives were hanging by a thread.
lose the thread → I've lost my thread.
held together by a thin thread → My life was held together only by a thin thread after the accident.
… by our standards
to maintain standards → We try to maintain out high standards.
To set standards → We want to set high social standards throughout the Community to improve the neighbourhood.
To enforce standards → The police failed to enforce the standards set by Congress.
… he gives us instructions about
execute instructions → Our lawyers will execute theirs clients instructions.
step-by-step instructions → The manual has some clear step-by-step instructions.
obey instructions → The students had to obey the teachers instructions.
…. stiffened itself into a hateful knot
tight knot → Her stomach twisted into a tight knot
tangled knot → All his words only were a tangled knot of sounds to her.
loosened knot → The picture hang from a loosened knot and ultimately fell down.
… hiding currents of gelid thoughts
second thoughts → She had seconds thoughts about her wedding.
negative thoughts → Negative thoughts will lead to negative outcome.
innermost thoughts → He revealed his innermost thoughts to him.
… braided into lynch ropes
twisted ropes → The handle looked like twisted ropes.
thick ropes → The thick wire ropes hold the bridge.
heavy ropes → The sailor tied the heavy rope in a nonchalant manner.
… slippery lumps of oatmeal
featureless lumps → Her food always looked like featureless lumps.
itchy lumps → I have itchy lumps from all the insects here.
… a cheaper version of
original version → The software only runs with the original version of the browser.
edited version → This is an edited version of the interview.
alternative version → We are currently working on an alternative version of the product to avoid plastic production.
c) Verb-noun / adverb-verb
… he worked night and day
to work tirelessly → I worked tirelessly this summer to save for an oversee trip.
to work closely with → We now work closely together with the art department.
to work wonders → The new treatment worked wonders on my wound.
… swaddle in comfort
to swaddle tightly → She swaddled the baby tightly.
to swaddle a bandage → He swaddled the wound with a bandage.
to swaddled in lace → She wore an expensive evening gown, which swaddled her in lace.
to long for something desperately → With every part of her soul she longed desperately for her wife.
to long for unity → The people long for unity among the parties.
to long for a drink → After all the hard work the refuse collector longed for a drink.
Winter tightened our heads …
to tighten the grip → He tightened his grip after hearing the bad news.
to tighten the lips → She tightened her lips at the sight of the mess.
to tighten involuntary → Her stomach tightened involuntary as she saw him.
… discuss quality of coals
to discuss the issue → We need to discuss this issue immediately.
to discuss the chapter → The students were asked to discuss the following chapters of the book.
to discuss the implications → The researchers met to discuss the implications of the new study.
What I found most difficult while doing my collocation quest was to find the fitting words in my selected passage. I often revised the selected words because there were not much collocations to work with.
I also found it difficult to find interesting and new word partnerships
It was very interesting to see the different collocations of the word version because most of them were in correlation with a software and had mostly a technical register.
Also, the phrase “chucking myself of the cliffs” was a new and interesting one to me as I never heard of it before and do like the utterance.
Lastly, I was a bit confused with the word chafe as there are hardly and word partnerships with it and it is usually used in a rather different context.