Casa · C2 Mastery · Lesson 16 of 20 · Step 2
Corpus linguistics awareness — collocations, concordance, frequency
Words · tap a card to see it used
Grammar
At C2 level, naturalness depends heavily on collocational accuracy — using word combinations that native speakers instinctively prefer. Common collocational patterns: adjective + noun (heavy rain, NOT strong rain), verb + noun (make a decision, NOT do a decision), adverb + adjective (deeply concerned, NOT very concerned in formal register). Corpus linguistics provides empirical evidence for these patterns: frequency data, concordance lines, and collocational profiles reveal which combinations are natural and which are not. Awareness of semantic prosody — the tendency of words to appear in positive or negative contexts — is also essential.
Exercises · type, then check
1. Choose the most natural collocation to complete each sentence.
2. Match each word to its strongest collocate from the options given.
Reading
The advent of large digital corpora — collections of millions or even billions of words of naturally occurring text — has transformed our understanding of how language actually works, as opposed to how grammarians have traditionally claimed it works. Consider the word "cause." A dictionary defines it neutrally: "to make something happen." Yet corpus analysis reveals that "cause" has a strongly negative semantic prosody: in the British National Corpus, its most frequent collocates are "damage," "problems," "concern," "death," and "harm." We do not typically say "cause happiness" or "cause success" — not because the grammar forbids it, but because usage has imbued the word with negative associations. This collocational pattern is invisible to introspection; most native speakers would not, if asked, identify "cause" as a negative word. It is only through corpus analysis — examining thousands of concordance lines — that the pattern becomes apparent. The implications for language learners are profound. Traditional vocabulary instruction focuses on denotation: what a word means. Corpus-informed instruction adds collocation (what words it keeps company with), frequency (how common it is), and semantic prosody (what evaluative colouring it carries). A C2 learner who knows the meaning of "commit" but not its overwhelmingly negative collocational profile (commit a crime, commit an error, commit fraud) will produce language that is grammatically correct but pragmatically unnatural.
1. What does the passage mean by the "semantic prosody" of the word "cause," and how is this discovered?
2. How does the passage argue that corpus-informed instruction improves upon traditional vocabulary teaching?
Speaking · say it out loud, with a partner or alone
Writing
Write a paragraph (120-150 words) analysing the collocational profile of a single English word. Discuss its most common collocates, any semantic prosody it exhibits, and what this reveals about its pragmatic use.
Check your exercises first, then mark the lesson done.