Collocations Reading: Manning & Schutze Notes - IT & Software

 Page 1


Collocations 
 
Reading: Chap 5, Manning & Schutze 
(note: this chapter is available online from the book’s page 
 http://nlp.stanford.edu/fsnlp/promo) 
Instructor: Rada Mihalcea 
 
Page 2


Collocations 
 
Reading: Chap 5, Manning & Schutze 
(note: this chapter is available online from the book’s page 
 http://nlp.stanford.edu/fsnlp/promo) 
Instructor: Rada Mihalcea 
 
 Slide 1 
Outline 
What is a collocation? 
Automatic approaches 1: frequency-based methods 
Automatic approaches 2: ruling out the null hypothesis, t-test 
Automatic approaches 3: chi-square and mutual information 
Page 3


Collocations 
 
Reading: Chap 5, Manning & Schutze 
(note: this chapter is available online from the book’s page 
 http://nlp.stanford.edu/fsnlp/promo) 
Instructor: Rada Mihalcea 
 
 Slide 1 
Outline 
What is a collocation? 
Automatic approaches 1: frequency-based methods 
Automatic approaches 2: ruling out the null hypothesis, t-test 
Automatic approaches 3: chi-square and mutual information 
 Slide 2 
What is a Collocation? 
• A COLLOCATION is an expression consisting of two or more words 
that correspond to some conventional way of saying things. 
• The words together can mean more than their sum of parts (The 
Times of India, disk drive) 
– Previous examples: hot dog, mother in law 
 
• Examples of collocations 
– noun phrases like strong tea and weapons of mass destruction 
– phrasal verbs like to make up, and other phrases like the rich and 
powerful. 
• Valid or invalid? 
– a stiff breeze but not a stiff wind (while either a strong breeze or a strong 
wind is okay).  
– broad daylight (but not bright daylight or narrow darkness). 
 
 
Page 4


Collocations 
 
Reading: Chap 5, Manning & Schutze 
(note: this chapter is available online from the book’s page 
 http://nlp.stanford.edu/fsnlp/promo) 
Instructor: Rada Mihalcea 
 
 Slide 1 
Outline 
What is a collocation? 
Automatic approaches 1: frequency-based methods 
Automatic approaches 2: ruling out the null hypothesis, t-test 
Automatic approaches 3: chi-square and mutual information 
 Slide 2 
What is a Collocation? 
• A COLLOCATION is an expression consisting of two or more words 
that correspond to some conventional way of saying things. 
• The words together can mean more than their sum of parts (The 
Times of India, disk drive) 
– Previous examples: hot dog, mother in law 
 
• Examples of collocations 
– noun phrases like strong tea and weapons of mass destruction 
– phrasal verbs like to make up, and other phrases like the rich and 
powerful. 
• Valid or invalid? 
– a stiff breeze but not a stiff wind (while either a strong breeze or a strong 
wind is okay).  
– broad daylight (but not bright daylight or narrow darkness). 
 
 
 Slide 3 
Criteria for Collocations 
• Typical criteria for collocations:  
– non-compositionality 
– non-substitutability 
– non-modifiability. 
 
• Collocations usually cannot be translated into other languages word 
by word. 
 
• A phrase can be a collocation even if it is not consecutive (as in the 
example knock . . . door). 
 
Page 5


Collocations 
 
Reading: Chap 5, Manning & Schutze 
(note: this chapter is available online from the book’s page 
 http://nlp.stanford.edu/fsnlp/promo) 
Instructor: Rada Mihalcea 
 
 Slide 1 
Outline 
What is a collocation? 
Automatic approaches 1: frequency-based methods 
Automatic approaches 2: ruling out the null hypothesis, t-test 
Automatic approaches 3: chi-square and mutual information 
 Slide 2 
What is a Collocation? 
• A COLLOCATION is an expression consisting of two or more words 
that correspond to some conventional way of saying things. 
• The words together can mean more than their sum of parts (The 
Times of India, disk drive) 
– Previous examples: hot dog, mother in law 
 
• Examples of collocations 
– noun phrases like strong tea and weapons of mass destruction 
– phrasal verbs like to make up, and other phrases like the rich and 
powerful. 
• Valid or invalid? 
– a stiff breeze but not a stiff wind (while either a strong breeze or a strong 
wind is okay).  
– broad daylight (but not bright daylight or narrow darkness). 
 
 
 Slide 3 
Criteria for Collocations 
• Typical criteria for collocations:  
– non-compositionality 
– non-substitutability 
– non-modifiability. 
 
• Collocations usually cannot be translated into other languages word 
by word. 
 
• A phrase can be a collocation even if it is not consecutive (as in the 
example knock . . . door). 
 
 Slide 4 
Non-Compositionality 
• A phrase is compositional if the meaning can be predicted from the 
meaning of the parts. 
– E.g. new companies 
• A phrase is non-compositional if the meaning cannot be predicted 
from the meaning of the parts 
– E.g. hot dog 
 
• Collocations are not necessarily fully compositional in that there is 
usually an element of meaning added to the combination. Eg. strong 
tea. 
 
• Idioms are the most extreme examples of non-compositionality. Eg. 
to hear it through the grapevine.