Towards Collocational Webs for Presenting Collocations in Learners’ Dictionaries

Abstract

Researching collocations in a foreign language requires both a detailed consideration of native speakers’ habitual word combinations and an account of how those combinations can be made accessible to language learners. Whereas acquiring collocations in an L1 is a natural process based on constant exposure to language in context and co-text (see Handl and Graf, 2009) in the completely different situation of L2 acquisition, the teaching/learning environment and materials have to compensate for the lack of linguistic input. A major source of information for learners besides textbooks and teachers is the dictionary. Although a range of different dictionaries is available to help students cope with any linguistic task, it seems that on average they prefer a single book for everything. Thus, it would certainly be helpful, if as many collocations as possible could be integrated in such a dictionary.