Strängt upptagen och fast besluten Beskrivningen av kollokationer i SAOB

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze the description of collocations in the Swedish Academy Dictionary (SAOB 1898–). The 81 phrases that Svensén (2004:212) gives as examples of collocations of different grammatical construction types are investigated. The following grammatical construction types are represented in the material: verb + noun object, e.g. fatta beslut (come to a decision), noun subject + verb, e.g. dagen gryr (dawn breaks), adjective + noun, e.g. inbiten ungkarl (confirmed bachelor), verb + adverb, e.g. neka blankt (deny flatly) and adverb + adjective, e.g. starkt begränsad (strictly limited). The representativity of the 81 collocations is discussed as well as whether or not the phrases constitute strong collocations which require a description in the dictionary. In addition I investigate which construction types of collocations are most important, semantically and grammatically. The representativity of the articles in the SAOB is also discussed. When the collocation I am looking for is not found in the relevant article in the SAOB I try to establish whether the semantic content of that collocation is represented by other expressions. If, for example, the collocation hård kritk (harsh criticism) is not found in the article KRITIK (criticism), are there other adjectives in the article that express a ‘high degree’ of criticism? The investigation shows, among other things, that 65 of the 81 collocations are accounted for in the SAOB. It is, however, evident that different types of collocations are given different amounts of attention. Collocations of the construction type verb + object noun are accounted for to a large extent, while construction types where one of the constituents is an adverb are often overlooked. Possible reasons for this are also discussed in the study.