On Collocational Restrictions

Abstract

This article aims to clarify the notion of collocation through distinguishing collocational restrictions as notional property of collocation from selectional restrictions of syntax. Collocational expressions are composed of lexical items under collocational restrictions. Collocational restriction is a sort of co-occurrence restrictions closely related to syntactic structure and it is characterized by conventional syntagmatic relation contrary to selectional restriction that is predictable from the meaning of predicates. Collocational restrictions should be observed at lexicon and selectional restrictions at syntactic component. In collocational restrictions and selectional restrictions, semantic features, a class of lexical item and a specific lexical item might be specified. At lexicon, collocational restrictions are symbolized by lexical functions and by lexical array the collocational selection of lexical item is preserved in syntactic structure. Collocational expressions are classified according to syntactic relation and then they are subdivided according to the opacity of meaning.