ABSTRACT
Collocation, from Latin collocare meaning ‘to place together’, refers to the fact that words often occur together and that their meanings are in part conditioned by habitual cooccurrences. For example, the word perch can appear with such words as fins, scales, swim, water. In such contexts it is likely to mean fish. If, however, perch co-occurs with alight, bird, branch or cage it is likely to be either a verb related to ‘sit’ or a noun meaning ‘a place on which to sit’.
