ABSTRACT
In the following sections, I will begin with a discussion of simple collocations, followed by an examination of compound collocations.
5.1.1 Simple collocations
Simple collocations are made of one word collocating with other words such as “watch TV”, “consult a dictionary”, “close friend”, etc. In MLC, some of the simple collocations are grammatically correct, but their use sounds unnatural and odd to native speakers, simply because they are non-idiomatic; others are even grammatically wrong. As Howarth (1998b) points out, it is a major problem for learners to know which words typically go with which in their target language writing, as in the case of Chinese learner English. In order to illustrate this point, five simple collocations in MLC will be discussed in this section:
1 Living level; 2 Know the society; 3 Pay attentions to; 4 Good achievement(s); and 5 With the increasing of.
