لخّصلي

Introduction The term 'collocation' has been generally used to refer to a phenomenon in language whereby a lexical item tends to keep company with other words.The definitions of collocation offered in various books as well as in several dictionaries lack a precise specification of the relation of co-occurrence between the lexical items involved in a collocation.grammatical collocation, which is best described by Benson (1985) as a recurrent combination of a dominant word followed by a grammatical word, typically a preposition (abide by, admiration for, adjacent to, etc) lies beyond the scope of this paper.Today, the label 'collocationists' has been coined to refer to scholars like Cowie, Mackin, Lewis and Hill who have devoted their time, energy and resources to examine various issues associated with collocation.The notion of 'collocation' has been unanimously viewed by linguists as a Firthian contribution, although its earliest mention dates back to as early as 1605 (Wouden 1997:7). Later, several other prominent linguists (Halliday 1966, Sinclair 1966, Greenbaum 1970, Mitchel 1971) elaborated and developed the concept of collocation.Lexicologists and lexicographers like Cruse, Seaton, Benson, Carter and McCarthy, to mention a few, have maintained a great interest in studying collocation.The other type of collocation viz.2.

Introduction
The term ‘collocation’ has been generally used to refer to a phenomenon in
language whereby a lexical item tends to keep company with other words. It is a
lexical relation of co-occurrence that binds words together with varying degrees of
strength. Thus, ‘lean’ may be said to exclusively collocate with ‘meat’ while ‘heavy’
may have such collocates as ‘rain’, ‘meal’, ‘traffic’, ‘fog’, ‘sleep’, ‘industry’ and
‘smoker’.
The notion of ‘collocation’ has been unanimously viewed by linguists as a
Firthian contribution, although its earliest mention dates back to as early as 1605
(Wouden 1997:7). Indeed, Firth (1957) was foremost to view a word’s typical
behaviour to occur with other words as a central part of its meaning operating at the
syntagmatic level. Later, several other prominent linguists (Halliday 1966, Sinclair
1966, Greenbaum 1970, Mitchel 1971) elaborated and developed the concept of
collocation. With the surge of lexical studies over the past two decades, collocation
received a considerable impetus. Lexicologists and lexicographers like Cruse, Seaton,
Benson, Carter and McCarthy, to mention a few, have maintained a great interest in
studying collocation. Today, the label ‘collocationists’ has been coined to refer to
scholars like Cowie, Mackin, Lewis and Hill who have devoted their time, energy and
resources to examine various issues associated with collocation.
At the end of the spectrum, away from purely theoretical concerns, translators
have found themselves in a continual struggle to find appropriate collocations
(Newmark, 1988). For translators, the ‘intralingual’ problems of demarcating the
boundaries of collocation have been compounded by the problems of ‘interlingual’
collocability. Within this context, the present study sets out to investigate collocation
in translation with special reference to English and Arabic.
2. Collocation : A working definition
Collocation, or ‘lexical collocation’ as used throughout this paper, refers to a
specific partnership between two or more lexical items. The other type of collocation
viz. grammatical collocation, which is best described by Benson (1985) as a recurrent
combination of a dominant word followed by a grammatical word, typically a
preposition (abide by, admiration for, adjacent to, etc) lies beyond the scope of this
paper.
The definitions of collocation offered in various books as well as in several
dictionaries lack a precise specification of the relation of co-occurrence between the
lexical items involved in a collocation. Instead, such loose words as ‘regular’,
‘habitual’, ‘repeated’ and ‘natural’ co-occurrence are often used in these definitions to
describe the kind of bond that holds between the collocating items. Meanwhile, the
criteria employed by scholars to establish collocations in language are diverse and