Collocational Analysis of Life Science English (3)–– Lists of common collocates of addition, analysis, hypothesis,
identification, level, production, risk ––Hiroshi OHTAKE1, Nobuyuki FUJITA2, Shuji KANEKO3,
Brian MORREN4, Takeshi KAWAMOTO5Introduction
This is the third in a series of reports that focus on how certain English words are
typically used in the life sciences and whose purpose is to help Japanese researchers
who use English in their work to gain insight into the common collocates for each word.
Traditionally, language learners have been advised to refer to grammar books anddictionaries in order to improve their language skills, but this has not always helped toraise their level of proficiency. The former bias toward grammar has led to the belief
that natural sentences can be created solely on the basis of syntax and arbitrary
vocabulary selections. As a result, learners have tended to focus their attention on
acquiring as many independent words as possible without regard for their typical
patterns and collocations. This traditional perspective, however, has been discredited bymore recent research in the field of second language learning which has shown, on thebasis of empirical evidence, that words do not function in isolation but are co-selectedwith other words to produce meaning (Howarth, 1998; Hunston & Francis, 1998;
Partington, 1998; Sinclair, 1991; Stubbs, 2001). There is therefore a need to provide
nonnative writers with detailed information on the key lexical items and common
collocational patterns that are typical of their field of research and that they require
when writing their academic research papers (Ohtake & Morren, 2001, 2003).
In this respect, the use of corpora and concordance techniques may provide moreaccessible information on collocations and the selection restrictions that govern them.
Nonnative writers may thereby come to avoid collocational mismatches by being
1

Department of Foreign Languages, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine
National Institute of Technology and Evaluation
3
Kyoto University Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences
4
Center for Languages, Arts, and Sciences, Fukui Prefectural University
5
Department of Dental and Medical Biochemistry, Hiroshima University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences21

exposed to multiple examples of words that tend to co-occur. Through such exposure toregularly recurring patterns, they may become more sensitive to the ways in which
words combine with other words to produce particular meanings. Certainly, statisticalanalyses showing the frequency and collocational patterns of any given word used inlife-science papers would be very useful for Japanese researchers when writing
academic reports. In particular, they may realize the importance of referring to corpus
evidence for guidance and no longer rely simply on dictionaries and reference
grammars. They can thereby expand their search for appropriate forms of expression by
examining and interpreting the immense amount of useful data that corpora provide.
Data Collection and Corpus Analysis
In 1993, we embarked on a project – the Life Science Dictionary Project (LSDProject) – in which English abstracts appearing in international medical research
journals were collected through the publicly available on-line MEDLINE database. The
initial aim of the collection was to compile a genre-specific English corpus (LSDCorpus) and then to create an electronic bilingual dictionary (English-Japanese andJapanese-English) with a particular emphasis on frequently appearing general andtechnical terms in life-science fields. The LSD Corpus now contains approximately
144,000 abstracts published in distinguished life-science related journals around theworld and consists of over 31 million running words. This corpus can be regarded as avalid source of authentic English materials because the articles and abstracts publishedin such eminent journals as Nature and Science are known to have undergone a rigorous
review prior to publication with regard to both content and language.
The collected data have been recorded in a versatile relational database andsubjected to statistical analysis. This has led to the compilation of an electronic
English-Japanese/Japanese-English dictionary, WebLSD, which is available to thepublic on the Internet (http://lsd.pharm.kyoto-u.ac.jp/). The up-dated version of theelectronic dictionary currently contains 39,790 entries of English terms with Japanesetranslations and definitions, 26,000 sample sentences for 5,100 words, and 938,000
records of concordance for 9,500 words.
Some of the most frequently used words in the LSD Corpus have been selected forinclusion in this paper. The particular words taken up here are addition, analysis,2hypothesis, identification, level, production, risk. For each word, we have provided a listof common collocations that includes information about the frequency, a Japanesetranslation, and a sample sentence when it is considered useful and relevant. The
collocational patterns introduced here are noteworthy in that most of them cannot beclassified simply as an idiomatic expression or set phrase, so that they provide language
learners with information not usually found in marketed dictionaries. On the surface, thelist may just look like a miscellaneous assortment of arbitrary word patterns, but acloser look will reveal that it is a very useful collection of information concerning thelexical items (verbs, nouns, adjectives, prepositions) with which a given word
commonly collocates and, in the case of a noun, which article is commonly used or
which of the two forms, plural or singular, appears more often. This kind of information
is particularly important for Japanese learners of English because they are often
confused about how to properly use articles, singular/plural forms, or how to findcommon collocates or natural expressions.
Owing to the nature of the computer analysis, related items sharing the same form
are classified as one word, so that no distinction is made between the verb form and thenoun form of a given word. In addition, homographs are not differentiated and aretreated as one word. However, in some cases, the collocates shown in the tables should
provide some information concerning the part of speech of a given item, which may
help in the identification of any homographs that appear. Furthermore, some of the data
shown in the tables may look redundant, but we believe that such redundancy will not
be a hindrance in the exploration of the meaning of a particular lexical item. Instead, it
may help language learners to deepen their understanding. For example, in the case ofarticles and prepositions, which habitually present great problems for nonnative writers
in terms of their interpretation and use, grammatical explanations are often inadequate
in helping them to avoid erroneous decisions in the selection of a correct article orappropriate preposition in their writing. We have therefore intentionally included
instances of articles and prepositions with each entry word. By examining the various
samples of articles and prepositions appearing in the tables, language learners may
come to recognize their proper uses and confirm their understanding.

3

How to Read the List
The format is explained by using the following sample list:
Englishimplication*
implication
implications

Japanese
意味
意味
意味

Frq.

PubM̲ID

Sample

2,854
152
2,702

Note 複数形で使われることが圧倒的に多い。訳語は便宜上「意味」を使用…
1 the implications
意味414
2 an implication
意味
8
3 implications for〜のための1,599 11499504This approach should have significant
意味
future <implications for> dentalresearch.
59 10725728This neonatal immune bias has
4 implications for the 〜の開発
important <implications for thedevelopment ofのための意
development of> vaccine …
味：：：：
：
：
17 have @2〜のための918 10199733The findings <have potential
implications for
意味を持つ
implications for> islet transplantation
as well as …

1st Column: (Note) The information given here is based on the analysis of theLSD Corpus and collocational patterns of the entry word, and is expected tohelp learners of English to gain insight into a given word. This is meant
primarily for Japanese learners and is therefore written in Japanese in order tomake it more accessible for them.
1st Column: (1, 2, 3 ...) A number is given to each entry in sequence.
2nd Column: (English) In the uppermost line(s) above Note, a head word and its
related form(s) of word(s) are given. The asterisk mark (*) stands for a lemma,
or a head word. The at-mark sign (@) followed by a number stands for themaximum number of words that can be inserted.
3rd Column: (Japanese) The Japanese equivalent or translation is given.
4th Column: (Frq.) Frq. stands for the frequency of each entry.
5th Column: (PubM_ID) PubM_ID stands for the ID number of theaccompanying sample sentence, by means of which the original abstract can beidentified on the PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed).
6th Column: (Sample) This column shows a sample sentence for the entry
collocation. In some cases, no samples are shown when a similar entry contains
a sample sentence from which readers can easily infer a sentence or expression
containing the entry collocation.

4It is hoped that the following statistical analysis of the LSD corpus will assist
Japanese researchers in gaining further information concerning common collocations
for frequently used words in the life sciences. Furthermore, crude as the information
listed in the tables may appear at first glance, we trust that this paper will be wellreceived by Japanese researchers because of its special distinction in providing
information on word frequencies relating to words appearing immediately before orafter a given lexical item. In this paper, we present the statistical data as they are, hopingthat such first-hand information will help to facilitate the acquisition of common
expressions relating to each word.
From the initial stages of data collection, we have aimed at making the best use ofcorpus analysis to help Japanese researchers in writing academic papers in English. So
far, we have succeeded in producing the previously mentioned electronic dictionary as
well as gathering useful sample sentences and concordances. Because of space
limitations, we are unable to include in this particular paper each and every word wehave analyzed. We are, however, planning to publish further reports in the same formatas part of an ongoing series.
In the meantime, we hope that the lists of collocations introduced here in this paper
will help bring about better technical English writing among Japanese researchers, andultimately pave the way to the publication of an innovative and practical book on
common collocational patterns in English after all the lists have been unified andcompleted. Finally, in providing a Japanese translation for each English word orexpression, we have made every possible effort to ensure accuracy. However, we cannot
be certain that the translations are completely free from error because of the specialized
character and complexity of the various life science disciplines. There may therefore besome minor discrepancies that evaded our scrutiny and in such cases we sincerely ask
for our readers’ indulgence, and would be grateful if they would inform us of any
shortcomings that they may find.

5

Note
1. As the number (3) in the title “Collocational Analysis of Life Science English (3)”indicates, this paper is the third report of the series. In order to avoid redunduncy,
the introductory part of the current article is a much more concise version of the one
appearing in the first report in this series. To obtain more detailed information on
pedagogical aspects and practical applicastions, it is recommended that readers referto the first report (Kawamoto et al., 2004).
2. In the first report (Kawamoto et al., 2004), the list includes possibility, probability,implication, involvement, absence, presence, evidence.
3. In the second report (Kawamoto et al., 2005), the list includes carry, confer,contribute, detect, elucidate, give, know, obtain, raise, and understand.

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