Motivation of Lexical Associations in

Collocations: The Case of Intensifiers

Denoting 'Joy'

Francis Grossmann & Agnès Tutin

All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

LIDILEM, Université Stendhal-Grenoble 3

Abstract
Collocations are still often considered arbitrary word associations. However
as already shown, e.g., by Mel'cuk and Wanner in a study on German emo­
tion nouns, there is a correlation between the semantics of a lexeme and the
collocations this lexeme occurs in. In this article, we argue that this corre­
lation can be made explicit such that the collocability between two lexemes
can (at least partially) be predicted. We present a study on the cooccur
rence of intensifying adjectives in French (among them, e.g., GRAND 'big',
VRAI 'true' and PETIT 'small') with nouns denoting 'joy' (among them, e.g.
BONHEUR 'happiness', JOIE 'joy' and TRISTESSE 'sadness'). The semantic
analysis of both adjectives and nouns in terms of semantic dimensions let
us identify several principles of cooccurrence. "Regular" collocations tend to
follow one of these principles—which can be exploited for a more intuitive
representation of collocations in the Explanatory Combinatorial Dictionary.

1Introduction

In this paper, we present a micro case study on intensifying adjectives in

French applied to nouns that denote 'joy'. This paper is a revised and
extended version of a paper presented at the workshop on collocations held
Copyright 2007. John Benjamins Publishing Co.

in Grenoble in September 2001. The study takes up a topic already dealt

with by Mel'cuk and Wanner (1996) for German in a seminal paper on the
correlation between the semantics of emotion nouns and the collocations
they occur in on the one side, and on the inheritance mechanisms that
take t i s corelation into account on t e o t e r side Our study is les

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 140 GROSSMANN&TUTIN

ambitious, b t is based on a stronger hypothesis: we claim that not nly

a correlation between the semantics of a base and its collocates can be
observed, b t that the collocability between pairs of words is also partially
preditable. We thus reject the "anomalist" point of view according t
which collocations are often considered arbitrary associations. We intend
to prove this claim using as illustration collocational associations in French
between "nouns of joy", or NJ for short, (JOIE 'joy', BONHEUR happines',
RISTESSE sadness', e t c ) and intensifying adjectives (e.g GRAND b i '
ROFOND deep'), which are values of the lexic function M a g n in t
xplanatory Combinatorial Lexicology (ECL); cf. (Melcuk, 1996.
e begin with a semantic analysis of nouns denoting 'joy' (hereafter
NJs) and of intensifying adjectives (ereafter IntenseAdjs) that most fre
quently cooccur with hese nouns. T e analysis of the nouns is partiall
based on Mel'cuk and Wanner (ibid.) Then, we attempt to shed some light
on the associations between NJs and IntenseAdjs by formulating principles
that underly these associations. Beyond the t e o r e t i c a l study of lexical as
sociations, we aim to describe lexical data. Therefore, we also dicuss how
collocations can be used to d e c r i b e lexical items from a lexicographic point
of iew. Since the claim that the collocability between NJs and IntenseAdjs
can be predicted turns out to be too strong, we will finally suggest, in order
to facilitate encoding as well as decoding, a dual encoding of collocations
in t e enties for bot NJ and IntenseAdj

2 A Tentative Semantic Analysis of NJs and IntenseAdjs

2.1 The Semantic Class of NJs

he semantic class of NJs drawn upon in our investigation has been studied
oug the following six French nouns: 1 JOIE joy', BONHEUR ' a p p i n e s s ' ,
GAETÉ 'gaiety', cheerfulness', DÉSESOI 'despair', TRISTESSE adness'
CHAGRIN sorrow' PEINE 'grief'.
To prove our hypothesis that NJ+IntenseAdj-associations are seman-
tically motivated we ave to highlight the different semantic facets of the
nouns selected by each IntenseAdj. In this section, we describe t e semantic
structure of the NJs in question without suggesting a lxicographic seman­
tic decomposition. This is done in two respects. On the one hand, we try
to distingui NJs from nouns belonging to other closely related semantic
classes. On the other hand, we explore the meaning of NJs by propos
ing dimensions (imilar to emantic features) with rference to (Mel'cuk
& Wanner, 1996, henceforth MW96'. To avoid any arbitrariness in the
distribution of t e s e dimensions, linguitic t t ave been used w e n e v e
posible

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 MOTIVATION OF LEXICAL ASSOCIATIONS IN COLLOCATIONS 141

2.1.1 NJs and Other Kind of Nouns

NJs have in common with o t e r emotion nouns that they can appear as com­
plements of light (or support) verbs such as ÉPROUVER and/or RESSENTIR
'feel', the grammatical Subject always being an animate, generally a hu­
man being. However, nouns of SENTIMENT 'feeling' such as AMOUR love'
and HAINE hatred' differ f o m NJs insofar as they are always directed: the
emotion is felt towards an Object, w o s e name is introduced by the prepo
sitions pour 'for', envers, à l'égard de 'towards'; cf. Anne éprouve beaucoup
d'affection pour Paul 'Anne has a lot of affection for Paul'. The argument
t u c t u r e of the nouns of feeling always includes a Peceiver and an Object
e Object of all nouns of feeling can but does not have to be a human.
As for NJs, they do not possess an Object in their argument structur
(but possibly a C a u s ) . If utterances such as Elle éprouva de la joie, du
chagrin pour Pie she felt joy, sorow for Pierre', the emotion is felt
vicariously since t Subject of t li v e b éprouver is not t e source of
e emotion.
As mentioned above, NJs may possess a Cause, but in most cases, Cause
is optional: In French, one can speak of éprouver de la tristesse/du cha­
grin/du bonheur 'feel sadness/sorrow/happiness' without any identifiable
Cause. If a Cause, which can be an event or an object, is available, it
may be expressed as Subject of ENTRAÎNER carry away', CAUSER cause',
PROVOQUER provoke', DONNER 'give' or ÊTRE À L'ORIGINE be the origin'
ENTRAÎNER DE L T R I S T E S S E / D U CHAGRIN. Certain emotion nouns such
as, e.g., SURPRISE surprise' or TERREUR ' t e r o r ' , requie a Cause. Other
emotion nouns such as COLÈRE 'anger' possess both an Object and a Cause
Unlike such nouns as RESSENTIMENT resentment', DÉCEPTION disap­
pointment' or JLOUSIE 'jealousy', the NJs we studied seem t be primary
emotion nouns. They mainly involve an affective dimension and do not
require specific conditions. Despite the difficulty to provide a standard
definition of affectiveness', we do not assume, c o n t a r y to Johnson-Laird
and Oatley (1989), t a t NJs suc as JOI joy' and TRISTESSE adness'
constitute primitives

2.1.2 Dimensions of NJs

As emphasized by D. Bresson and D. Dobrovol'skij (1995:108), Wierzbicka
(1992) and Johnson-Laird and Oatley (1989), the meaning of primary nouns
of emotion or feeling cannot be easily analysed into simpler elements. For
e analysis of our set of nouns, dichotomic features appear more suitable
than a standard semantic decomposition We make use of some of the fea­
ture dimensions proposed by Melcuk and Wanner (1996), although some
times wit a diffeent definition 2 T validity of t features we us as

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 142 GROSSMANN&TUTIN

been confirmd by linguistic tests whenever possible. Note, however tha

our approach is not circular: in our work, linguitic tests do not serve to
define semantic c h a r a c t e i t i c s but are, a t e , t linguitic manifestation
of these characteristics. 3
In what follows, we present the feature dimensions used in our study
hese dimensions are drawn upon to c h a r a c t e i e NJs in t e m s of t e di
otomic featur values of eac dimension

Intensity (values: strong, very strong; Intensity i MW96). As emotion

nouns, NJs are "intensive abstract nouns" (Fr. noms abstraits intensifs) in
the sense of Flaux and Van de Velde (2000): as gradable adjectives, they
are likely to be qualified according to a graded scale and are character
ized by the fact that the difference between quality and quantity is often
obliterated. Vrai désespoir 'true despair' is intense. NJs may also convey
a certain degree of intensity in themselves and are often classified along a
graded scal as, e.g., DÉSESPOIR 'despai'-<TRISTESSE 'adness', BONHEUR
appiness'-<GAlETÉ 'cheerfulness'.
It is also to be noted that nouns which imply high intensity are not likely
to be modified by adjectives implying low intensity, at least in a standard
usage cf: *un peti désespoir lit 'a small d e s p a i '

Polarity (values: + or —; Polarity in MW96). The posession of a dis

tinct polarity is one of the main characteristics of NJs. Thus, an NJ can
be pleasant or unpleasant, but cannot be neutral—unlike other kinds of
emotion nouns such as SURPRISE 'surprise'. It is not easy to suggest a lin­
guistic test for this dimension, although it can easily be identified intuitively
(everyone agrees that JOIE 'joy' is pleasant w i l DÉSESOIR ' d e s p a i ' i
unpleasant)

Quality (values: + or — ; included in Prmanence in MW96). Emotion

nouns convey a temporal structure, which is necessarily transitory even if
its duration can greatly vary. Nevertheless, it is to be noted that some NJs
may name an emotion that is repeatedly felt by the Subject. In this case
an NJ expresses a tendency to feel the emotion in question.
In French, the quality dimension can be tested with ÊTRE 'be'-sentences
Elle était d'une grande tristesse/ d'une grande gaieté, lit. 'She was of a big
sadness/ of a big cheerfulness', but *Elle était d'un grand bonheur/ d'une
grande joie, lit 'She was of a big happiness/ of a big joy'. In connection with
TRISTESSE, GAIETÉ, and some other NJs, quality captures the frquency
with which the emotion is felt (the ' + ' value stands for 'high frequency'
and the ' ' value for 'low f q u e n c y ' ) cf an example of high f u e n c y : Ell

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 MOTIVATION OF LEXICAL ASSOCIATIONS IN COLLOCATIONS 143

était d'une grande tristesse, lit. 'She was of a big sadness' = Elle éprouvait
souvent de la tristesse 'She often felt sadness' hen expresing a uality
an NJ cannot be related to a specific Cause.
Most NJs (CHAGRIN 'sorrow', DÉSESPOIR 'despair', PEINE 'grief, JOI
joy', BONEUR 'happiness') cannot be used as " u a l i t y nouns"

State (values: + or —; included in Permanence in MW96). Emotion

nouns can be durative when they convey an emotion felt continuously (this
is different from quality, which characterizes the Senser). Nevertheless
some of our NJs may denote a temporary emotion (CHAGRIN, P E I N E ) while
others (JOIE, BONHEUR, TRISTESSE, GAIETÉ) refer either to an emotional
tate or to a temporary emotion—depending on the cotext.
An emotional state can be introduced by un état de 'a state of: Il était
dans un état de joie/ dans un état de bonheur/ dans un état de tristesse,
lit. 'He was in a state of joy/ in a state of happiness/ in a state of sadness'
but *Il était dans un état de chagrin/ *dans un état de peine, lit. 'He was
in a state of sorrow/ in a state of g r i f ( e e a l o être réduit au désespoi
'to be reduced to despai')
An introduction by ÊTRE DANS 'to be in' is less common. For instance
être dans I'afffiction 'to be in distress' is natural, but être dans le désespoir
'to be in despair' is less f u e n t , and *être ans le chagrin 'to be in grief'
is unacceptable. 4
BONHEUR 'happiness' appears to be atypical for the NJ category becaus
it a l o includes an ethic dimension.

D y n a m i s m (values: + or —; closely related to Excitation in MW96)

BONEUR 'happiness' and TRISTESSE 'sadness' can be defined as denoting
"calm" (in contrast to "dynamic") emotions. This is in contrast with JOIE
joy' and GAIETÉ 'cheerfulness', which can imply turmoil (être ivre de joie
lit. 'to be drunk with joy', une gaieté folle, lit. 'mad cheerfulness'). JOIE is
associated with some elation, whil GAETÉ is c h a r a c t i e d by vitality or
drive

Interiority (values: + or — ; closely related to Manifestability in MW96)

This dimension is hard to assign to NJs since any emotion can, in prin­
ciple, be manifested, ie., be made "external" (cf., for instance, montre
de la joie 'to show joy' and manifester de l joie/du bonheur/du chagrin
'to demonstrate joy/happiness/sorrow') as well as be kept unmanifested,
i.e., be "internal". However, some emotion nouns are rather on the "inte
iority" side while o t h e s are on the "exteiority" side Thus, BONEUR

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 144 GROSSMANN&TUTIN

is closer to interiority, 5 while GAIETÉ 'cheerfulness' is almost always per­

ceived through external manifestations or behaviours. TRISTESSE 'sadness'
denotes an emotion or an emotional state that presupposes an overwhelm­
ing of the consciousness by pain, unease or d i a t i f a c t i o n e v e n if it is ofte
manifested.
JOIE 'joy' is not a real antonym of TRISTESSE 'sadness' insofar as, at
least in some cases, JOIE signals exteriority (as, e.g., in une explosion de
joie 'an explosion of joy', but ?une explosion de tristesse 'an explosion of
sadness'). 6 Finally, some nouns, e.g., CHAGRIN 'sorow' and PEINE 'grief'
ee to be n e u t a l with respect to this dimension.

Control (values: + ou —; Self-Control in MW96). Some NJs appear to

denote emotions that are endowed with a certain dynamics that enables
them to turn the Subject from an Agent into a Patient of the emotion.
These NJs cooccur with such verbs as ENVHIR 'invade' and SUBMERGE
'overwhelm': the emotion "invades" or "overwhelms" the Senser, who loses
control over the emotion he/she feels. Obviously enough, the dimension of
control correlates with the dimension of intensity: an intense emotion tends
to make the Subject lose his/her self-control.
Table 1 summarizes the asignment of the features of the above dimen­
sions to the NJs we studied. Of course, the allocation of these feature
is not completely devoid of arbitrariness. Therefore we mark cases wher
we experienced a difficulty to choose a feature by "?". In such cases, w
assume that the NJ i question is n e u t a l with respect to the coresponding
dimension.

Tabl Desciption of nouns denoting 'joy' in t e m s of dimensions

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 MOTIVATION OF LEXICAL ASSOCIATIONS IN COLLOCATIONS 145

2.2 Semantic Analysis of Adjective of Intensity

2.2 1 Expression of intensity with NJs

A prototypical feature of adjectives is that they can be intensified—although
this is true only of "eal", qualifying adjectives (as, e.g., very friendly), not
relational adjectives (as, e.g., *very semantic). Many verbs and certain
nouns can also be intensified. Nouns that can be intensified belong to a
subset of abstract nouns (intensive abstract nouns),7 agentive nouns such
as grand fumeur 'heavy smoker', travailleur acharné 'hard worker', and
nouns that denote humans and that are usually derived f o m qualifying
adjectives (as, e.g., célibataire in célibataire endurci 'confirmed bachelor')
NJs are intensifiable abstract nouns. They rarely have plural forms and
when not modified, they usually occur in a partitive construction. The most
obvious feature of NJs is their capacity to be intensified by a quantifier or
an adjective; cf.: Il éprouva beaucoup de joie, lit. 'He felt a lot of joy' = I
éprouva une grande joie, lit. 'He felt a great joy'. In the firt sentence the
quantity" of joy is translated by the high degree of joy.
We limited the scope of our study to adjective intensification, which
seems to be more productive than the use of quantifiers 8 As far as NJs ar
concerned, intensity is not exclusively expressed by a quantifier or by an
adjective; prepositional phrases may also be used—with the pattern sans N
' w i t h o u t ' N/ ' w i t h no ' N being frequently exploited to express very high
intensity; see, e.g., joie sans bornes lit. 'joy with no bounds', désespoir sans
fin, lit. 'despair with no end'/ sans fond lit 'with no bottom'/ sans limite
lit. 'without limits'
Obviously, the decision to restrict ourselves to intensit expressed
by adjectives had an impact on our study. Thus, it can partly ac
count for the low rate of idiomatic and idiosyncatic associations we
encountered—prepositional phrases being by nature more often used to de
c i b e metaphors and comparions with a larger cultural dimension.

2.2 IntenseAdjs Occurring with NJs

We do not intend to present here the details of the IntenseAdj+NJ associ
ations found in our corpus, w h i h is a large corpus comprising literary and
journalistic texts (see Tutin & Grosmann, 2002). 9 However, it is worth
mentioning that the IntenseAdjs that appear in cooccurrence with NJs ar
extremely diverse and that few of them can combine with all NJs. They
show little idiosyncrasy (many appear with several NJs) and little idiomatic-
ity (i.e., they can easily be interpreted thanks to compositionality rules)
The data, which present few anomalies, seem theefore to confirm our hy
pothesis. Howeve the d i t i b u t i o n of the most f q u e n t IntenseAdjs w h i h

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 146 GROSSMANN&TUTIN

is summarized in Table 2, appears unpredictable and somewhat baffling.

Table 2: The most frequent IntenseAdjs that combine with emotion nouns
(a) = antéposé (placed before the noun); (p) = postposé (placed after the noun)
BONHEUR
GRAND (a) 112, VRAI (a) 69, PETIT (a) 47, PUR (a) 19, PARFAIT (p)
18, IMMENSE (a) 10, ABSOL (p) 10, INTENSE (p) 9, IMMENSE (p) 7,
PARFAIT (a) 6
GAIETÉ
GRAND (a) 4, VRAI (a) 2, OU (p) 2, ROS (a) 2, RANC (a) 2, RÉEL
(a) 1, ATANT (p) 1, ÉGER (a) 1, FORMIDABL (a) 1
JOIE
RAND (a) 169, IMMENSE (a) 24, PROFOND (p) 24, IMMENSE (p) 19,
PUR (p) 12, PETI (a) 1 1 , ENORME p (11), OU (p) 8, TERRIBL (p)
7, GROS (a) 6
TRISTESSE
RAND (a) 40, PROFOND (p) 13, PROFON (a) 1 1 , INFINI (a) 1 1 , IM­
MENSE (a) 9, INFINI (p) 8, AFFREUX (a) 7, IMMENSE (p) 5, I N D I I B L
(a) 4, I N D I I B L (p) 3
DÉSESPOIR
RAND (a) 10, PROFOND (a) 6, TOTAL (p) 6, IMMENS (a) 5, AF­
FREUX (p) 4, ABSOLU (p) 3, ATROCE (a) 3, VRAI (p) 2, VIOLENT (p)
2, PARFAIT (a) 6
HAGRIN
GRAND (a) 30, GROS (a) 13, VRAI (a) 10, PETIT (a) 7, PROFOND (p)
5, IMMENSE (a) 3, AFFREUX (a) 3, VÉRITABL (a) 3, INFINI (a) 2,
IMMENSE (p) 2
PEINE
GRAN (a) 14, VRAI (a) 4, PROFON (p) 4, IMMENSE (p) 4, GROS
(a) 3, INFINI (p) 3, AFFREUX (a) 2, HORRIBL (a) 2, PETIT (a) 2,
AFFREUX (p) 2

Only GRAND big', 'large', 'great' and VRAI true' (which we consider
to be an intensive adjective in our context) occur with all NJs. Therefore
although generalizations are possible, they would not be very productive
for NJs. Moreover, it is quite obvious that besides GRAND and VRAI, which
can both be considered to be polyvalent intensives, many IntenseAdjs can
cooccur not only with NJs but also with other types of emotion nouns; cf.
e.g., un ennui profond, lit. 'profound boredom' une envie folle, lit. 'mad
caving', etc.
We put forward the hypothesis that some IntenseAdjs cooccur more eas­
ily with certain dimensions. For instance, PROFOND, lit. 'profound' seems
to corelate with the dimension of Inteiority

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 MOTIVATION OF LEXICAL ASSOCIATIONS IN COLLOCATIONS 147

2.2.3 Semantic dimensions

In what follows we discuss seven semantic dimensions with respect to w h i h
we classify the IntenseAdjs considered: (1) Measure, (2) Authenticity, (3
Completeness, (4) Incommunicability, (5) Manifestation, (6) Polarity, and
7) Temporality. The temporal dimension does not apply to the most fre­
quent adjectives. That is, the adjectives in our corpus cover only six of the
above dimensions. Some adjectives can be clearly defined by one dimen­
sion, while the description of others may require the attribution of several
dimensions. Intensive adjectives that include the dimension Measure or
Authenticity seem to select all NJs under study Other dimensions appear
to be more restictive

Measure. The dimension of Measure concerns adjectives that prototyp-

ically apply to physical magnitudes. 10 It offers a standard means for the
expression of the intensity of NJs. Such adjectives are full intensives as they
indicate degree regardless of the combination in which they are involved.
Also, the absence of bounds or limits, which is morphologically expressed
by negative prefixes ( I M M E N S E 'immense', illimité 'unlimited'), typically
epresents a means to indicate a large magnitude, be it physical or moral
GRAND 'big' ranks first for all NJ+IntenseAdj associations. IMMENSE
'immense', placed before or after the noun, is associated with all nouns ex
cept GAIETÉ 'cheerfulness'. High degree intensives seem to combine mor
easily with nouns that also express high intensity. O t h e s , such as PETIT
'small', GROS 'large', ÉNORME 'enormous' and PROFOND 'deep', although
productive, are not as equally distributed. Thus, PETIT 'small' does not
occur with GAIETÉ 'cheerfulness', TRISTESSE 'sadness' and DÉSESPOIR 'de­
spair'. Generally speaking, intensives indicating low degree rarely occur i
combination with a noun of negative polarity.
GROS 'large' seems to be rather formal in its usage: with CHAGRIN
'sorrow', it plays the role of a hypocoristic intensive; in other combinations
it tends to be more depreciative; cf. une grosse gaieté 'a large cheerfulness'.
The adjective INTENSE 'intense', which by definition indicates intensity
can also be included into the list of standard adjectives that occur with
NJs—although it occurs only with BONEUR 'happiness'

A u t h e n t i c i t y The dimension of Authenticity can be expressed by such

adjectives as V R I 'true', VÉRITABLE (a) 11 'genuine', RÉEL (a) 'real', FRANC
(a) 'frank', etc. 12 PUR (a) 'pure' in the sense of sans mélange 'unadulterated'
(not in the corpus), which is another collocate of the noun BONHEUR, can
a l o be clasified as expresing A u t h e n t i t y 3 , FR (a) ' f a n k ' occurs onl

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 148 GROSSMANN&TUTIN

with GAIETÉ 'cheerfulness'. VRAI (a) is a q u a d a

it is less frequent with TRISTESSE 'sadness'.
It is remarkable that adjectives of Authentity appear mostly with nouns
of pleasant polarity. However, VRAI (a) 'true' and VÉRITABLE (a) 'genuine'
also occur with CHAGRIN 'sorrow', and VRAI (a) occurs, in addition, with
PEINE 'grief'. Even when placed before the noun and almost grammati
calized as standard intensifiers, adjectives indicating Authenticity tend to
keep an axiologically positive coloring, or, in any case to a c q u i e it in the
interaction with pleasant emotion nouns.
It is also to be underlined that when placed after the noun—which in
our list concerns firt of all PUR 'pure' (12 occurrences with JOIE 'joy') and
to a certain degree VRAI ' t u e ' (2 occurrences with DÉSESPOIR 'despair')—
Authentity adjectives seem to recover a descriptive meaning. Thus, une joi
pure 'a pure joy' clearly expreses a c e t a i n quality of joy

C o m p l e t e n e s s . This dimension which describes the degree to which the

emotion overtakes the Senser is very close to Authentity as far its semantics
is concerned, but appears to be more restrictive with respect to the selection
of its cooccurrents. It is expresed by adjectives such as ABSOLU 'absolute'
T O T L 'total', and even PARFAIT 'perfect', w h i h is then placed before the
noun cf. parfait désespoir 'perfect despair'.
It is interesting to note that both DÉSESPOIR 'despair' and BONHEUR
'happiness' can be ABSOLUS, whereas tristesse absolue 'absolute sadness'—
although not impossible—does not appear in our corpus. It seems that
Completeness adjectives select nouns with high intensity that can ex
press states. Thus, CHARIN 'sorrow', GAIETÉ 'cheerfulness', JOIE 'joy'
TRISTESSE 'sadness', and PEINE 'grief' seem not to be compatible with
Completeness adjectives, neither before nor after the noun: they do not
occur in our corpus with BSOLU, T O T L and RFT.

Incommunicability. Adjectives of Incommunicability show the morpho­

logical pattern in-V-able. They communicate high intensity by signalling
that the feeling is so intense that it cannot be qualified; cf., for instance,
INDIBLE 'unspeakable' and INEFFABLE 'ineffable'. Being rather formal
INDICIBLE is nonetheless one of the most frequent adjectives that appear
in our corpus in combination with TRISTESSE 'sadness' (the question to be
answeed is, of course, whether this is due to the composition of the cor
pus). 15 I N E F F A B L E 'ineffable', which is not in the list of the most frequent
adjectives in our corpus, but which still occurs ten times, seems to com­
bine more easily with emotion nouns that are likely to contain a seme of
inteiorit cf e g , BONEUR 'happiness', JOIE 'joy', TRISTESSE ' a d n e s s '

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 MOTIVATION OF LEXICAL ASSOCIATIONS IN COLLOCATIONS 149

Manifestation. Some adjectives seem to be particularly appropriate for

expressing external (dimension of Interiority) or internal (dimension of Dy­
namism) manifestations of an emotion. For instance, VIOLENT 'violent'
generally signals an impetuous, wild behavior. Applied to an emotion noun,
this adjective does not necessarily imply an external expression of an emo­
tion. Rather, it highlights the mental and moral agitation this emotion
causes; cf., for example, désespoir violent 'violent despair'. The adjective
FOU 'mad', 'insane' placed after the noun GAIETÉ 'cheerfulness' and JOIE
joy' seems to play a similar role. ECLATANT 'radiant' in combination with
GAETÉ clearly conveys the e x t e n a l dimension of the emotion i question.

Polarity. Similarly to NJs, some IntenseAdjs can be classified with re­

spect to their Polarity. However, the values of the adjectival Polarity di­
mension are different f o m the values of the nominal Polarity dimension:
instead of 'pleasant' vs. 'unpleasant', the axiological values 'appreciative'
'depreciative' are distinguished.
Positive (appreciative) polarity is expressed by adjectives that convey
Completeness, as, e.g., ABSOLU 'absolute' and PARFAT 'perfect', but also
by purely axiological adjectives such as EXTRAORDINAIRE 'extraordinary'
(which does not appear in our corpus amid the most frequent adjectives)
Depreciative adjectives are illustrated in our list by AFFREUX 'dread­
ful' (placed before or after the noun) and ATROCE 'atrocious', HORRIBLE
'horrible' and TERRIBLE 'terrible' (placed before the noun). Depreciative
adjectives are exclusively used with nouns of negative polarity (with the
exception of TERRIBLE; see endnote 16). When used with nouns of positive
polarity they usually lose their intensive sense; cf.: une joie affreuse, lit. '
dreadful joy' = une joi coupable lit. 'a guilty joy'

Temporality. None of the most frequent adjectives listed in Table 2 ex

presses the dimension of Temporality. However, it is, nonetheless, expressed
by some adjectives in our corpus. Among such adjectives is, e.g., ÉTERNEL
'eternal', which rarely occurs as an intensive adjective in combination with
NJs: eight occurrences, most of them with BONHEUR 'happiness' (which
can be easily explained in vi of the seme of durability contained in thi
noun).
Other intensive adjectives that do not belong to the most frequent ad­
jectives in our corpus, but that can signal Temporality are those with the
morphological pattern in-V-ahle, as, e.g., INALTÉRABLE 'inalterable' and
IMPÉRISSABLE 'imperishable'). Adjectives of this type additionally encode
the maintenance of integrity

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 150 GROSSMANN&TUTIN

The expression of the temporal dimension by an adjective seems to be

l i t e a r y in most cases

Table 3: Dimensions of Intense Adjs

ic
A u i c i
Me

bsolu (p) Co
+
Affreux (ap) +
Atroce (a) +
Enorme (p)
+
Fou (p) +
Franc (a)
+ +
Fugitif (p)
+
Grand (a) +
os (a) +
mmense (ap) +
ndicible (ap) +
neffable (ap) +
nfini (ap) +
ntense (p) +
Léger (a) +
Parfait (ap) + +
Petit (a) +
Profond (ap) +
Pur (ap) +
Terrible (p) +
Total (p) +
Violent (p)
+
Véritable (a) +
Vrai (ap) +

In Table 3, the t y p o l o y of d m e n s n s as just o u t l i n d is a p l i e d to

a representative subset of IntenseAdjs. The associations shown express
tendencies rather than rules. Moreover, it is to be noted that some of the
NJ-dimensions (as e g , Quality and o n t o l ) have not been selected and do

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 MOTIVATION OF LEXICAL ASSOCIATIONS IN COLLOCATIONS 151

not appear as being relevant for Intensity. However, they might be useful
for other types of lexical associations. Explanatory principles must now
be explored in order to bette u n d e r t a n d the tendencies that have bee
observed.

3.Principles UnderlyingI n t e n s e A d j + N JAssociations

In v i w of the complexity of the factors that are involved in the In­

tenseAdj+NJ associations, simple combinatorial rules are not to be found
easily. The underlying principles set out below remain thus rather gen­
eral. Howeve, they help to minimize the arbitrariness generally implied by
the notion of collocation. The foundation of these principles is the idea of
"semantic congruence", which is rather trivial in linguistics. It should be
underlined that by using this basic notion we do not necessarily subscribe
to the idea that language is devoid of creativity On the contrary, by giv­
ing more importance to the semantic motivation and by reducing the role
of arbitrariness in collocations our approach rather tends to preserve some
liberty in the use of words. However, this does not in any way diminishes
the validity of the fact that lexical items are govened by a logic that favor
affinities.
Semantic congruence requires compatibility between the semantic di
mensions of the noun and those of the adjective. Thus, BONHEUR 'happi
ness', which appears to signal duration, will be expected to cooccur with
such adjectival collocates as PAISIBLE 'peaceful' and C A L M E 'calm', i.e., col
locates whose meanings are in opposition to the notion of intensity, which
can be expressed by adjectives such as VIF 'vivid' and AIGU 'acute'. How­
ever, this does not mean that combinations such as vif sentiment de bon­
heur, lit. 'vivid feeling of happiness', in which VIF 'vivid' qualifies SENTI
MENT 'feeling' rather than BONHEUR 'happiness', are not possible.
In the corpus, the cooccurrence bonheur éternel 'eternal happiness' has
been found five times—with ÉTERNEL (p) 'eternal' occuring eight times i
total (compared to two occurrences of JOIE 'joy' and one of DÉSESPOIR
'despair'). In contrast, VIOLENT 'violent' occurs only once with BONEUR
(out of eight c o o c c u r n c e s of this adjective with other NJs)

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 152 GROSSMANN&TUTIN

3.1 Reinforcement

When the noun already includes the intensive feature, the use of an inten­
sive adjective leads to a reinforcement. In such high degree inten­
sive (often superlative) form of the adjective tends to be used. Thus, DÉS­
ESPOIR 'despair' is defined as a 'very strong unpleasant emotion' (cf. ECD
(Mel'cuk et ai, 984): "très forte émotion désagréable") or as an extreme
affliction (cf. Trésor de la Langue française and Petit Robert: "extrême af
fliction"). The expression petit désespoir, lit. ' m a l l despair' could hardly
be used in any other but ironical sense. GRAND (a) 'big' which occurs in
the corpus 335 times in total, cooccurs forty times with TRISTESSE 'sad­
ness', compared to only ten times with DÉSESPOIR 'despair'. DÉSESPOI
is "grand" by definition and requires thus a stronger intensifier—e.g., IM­
MENSE 'immense' or TOTAL 'total': désespoir immense 'immense despair'
(five occurences), désespoir total 'total despair' ( i x o c c u r e n c e )

3.2 Convergence of Polarity

If the meaning of the nominal base includes the feature "pleasant polarity"
the meaning of the adjectival collocate will usually include the "apprecia­
tive" or neutral feature. In the same vein, an "unpleasant polarity" nominal
base will cooccur with a "depriciative" adjective. This is best illustrated by
the adjective AFFREUX 'dreadful' of depreciative polarity which expresses
intensity only when combined with a negative noun (see Subsection 4.2). 1
However, in some cases, notably when the adjective is placed before the
noun, the positive polarity feature is neutralized. For instance, PARFIT
(a) 'perfect' occurs six times with BONHEUR and twice with DÉSESPOI i
all cases, the semantic ambivalence (1. PARFAIT = TOTAL, 2. PARFAI =
E X E L L E N T ) d i a p p e a r s such that only the firt meaning is conseved.

3.3 Coherence with the Semantic Types of NJs

In the course of the paper, we have emphasized that certain nouns un­
der study retain some of the ambivalence inherent to their semantics and
can signal a state or quality as well as an emotion in the strict sense of
the word. Certain restrictions on the use of IntenseAdjs may favor or pre­
vent the cooccurrence with these polysemous nouns For instance, ABSOLU
'absolute' and TOTAL 'total' seem adequate for an NJ expressing a state
such as BONHEUR 'happiness' and DÉSESPOIR 'despair' while being almost
imposible for an NJ such as CHAGRIN 'sorrow'.
An NJ such as GAETÉ 'cheerfulness' which in some uses can be classi
fied as a quality noun (as e g in Elle était d'une gaieté folle lit 'She was

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 MOTIVATION OF LEXICAL ASSOCIATIONS IN COLLOCATIONS 153

of a mad cheerfulness') can, more easily than o t h e s , be asociated with

adjectives marking manifestation.
These observations suggest that, with the exception of some standard
intensifiers such as GRAND 'big', ntenseAdjs can intensify NJs over diffeent
dimensions. Because of lexical affinities, the choice available to the speake
is limited according to the dimensions he/she wants to select
Table 4 summarizes the associations observed between NJs and n­
tensAdjs and presents the principles govening these asociations

Table 4: SummaryofassociationsobervedbetweenIntebseAdjsandthe
diffeent types of NJs

Type of Type(s) d i m n s i ) of P r i n p l e (s) g n i n g

IntensAdjs NJs s e l e c d b I n t A d j s ssatins
Me All types of NJs. High degre Reinfoment piniple
IntenseAdjs preferably occur
with high intensity NJs. Low
degree IntenseAdjs rarely occur
ith NJs of negative polarity
Authnticity All t y s of NJ
mple Preferably with high intensity Principle f c
NJs that can express states with type
mmuicilit Preferably with NJs c m p i s i n Principle f c
a seme of interiority. with type
Maifeio Preferably with NJs compisin Principle f c
a seme of exteriority or with type
dynamism.
Polarity Polarity of NJ and I n t e n A d Principle of c
must be the same for the of polarity
intensity to be expressed
Tempalit High degree IntenseAdjs are Principle f c
particularly adequate for NJs with type
that can express states

4. Proposal for the Lexicogrphic Representation if Intense Adjs

As mentioned in the Introduction, our aim is not solely theoretical. Rather

our study is also meant to lead to a practical proposal for the representa­
tion of intensive adjectives in the Explanatory Combinatorial Dictionary
(ECD). We aim at suggesting an encoding schema that takes into account
explains and predicts collocations. This encoding schema should reflect the
highlighted regularities and be sufficiently formalized in order to enable a
representation that is adequate f o m both the didactic and the NLP point
of view.

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 154 GROSSMANN&TUTIN

4.1 How to Encode Regulqrities in Collocate Entries of a Dictionary Such as the ECD
Our study shows that NJ+IntenseAdj associations are partially motivated.
Generalizations due to the affinity between individual NJs and IntenseAdjs
seldom apply to all NJs. Rather, they tend to apply regularly to subsets
of NJs with common dimensions (e.g., to NJs with a seme of interiority)
In our opinion, it would be worthwhile, for both didactical and practical
reasons, to take these regularities into account when encoding collocations in
the dictionary. On the one hand, regularity supports memorization—which
is of interest for teaching French as a foreign language. Thus, in the same
way as regular patterns are used to teach inflectional morphology—with
the learner adjusting the pattern when meeting anomalies (exceptions)—
regular patterns of lexical associations can be used to teach collocations
The fact that such patterns can be specified (even if not easily) proves that
the lexicon is not just an idiosyncratic jumble. On the other hand, the
encoding of regularities can be beneficial for the lexicographer and for the
user. If the lexicographer is offered a regular p a t t e n for a given lexical field
(e.g. the entry for GEFÜHL in Mel'cuk & Wanner, 1996), his/her activities
will be carried out within a predefined f r a m e e n s u r i n g a more complet
coverage and greater coherence (ee Mel'cuk & Wanner, 1996:233)
The organization of the ECD according to semantic fields follows the
same approach. Moreover, as the "regular" information would be provided
either in the generic or in the collocate entry, there would be fewer cases i
which a "decoding" user faces incomplete information.
It is to be noted that in the traditional ECD, each collocation is specified
individually in that it is encoded in terms of a (standard or non-standard
lexical function within the lexical combinatorial zone of the e n t y for the
element that serves as its base.
to
within
neglected
fond
yntagmatic
Mel'cuk
(i)
the
Thus,
This
'deep
"intensive
There
this
an
following
the
representation,
IntenseAdj
et
associations
by
type
despair',
lexical
ai,
isltraditional
x ino
cnouns",
1984);
reasons:
a lgeneralization
combinatorial
function
affreux
such
such
see
itdictionaries
although
as
will
Figure
as
désespoir
GRAND
M grand
bea of
1.
nmentioned
zone
it the
in
désespoir
does
'big'
formalizes
'dreadful
and
the
semantic
not
can
sare
uinappear
bpotentially
'big
despair'
ethe
information
encoded
n trepresentation.
ydespair',
e nfor
fully
t yare
DÉSESPOIR
as
for
be
satifactory
only
désespoir
values
used
that
each
dealt
with
is
noun
Even
of1often
with
pro­
due
the
cf
all
of
if

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 MOTIVATION OF LEXICAL ASSOCIATIONS IN COLLOCATIONS 155

D É S E S P O I R ,nom,masc.

. Désespoir de X devant Y = Très forte émotion désagrable de X

c a u s e par le fait suivant : X, croyant très important d'échapper à
un événement (lié à) Y, n'espère plus pouvoir y échapper ; cette émo­
tion en augmentant cause que X p e d la capacité d'agir (de façon
raisonnable) ; cette émotion est celle que l'on a normalement dans de
pareilles siuations [= So (se déspérer)]
1. Despair of X n front of Y= Very strong unpleasant emotion felt by
caused by the following fact: X believes it very important to escape from
an event (linked with) Y, but doesn't believe any escape to be possible; as
it intensifes, this emotion finally makes X unable to act (in a reasonabl
way); this emotion i the one that is normally felt in such situations [
So (se désespérer)]'

Fonctions lexicales

grand < affreux < =

ariver, réduire

Figure 1: The
DÉSESPOIRI in E D
(ii) No syntactic information is provided, notably the information con­
cerning the position of the adjectives. Thus, while PROFOND 'deep'
is preferably to be placed before the noun DÉSESPOIR 'despair', it
can equally occur before or after the noun TRISTESSE 'sadness'. Con­
versely AFFREUX 'dreadful' is more often placed after DÉSESPOIR and
before TRISTESSE. This suggests that the position of the adjective
does not only depend on the adjective itself (even if some adjctive
always occupy the same position; for instance, the intensifiera, GRAND
'big' and VRAI 'true' are always placed before the noun), and, being
difficult to predict, should be mentioned in an encoding dictionary.
(iii The information provided is not sufficient to enable the user to make
a choice between several options during the encoding procedure—
although a relatively graded scale (symbolized by the sign ' < ' ) i
given. For instance, GRAND 'big' is the unmarked and most frequent
default intensifier, wheeas FFREUX 'dreadful' and SOMBRE 'dark'
und rather l i t e a r y

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 156 GROSSMANN&TUTIN

We propose that "reguar" collocations, i.e., collocations that reflect a

correlation between the semantics of the base and the collocate and that are
thus not completely idiosyncratic or idiomatic, be taken into account in the
entries for collocates. For instance, in the enties for adjectives frequently
used as IntenseAdjs, the types (or dimensions) of the nouns they select for
could be mentioned. In this case, regular IntenseAdj+NJ associations can
work as selectional restrictions. Thus, in the entry for the vocable GRAND
'big', the lexeme GRAND will have in cooccurrence with an NJ (or proba­
bly any "intensive" noun) an intensive, standard, stereotyped, styliticall
unmarked meaning.
The encoding of regular collocations in the entries for IntenseAdjs rather
than in the LF-combinatorial zones of the corresponding N Js seems attrac­
tive and presents the following advantages in addition to those mentioned
above:

(i) From a practical point of view, such an approach facilitates the lex­
icographic encoding since it makes it possible to directly account for
many syntactic properties of the adjectival collocates. For instance
in the case of some productive intensifiers, the position of the ad­
jective appears to depend less on the cooccurrence of a given noun
than on the type of the adjective itself. Thus, GRAND 'big', PETIT
'small', VRAI ' t u e ' are always placed before the noun when used as
IntenseAdjs. 18 A mention of this information, which is especially use­
ful for encoding purposes, is an absolute must. However, this can
hardly be done in the lexical combinatorial one of the lexical base as
it would make it too cumbersome. The same remark applies to the
predicative use of adjectival modifiers. For instance, GRAND 'big', PE­
TIT 'small' and VRAI 'true' seldomly appear as predicative adjectives
contrary to PROFOND 'deep' and IMMENSE 'immense'
The advantage of such an approach is even more o b v i u s in the cas
of v e b a l collocates

(ii) On the linguistic level, this approach is more satisfactory since it takes
into account the motivation of lexical associations. Thus, if the en­
tries for IntenseAdjs mention the dimensions of the nouns with which
they can be combined, the collocations can be simply analyzed in a
compositional way. Moreover, this kind of approach seems to be com­
patible with the facts observed in our corpus: only a few collocations
are completely idiomatic or idiosyncratic. Rather, generally speak­
ing, the analyzed collocations reveal identifiable affinities between the
base and the collocate—even though the desciption of these affinities
is not t i v i a l

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 MOTIVATION OF LEXICAL ASSOCIATIONS IN COLLOCATIONS 157

(iii) In a d i a r y such as t e E D , a semantic description of collocates

such as GRAND 'big' and VRAI 'true' should be provided. Since thi
lexicographic work is esential, why not try and provide at the same
time a subtle analysis of the semantic correlations within collocations
they occur in? For instance, instead of simply mentioning in the entry
for GRAND 'big' that it can be a value of the LF M a n , why not
describe the semantic type of the nouns in cooccurrence with w h i h
it expreses intensity? See (Reuther 96) for a similar proposal

Of c o u r e , we do not suggest to add entries to the ECD for all adjectives

that can be used as collocates. Rather, only for those that occur in "regular
collocations". Several criteria can help to select candidates which are to
receive own entries, notably syntactic and semantic "frozenes" as well as
productivity; see in particular (Alonso Ramos & Mantha, 1996). The selec­
tion of candidates implies the exitence of numerous examples in significant
corpora.
Before discussing the details of the above proposal for listing collocations
in the entry for the collocate we focus in what follows on the encoding of
a sample collocation.

Example: oding of t s AFFEUX and DÉSPO

In this subsection, we apply our proposal to the encoding of the entries for
the lexemes AFFREUX 'dreadful' and DÉSESPOI 'despair' ur encoding
hould facilitate:

(i) The prediction of the collocation désespoir affreux 'dreadful despair'

since in our semantic study of occurrences we noticed that AFFREUX
appeared as a depreciative and intensive modifier in cooccurence with
NJs of unpleasant polarity (e.g., TRISTESSE 'sadness', CHAGRIN 'sor­
row', DÉSESPOIR 'despair', PEINE 'grief'). The collocation will be
accounted for in the dictionary by adequately d e s i b i n g this infor
mation in the e n t y for the adjective

(ii) The description of non-predictable intensive collocations such as noir

chagrin, lit. 'black sorrow', and in particular those comprising non-
adjectival collocats that can hardly be accounted for in specific en­
ties

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 158 GROSSMANN&TUTIN

4.2.1 Lexeme DÉSESPOIR1

In what follows, we do not reproduce the entry for the lexeme DÉSESPOIR1
in the ECD (see Section 4.1), w h i h we keep as far as the definition, the
govenment zone, and the example zone are concerned; cf ( M e l ' u k et ai
1995) for the discussion of the structure of an e n t y in the ECD. Only the
lexical combinatorial zone will be modified here.
Consider the most productive adjectival intensive collocates of DÉS­
ESPOIR in our corpus o r d e e d in accordance with their fequency: 1

G R N D (a) 'big' [10], P R O F O N D (a) 'deep' [ , T O T A L (p) 'to­

tal' [6], IMMENSE (a) 'immense' ] AFFREUX (p) 'dreadful' [4]
ABSOLU (p) 'absolute' [3], A T R O C E (a) 'atocious' [3], VRAI (p)
' t u e ' [2], VIOLENT (p) 'violent' [2], P R F (a) 'pefect' [2]

It seems that all these collocates can be predicted from (1) the semantic
description of the adjectival collocate in question, (2) the specific dimensions
of DÉSESPOIR. These dimensions must be clearly stated in the definition of
DÉSESPOIR (either in natural language or in a more formal metalanguage)
We summarize these affinities i Table 5.
The specification of the Magn-values in connection with DÉSESPOIR1
could then be limited to a simplified list of less preditable values—mostl
prepositional phrases in this cas cf. Figure 2

Magn : sans fin, lit. 'with no end', sans fond 'with no bottom

Let us consider now how to describe the entry for the lexeme AFFREUX
(used as IntensAdj), so that its collocative asociations can be taken int
account

4.2.2 Lexeme AFFREUX (Intensedjs)

The description proposed in Figure 3 concerns only the definition of the
lexeme that expresses intensity; other meanings (such as 'ugliness', etc.
are excluded. Through the suggested decomposition it must be possible to
predict the cooccurrence with TRISTESSE 'sadness', DÉSESPOIR 'despair'
CHAGRIN 'sorrow' and PEINE ' g r i f ' a l l of which are emotion nouns with
negative polarity.
Since TRISTESSE 'sadness', DÉSESPOIR 'despair', CHAGRIN 'sorrow' and
PEINE 'grief' are described as strong unpleasant emotions, the asociation
with FFREUX is posible in a compositional way

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 MOTIVATION OF LEXICAL ASSOCIATIONS IN COLLOCATIONS 159

Table 5: Aff between IntenseAdjs a d d i m n s i o n of the no ÉS

ESPOIR!. NC Characteristics of the noun chosen by the adjective', I of I =
Interpretation of the intensity in connection with the noun', of I = Collocates
of Intensity, (a) = antéposé (placed before the noun), (p) = postposé (placed
after the noun)

teistic of t e n
Whole Intensity Polarity Dynamism
semantic field dimension dimension and interiority
of NJs
NC All NJ (Very) str (Very) The emotion
emotion. I unpleasant can be felt as
attains the emotion an internal
highest degree turmoil or
disturbance
I of I Standard Collocates Collocates with Collo
IntenseAdjs reinforce the distinct polarity the
apply to all intensity or reinforce manifestation
NJs completeness of intensity type (eg
the final state through the vioient)
(reinforcement speaker's point reinforce this
principle) of view. Their dimension
use is mainl (principle of
literary coherence
(principle of with the
convergence of type)
polarity)
C of I GRAND ( a ) PROFOND ( a AFFREUX ( p ) : IOLENT ( p
Unmarked collocate collocate of high Collocate
standard expressing a high intensity expressing a
collocate degree, used with expressing the dynamic
VRAI ( a ) : emotion nouns speaker's movement of
Standard with a rather depreciative the emotion
collocate internal point of view that is felt
marking dimension ATROCE ( p ) :
intensity ('profonde collocate of high
through the gaieté). intensity
quality of the TOTAL ( p ) , expressing the
emotion that is ABSOLU ( p ) speaker's very
felt Collocate that negative point
reinforce the of v i e .
highest degree
PARFAIT ( p ) :
semes of
authenticity or
positive polarity
are neutralized to
the benefit of
completeness

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 160 GROSSMANN&TUTIN

AFFREUX

n. adj Litt. Antéposé ou P o s t p o s . Plus f u e m m e n t utili comme p-

ithète ue comme attribut
[X est] affreux = [Emotion ou attitude émotionnelle désagréable X est]
forte [le locuteur a un point de vue d p r c i a t i f sur l ualit de l ' m o t i o n
ressentie] (= Magn + AntiBon)
placed before or after the noun. ore often used as an epithet than as a pred­
icative adjective
[X is] dreadful = [An unpleasant emotion or emotional attitude X is] strong [the
speaker has a depreciative view on the quality of the emotion that is being fel

Figur : Tentative definition of the l x e m e FFREUX e x p r i n g intensit

4.3 Discussion

Our proposal can be easily implemented and, for the semantic field consid­
ered, it seems to be more suitable than the inheritance approach suggested
by Mel'cuk and Wanner (1996). Mel'cuk and Wanner describe selected ver­
bal syntagmatic lexical functions of forty German emotion nouns within a
lexical framework structured around the superordinate GEFÜHL 'feeling'
Collocates of hyponyms are inherited by default, but xceptions (different
or non-existing values of an LF with respect to a specific hyponym) are men­
tioned case by case in the entry for this hyponym. Although their proposal
seems to be attractive on the theoretical level, it cannot be easily imple­
mented in our research field. Firstly, the choice of the superordinate is not
obvious (in French, it is not clear whether ÉMOTION 'emotion', ÉTAT ÉMO­
TIONNEL 'emotional state', or even ATTITUDE ÉMOTIONNELLE 'emotional
attitude' should be chosen). Secondly, in our semantic field, we found only
a few collocates that are shared by the superordinate and its hyponyms
This implies that generalizations do not seem to pertain to the level of the
superordinate, but rather, to subsets of the nouns of the semantic field that
can be identified thanks to semantic dimensions. However this is not the
case for all semantic fields: inheritance from the superordinate proposed in
ECD for the semantic field of vegetables seems to work better. A carrot
can be peeled, washed, cut . . (ÉPLUCÉE, AVÉE, COUPÉE . . ) , and s
can be any other vegetable.
Theefore, it seems that an encoding of the collocations with the pattern
ntenseAdj+NJ' from the perspective of the collocates can be envisaged.
We showed for the lexemes DÉSESPOIR1 'despair' and AFFREUX 'dreadful'
that such an approach would allow for the explanation of their cooccurence

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 MOTIVATION OF LEXICAL A S S C I A T I N S IN C O L L C A T I N S 161

Howeve, this proposal presents seveal drawbacks which must be pointed

out:

(i) The first problem is of practical nature: according to this proposal

collocates have to be described prior to bases. This is not always
possible in such a long-drawn-out undertaking as the ECD. Moreover
generalizations over collocates can only be established from the study
of bases (by induction). The only alternative seems to be to carry
out the study of the collocates in parallel with that of the bases for
each lexical field (with an adequate support by a corpus study)—
which should lead to a more rfined analysis of the nature of the
collocational asociations

(ii) The printed version of the dictionary can no longer be used as an

encoding device since the u s r does not have access to a collocate
that she/he does not know a priori. Thus, according to our pro­
posal, no access to désespoir affreux would be any longer avail
able from the entry for DÉSESPOIR1 since this "egular" collocation
would not be mentioned therein. This problem could probably be
solved in an electronic dictionary such as DiCo (Mel'cuk et a1 1995
Polguère, 2000): links could be created between collocates and bases
from the superordinates and dimensions selected for by collocates
This possibility, the implementation of which might be c o m p l x , re­
mains to be explored.

(iii) As it is the case with all explanatory patterns within the field of lex­
icology, association rules proposed may overgenerate, 20 i.e., produce
undesired associations between the dimensions of the base and the
dimensions of the collocate. In such a case, it would be necessary
to introduce mechanisms that take exceptions into account. However
this may complicate the use of the dictionary especially of the printed
veion.

(i With the encoding we suggest, specific information about collocations

cannot be provided. For instance, for désespoir affreux, the encoding
of the information on the lexemes AFFREUX and DÉSESPOIR1 gives
no information about the frequency of the association, which is es­
sential for encoding purposes. Nor does it allow for the presentation
of such syntactic information as the position of the adjective. Thus
the adjective AFFREUX may in geneal be placed either before or afte
the noun, but when it cooccurs with DÉSESPOI! it is always placed
after the noun.

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 162 GROSSMANN TUTIN

These difficulties lead us to moderate our enthusiasm for the proposed

solution. To conciliate encoding and decoding purposes it seems necessary
to incorporate the collocational information in both the collocate entry and
in the LF-zone for the base entry. The resulting redundancy should not
really be a proble in a dictionary that is meant for both decoding and
encoding:

(i) Access to collocations from the entry for an IntensAdj would mostly
have an explanatory function and would be useful for decoding pur­
poses and the learning of regularities in the composition of colloca­
tions

(ii) Access to collocations from the LF-zone of a base's entry would be

used to obtain information related to encoding. The meaning of the
collocation, the frequency of the occurrence of the collocation in a
epresentative c o r u s , usage markers would be specified there. In
our view, the ECD could be improved by reducing listings and by
giving more information concerning the differentiation of the proposed
values which would greatly support the production.

5 Conclusion

Our study of IntenseAdjs that cooccur with NJs led to linguistic principles
that account for the affinities between them thanks to semantic dimensions
These principles seem useful for decoding purposes—for instance, for learn­
ing a second language or for analysis i N P . Howeve, they appear to be
too strong for production purposes.
The position of some IntenseAdjs with respect to the noun as well as the
productivity of their cooccurrence seems to be hard to predict. Nonetheless
we think that it would be detrimental not to use the regularities that have
been highlighted just because they are not fully satisfactory from the en­
coding point of view. Indeed, we believe that these two perspectives are far
f o m being contradictory to each other. R a t h e , they are complementary.
In order to arrive at an approach that satisfies linguistic requirements
concerning the semantic motivation and that provides the detailed descrip­
tion necessary for the encoding, we suggest a dual encoding of "egular"
collocations

(i) the type and dimensions of the nouns that an IntenseAdj can be com­
bined with should be mentioned in the semantic zone of the e n t y for
thi IntensAdj

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 MOTIVATION OF LEXICAL ASSOCIATIONS IN COLLCATINS 163

(ii) collocates of an NJ should be described in detail (with respect to

its usage, productivity e t c ) in the lexical combinatorial zone of the
enty for this NJ

Our work will have to be continued and our proposal to be improved

by a systematic study of abstract nouns, which will finally lead to a formal
encoding of the collocational information of these nouns. As far as NLP
is concerned, theoretical work with respect to the semantic dimensions of
noun types will be necessary. F u r t h e m o r e the encoding methodology will
a l o have to be further studied.

Ackowledgemnts

Special thanks to Margarita Alonso Ramos and lai Polguère who com­
mented on a p r v i o u s v e i o n of this paper

Notes

1.The name "nouns of joy" is used for nouns of both negative and positive polarity.
2 The status of the features in our study is slightly different from that of the features
used by Mel'cuk and Wanner since the latter correspond to abbreviations of semantic
components described in the definitions, while ours do not.
3
Some of the tests have been borrowed from or inspired by (Flaux & Van de Velde
2000
4
E t e en proie à 'to be the prey of' used ith nouns of negative polarity (as, e g .
être en proie à la tristesse/au désespoir jà un violent chagrin, lit.'to be the prey of
sadness/despair/violent grief') seems to accept both characterizations emotion noun as
well as affective state
5
Although, une explosion de bonheur 'an explosion of happiness' is acceptable BON­
HEUR 'happiness' is widely polysemous and can denote an emotion ranging from con­
tentment to euphoria.
6
Of course, 'joy' can also include a spiritual dimension which would imply an in­
ternalization. The emotion would then be conferred a kind of ethical status; cfHenri
Laborit: Le bien-être est acceptable, la joie es nobl le aisir est sect 'Wellbeing
is acceptable' 'joy is noble', pleasure is suspec'
The terminology has been borrowed from (Flaux & Van de Velde 2000). This
class comprises quality nouns (such as SALETÉ dirt), affect nouns (such as JOIE) and
state nouns (such as FATIGUE 'tiredness fatigue. According to the authors it can be
characterized as follow

. The nouns have no syntactic autonomy (they appear ith light verbs)
. They have no temporal extension.
. They suppress the distinction between quality and quantity
. They hardl appear in plural forms

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 164 GROSSMANN&TUTIN

. They can a a r in g i t i e c s t i o s such a sentiment de felin

of fear'.
. They can be part of locative constructions such as il y de ine en l litthere
is of hate in him'
In the Frantext corpus 1920-199, seven occurrences of beaucoup de joie 'a lot of joy'
and ten occurrences of (un) peu de joie lit.'(a) little of joy' out of seventy occurrences
IntenseAdjs+JOIE have been counted.
The 110 million-word corpus includes essays, literary and journalistic texts.
10
The adjective GRAND big', when used to describe person's height, means that
his/her height is above average. IMMENSE literally means ith no bounds or measure
etc.
11
Recall that (a)' stands for "antéposé", i.e., before the noun'.
N.Flaux & D.Van de Velde (2000) emphasize that as far as intensive abstract nouns
are concerned, the marking of intensity obliterates the distinction between quality and
quantity. Our data buttress their statement: VRAI 'true' and PUR 'pure' (as in vrai/pu
bonheur, lit.true/pure happiness') seem to denote a kind of quality even if the quanti
tative aspect is present.
It is worth noting that PUR pure' cannot be placed before JOIE 'joy' onl after it.
The association is possible when used to qualify: UN LIEU a place n homm d'une
tesse absolue, lit.a man of absolute sadness'.
15
Itseems that adjectives of Incommunicability have a positive connotation even hen
used in combination ith an emotion noun of negative polarity. Thus, INDICIBLE un­
speakable' in ristesse indicible 'unspeakable sadness' appears to add value to the emo­
tion, to give it a kind of moral status
16
The case of TERRIBLE 'terrible' is less clear: combined with JOIE 'joy' it seems to
convey an idea of external overflow, but it can also imply a depreciative and paradoxical
meaning signalling scandalous aspect: sa face rayonna d'ne soe de joie te
l i t h i s face beamed with kind of terrible joy'.
17
The polarity principle does not preclude stylistically formal combinations in which
adjectives lose their intensive character. In such a case, afeux bonhe dreadful hap­
piness' becomes possible
18
Although, as stated above, this is not a l a y s the case for PROFOND deep' and
AFFREUX dreadful' in cooccurrence with T R I S E S S E sadness' and DÉSESPOIR despair'.
19
The number in brackets after each adjective indicates the frequency of its occurrence
20
In our v i e , this is also the main problem with the model of the generative lexicon
Pustejovsky 1995.

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