Collocational range refers to the number and variety of collocates a word typically combines with. Words with wide collocational range are versatile and combine freely; words with narrow range are restricted to a small set of partners.
| Word | Range | Collocates | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| strong | Wide | coffee, argument, wind, accent, evidence, desire, team | High-frequency, polysemous |
| make | Wide | decision, mistake, progress, effort, noise, money | Delexical verb |
| rancid | Narrow | butter, oil, fat, meat | Semantically specific |
| auburn | Narrow | hair | Highly restricted |
| blond(e) | Narrow | hair, woman, ale | Slightly wider but still limited |
Verbs like make, do, take, have, get, and give have exceptionally wide collocational range precisely because they carry little meaning on their own; the noun collocate does the semantic work. These "delexical" or "light" verbs are a major source of Collocation errors for L2 learners (do a mistake instead of make a mistake).
Collocational range also helps explain why some vocabulary is harder to learn: narrow-range words are encountered less often in varied contexts, giving fewer opportunities for incidental acquisition.