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1. INTRODUCTION

The aim of the present thesis is to study the differences in meaning

between three verbs, to repair, to mend and to fix. These words are usually

listed in dictionaries as being synonymous, although they are sometimes

semantically different. These semantic relationships will be studied in this

thesis, with the help of both printed and online dictionaries and British and

American corpora.

The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part will offer a basic

theoretical background for the features that will be dealt with in the second

part. The second part will comprise of the analysis of the three verbs in

monolingual dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms and thesauruses and in the

British and American corpora.

Section 2.1 deals with meaning, its definition and problems with defining

the meaning of words in general. Several types of meaning that were proposed

by different authors are also listed. The features of sense and reference are

also covered in this section.

Section 2.2 presents synonymy as one of the sense relations. The

definition of synonymy and the problem of true synonymy are dealt with at the

beginning of this section. Cognitive synonymy, being the topic of this thesis, is

also dealt with here.

Section 2.3 describes other sense relations in addition to synonymy,

namely, it is antonymy, hyponymy, meronymy, homonymy and polysemy,

plesionymy, member-collection and portion-mass relations, feature-whole

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relation and others. Several different authors are cited to cover all the possible

ways in which words can be related semantically.

Section 2.4 offers basic facts about the British National Corpus and the

Corpus of Contemporary American English that will be used for the analysis of

the three verbs in the second part of this thesis. These corpora are compared

here as regards the size, range of years covered in them and registers they

contain.

Section 2.5 deals with verb as a part of speech. Verb is defined here and

several types of verbs are proposed by different authors listed. The tense and

aspect are also dealt with here.

Section 2.6 gives a definition of collocations and their restrictions.

Collocations are also compared to idioms.

The practical part is also divided into sections:

Section 3.1 is introductory, offering an overall summary of the research,

its limitations and the verbs that will be researched in dictionaries and corpora.

Section 3.2 deals with dictionary definitions of the verbs fix, mend and

repair. Both English and American dictionaries are used for the base of

research.

Section 3.3 offers definitions of the three verbs as found in several

dictionaries of synonyms and thesauruses. Both shared meanings and

differences are summed up.

Section 3.4 presents etymologies of the three verbs and their

comparison.

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Section 3.5 represents the analysis of the verbs chosen for this thesis. In

order to find out any slight diversity in practical use of these verbs, both English

(The British National Corpus) and American (The Corpus of Contemporary

American English) corpora were used for the research. The words collocating

with the verbs are divided into categories, in order to find out whether there

are any semantic differences between them and whether they can be used

interchangeably in any context, or whether their use is limited only to some

contexts. English and American English are compared with the help of the

corpora.

The Conclusion will sum up the findings from the Practical part, with the

use of examples from the British National Corpus and the Corpus of

Contemporary American English.

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2. THEORETICAL PART

2.1 Meaning

2.1.1 Definition of Meaning

Some of the theories of meaning will be mentioned in this section. In a

semantic theory the meaning is very important, since semantics deals with the

meaning of words and sentences. However, it is not easy to define the term

meaning. As Leech (1974) remarks, “the word ‘meaning’ and its corresponding

verb ‘to mean’ are among the most eminently discussable terms in the English

language [...]” (1). Bloomfield (1933: 139) is also concerned with the problem

of defining meaning: “In order to give a scientifically accurate definition of

meaning for every form of a language, we should have to have a scientifically

accurate knowledge of everything in the speakers’ world”. In this sense our

knowledge is always very limited, since we cannot possibly comprehend

everything what the people we speak with know. Bloomfield continues that “we

can define the meaning of a speech-form accurately when this meaning has to

do with some matter of which we possesses scientific knowledge”. Martin

(1985: 58) makes similar conclusions in defining meaning to those of

Bloomfield: “Knowing what someone means is not knowing what speakers have

in mind when they speak – not knowing what associations they make between

words and private ideas. Knowing what someone means is having a good

theory about a speaker’s public language behaviour”. Fromkin (1993: 165)

writes about semantic “defining” properties – words have unique characteristics

which determine their “being”. Using Fromkin’s example, “horseness” is

included in the meaning of the word “horse”. These semantic properties are

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also present in some verbs. On page 166 Fromkin concludes that “the meaning

of a word, then, is specified in part by a set of semantic properties”.

It is difficult to define meaning because there are many senses to this

word. Ogden and Richards (1946:186) provide many different definitions of

meaning, divided into three groups, A, B and C. For the research of the

meaning of words, the Groups B and C are important. The Group B works with

the meaning of a word in dictionary and its connotations – “the other words

annexed to a word in the dictionary, the connotation of a word, an essence,

[...]”, the Group C works more with relations of the word – “that which is

actually related to a sign by a chosen relation, the mnemic effects of a stimulus,

some other occurrence to which the mnemic effects of any occurrence are

appropriate [...]”. In a similar way to Ogden and Richards, Alston (1964: 10-

11) enumerates different definitions of the term meaning. Then he provides

three types of theories of meaning: referential, ideational and behavioural: “the

referential theory identifies the meaning of an expression with that to which it

refers or with the referential connection; the ideational theory with the ideas

with which it is associated and the behavioural theory with the stimuli that

evoke its utterance and/or the responses that it in turn evokes”.

As Alston (1964: 34) notes, when someone says something, they “do”

three actions:

1) Utter a certain sentence (Would you please open the door?)

2) Bring about one or more results of this utterance (get the hearer to

open the door, irritate the hearer, distract someone who is reading)

3) Do something that falls between 1) and 2)

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Alston borrows terminology from Austin1 to call these 1) locutionary act, 2)

perlocutionary act and 3) illocutionary act. “Perlocutionary acts essentially

involve the production of some effect”, whereas an illocutionary act “requires a

locutionary act as a base” (Alston 1964: 36)

Clearly, the word meaning can have many definitions in its broad sense.

This thesis will work only with meaning in connection with “meaning of a word”

or “meaning of a sentence”.

2.1.2 Types of Meaning

Kempson (1977:12) sums up the three main ways of explanations of

meaning: “the signification of words, the interpretation of sentences, or what a

speaker is intending to convey in acts of communication”. From this we can

observe three kinds of meaning – that of a word, that of a sentence and the

meaning of a whole conversation. Bloomfield (1933: 151) differentiates

between narrowed and widened meanings: narrowed meanings “are hard to

define, because, after all, every occurrence of a form is prompted by some one

practical situation which need not contain all the possibilities of meaning”. He

illustrates the narrowed meaning on a noun bulb – for gardeners it is an onion-

shaped part of a plant (daffodil bulb), for electricians it is a light bulb. On the

other hand, widened meanings are less common. In general, a cat is the

domestic animal, but now and then we use the word to include lions, tigers.

Leech (1974) describes seven types of meaning: conceptual,

connotative, social, affective, reflected, collocative and thematic meaning. This

1 Austin, John (1962) How to Do Things With Words. London: OUP.

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thesis will work with the conceptual meaning, also known as denotative,

cognitive, basic meaning or sense or semantic nucleus, which “has a complex

and sophisticated organization of a kind which may be compared with, and

cross-related to, similar organization on the syntactic and phonological levels of

language” (Leech 1974: 11).

Hladký and Růžička (2001: 18-25) differentiate six kinds of meaning:

conceptual, connotative, stylistic (which is in fact the same as Leech’s social

meaning), reflected, affective and thematic. They define the conceptual

meaning (in their terms a semantic nucleus) as “the most abstract semantic

minimum of a naming unit. It is relatively stable and relatively autonomous; it is

a finite set of discrete features of meaning”. Mathesius (1975: 18) also works

with the term semantic nucleus – it makes a part of meaning of a naming unit

along with “the associations attached to the word and what may be called

‘emotional colouring’”. The semantic nucleus makes a part of the basic meaning

of a word.

Conceptual or cognitive meaning of the verbs fix, mend and repair will be

analysed in the second part of the thesis. Definitions of these verbs, as found in

dictionaries, will be compared.

2.1.3 Sense and Reference

When describing objects and features around us we also use terms

reference or denotation. These make different aspects of meaning. Palmer

(1981: 29) defines reference as an aspect of meaning which “deals with the

relationship between the linguistic elements, words, sentences, etc., and the

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non-linguistic world of experience”. Sense, on the other hand, is defined as

relating “to the complex system of relationships that hold between the linguistic

elements themselves (mostly the words); it is concerned only with intralinguistic

relations”. This definition can be simplified, using the words of Hurford and

Heasley (1983: 25): “In talking of reference we deal with the relationships

between language and the world; in talking of sense, we deal with relationships

inside the language”.

Ogden and Richards (1946: 11) propose the following triangle of

relationship between a thought or reference, a symbol and a referent:

They state that there is a causal relation between a thought and a symbol.

Thus a symbol “symbolises” a thought or reference. The relation between a

thought and referent can be either direct or indirect. A thought “refers to” a

referent. The dashed line in the triangle above between symbol and referent

represents non-existent direct relation. “Symbol and Referent, that is to say,

are not connected directly [...] but only indirectly round the two sides of the

triangle” (Ogden and Richards 1946: 11).

THOUGHT OR REFERENCE

REFERENT SYMBOL

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2.2 Synonymy

Synonymy is closely connected with meaning; two words are

synonymous, if they share the same meaning. It is one of the sense relations,

along with homonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, and other relations. Synonymy,

or as Radford et al. (1999:198) terms “entailment of meaning” is the main topic

of this thesis. It is important here to define it and delimitate problems of “true”

or “absolute” synonymy.

2.2.1 Definition of Synonymy

Synonymy is defined in various ways by different authors. Jackson

(1988:65) states that “two words are synonyms if they can be used

interchangeably in all sentence contexts”. But synonyms can slightly differ in

meaning in various contexts. Peprník in Štekauer (2000: 153) defines synonyms

as “words or phrases with the same or nearly the same meaning”. Another

definition is provided Bolinger and Sears (1981: 123): synonyms “are close

enough to allow the speaker a choice between them in a significant number of

contexts. The measure of synonymy is replaceability”. They add that two terms

are not synonymous “unless one can be used instead of the other”. Thus, in

their view, two synonymous words should be interchangeable in any context.

2.2.2 True versus Near Synonymy

In anomalists’ view there is a presupposition in languages that one form

should have one meaning, and when, during the evolution of language, there

appears a new word for the same object, the older word should disappear.

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According to Lyons (1968: 405) the “ideal [of one form – one meaning] is

probably not realized by any natural language”. There surely exist words that

have one form with different meanings (homonymy, e.g. bank) and one

meaning shared by different words (synonymy, e.g. big/large).

As perfect or true synonyms are rare or do not exist at all, Taylor (2002:

263) defines near synonyms: “words which are similar in meaning, which tend

not to be contrastive, but which are distributed differently”. Inkpen (2006: 223)

also works with the term near-synonyms, “words that are almost synonyms, but

not quite. They are not fully intersubstitutable, but vary in their shades of

denotation or connotation, or in the components of meaning they emphasize;

they may also vary in grammatical or collocational constraints”. The term near-

synonyms can be also found in Persson (1989: 1) and Storjohan (2009: 2140).

Lyons (1968: 446) terms these loose synonyms, as opposed to strict synonyms.

Jackson (1988: 66) states two reasons against strict synonymy: the first is

economic, “having two words which are totally synonymous, and even more so

if there are large numbers of such pairs, is a luxury which language can afford

to do without”. It is not economical to have two different words for one object.

The other argument against strict synonymy by Jackson is called the “historical

counterpart”. Either “a differentiation of meaning takes place and one of the

words begins to be used in contexts from which the other is excluded, perhaps

through semantic specialisation” or “one of the words will fall out of use and

become obsolete, leaving the other as the sole lexeme with that meaning”. As

was stated above, if there appears a new word for an object for which there

already exists a word, the older one will gradually disappear, or will refer only

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to some context. Collinson (cited in Harris 1973: 14) enumerates nine possible

types of synonyms:

1) One term is more general and inclusive in its applicability, another is

more specific and exclusive, e.g. refuse/reject

2) One term is more intense than another, e.g. immense/great

3) One term is more highly charged with emotion than another, e.g.

louring/threatening

4) One term may imply moral approbation or censure where other is

neutral, e.g. eavesdrop/listen

5) One term is more “professional” than another, e.g. decease/death

6) One term belongs more to the written language, it is more literary

than another, e.g. passing/death

7) One term is more colloquial than another, e.g. turn down/refuse

8) One term is more local or dialectical than another, e.g.

flesher/butcher

9) One term belongs to child-talk, is used by children or in talking to

children, e.g. daddy/father

It is obvious that not all synonyms would go under these categories, e.g.

fix/mend/repair, the verbs researched in the practical part of this thesis, would

not match any of the above-cited criteria, except for 7) or 8) in some cases. A

similar list of different kinds of synonyms or reasons for the existence of

synonyms is also provided by Jackson (1988: 68-73). He lists these

kinds/reasons: dialectical, formal, technical, connotations and euphemisms.

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Warren2 (cited in Persson 1989: 1) differentiates between synonyms and

variants. The term synonym can be used about lexemes, “if they have similar

meanings and if they are interchangeable without affecting meaning in some

context or contexts”. On the other hand, the term variant is used about

lexemes “which only meet the criteria of the similar meanings”. Variants are

divided by Warren into three types:

- dialectical: sweets/candy

- stylistic: decease/pop off

- connotative: lady/woman

Persson (1989: 1) adds, that “variants are not regarded as intersubstituable,

because they belong to different dialects or registers, or express different

attitudes or other connotative shades of meaning”.

Another distinction of synonyms is made by Lyons (cited in Partington

1998: 30). There is either complete synonymy, or absolute synonymy. “Items

are said to be completely synonymous (in certain range of contexts) if and only

if they have the same descriptive, expressive and social meaning (in the range

of contexts in question)”. On the other hand, absolutely synonymous are those

items “if and only of they have the same distribution and are completely

synonymous in all their meanings and in all their contexts of occurrence”.

2.2.3 Cognitive Synonymy

In the second part of this thesis the cognitive kind of synonymy will be

analysed. It is defined by Radford et al. (1999: 198): “Lexemes L1 and L2 are

2 Warren, B. (1988) “Semantics: Word Meaning”. In Johannesson, N.L. (ed) (1988)

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cognitive synonyms if and only if sentential context (S) of L1 entails S(L2) and

S(L2) entails S(L1)”. Partington (1998: 30) makes this definition clearer: “Two

utterances are ‘cognitively synonymous’, if they fulfil the same truth conditions

even though a part of the first utterance has been substituted by something

else in the second”. This definition expands that of Radford – it permits the

change of a part of utterance while the meaning remains unchanged. The

cognitive synonymy works with the cognitive meaning which was dealt with in

section 2.1 above. Quine (1980: 20) illustrates the cognitive synonymy on an

example of bachelor and unmarried man: “to say that “bachelor” and

“unmarried man” are cognitively synonymous is to say no more nor less than

that the statement ‘All and only bachelors are unmarried men.’ is analytic”.

Analytic statements are defined in Saeed (2009: 96) as those “where the truth

follows from the meaning relations within the sentence, regardless of any

relationship with the world,” as opposed to synthetic statements. On page 32

Quine writes that “singular terms may be said to be cognitively synonymous

when the statement of identity formed by putting ‘=’ between them is analytic.

Statements may be said simply to be cognitively synonymous when their

biconditional (the result of joining them by ‘if and only if’) is analytic”.

Lyons (1968: 449) notes that “some of the factors which influence or

determine our choice between ‘cognitively’ synonymous words and expression

have nothing to do with sense, reference or anything else that might

reasonably be called ‘meaning’”. He illustrates this on several examples from

every-day life:

Many people deliberately refrain from using the same word more than once in the same utterance, if they can avoid it. Others choose shorter

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word in preference to a longer word, a more ‘everyday’ word rather than a ‘learned’ word, an ‘Anglo-Saxon’ word instead of a Latin, Greek or Romance word.

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2.3 Other sense relations

In order to differentiate synonymy from other sense relations, the sense

relations (or lexical/meaning relations) will be defined here. As it was

mentioned above, the sense of the word is looked upon in relation to its

intralinguistic existence, as opposed to reference. The sense relations include

synonymy, which was dealt with in the above section, antonymy, hyponymy,

hyperonymy, meronymy and others that will be dealt with below.

2.3.1 Antonymy

Antonymy is the opposite of synonymy. If two words are antonymous,

they differ in meaning and form and make two different counterparts. These

are for example hot/cold, sweet/sour or quickly/slowly. Saeed (2009: 67)

enumerates several types of antonymy:

- simple antonyms – relation between words such that the negative of

one implies the positive of the other: dead/alive

- gradable antonyms – relationship between opposites where the

positive of one term does not necessarily imply the negative of the

other: rich/poor

- reverses – relation is between terms describing movement where one

term describes movement in one direction and the other movement in

the opposite direction: come/go

- converses – terms which describe a relation between two entities

from alternative viewpoints: own/belong to

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- taxonomic sisters – words which are at the same level in a taxonomy:

red/orange/yellow...

2.3.2 Hyponymy

Another sense relation is hyponymy, or “meaning inclusion”. Hyponym is

a word the meaning of which is included in another word, called hypernym, or

superordinate. Leech (1974: 100) defines hyponymy as a relationship between

“two meanings if one componential formula contains all the features present in

the other formula”. For example: flute - instrument or cat – animal. As Radford

et al. (1999: 195) note, “an important property of hyponymy is that it is a ‘one-

way’ relation”. Using the examples above, flute is a kind of instrument, but

instrument is not a kind of flute.

2.3.3 Meronymy

Meronymy is another type of sense relations. It is a part-whole relation,

for example finger is a part of hand, hand is a part of arm. As Saeed (2009: 71)

mentions, “meronyms vary for example in how necessary the part is to the

whole”. Radford et al. (1999: 197) differentiate meronymy from taxonomy: as

we move up the structure (finger – hand – arm) “we encounter ‘larger’ entities,

not more general categories”.

2.3.4 Homonymy and Polysemy

Homonymy and polysemy are also regarded as sense relations.

Klepousniotou (2008: 1534) differentiates homonymous words from the

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polysemous as having “unrelated and mutually incompatible meanings – punch

may refer to kind of fruit drink or may mean ‘to hit something/someone with a

closed fist’”. On the contrary, polysemous words are described as having

“related or overlapping senses” – lamb refer either to the animal or the kind of

meat. But Palmer (1981: 228) raises a question what ‘related’ means? As he

mentions, “two meanings are historically related if they can be traced back to

the same source, or if the one meaning can be derived from the other”. On the

other hand, “two meanings are psychologically related if present-day users of

the language feel intuitively that they are related, and therefore tend to assume

that they are ‘different uses of the same word’”.

2.3.5 Plesionymy

Storjohan (2009: 2140) writes about another sense relation –

plesionymy. Plesionyms are defined by her as “lexical items, or constructions

that designate very similar concepts and at the same time exhibit slight

meaning differences so that they cannot be considered identical in meaning”.

These are rather referred to as near synonyms.

2.3.6 Member-collection and portion-mass relations

Saeed (2009: 71) introduces another two sense relations: member-

collection and portion-mass. The member-collection relationship is “between

the word for a unit and the usual word for a collection of the units”. For

example: ship – fleet, bird – flock”.

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The portion-mass relation is between a mass noun and the usual unit of

measurement or division: drop – liquid, sheet – paper.

2.3.7 Feature-whole relation

Peprník in Štekauer (2000:165) mentions feature-whole relation, which is

close to part-whole relation. These are for example growth – adolescence or

fitness-health.

2.3.8 Other word sets

Bolinger and Sears (1981: 128) offer a list of other “word sets” joined by

meaning:

1) Converses: come/go, buy/sell

2) Characteristic object: eat – food, read – write

3) Cognate object: ask – question, run – race

4) Characteristic action: heart – beat, fire – burn

5) Cognate subject, action, object: employer – employ – employee,

donor – donate – donation

6) Characteristic quality: water – wet, summer – warm

7) Symptom and state: smile – happiness, smoke – fire

8) Co-hyponyms: matter – solid/liquid/gas

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2.4 British National Corpus and Corpus of Contemporary

American English

Basic facts about two corpora which will be used for the analysis in the

next part will be dealt with in this section. The corpus of British English – the

British National Corpus (BNC) with American English – Corpus of Contemporary

American English (COCA) will be compared here

The BNC is a corpus of 100 million words, comprising both of written and

spoken language. The ratio between written and spoken English is 90:10. It is a

monolingual corpus, as Bournard (2009) defines it, “it deals with modern British

English, not other languages used in Britain”. It is also a synchronic corpus – “it

covers British English of the late twentieth century” (Bournard, 2009). The BNC

was collected between the 1970s and 1993. The BNC enables to search through

different registers: spoken, fiction, magazine, newspaper, non-academic,

academic and miscellaneous.

COCA, on the other hand is much bigger – it comprises of 410 million

words with 20 million words added every year. COCA is younger than BNC; it

started in 1990 and is being updated one to two times a year. Thus it contains

more up-to-date language and many new words. To contrast it with the BNC,

COCA enables to search only through spoken, fiction, magazine, newspaper and

academic registers.

Both corpora enable to search the KWIC (key word in context)

concordances. As Sinclair (1991: 33) writes, “the word-form under examination

appears in the centre of each line, with extra space on either side of it”. The

concordance is defined by Partington (1998: 9) as “a list of unconnected lines

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of text, which have been summoned by the concordance program from a

computer corpus”. Sinclair (1991:32) defines the concordance as “a collection

of the occurrences of a word-form, each in its own textual environment”. This

way it is possible to see the word in connection with other words, to see its

collocations and objects it takes and to compare the use of different words and

determine to what degree they are synonymous. A concordance, according to

Sinclair (1991: 105) “has many of the properties of a natural text, and it is

reasonable for the purposes of statistical analysis to treat each cited line as if it

were a sentence, and so to examine the vocabulary of the concordance”.

Collocations and their restrictions can be researched in corpora of

individual languages. Sinclair (2008: 20) defines basic terms in the corpus

research. A node is used “to refer to an item whose collocations we are

studying”. To use the examples of the present thesis, a node is e.g. the verb

fix. Sinclair then defines a span as “the number of lexical items on each side of

a node that we consider relevant to the node”. Collocates of the verb fix are

then found within this span.

While searching for a word in corpus, we actually search for a lemma.

Many words have more grammatical forms (e.g. fix/fixes/fixed/fixing). Thus a

corpus works with lemma, which is the basic form of a word and the results will

contain all the possible forms of the word.

The research in corpora is a central interest of corpus linguistics. With

the help of corpora, linguists can observe the changes in a language, its use

and patterns of meaning which may not be present in dictionaries.

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2.5 Verbs

Verbs, as a part of speech, will be dealt with in this section. In the

beginning, the verbs will be classified. Then there will be enumerated and

described different types of verbs.

2.5.1 Definition of verbs

Verbs are words or phrases denoting either an action or activity. Their

basic properties according to Huddleston (1984: 124) are inflection and

functional potential: “they have one or other of the inflectional properties “past

tense” and “present tense” and they function as the ultimate head of the

clause”. There are two basic tenses in which verbs can occur and six complex

tenses using auxiliaries. All these tenses can be either active or passive.

Chalker (1984: 76) enumerated different categories which can be

determined in verbs: Firstly, it is time and tense, where time can be past,

present or future. Tense is a grammatical feature. Secondly, it is aspect, either

perfective or progressive. Another category is voice. This can be either active or

passive. Verbs can also be either dynamic or static, depending on whether they

“occur as a single action, are repeated several times, or are seen as in

progress” (Chalker 1984: 76). The last category is mood, which can be either

subjunctive or indicative. Hladký and Růžička (2001: 75) mention in addition a

distinction between regular and irregular verbs. Moreover, Joos (1964: 14)

writes about distinction between finite verbs and non-finite verbs. The finite

verbs are those that “require subject and can take subjects from the list I, we,

she, they, or else a verb that is in all other respects similar but has it instead”.

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The same distinction is also found in Palmer (1974: 14), but contrary to Joos it

refers to the form of verbs. For example the lexeme take can appear in forms

take, takes, took, taking and taken. Take and takes in I take coffee and He

takes coffee are finite, whereas taken or taking in He has taken coffee and He

was taking coffee are non-finite. Huddleston and Pullum (1985: 120)

differentiate between telic and atelic verbs. The telic verbs “have an inherent

terminal point beyond which they cannot continue”. The atelic verbs are not

limited by any point in the future. Quirk et al. (2008: 53) write about distinction

between intransitive verbs, which “are followed by no obligatory element and

occur in subject-verb types of clauses, transitive verbs that “are followed by an

object” and copular verbs which are “followed by a subject, complement or an

adverbial”. Sinclair (1990: 138) explains transitivity “in relation to the clause as

a whole”, as opposed to those who deal with transitivity “in terms of the way in

which a verb selects object”. Thus, verb clauses “which have a direct object are

called transitive”. In the transitive group of verbs Sinclair assigns reflexive and

delexical verbs. The reflexive verbs are used with reflexive pronouns: She killed

herself. The delexical verbs “are used with nouns as their object to indicate

simply that someone performs an action, not that someone affects or creates

something: We had dinner”. On the other hand, intransitive verb clauses do not

have a direct object. Ergative verbs belong to this category. The ergative verbs

are those “which can have the same thing as their object, when transitive, or

their subject, when intransitive”: She opened the door. x The door opened.

(Sinclair 1990: 138).

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2.5.2 Tense and aspect

According to Leech and Svartvik (1975: 65) tense and aspect “relate to

happening described by the verb to time in the past, present, or future”. On

page 400 they define the tense as “the correspondence between the form of

the verb and our concept of time (past, present, or future)”. Aspect is defined

here as concerning “the manner in which a verbal action is experienced or

regarded”. Saeed (2009: 119) defines aspect as “a grammatical system relating

to time, where the speaker may choose how to describe the internal temporal

nature of a situation”.

Leech (1971: 18) differentiates four classes of verbs that can occur with

progressive aspect:

1) momentary verbs (nod, hit, jump) – these refer to happenings so

momentary that it is difficult to think of them as having duration, but

when used with progressive they denote a series of events (He was

nodding)

2) transitional event verbs (arrive, die, fall) – these verbs denote

transition into a state, used with progressive to indicate an approach

to the transition (The train was arriving)

3) activity verbs (drink, eat, play) – although these verbs can be used

with the Simple Tenses in an “event” sense, they more usually occur

with the Progressive (They’re still eating their dinner)

4) process verbs (change, grow, mature) – process ordinarily has

duration (The weather is changing for the better)

24

Then he mentions another four classes that cannot occur with progressive

aspect, with some exceptions, depending on the context:

1) verbs of inert perception (feel, hear, see)

2) verbs of inert cognition (believe, forget, hope)

3) state verbs of having and being (be, belong to, contain)

4) verbs of bodily sensation (ache, feel, hurt)

Vendler (1967: 102) and Huddleston and Pullum (2002: 118) offer another

classification of verbs: they differentiate between states (static) and

occurrences (dynamic), which are either processes (durative) or achievements

(punctual). The processes can either be activities (telic) or accomplishments

(atelic).

Saeed (2009: 121) differentiates five ‘situation types’, as he calls them.

These situation types are based on the Vendler’s classification mentioned

above. The first situation type is made of states, which are static and durative

(e.g. love, know, believe). The second are activity verbs, which are durative

and atelic (e.g. walk, swim, push a cart). These are also called unbounded

processes. The accomplishments make the third situation type.

Accomplishments are durative and telic, they are bounded processes (e.g. run a

mile, draw a circle, paint a picture). Another situation type is made of

achievements, which are telic. They are also called point events (e.g. recognize,

stop, reach the top). The last situation type is made of semelfactives – events

that are instantaneous atelic (e.g. cough, knock, flash).

25

Qian (2000: 53) classified six semantic specifications, based on Wallace

Chafe3:

- states – verb is accompanied by a noun which is its patient – The

wood is dry.

- processes – a process still involves a relation between a noun and a

state – The wood dried.

- actions – the verb express an action – He ran.

- process-action – the verb is a process (involves a change) and action

(expresses what someone does to something) – He dried the wood.

- state-ambient – an all-encompassing state which covers the total

environment instead of just one object within it – It’s late.

- action-ambient – an all-encompassing event which is without

reference to some particular “thing” within the environment – It’s

raining.

However, there are verbs that belong to more than one of the categories

mentioned above. Leech (1971: 5) notes that, for example the verb remember

can be both state and event: “In Suddenly I remembered the letter the verb

refers to the act of recall thus it is an event verb,” whereas in I shall remember

that moment until I die the verb is a state, because it “represents the notion of

‘having in one’s memory’”.

3 Chafe, Wallace, L. (1970) Meaning and the Structure of Language. Chicago: University of

Chicago Press.

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2.6 Collocations and idioms

It is also important to state some basic facts about collocations, because

they are the focus of this thesis, along with synonymy.

Collocations are defined by Jackson (1988: 96) as “combinations of

words that have a certain mutual expectancy”. These combinations are not

fixed, but the words in them have a tendency to occur together. The meaning

of words sometimes depends on contexts in which they occur. This was

discussed above in the section 2.1, concerning the collocative meaning as

proposed by Leech (1974: 20). The collocative meaning, Leech suggests,

“consists of words which tend to occur in its environment”. He illustrates this on

adjectives pretty and handsome: while pretty girl is commonly used, handsome

girl is not, as opposed to handsome boy.

Although the collocations are not fixed terms, there are some words with

a restricted range. Palmer (1981: 99) writes about three kinds of collocational

restrictions:

1) some are based wholly on the meaning of the item as in the unlikely

green cow

2) some are based on range – a word may be used with a set of words

that have some semantic features in common; e.g. The

rhododendron passed away is unlikely

3) some restrictions are collocational in the strictest sense, involving

neither meaning nor range, as addled with eggs and brains

Collocational restrictions are, though, really rare. Partington (1998: 26)

proposes other two categories: “unrestricted” and “semi-restricted”.

27

Partington (1998: 16) notes that “co-occurrence of the items becomes

interesting if it seems to happen for a purpose, and especially if it is repeated, if

there are ‘patterns of collocation’”. This is used in corpus analyses – in the

research of repeating patterns.

Sinclair (1991: 115) differentiates between downward collocations and

upward collocations. He uses the term downward collocation when a is a node

and b is collocate – “collocation of a with a less frequent word b”. On the other

hand, when b is a node and a is collocate, he terms this downward collocation.

Saeed (2009: 60) writes that collocations “can undergo a fossilization

process until they become fixed expressions”. He illustrates the fixed

expressions on an example of hot and cold running water as opposed to cold

and hot running water, which is not very common. Another type of fossilization

is an idiom. Palmer (1981: 79) notes that “idioms involve collocation of a

special kind”. Saeed (2009: 60) defines idioms as “expressions where the

individual words have ceased to have independent meanings”.

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3. PRACTICAL PART

3.1 Introduction

In this part, the definitions of the verbs fix, mend, and repair will be

described. To define these verbs, different dictionaries will be used, both

printed and online, and both British and American dictionaries. Next, the verbs

will be studied for their collocations in the British National Corpus (BNC) and the

Corpus of Current American English (COCA). In order to find differences

between these verbs, etymology will also be compared.

In the BNC and COCA, the most numerous collocates of these verbs will

be researched. From the list of collocates the semantic groups will be made, so

as to research the differences of collocability between individual verbs and the

degree of synonymity and between the British and American English. The

findings from dictionaries and corpora will be compared and conclusions will be

drawn.

The aim of the practical part is to find out whether the verbs can be

called absolute synonyms, or if they are used in different contexts, with

different collocations and objects.

According to categories presented above in the theoretical part by Leech

(1971), Vendler (1967), Huddleston & Pullum (2002) and Saeed (2002) the

verbs in focus – fix, mend and repair are activity verbs, they are telic and

durative. In terms of Qian (2000) these verbs are “actions”.

Both active and passive voices will be researched in the corpora, as well

as progressive aspect. The focus of the analysis is on the objects of these

29

verbs, not on their modifiers, so the pattern “verb+noun”, where the noun is

not in the subject position, will be searched for.

The findings of the corpora analysis will be summed up in tables,

containing the collocate in focus, the verb (fix, mend or repair), number of

occurrences in the corpus, example concordance(s) from the corpus and

citation code. For each of the corpora there will be one table. A comparison

table of the findings from the both corpora will also be provided, for the sake of

clarity.

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3.2 Dictionary definitions

In this part, the definitions of individual verbs will be dealt with, using

both printed and online dictionaries. Dictionaries of synonyms will also be used

in order to find whether there are any differences between verbs described by

authors of these dictionaries. It is also important to research the etymologies of

the verbs, because the differences may have been erased during the

development of the language. All senses of the verbs, not only those that

overlap with other two verbs will be mentioned in this section. The sense that is

shared by all three verbs is underlined.

The dictionary definitions are important for the comparison with English

and American corpora. Although there are numerous dictionaries of the English

language, for the sake of this thesis it is enough to mention only some of them

here.

The definitions of the verbs fix, mend and repair are cited from two

different printed dictionaries (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English –

LDCE and The Random House Dictionary of the English Language – RHD) and

one online dictionary (Oxford English Dictionary – OED).

3.2.1 Dictionary definitions of the verb fix

Definition of fix in LDCE:

fix, v. 1 to fasten firmly (into the stated position): to fix the door open|(fig.) to fix the date in my mind 2 to agree on; arrange: We’ve fixed the date for the wedding (compare We’ve FIXed ON the 14th of April). | They’ve fixed the rent at £12.00 (compare They’ve FIXed ON £12.00). | If you want to meet them, I can fix it. | We haven’t fixed (up) when to leave / where to stay, yet. | Have you fixed who is the lead? They’ve fixed to go to Borneo – compare FIX ON (1) 3 to protect (colours or photographic film) from the effects of light, by chemical treatment 4 AmE to cook or prepare (esp. food or drink) (for someone); put in order: She’s fixing breakfast.| Let me fix you a drink!|I must fix my face. 5 AmE to repair: I must get the radio fixed – compare SEE TO 6 (of things one can see) to attract (one’s attention) 7 (military) to fasten (a BAYONET) into position on one’s RIFLE 8 derog to arrange the result of: to fix the election/the race 9 infml to influence

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(someone) wrongly, esp. by BRIBERY: Can the fix the judge? 10 sl to deal with; get even with

(someone): Don’t worry! I’ll fix George – see also FIX ON, FIX UP, FIX WITH

Here it can be seen that the LDCE mentions many different senses of the verb

fix, but only the fifth one is the same as mend and repair. In this dictionary the

meaning is also compared to see to.

Definition in RHD:

fix, v. fixed or fixt, fix-ing, n. – v.t. 1 to repair, mend. 2 to put in order or in good condition; adjust or arrange: She fixed her hair in a bun. 3 to make fast, firm, or stable. 4 to pace definitely and more or less permanently: to fix a circus poster to a wall. 5 to settle definitely; determine: to fix a price. 6 to direct (the eyes, the attention, etc.) steadily: His eyes were fixed on the distant ship. 7 to attract and hold (the eye, the attention, etc.). 8 to make set or rigid. 9 to put into the permanent form. 10 to put or place (responsibility, blame, etc.) on a person. 11 to assign or refer to a definite place, time, etc. 12 to provide or supply with (something needed or wanted): How are you fixed for money? 13 Informal to arrange or influence the outcome or action of, esp. privately or dishonestly: to fix a jury; to fix a game. 14 to get (a meal); prepare (food): What time shall I fix supper? 15 Informal to put in a condition or position to make no further trouble. 16 Informal to get even with; get revenge upon: I’ll fix him! 17 to castrate or spay (an animal, esp. a pet). 18 Chem. a. to make stable in consistency or condition; reduce from fluidity or volatility to a more stable state. b. to convert atmospheric nitrogen into a useful compound, as a nitrate fertilizer. 19 Photog. to render (an image) permanent by removing light-sensitive silver halides. 20 Microscopy to kill, make rigid, and preserve for microscopic study.

There are obviously more senses of the verb fix in this dictionary than in LDCE.

As opposed to LDCE, there are 20 different senses. Some of the meanings

present in LDCE are here divided into several ones. For example the first sense

in LDCE, to fasten firmly, can be found in senses 2, 3 and 4 in RHD. Moreover,

there are many senses in RHD that are not found in LDCE (numbers 9, 10, 12,

15, 17, 18 and 20). On the other hand, the senses 7 and 8 in LDCE are not

found in RHD.

Definition in OED:

Because of the comprehensiveness of the definitions in OED, here I will

mention only those meanings that are not obsolete.

fix, v. I. To make firm or stable. 1. a. trans. To fasten, make firm or stable in position; to place, attach, or insert and secure against displacement. Const. in, on, to. etc d. In immaterial sense: To attach firmly; to implant securely (principles, etc.). e. To ‘fasten’ (an imputation, responsibility, etc.) on a person. f. intr. for refl. To become firmly attached or implanted; to adhere to. lit. and fig. ? Obs. 2. a. To secure from change, vacillation or wandering; to give

32

stability or constancy to (the mind, thoughts, affections, purposes). c. To settle immovably the

purpose or conviction of (a person). Const. to with inf.; also on, for, against. Now only in pass. e. Genetics. To establish (a character, or the gene responsible for it) as a permanent property of subsequent generations. 3. a. To direct steadily and unwaveringly, fasten, set (one's eyes, attention, affections, etc.) on, upon b. absol. To concentrate one's attention or mind on. Also intr. for refl. (said of the eyes, attention, etc.). c. Of an object of vision or thought: To ‘rivet’, attract and hold fast (the eye, the attention, etc.). d. To make (the eyes, features, etc.) motionless or rigid (as in death). Also intr. for refl. e. To make (a person) motionless with astonishment or other feeling, to hold spellbound. 4. a. trans. To deprive of volatility or fluidity. b. intr. for refl. To lose volatility or fluidity; to become firm, rigid, or solidified; to congeal, set. c. trans. Of a plant or micro-organism: to assimilate (the nitrogen or carbon dioxide of the atmosphere) by causing it to become combined in a non-gaseous metabolizable form. Hence, to cause (an element, esp. nitrogen) to form a compound, whether gaseous or not, as the first step in some biological or industrial process. d. To preserve and harden biological material, esp. before microscopic examination. e. Immunol. To bring about the fixation of (complement). 5. a. trans. To make (a colour, a drawing, photographic image, etc.) fast or permanent. c. To give permanent form to (evanescent images). 6. a. To force into or overtake in a position from which escape is difficult; to ‘corner’, ‘nail’. lit. and fig. b. To hold (a person) engaged or occupied, so as to prevent his leaving the spot. c. to fix (a person) with one's eyes: to direct upon him a steady gaze from which he cannot escape. d. Of the eyes: To arrest (an object of vision) with the gaze, i.e. to have a steady vision of it. II. To place definitely. 8. a. To place in a definite and more or less permanent position; to set, station. to fix up: to set up. b. To place, install (a person, oneself) in a position, with preparations for a stay; in early military use, to fix (a person) up (colloq.): to ‘put (him) up’, provide with quarters. c. To establish (a person) in a place of residence, a position or office; to take up (one's quarters, abode); to locate, settle (an industry, etc.) in a certain place. In pass., to be (comfortably or otherwise) ‘placed’ or circumstanced. 9. intr. for refl. To settle, take up a position; esp. to settle permanently, take up one's abode. 10. a. To take up one's position mentally. ?Obs. b. to fix on or upon: to settle one's choice on or upon; to decide upon, choose, select. c. To decide, determine to (do something); also const. for with gerund, or with subord. sentence. 11. a. To appoint or assign the precise position of; to refer (something) to a definite place, time, etc b. To allocate, determine the incidence of (a responsibility, liability, etc.). Also, to fix (a person) with costs, liability, etc.: to impose upon him the obligation of meeting or paying them. 12. To settle definitely; to appoint or assign with precision; to specify or determine. Const. at, for, to. 13. To settle or determine the form of, give a permanent form to (language or literature). 14. a. To adjust, make ready for use (arms, instruments, etc.); to arrange in proper order. b. In wider sense (chiefly U.S. colloq.): To arrange, get ready, put in order; to put to rights, make tidy, ‘rig up’; spec. to prepare (food or drink). Also with off, over, and up and const. for (doing something). to fix out, ‘to set out, display, adorn, supply, fit out’ (Cent.); to fix the table (see quot. 18422); to fix one's face, etc.: to put on or rearrange one's make-up, etc. c. Orig. and chiefly U.S. to fix (a person): to deal with, settle or ‘do for’ (a person); to kill (a person). to fix it: to arrange matters. any way you can fix it: whatever you do, contrive as you may. to fix (another's) flint: to settle or ‘do for’ him. d. orig. U.S. ‘To make favourable to one's purposes’ (Bartlett), to ‘square’, usu. by illegal means, esp. bribery. e. To mend, repair. orig. U.S. f. To castrate, sterilize (an animal). 15. (See quot.) 16. intr. a. To intend; to arrange, get ready, make preparations, for or to do something. Also with out and up. U.S. b. (Usually with up.) To put oneself in proper trim; to dress up; to spruce up. c. intr. and trans. To inject (oneself) with narcotics. (Cf. FIX n. 4.) slang (orig. U.S.).

The OED is obviously the most comprehensive of the three dictionaries. There

are all the senses from the above-mentioned dictionaries and some more (for

example 2e or 6b). The senses are always divided into sub-categories.

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3.2.2 Dictionary definitions of the verb mend

Definition of mend in LDCE:

mend, v. 1 to repair (a hole, break, fault, etc.) in (something) 2 to repair by sewing: I’ll mend that shirt. 3 to improve (esp. in the phr. mend one’s ways). 4 not fml to regain one’s health: He’s mending nicely. 5 infml esp. dial to build up (a low fire).

There are four different senses of the verb mend in LDCE. Only one of them

corresponds to the other two verbs.

Definition in RHD:

mend, v. 1 to make something (broken, worn, torn, or otherwise damaged) whole, sound or usable by repairing: to mend old clothes; to mend a broken toy. 2 to remove or correct defects or errors in. 3 to set right; make better; improve: to mend matters. 4 to progress toward recovery, as a sick person. 5 (of broken bones) to grow back together; knit. 6 to improve, as conditions or affairs.

There are more senses of the verb mend in RHD. However, they can be

included in the senses of the dictionary above. There are four senses that

correspond to fix and repair.

Definition in OED:

mend I. With reference to defects. 1. a. trans. To restore to a complete, sound, or usable condition (something broken, worn, torn, etc.); to repair or make good (a defective

part), fix b. trans. To adjust, set right; to snuff (a candle). Obs. (Naut. in later use). c. trans.

In extended use. d. trans. To add fuel to (a fire). Cf. earlier BEET v. e. trans. colloq. and Eng.

regional. To repair the garments of (a person). Obs. f. intr. To make repairs. rare exc. in collocations with intr. senses of make: see MAKE v.1 1d , 39f. Obs. 2. trans. To make amends or reparation for, atone for (a misdeed, an injury). Also intr.: to make reparation. Now only in the proverb least said soonest mended. 3. a. trans. To rectify, remedy, remove (an evil); to

correct, put right (a fault, error, etc.); to alleviate istress) (obs.). See also to mend matters

at Phrases 2. b. trans. To correct (a mistake, something erroneous). Obs. c. intr. Of a fault: to undergo rectification. Obs. 4. a. trans. To free (a person, character, habits, etc.) from sin or fault; to improve morally; to reform; (occas.) to cure of (a fault). (a) In asseverative declarations and oaths (cf. HELP v. 1c). Now chiefly in Sc. and Irish English, in the devil (also hell) mend (a person or thing), etc. (b) In other constructions. Now chiefly in to mend one's manners (also

ways). b. trans. (refl.). To reform oneself. Obs. c. intr. To undergo reform or moral improvement; to mend one's ways. Now chiefly Sc. exc. in the proverb it is never too late to mend. 5. a. trans. To restore to health, cure, heal. Also in extended use. Now arch. and

regional. b. intr. To regain health; to recover from sickness. Formerly (occas.) with of. c. intr. Of a wound, or injury, or an injured part of the body, etc.: to heal. Of a malady: to abate. Also fig. 6. a. trans. To remove the defects of (a thing); to correct (what is faulty); to improve by correction or alteration; to emend. Now rare exc. in certain fixed

expressions: see senses Phrases 1, Phrases 2. b. intr. To become less faulty. Of conditions: to become less unfavourable, improve. Obs. II. Without distinct reference to defects: to make

34

better, ameliorate, improve. 7. a. trans. To improve in quality; to render more excellent; to

ameliorate (conditions, etc.). b. intr. To grow better in quality, improve. Obs. Occas. used ironically, as in the proverbial use illustrated in quot. 1546. c. intr. To recover from, get better of, grow out of. Cf. sense 4c. Obs. 8. trans. To improve upon, surpass, better. In early use with

personal object. Later chiefly colloq.: to produce something better than. Now rare. 9. trans. a. To improve the condition or fortune of. Also refl.: to better oneself, to make an advantageous change in one's condition. Obs. b. Sc. To profit, advantage (a person). Also intr.: to avail. Usu.

with impersonal subject, and in negative and interrogative contexts. Obs. 10. trans. a. To improve (a person) physically; to cause to thrive. Also intr.: (of a child) to thrive (cf. sense 7b). Obs. b. Sc. and Irish English (north.). To fatten, cause to gain weight. Also intr.: (of an animal)

to gain weight, grow plump. Obs. 11. a. trans. To improve (wages, prices, etc.) by additions. Obs. b. trans. To supplement, make up the deficiency of (see also sense 7a). In later use Eng. regional in to mend one's draught: to have another drink. Obs. See also to mend one's hand at Phrases 4(b). c. intr. To improve in amount or price. Obs.

Again, the OED is the most comprehensive of the three dictionaries. There are

all the meanings from the dictionaries cited above. However, there are many

senses not included in LDCE and RHD (for example numbers 2 or 4a, not

counting the senses that are obsolete).

3.2.3 Dictionary definitions of the verb repair

Definition of repair in LDCE:

repair, v. 1 a to mend (something worn or broken): to repair a broken watch / a road / old shoes b (of something broken or worn) to be able to be mended: This is so old it won’t repair. 2 fml to put right (a wrong, mistake, etc.): How can I repair the wrong I have done her?

Definition in RHD:

repair, v. 1 to restore to a good or sound condition after decay or damage; mend: to repair a motor. 2 to restore or renew by any process of making good, strengthening, etc.: to repair one’s health by resting. 3 to remedy; make good; make up for: to repair damage; to repair a deficiency. 4 to make amends for; compensate: to repair a wrong done.

There are more definitions of the verb repair in RHD than LDCE. In this

dictionary, there are some extra senses that are not included in RHD (numbers

2 and 4).

Definition in OED:

repair 1. a. trans. To restore (a damaged, worn, or faulty object or structure) to good or proper condition by replacing or fixing parts; to mend, fix. Also intr. and in extended

use. b. trans. To rebuild (a city). c. trans. To put (a country) in order. Obs. rare 1. d. trans. (refl.) To put oneself in order; esp. to give oneself a neat and tidy appearance, spruce oneself

35

up. e. intr. To undergo repairs. Obs. 2. trans. a. To bring or restore (an immaterial thing) to

normal or proper condition, compensating for some form of deterioration or downturn. Also occas. intr. b. To restore (a material thing, esp. a body or body part) to good or proper condition

by compensating for waste, decay, exhaustion, etc.; to renew. c. To revive, reinvigorate (a person). Obs. 3. a. trans. To heal or cure (a wound, injury, etc.). Also intr.: (of a wound, injury, etc.) to heal. Also fig. b. trans. To reconstruct (defective or injured body

parts) surgically. c. intr. Of a person: to recuperate, recover. rare. 4. trans. a. To adorn, decorate. Also intr. Obs. [The analysis of quot. a1525 is not certain; it is possible that it could instead show REPAIR n.2 in an otherwise unrecorded sense ‘ornamentation’.] b. Originally: to

maintain by paying for upkeep. Later: to provide or supply with something. Obs. 5. trans. To

make up (a sum of money); to bring up to a given amount. Obs. rare 1. 6. trans. To regain, recover (something lost). Now rare. 7. a. trans. To make amends for (a wrong or harm done); to make up or compensate for. b. trans. To remedy, put right (an undesirable condition or

situation); to rectify, make good (a fault). c. intr. To make up for a wrong done. Obs. rare.

8. trans. a. To restore (a person or group of people) to a previous state or status; (esp. in Theol.) to renew spiritually, deliver from sin. Obs. b. To compensate or make amends to (a

person) for a misfortune or wrong done. Obs. c. To save, deliver from something. Obs. rare 1.

d. refl. To compensate oneself for a loss or outlay. Obs. 9. trans. To make exact. Obs. rare

1. 10. intr. To change oneself for the better; to reform oneself. Obs. rare 1.

From the citation above it can be observed that there are many different senses

of the verb repair. However, many of them are obsolete or rare. Still, it is the

most comprehensive definition of repair of the three dictionaries. All the senses

from the above-mentioned dictionaries are present here and there are some

more senses (numbers 4b, 8c or 8d). But as in RHD, the second sense from

LDCE (to be able to be mended) is also missing here.

From the dictionary definitions it can be seen that the verb fix has many

different senses, and the sense shared with mend and repair is not always one

of the main senses. Fix is also different from the other two verbs in its ability to

form the phrasal verb to fix up. Although this phrasal verb has the same sense

as the researched verbs, I will not work with it during searching the corpora.

From the citations above it is obvious that the OED is the most

comprehensive dictionary of those mentioned in the thesis. There are many

different senses of the verbs, although some of them are obsolete or rare.

Mostly, there are those senses that are also in LDCE and RHD, but divided into

more sub-categories.

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3.3 Definitions in dictionaries of synonyms

In this part I will state the definitions of the verbs fix, mend and repair

from the dictionaries of synonyms. I will work with some of the dictionaries for

the sake of illustration and to compare the definitions with the findings from the

corpora. I will cite the Oxford Thesaurus – An A- Z Dictionary of Synonyms, The

Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, Cassell’s Guide to Synonyms and Related Words,

Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary and Longman Synonym Dictionary.

In case the verb has more than one meaning, only that which is shared by all

three verbs will be stated here.

Definitions in Oxford Thesaurus – An A- Z Dictionary of Synonyms:

fix, v. 3 repair, mend, fix up, remedy, rectify, correct, emend, adjust, patch (up), regulate, put or set to rights, doctor, straighten out: My watch is at the jeweller’s being fixed. mend, v. 1 repair, fix, patch (up), rectify, correct, remedy, restore, rehabilitate, heal: When will you get round to mend the roof? repair, v. 1 mend, patch (up), renew, put or set right, restore, fix (up), service, put (back) in or into working order, vamp, revamp, adjust: Can you repair the tear in my trousers? I must remember to ask the garage to repair the brakes on my car.

In this dictionary of synonyms, all three verbs make entries. In the list of

synonyms, there are always mentioned the other two verbs.

Definitions in The Merriam-Webster Thesaurus:

fix, v. 7 see MEND 2, rel mend, patch, rebuild, repair, amend, emend, revise. mend, v. 2 to put into good shape or working order again. syn doctor, do up, fix, overhaul, patch, rebuild, recondition, reconstruct, repair, revamp, right, rightle, vamp. repair, v. see MEND

This dictionary has the three verbs as entries as well. Unlike the first dictionary,

it devises to the verb mend, which makes the main entry.

Definitions and commentary in Cassell’s Guide to Synonyms and

Related Words:

repair, v. correct, fix, mend, rectify, remedy, renovate Repair emphasizes work done on an object that is broken, damaged, or not in proper working order: to repair a TV set; to repair shoes; the expense of having an old car repaired. By extension, it can refer to any effective restorative action: ambassadors who worked to repair the breach in trade relations.

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Fix is an informal word for the same set of meanings as repair: the time it took him to fix the flat tyre. But while repair usually suggests a broken object to begin with, fix can apply to anything that needs attention or has gone awry: fixing curtains for the bare windows; a friend who could fix things between the girl and her angry parents. Mend suggests the repairing of something broken, torn, or worn threadbare: a torn page mended with tape; to mend old clothes. But it can go beyond this to suggest a growing together, a knitting and healing of injured parts in living things: tying the bent branch in place until it could mend; splinting the leg until the broken bone began to mend. Thus it may suggest a return to health and peace in wider contexts: anxious to mend the rift between the two warring factions within the new republic.

The Cassell’s Guide to Synonyms and Related Words makes repair the main

entry. Under it there are defined all the three verbs. This dictionary defines the

verbs in depth, in connection with each other. Fix is defined here as an informal

word for repair. Mend, according to this dictionary, has the most senses of the

three verbs (it can collocate with clothes, branch or leg).

Definitions in Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary:

fix, v. 6 a repair, mend <the clock> b restore, cure mend, v. 1 c to put into good shape or working order again: patch up, repair syn MEND, REPAIR, PATCH, REBUILD mean to put into good order something that has been injured, damaged, or defective. MEND implies making whole or sound something broken, torn, or injured; REPAIR applies to the mending of more extensive damage or dilapidation. repair, v. 1 a to restore by replacing a part or putting together what is torn or broken: fix <fix> syn MEND.

This dictionary devises to mend and repair under fix. Under the entry of mend it

compares all the three verbs.

Definitions in Longman Synonym Dictionary:

fix, v. 5 repair, mend, restore, doctor, fix up; patch, patch up, touch up, renovate, renew; correct, amend, rectify, remedy, better, ameliorate; adjust, arrange, straighten, place. mend, v. 1 repair, remedy, fix, fix up, doctor or doctor up, patch up, patch; put back together, put back in one piece, restore, rehabilitate, make good as new, sew or sew up, stitch, darn, strengthen, reinforce; cure, heal, restore to health, make well or whole. repair, v. 1 restore, mend, patch or patch up, put back together, make good as new; service,

fix, fix up, make improvements on, improve, better, ameliorate, meliorate; amend, emend, correct, adjust, align, regulate; recondition, redo, remake, make over, overhaul, rebuild, reconstruct, remodel, revamp, renovate, renew, redecorate; repaint, touch up, brush up, polish up, clean up, spruce up.

The last dictionary of synonyms enumerates all the possible synonyms of the

verbs, which make separate entries. In all the entries there are the other two

verbs mentioned.

38

All the dictionaries of synonyms list the verbs fix, mend and repair as

synonyms. The Cassell’s Guide to Synonyms and Related Words shows to be

the most comprehensive, with sample sentences and comparison of the three

verbs. The Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary offers a deeper

comparison as well.

3.4 Etymology of the verbs fix, mend and repair

In order to find the differences between individual verbs, it is important

to see their history of use. In this part I will work with the Oxford English

Dictionary, or more precisely with the section Etymology, available online. I will

state here only the first use of the meaning the three verbs share.

Etymology of the verb fix:

The verb fix was, according to OED Etymology, first used in the same

meaning as mend and repair in 1762, originally in the American English:

a1762 S. NILES Wars in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. (1861) II. 401 A number of hands came to fix our whale-boats. 1870 ‘MARK TWAIN’ Sk. New & Old (1875) 20 [I] finally took the watch to another watchmaker... He fixed it, and gave it a fresh start. 1947 ‘N. SHUTE’ Chequer Board iii. 59 They fixed the vicar's Austin Seven. 1949 F. SARGESON I saw in my Dream 37 Arnold was fixing his motor bike.

Mend, on the other hand, is much older – it was first used in 1225. It is of

Anglo-Norman origin:

a1225 MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 217 On e helde la e,

het ure drihten at me ne sholde none man bitechen bute he were teid to menden chirche.

c1230 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Corpus Cambr.) (1962) 215 Seowi ant mendi chirche cla es. a1387 J. TREVISA tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) V. 129 Olde chirches he mendede, and new cherches he bulde. c1400 (a1376) LANGLAND Piers Plowman (Trin. Cambr.)

A. III. 51 ere nis wyndowe ne auter at I ne shulde make or mende. c1480 (a1400) St. Mark

81 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 241 e bochoure wes mendand e scho.

1487 in T. Gardner Hist. Acct. Dunwich (1754) 153 Payd the Glas-wry te for mendyng Seynt Krysteferys Wyndown. 1535 Bible (Coverdale) Mark i. 19 As they were in the shyppe mendynge their nettes. 1575 Churchwardens' Accts. Stanford in Antiquary 17 (1888) 171/1 It. for lathing & mending the churche howse mounds vd. 1617 F. MORYSON Itinerary I. 186 As if I had been so

39

good a husband, as to mend my own clothes. 1687 A. LOVELL tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant I. 219 Our Rudder broke, which being quickly mended again with some Nails, we sailed only with a fore-sail. 1738 Purefoy Lett. (1931) I. viii. 191 To mend two Pannells in the back Parlour 0-03-06. 1814 J. AUSTEN Mansfield Park III. vii. 148, I wish we could get the bell

mended but Betsey is a very handy little messenger. 1820 KEATS Lett. (1958) II. 262, I have been writing with a vile old pen the whole week... The fault is in the Quill: I have mended it. 1863 A. BLOMFIELD Mem. Bp. Blomfield I. viii. 223 We all sit and mend our pens and talk about the weather. 1878 W. S. JEVONS Polit. Econ. 29 Hedges and ditches are mended when there is nothing else to do. 1888 Housewife 3 436/2 After mending the holes, the thin places..should be run thickly backwards and forwards. 1942 W. FAULKNER Go down, Moses 168 Sitting in the door of the plantation black-smith shop, where he sharpened plow-points and mended tools. 1990 R. SMITH Nemesis ix. 85 The young man rang her doorbell, grim and sullen, his plastic schoolboy glasses still mended with adhesive tape.

The verb repair is also of Anglo-Norman origin, first to be used in 1387, later

than mend:

a1387 [implied in REPAIRING n.1 1]. c1425 LYDGATE Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A. 4) IV. 1213 Pallamydes..is to his shippes goon For to considre..Wher nede was..Any of hem to mendyn or repeire. a1460 Knyghthode & Bataile (Pembr. Cambr. 243) l. 1700 More esily a thing is al mad newe In many cas then is an olde repared. c1475 (a1449) LYDGATE Testament (Harl. 218) 554 in Minor Poems (1911) I. 350 As..an artificer repareth a reven cheste. 1523 LD. BERNERS tr. J. Froissart Cronycles I. sig. k.iiiv/2, They repayred agayn the castell and mended the walles and gates of the towne. 1560 J. DAUS tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. cxxj, He repared his nauie and returned to Constantinople. 1589 R. LANE in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations III. 744 They agreed..that in the night they should sende to haue our weares robbed, and also to cause them to bee broken and once being broken neuer to bee repayred againe by them. 1600 in House of Gordon (1907) II. 193 [Alexander Gordon] has repaired and builded in Lesmoir more sumptuouslie by farr then it was befor. 1617 F. MORYSON Itinerary I. 194 The fourth Bridge..being rebuilt or repaired of stone, by King Charles the sixth. 1667 MILTON Paradise Lost VI. 878 Disburd'nd Heav'n rejoic'd, and soon repaird Her mural breach. 1747 J. BARKER Ess. Agreem. Anc. & Mod. Physicians iv. 289 A Physician is like..a Builder, who undertakes to repair a decayed Pile; he must add what is wanting. 1791 A. RADCLIFFE Romance of Forest I. ii. 75 He brought materials for repairing the place, and some furniture. 1820 J. GIFFORD Compl. Eng. Lawyer (ed. 5) 418 The law excuses the lessee, unless there is a covenant to repair and uphold. 1823 C. LAMB Old China in London Mag. Mar. 270/2 While I was repairing some of the loose leaves with paste. 1878 H. JAMES Europeans I. iii. 89 A lot of money..that comes forward very quietly for subscriptions to institutions, for repairing tenements, for paying doctor's bills. 1924 J. MOSLEY in B. C. Williams O. Henry Prize Stories (1925) 126 The rack-boned horse quietly pulled the swingletree in two, and I found myself without the means to repair. 1951 J. W. VALE Mod. Auto Body & Fender Repair xiii. 162 The deck compartment..may be repaired in the same way. 1960 C. DAY LEWIS Buried Day ii. 37 He had a wheelbarrow to take in for the blacksmith to repair. 2005 Ships Monthly Oct. 4/2 Both vessels were escorted to Falmouth where Sierra Express was repaired alongside at A & P.

From the etymology of the verbs it is clear that the verb fix is the

youngest. Repair and mend are both of Anglo-Norman origin, although repair

was used later than mend in the sense of “restoring something to a sound,

whole or complete condition”. The Etymology in EOD states that fix was

originally used in the sense “to fix one’s eyes on something” – this sense is also

very common nowadays. From the etymological point of view, fix is quite

40

different than the other two verbs – the meaning which the three verbs share,

is not the first and basic use of the verb fix. Moreover, fix is of American origin,

compared to Anglo-Norman origin of mend and repair.

3.5 Corpus analysis

In this section the use of the three verbs will be analysed, with the help

of the corpora of British and American English. For the research, I used these

corpora – The British National Corpus (BNC) and The Corpus of Contemporary

American English (COCA). These two corpora will be compared in order to find

out whether there are any differences between British English and American

English in the use of these verbs.

First the most numerous collocations with each verb were searched for.

In case of fix, mend, and repair objects were analysed – nouns, both figurative

and abstract, which can be fixed, mended or repaired. Then each of these lists

of collocations was divided logically into semantic categories. The collocations

within each category were compared, trying to find any common features that

may help in deciding which verb is the best to use in each category.

Each of the categories is summed up in a table, with the help of model

sentences from the corpora. Each model sentence is accompanied with the

citation code stated in both corpora. The collocations in each category are lined

up alphabetically. Singular and plural forms are counted separately in the tables

of BNC and COCA – first number before the plus sign is for singular, the other

for plural. In case only plural form is found in the corpus, it is stated in the

parenthesis after the number. For the sake of comparison, all three verbs are

41

mentioned (fix – F, mend – M, repair – R) together, although in some cases

they do not collocate with the same words.

Only those collocations that have more than one token were taken into

account. This means that those nouns that appeared at least once in the BNC

and once in the COCA at the same time, or those that had two tokens in the

BNC or two tokens in the COCA. The idioms and collocations of different senses

than the analysed one are not included in the counting.

The span of each node, within the collocations are analysed, is set to six

words.

The analysis will start with searching for number of occurrences of each

verb in each corpus. Below is Table 0 comparing the results:

Table 0: Number of occurrences of each verb in corpora.

BNC COCA

fix 4,502 20,374

mend 600 1,327

repair 1,803 7,030

From the Table 0 above it is obvious that COCA contains more texts. When

comparing the verbs with each other, it can be seen that the most numerous

verb is fix. The second is repair and the third is mend. It is important, though,

to realize that in these total sums of occurrences all the collocations of other

senses and idioms are included.

42

3.5.1 Category of means of transport

Following is the first table, dealing with collocations in the category of

means of transport:

Table 1: Category of means of transport as found in the BNC:

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

airc

raft

F 1 Forced landings were common, even Charlie Chaplin was seen standing on the

sands of Bologne in the early 1920s while his pilot fixed the aircraft . ASJ W_misc

M ---

R 5 The retention of the wreckage for detailed scrutiny must not be frustrated

because of the owner's wish to repair the aircraft and return it to service without delay.

CN2

boat

F 1 I must find him before I sail home, and come to think of it I'll need to fix the boat

too! C87 W_pop_lore

M 4+1 Sammy Meredith will jump at the chance of three months" work. I can't do it, OK?

I've got a boat to mend . CCW W_fict_prose

R 4 And how will you repair your boat , Breakspear, or even take her away, if I put

your name on the Stop List? CCW W_fict_prose

bicy

cle

F ---

M 1 They are busy at work in the market place, in the fields, caring for the younger

children, fetching water and fuel, pounding mail maize or mending bicycles , selling goods on the streets, they pulling rickshaws.

JNG S_meeting

R ---

car

F 16+4 Corporal Rose had tried to fix the car but discovered a bent track rod end which

was beyond his capabilities. AR8 W_non_ac_polit_law_edu

M 11+3 It'll need about twenty thousand pounds to mend the broken car … the driver's

wounded pride may take a little more work. K1W W_news_script

R 19+14 They've got to repair daddy's car because it could be dangerous, Grant. KB3 S_conv

lorr

y

F ---

M ---

R 4 John repaired the lorry . FAC

W_ac_soc_science

ship

F 1 Like Frejji, who'll fix the ship better than anyone. G3G W_fict_prose

M 1 Moreover he was the very fisherman who was mentioned in Our Watering Place

as mending a little ship for a boy. H8A W_fict_prose

R 4+4 [...] proves more than just a minor hazard for the astronauts as they race against

time to repair the ship . F9Y W_misc

shut

tle F ---

M ---

R ---

vehi

cle

F ---

M ----

R

3+2 The defendant garage was liable in damages because it took eight weeks to repair a motor vehicle when a normally competent garage would have taken about five weeks.

HXD W_ac_polit_law_edu

vess

el F ---

M ---

R ---

43

Table 2: Category of means of transport as found in COCA:

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

airc

raft

F ---

M ---

R

4 The partnership enlisted the help of private-sector executives to help the air base, whose main mission is to repair military aircraft, operate more efficiently, said retired Maj. Gen. Ron Smith, [...]

2003 NEWS Atlanta

boat

F 2+4 Dodge, if this isn't incentive enough to fix that boat, I don't know what is. 2002 FIC

M 1 Where the owls drop the bones of mice and bent seeds of pines, I will be sitting. I

will be mending your boat. 1991 FIC Ms

R 8+5 Well, as soon as we repair our boat. We'll leave you alone, and the fleet will

have no reason to invade. 1999 FIC Analog

bicy

cle

F 3+5 If you should fix your bicycle yourself when it breaks down, write A. If you

should take it to a bicycle repair shop, write E. 2001 MAG ChildLife

M ---

R

1+6 The auction raises money for the Sopo Bicycle Cooperative, a nonprofit bike repair shop in East Atlanta Village that teaches people how to repair their bicycles and sells cheap repairable bikes.

2008 NEWS Atlanta

car

F 173+ 82

Coquillette, who discovered her love for auto repair after taking a night class to fix her own car, has drawn attention from the media for her work converting standard hybrid cars into plug-in hybrids.

2009 NEWS SanFrancisco

M 1 He moves on, satisfied that someone is mending their car. BEAN approaches

the car and whips out the fake legs he left there. 1997 FIC Mov:Bean

R 70+32 But if you don't have access to those computer codes, no matter what technology

you have, no matter how brilliant you are of an auto technician, you still can't repair the car.

2002 SPOK CNN_LiveSun

lorr

y

F ---

M ---

R ---

ship

F 5+1 The taxpayers have not been given their money back, and of course, the ships

haven't been fixed. 2007 SPOK CBS_Sixty

M ---

R 21+7 "Even if we can nurse this creature back to health, I don't see any way that we

could help him repair his ship so that he could go back to his own kind, " Clay said.

1998 FIC Analog

shut

tle

F 5 In practice, we have to learn what causes accidents, fix the shuttle, and fly it at

least for another ten or 15 years. 2003 SPOK CNN_KingWknd

M ---

R 8 He'd rather have been helping repair the Mars shuttle, not stuck in an office with

a bureaucrat firing pedantic questions at him. 2006 FIC Analog

vehi

cle

F 7+5 When I said I was calling the police, the male passenger said he could fix my

vehicle for $1,000. 2006 NEWS Atlanta

M 1 It was a society of intimidating and ingenious frugality in which everything was

mended -- shoes, clothes, vehicles. 1993 MAG HarpersMag

R

21 A manufacturer may accept your claim and repair the vehicle. 1990 MAG ConsumResrch

Car owners used to be dependable customers, forging a relationship with a service station that would repair their vehicles as well as fill their tanks [...].

1997 NEWS NewYorkTimes

vess

els

F ---

M 6 " And what about the divine spark that is in the soul of every living creature? " "

God created me to be a horse, not to mend His broken vessels. "

1993 FIC Commentary

R 4+6 The next task was to repair and paint the vessels (Anonymous, 1912h). #

During July, the companies used their own and extra chartered vessels to spread shells on the setting beds.

1996 ACAD MarineFish

44

Table 3: Comparison table of BNC and COCA for the Category of

means of transport:

Vehicles BNC COCA

F M R F M R

aircraft 1 --- 5 --- --- 4

boat 1 5 4 6 1 13

bicycle --- 1 --- 8 --- 7

car 20 14 33 265 1 102

lorry --- --- 4 --- --- ---

ship 1 1 8 6 --- 28

shuttle --- --- --- 5 --- 8

vehicle --- --- 5 12 1 21

vessels --- --- --- --- 6 10

A slight tendency towards repair can be seen in this category, but other

two verbs are possible, too, in some cases. The most numerous collocate is car,

which has outnumbered all other collocations by many times in both corpora.

There is a little difference between British and American English – while

in the BNC the verb repair has the most examples of the collocation car, in

COCA it is the verb fix which collocates the most with car. Both numbers are

highlighted in the comparison chart above.

The noun lorry was only found in the British corpus, collocating with

repair. On the other hand, the nouns shuttle and vessels were found only in

COCA.

Bicycle in the BNC collocates only with mend, as opposed to COCA,

where it was found to collocate with the other two verbs, fix and repair.

3.5.2 Category of parts of bodies

The second category is made up by parts of bodies of living organisms.

These were selected as the parts that can be found in a human or animal body

that can be fixed, mended or repaired.

45

Table 4: Category of parts of bodies as found in the BNC:

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

arm

F ---

M ---

R 1 His consultant was impressed with the speed that the arm was repairing in

places.

E9S W_newsp_other_report

body

F 2 She knew her body could be fixed, but she wasn't sure about the important stuff. CH0 W_fict_prose

M 1+1 She had a unique gift for restoring them to health, and an intuition that led her to

free each into the wild just when its confidence was regained, its body mended, and its animal fulfilment clearly dependent upon the wider world.

AEA W_fict_prose

R 5 The embalmers had used all their skills to repair the body . Queen Margaret

muttered something to Catesby. HU0 W_fict_prose

bone

F ---

M 1 Your body is capable of many things. It can cope with a cold, fight off a serious

illness and with time, even mend a broken bone . CFS W_advert

R 1 Traditionally the damaged bone was either left to repair and replace itself as

best it could or bone was harvested from elsewhere in the body and used to augment the lost bone.

BMK W_non_ac_nat_science

brai

n

F ---

M ---

R ---

cart

i-

lage

F ---

M ---

R ---

cell

F ---

M ---

R

2 (pl.) The best and easiest way to ensure that you get a large range of bricks and enough of each kind of brick that you need to build and repair your body cells , is to mix the protein foods you take in at each meal.

AD0 W_non_ac_medicine

DN

A F ---

M ---

R ---

face

F ---

M 2 His face was miraculously mended --; he was given new upper eyelids and a

new upper lip --; but he was left with very wasted and weakened hands. GTB W_biography

R 5 18 stitches were needed to repair Aimee Manderson's face . K1G W_news_script

foot

F ---

M 2 " But the foot really is mending ? " " It's fine. Another day or two and I'll be

skipping like a ram on the high hills. CKF W_fict_prose

R ---

hair

F ---

M ---

R 4 They went straight to the toilets and repaired their makeup and hair . CR6 W_fict_prose

hear

t

F 3+1 It took all his willpower and concentration to banish the sound of it, and fix heart

and soul on the celebration of the Mass. G0M W_fict_prose

M 5 It was about a wife who'd cheated on her husband, she'd left him for his best

friend, and now the man was on the road trying to mend his broken heart . C86 W_fict_prose

R ---

hip

F ---

M 2 His hip 's not mending as quickly as it ought, which makes him very impatient. GV8 W_fict_prose

R 1 One day she fell and broke her hip : it was repaired in hospital but she remained

in some pain and was even more precarious on her feet. FPJ W_ac_soc_science

knee

F ---

M ---

R 1 He is already missing Hirst, Chris Waddle, John Sheridan and Phil King, who

faces several months on the sidelines after surgery today to repair damaged knee ligaments.

CH3 W_newsp_tabloid

46

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

leg

F ---

M 3 "Couldn't Uncle Walter come here till his leg 's mended?" said Philip. "We won't

be here, Philip," said his Mum. ABX W_fict_prose

R ---

ligam

ent

F ---

M ---

R 4 (pl.) He is already missing Hirst, Chris Waddle, John Sheridan and Phil King, who

faces several months on the sidelines after surgery today to repair damaged knee ligaments .

CH3 W_newsp_tabloid

mus

-

cle

F ---

M ---

R ---

nose

F 2 But doctors fixed his nose and sent him home. CH6

W_newsp_tabloid

M ---

R

1 There were some valid defences, particularly the poor state of most of the pitches and the injuries to Gatting (having returned from getting his nose repaired he promptly had a thumb broken and played in only the final Test), but some of the criticisms were very valid, too.

ABR W_misc

shou

l-

der

F ---

M ---

R ---

skin

F ---

M ---

R ---

teet

h/to

oth

F 1 One Saturday morning she had waited for an hour and a half outside the dentist's

where he had gone to have a troublesome tooth fixed. HH9 W_fict_prose

M ---

R 1(pl.) Silver amalgam is still used in teeth in the rear of the mouth, but even then there

are aesthetic considerations favouring the use of tooth-coloured polymer-ceramic composites that are now routinely used to repair front teeth.

BMK W_non_ac_nat_science

tend

on

F ---

M ---

R 1 (pl.) One feature of tendon repair of which there is no doubt, is that it takes longer

than you think for tendons to repair well. KS9 W_pop_lore

tissu

e

F ---

M ---

R 3 Some of that oxygen's used in the processes, together with the proteins to repair

damaged tissue. FLX S_classroom

vess

el

F ---

M ---

R 2 A Flight Lieutenant underwent surgery to repair a broken blood vessel in the

brain. A67 W_misc

win

g

F ---

M 4 In France and South Africa, all over the world, the police were looking for him.

Had he, too, mended the broken wings of birds? H7A W_fict_prose

R ---

47

Table 5: Category of parts of bodies as found in COCA: co

lloca

te

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

arm

F 3+2 Seems to me I knew your family, Henry. Didn't I fix your arm once when you were, oh, bucked off a horse?

2005 SPOK NPR_Saturday

M 4 Trainer Bubba Tyer said he expects the bone in Green's right arm to mend earlier than the ligament in Lachey's right knee.

1992 NEWS Houston

R 7+2 Doctors told her they had to amputate both her gangrene-infested legs or the infection would kill her. She also endured several surgeries to repair her arm and rebuild her face.

2002 SPOK Ind_Oprah

body

F 33 What they hear is you're not OK the way you are, you have to always fix your body, and then it's never going to be perfect.

2006 SPOK NBC_Today

M 4 My body began slowly to mend. There were lapses and relapses, of course. 1998 FIC SouthernRev

R 50+8 Now, who could imagine the day when doctors could repair a human body even before birth?

1994 SPOK ABC_20/20

bone

F 2+2 Being gay, the last time I thought about it, seemed to have nothing to do with the ability to read a balance book, fix a broken bone, or change a spark plug.

1998 MAG Ms

M 4+11 Inflammation associated with the healing process can cause the nodes to be painful, but after the bone has mended the pain often goes away.

2001 MAG ScienceNews

R 7+8 Portis, who was placed on the injured reserve list yesterday after having surgery to repair a broken bone in his right hand Monday, will undergo additional surgery soon to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder, which was partially dislocated on the opening drive of the preseason.

2006 NEWS WashingtonPost

brai

n

F 6+1 We can fix the brain, and we're learning more and more with each passing week and each passing month exactly how true that is.

2002 SPOK CBS_48Hours

Imagine: an endless supply of young neurons to fix damaged brains, cardiac cells to repair damaged hearts, or pancreatic cells to create insulin for people with diabetes.

2005 MAG Smithsonian

M ---

R 6+2 " Coco, " the Colorado toddler said, uttering her nickname for the first time. Those two syllables marked a milestone in stem-cell therapy, helping prove that infusing a baby with its own stem cells can repair a brain ravaged by cerebral palsy.

2008 NEWS Denver

cart

ilage

F ---

M ---

R 20 The Western was your first win since last year's surgery to repair torn cartilage in your right wrist.

2005 MAG GolfMag

cell

F ---

M ---

R 21 (pl.) You need some LDL in order to survive -- it helps produce sex hormones and build and repair cells, including brain tissue, while triglycerides transport energy throughout the body.

2005 MAG MensHealth

DN

A

F 1 The cell's DNA is not fixed the way a normal cell's is. 2004 MAG Fortune

M ---

R 27 Everybody gets two copies of normal BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes. When they function properly, they repair damaged DNA.

2008 NEWS Houston

face

F 5 Unfortunately, the doctors just couldn't do anything to fix your face! He cackles as he heads for the door.

2005 FIC Mov:FantasticFour

M 4

Sidur's shattered face was slow to mend. 1994 MAG Smithsonian

R 8 He underwent more than 70 operations to repair his face. 1990 MAG Newsweek

foot

F 1 We're going to see the nice man who's going to help get your foot fixed, and then you can run around and jump and... oh, play soccer.

2004 FIC Bk:Islands

M ---

R 4 Forward Larry Stewart (surgery to repair broken right foot) is on the injured list 1994 NEWS USAToday

48

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

hair

F ---

M ---

R 2 Then make the most of your time in the steam; thanks to the combo of skin-softening heat and cleansing water, it's the perfect opportunity to unclog pores, repair damaged hair, and take care of a host of other crucial beauty chores.

2009 MAG Cosmopolitan

hear

t

F 10+4 I pretty much laid it out:' This is a bad deal, but let's follow it. We'll fix the heart, and we'll deal with the tumor,' " Sutton says.

2008 MAG People

M 10+4 But first, a new way to mend a broken heart. Doctors have shown, for the first time in a controlled study, that they can inject stem cells into the hearts of patients suffering from heart failure, and these adult stem cells taken from the patients' own bone marrow will, in effect, regenerate the heart tissue and significantly improve heart function.

2004 SPOK NPR_Science

R 23+8 She underwent a successful operation to repair her heart, and Levin was gratified to watch her first-born blossom rapidly into a healthy, happy baby.

2005 MAG TodaysParent

One day, heart patients may be able to use their own skin cells to repair their hearts, using a new type of stem cells called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS).

2009 MAG SatEvenPost

hip

F 3+1 " I sent him roses, " she laughs. " I send everybody yellow roses, it's my way of saying thank you. And he did fix my hip. "

1994 FIC Bk:NorthMontana

M 5

They haven't got the balls to admit her hip won't ever mend, but they'll take my money to cut on her again, if I let them.

1994 FIC ArkansasRev

R 3 He had one about 12 years ago, according to family spokesman Chapin Day. Oddly enough, in 2005 another well-known Bay Area broadcaster, sports announcer Bill King, also died following surgery to repair his artificial hip.

2007 NEWS SanFrancisco

knee

F 6+2 Just once, Robby had remembered the dreary city apartment near the hospital where the doctors were trying to fix daddy's knee.

1994 FIC SatEvenPost

M 3 (pl.) Blue bonder: Millard Judy's laser mends sheep's knees. 1998 MAG TechReview

R 6+1 One was a patient referred to him, Alan Minvielle of Aptos, Calif., who almost died of gangrene after an earlier operation to repair an injured knee.

2002 NEWS NewYorkTimes

leg

F 9+2 Well, you just lie quiet and I'll fix your leg. Here, that's all right. Everything OK? Fine.

1992 SPOK CNN_King

M 5 I just wanted to hide out when we got here, But six weeks ago, I saw a boy hit by a car and I went out and helped mend his leg. And his mother knew what I was doing.

1996 FIC FantasySciFi

R 7+3 At the hospital, doctors worked to repair his leg and replenish his blood supply. 2002 NEWS CSMonitor

ligam

ent

F 1 Partial tears can often be treated without surgery. But the decision to fix a severed ligament surgically depends on several factors: # Is the person young and/or very active? If so, he or she will need the stability provided by the ACL. # Will the knee instability put the person at risk of meniscal damage?

1990 MAG Prevention

M ---

R 18+10 Redshirt freshman offensive guard Vincent Dinkins underwent surgery Wednesday to repair a torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee.

1991 NEWS Atlanta

mus

cle

F 3 Had hip surgery in' 98 to fix a muscle pulling away from his pelvis. 2000 NEWS USAToday

M 2 Use cherries to mend muscle # Recover from hefting 200 pounds of iron by lifting 12 ounces of cherry juice.

2006 MAG MensHealth

R 2+9 The method, which is strikingly straightforward and easy to perform, centers on injecting portions of a patient's blood directly into the injured area, which catalyzes the body's instincts to repair muscle, bone and other tissue.

2009 NEWS NewYorkTimes

nose

F 21 Nikos Spanakos has a bad back and still has operations to fix his nose, oft-broken in his boxing days.

2008 NEWS NewYorkTimes

M ---

R 5+1 I will send other assemblers to repair his damaged nose and face. 2002 FIC Analog

49

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

shou

lder

F 1+1 There's that crooked finger, and the scar from where doctors fixed a dislocated shoulder.

1997 NEWS Denver

M ---

R 8+1 Utah quarterback BRIAN JOHNSON, offensive MVP of the 2007 Poinsettia Bowl, is throwing pain-free after off-season surgery to repair his right shoulder, which he separated in the first game of' 07.

2008 MAG SportsIll

skin

F 1 " How will you fix her skin? " he asks. " I can bleach it. 2001 FIC Bk:FigEater

M 2 He had helped heal burn victims of all ages, mended their skin, disguised their scars, but never one with burns of such magnitude.

2002 FIC LiteraryRev

R 9 Meanwhile, skin-smoothing vitamin A goes the distance to repair skin in the long run.

2009 MAG Redbook

teet

h/to

oth

F 8+36 Surely she's got dental insurance. Why doesn't she fix that tooth? 2004 FIC Bk:GoodGrief

He has lost 25-30 pounds from a body that had no fat to spare and is eager for a dentist to fix two front teeth that were pushed up into his gum.

2001 NEWS Atlanta

M 1 In the morning, her two attendants, the engineer and fireman, came with the blacksmith to mend her broken tooth.

1997 MAG ChildLife

R 1+2 He turned slightly and smiled in response. The ragged tooth had been repaired. 1993 FIC AntiochRev

Los Medicos Voladores, a 26-year-old volunteer organization based in Los Gatos, flies volunteer health care professionals to Mexico at least once a month to repair broken teeth, give exams, dispense medicines and fix serious wounds that would otherwise remain untended.

2000 NEWS SanFrancisco

tend

on

F ---

M ---

R 17+3 Glavine, placed on the disabled list Friday with a torn flexor tendon in his left elbow, plans to have surgery to repair the tendon.

2008 NEWS AssocPress

tissu

e

F ---

M 1 (passive) + 1

He was 20 years old at the time and spent much of 1983 in rehab waiting for bones and tissue and mind to mend.

2007 MAG OutdoorLife

That pathway is what makes the laser so useful in treating patients with eye disorders; the pupil acts as a natural window through which laser beams can enter to mend tissues deep within the eye.

1990 MAG ConsumResrch

R 20+6 Immune cells secrete proteins called cytokines (shown as red dots in this simplified drawing) that trigger inflammatory responses to eradicate infectious agents and repair damaged tissue.

2008 MAG ScienceNews

vess

el

F 1 (pl.) Radiant Medical of Redwood City, Calif. and Alsius Corp. of Irvine, Calif. - plan studies on victims of strokes and cardiac arrest, as well as on patients whose brain circulation must be stopped temporarily so doctors can fix broken blood vessels inside their heads.

2000 NEWS AssocPress

M ---

R 1+2 Others think there is more evidence that the stem cells repair blood vessels and flow damaged by a stroke, bringing crucial blood that in turn repairs brain tissue.

2008 NEWS Denver

win

g

F 3 Papa had promised Caitlyn that a surgeon might fix the dove's broken wing, and she had prayed all the way from the collective that God would allow it.

2008 FIC Bk:BrokenAngel

M 3 One mends the wing of a bird so that it can fly away. 1997 ACAD HospitalTopic

R ---

50

Table 6: Comparison table of the BNC and COCA for the category of

parts of bodies:

Parts of

body

BNC COCA

F M R F M R

arm --- --- 1 5 4 9

body 2 2 5 33 4 58

bone --- 1 1 4 15 15

brain --- --- --- 7 --- 8

cartilage --- --- --- --- --- 20

cell --- --- 2 --- --- 21

DNA --- --- --- 1 --- 27

face --- 2 5 5 4 8

foot --- 2 --- 1 --- 4

hair --- --- 4 --- --- 2

heart 4 5 --- 14 14 31

hip --- 2 1 4 5 3

knee --- --- 1 8 3 7

leg --- 3 --- 11 5 10

ligament --- --- 4 1 --- 28

muscle --- --- --- 3 2 11

nose 2 --- 1 21 --- 6

shoulder --- --- --- 2 --- 9

skin --- --- --- 1 2 9

teeth/tooth 1 --- 1 44 1 3

tendon --- --- 1 --- --- 20

tissue --- --- 3 --- 2 26

vessel --- --- 2 1 --- 3

wing --- 4 --- 3 3 ---

This semantic group does not show any significant preference to one of

the verbs. But, following from the comparison chart above, there are some

differences between BNC and COCA.

The noun DNA was found only in COCA, collocating with verbs fix – only

in one case and repair – with 27 tokens.

There is a difference between BNC and COCA in case of the noun foot.

In BNC, it collocates only with the verb mend, whereas in COCA it is possible

both with fix and repair.

51

In the case of the object heart, the BNC shows that only fix and mend

are possible to use. On the contrary, in COCA, the verb repair represents the

most tokens of the three verbs.

In case of the collocate leg, only mend is possible in BNC. All three verbs

are possible in COCA, fix with the most hits and repair being second in

sequence.

The nouns muscle, shoulder and skin were found only in COCA,

collocating with all three verbs (except for shoulder, which collocates only with

fix and repair).

Body and tooth represent the most frequent collocates in COCA for the

verb fix. Body also collocates with repair in COCA, being the most numerous

object in this semantic group with 58 tokens.

Concerning the nouns cell and tissue, there is also another sense when

collocating with fix. In this case, fix means to use chemical solution for

preserving or researching the reaction of the cells or tissue. This sense is

obviously not synonymous to that of mend and repair, so it had to be counted

out of the tokens.

52

3.5.3 Category of problems, defects and malfunctions

Following is a chart of the category of actual problems, defects and

malfunctions that are to be set right or remedied:

Table 7: Category of problems, defects and malfunctions as found in the BNC:

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

brea

ch

F ---

M 1 In reality, however, such expectations were entirely unfounded, for by now neither Henry nor Thomas Cromwell had any great desire to mend the breach , or at least not on terms that would undermine the newly promulgated royal supremacy.

CLM W_non_ac_humanities_arts

R 1 As long as they conformed outwardly, they were fairly safe, for Elizabeth and her ministers had to tread carefully to repair the breaches of confidence in the Tudor monarchy that Mary's policies had opened.

CB6 W_non_ac_humanities_arts

bug

F 2 (pl.)

This means that you do not have to exit the editor, compile the program, run the program, then reload the editor to fix any bugs .

HAC W_pop_lore

M ---

R ---

crac

k

F ---

M 2 (pl.)

Your job, however, is to mend any plausible cracks you observe --; to do a better survey, measuring and controlling important new variables --; not to walk away from the edifice declaring it to be a hazard.

B16 W_ac_soc_science

R 9 (pl.)

Roll out pastry and line tin. Press into corners and repair any cracks . Chill for 10 mins.

C8B W_pop_lore

dam

age

F 1 Even if he had been able to fix the damage , Manville had no desire to drive through the streets of Washington with the slogan "Fuck U Honkies" sprayed in bright red aerosol paint on the ice-blue hood of the Ford.

CDA W_fict_prose

M 7 Western economic pressure may be creating mental ill-health in the Third World; and Western "hi-tech" psychiatric methods are so inappropriate in this context that they may be doing little to mend the damage .

HH3 W_non_ac_polit_law_edu

R 144+4

Only then can we begin to repair the damage caused since the Tories came to power.

HLU S_speech_scripted

defe

ct

F ---

M ---

R 1+1 To repair the defect, first use a sharp knife to make two cuts at right angles across the blister.

AM5 W_instructional

faul

t

F 2+1 Peace be to Lieutenant Denholm but he's a civilian electronics specialist who's come out to fix some abstruse electronic fault that only he can fix.

CKC W_fict_prose

M 1 But the road is a public road, and I don't see why men with a nice yellow telephone van shouldn't dig a hole in it -- they're always digging holes in roads, to mend faults , or put in new lines, or something

H0D W_fict_prose

R 2+6 Corporal T, the REME technician, is dragged out of bed to repair a minor fault on the Wheelbarrow.

A77 W_non_ac_soc_science

flaw

F ---

M ---

R ---

frac

ture

F ---

M ---

R 2 (pl.)

My job is to treat cancer, repair fractures or control disease. A17 W_pop_lore

53

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

hole

F 1+1 "I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in' CBU W_commerce

M 4+1 Mrs Wood was mending a hole in Linda's school dress. GV3 W_fict_prose

R 3+3 A foot has been put through the loft floor and now a hole needs to be repaired in a lath and plaster bedroom ceiling.

CCY W_instructional

inju

ry

F 1 Mansell said that recent bone surgery on his left foot to fix a lingering injury was sore occasionally, but should not prove a hindrance.

K5J W_newsp_other_social

M 1 But the injury can't be mended and vets say she'll have to be put down. K1L W_news_script

R 1+2 As it oozes from the wound, it solidifies and so repairs the injury . F9F W_non_ac_nat_science

leak

F 2+3 A serious leak. She battled for weeks to get the compound manager to fix the leak.

ABS W_pop_lore

M 1 (pl.)

Examples include cutting through rusty screws and bolts on things like gutters, and mending plumbing leaks.

AM5 W_instructional

R 2+3 Archway stations late last night. Greasy turkey A DRIVER called out the AA to repair an oil leak after he hit a frozen turkey lying in the road.

CBF W_newsp_other_report

mes

s

F ---

M ---

R 1 It'll be easier to clean the whole lot off than to try to repair the mess . HJC W_fict_prose

mis

-

take

F ---

M ---

R ---

poth

ole

F ---

M 1 […]when you consider that the reason that the potholes don't get mended is because government legislation has it that we have to actually […]

KN3 S_meeting

R 1 [---]it's the second page, third up from the bottom, we promise to repair potholes that are considered dangerous […]

KN3 S_meeting

prob

lem

F 14+10

We judge ourselves by the time from call-out to getting the problem fixed which is an average of 63 minutes," he said.

K2K W_newsp_other_commerce

M ---

R 1+1 When this happens, it is vital that the conflict be resolved and that broken or strained relationships which may have given rise to the problem be repaired .

FPY W_religion

punc

ture

F 1 When the best man cleared his throat and announced that he was going to fix the puncture he had before leaving, all Moran's children followed him out to the road and stood around as he got levers and patches and solution.

A6N W_fict_prose

M 2+2 He knew how to change the washer on a tap, and make pastry, and mend a bicycle puncture.

AC4 W_fict_prose

R 3 That episode made me quickly learn how to repair a puncture and from that time on I always carried a repair outfit.

B22 W_biography

rava

ge

F ---

M ---

R 5 (pl.)

Dressed in silk and ablaze with jewellery, apparently to prove that Donna's inheritance was no myth, Mavis Bricknell stumbled off towards the toilet room at the dome car's entrance saying she must repair the ravages to her face, and presently she came back, screaming loudly.

BP9 W_fict_prose

rift

F ---

M 1 A visit to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, last weekend by Strobe Talbott, America's ambassador-at-large to the former Soviet countries, brought hope that the rift could be mended.

CRA W_pop_lore

R 2 The conference also provided an opportunity for Australia and Fiji to repair the rift in their bilateral relations which dated from the two military coups in Fiji in 1987.

HLM W_non_ac_polit_law_edu

54

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

tear

F ---

M 1+1 As Gabriel took his seat at the top of the pageant, hidden by a wooden cloud, Garvey robed himself down below in the Mason's wedding robe, and Izzie emerged from nowhere to mend the tear in the shoulder-seam.

HTN W_fict_prose

R 2 It might even be, she thought hopefully, that a strip of sticky paper would come out with the stamps, so that she could repair the tear in the envelope!

B0B W_fict_prose

wou

nd

F ---

M 1 (pl.)

People all over the Gulf wanted to support the uprising and build hospitals and clinics to mend the wounds of the Palestinians.

FRL W_ac_soc_science

R 1 (pl.)

[...] it absorbs the digestion products of the old cuticle, repairs wounds and differentiates in such a way as to determine the surface patterns of the insect.

EVW W_ac_nat_science

Table 8: Category of problems, defects and malfunctions as found in

COCA:

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

corp

us

Cita

tion

code

brea

ch

F 2 The Corps of Engineers and the state national guard have been working around the clock with the local officials and they've built the levee -- they've fixed the levee breach and they've built the levee up higher than it was over the weekend.

1993 SPOK CBS_Morning

M 1 The King already bids the breach be mended; And you well know that I, who feel your grief, Will spare no pains to bring your heart relief.

2009 FIC The Hudson Review

R 10+1 And WWL-TVs reporter, Lucy Bustamante (ph), was up in a chopper this afternoon, reported that from noon to 4 when she was circling around the area, she saw no efforts to repair the breach even late this afternoon.

2005 SPOK MSNBC_Carlson

bug

F 9+31 Testing of Qwest's operational systems for ease of use by competitors is now six weeks behind schedule after a delay to fix a bug in the system.

2001 NEWS Denver

M ---

R 1 You're a big company, and you've already spent $ 50 million (to repair the millennium bug).

1999 NEWS USAToday

crac

k

F 5+1 A dozen years had passed, and the Spartans still hadn't fixed a crack in the ceiling.

2001 NEWS Houston

He looked at the ceiling where the landlord still hadn't fixed the cracks, and he sank down deep inside himself and wished Carl would go home.

1995 FIC VirginiaQRev

M 1 He's fat, not overweight like Jacob's father but pasty-fat, his skin puffy, pale, every breath comes hard, and when he sits he has to draw himself down slowly into the leather library chair that looks as if it finished its best days 50 years ago. Someone has mended a crack with duct tape.

2003 FIC Commentary

R 5+15 I did not do much on it, but I do know that it is well made. The crack can be repaired. " " It certainly will be. We will hold a meeting about this tomorrow.

2004 FIC ChildDigest

It all seems quite amazing-until I remind myself of the small fortune spent on my own, modest, inner city campus to keep the grounds crew planting bulbs, trimming bushes, reseeding the lawns and repairing recurrent cracks in the concrete of the main plaza.

1998 ACAD AmerStudies

dam

age

F 40+5 And it would cost them another $ 1700 on top of what they'd already paid to fix the hidden damage.

1998 SPOK NBC_Dateline

M 7 If a rift occurs, you must travel back in time to mend the damage and its effects on the future.

1994 MAG Compute

R 606+ 19

The implications of this redevelopment project stretch far beyond Fairfax County, as suburbs and exurbs across the country look for ways to repair the damage from five decades of outward, rather than upward, expansion.

2009 MAG Time

[...], which should produce an absolute minimum of pollution and aim to repair environmental damages of the past.

2007 ACAD TechTeacher

55

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

corp

us

Cita

tion

code

defe

ct

F 3+11 The doctors had thought she would do better if they fixed the defect in her heart. 1994 FIC Bk:RockingBabies

M ---

R 10+15 For cases of simple pneumocephalus, decompression is rarely performed since the intracranial air is gradually reabsorbed after the skull base defect has been repaired.

2008 ACAD EarNoseThroat

faul

t

F 2+3 Fix every fault in your game in as little as three days at the nation's top learning centers, the ultimate stops for expert advice, state-of-the-art technology, personalized attention and--lest we forget--a lot of fun.

2008 MAG GolfMag

M 1 (pl.) Can I mend these faults and supply these Defects? 1996 ACAD SocialHistory

R ---

flaw

F 9+29 The insecurity you're dealing with may be more psychological, but for many, it seems simpler to fix the external flaw than confront the internal issues.

2006 MAG Cosmopolitan

M 5+2 The stain of the sin of the Tree was marked on every man born of woman; and since he could not cleanse himself of this stain, his hands were incapable of mending the divine primeval flaw.

1993 FIC Commentary

R 7 (pl.) Within the new corporate structure, he bore a heavy responsibility: to repair the flaws of industry by means of a new type of ethical administrative leadership characterized by a more sensitive social vision.

2001 ACAD AmerStudies

frac

ture

F 2+2 You can't fix a fracture quickly! 1998 MAG Bicycling

M 3 (pl.) They had the power to reduce swellings and mend fractures through placing a large, coiled, wrought-iron bracelet in the shape of a python onto the wounded limb.

2008 ACAD AfricanArts

R 7+5 You see, this is the nail that we put in-the orthopedic surgeon, just to repair the fracture that is here.

2004 SPOK CNN_Presents

hole

F 16+22 It was summer, trucks were coming to the grain elevator, and my brother and I had gone up to the roof to fix a hole.

1995 FIC Triquarterly

M 3+6 Well, mend the hole in your pants " before you actually fill their pocket with dimes and quarters.

1990 SPOK ABC_Brinkley

R 27+17 The story recounts surgeons' efforts to repair a hole in a 12-year-old girl's heart. 1994 MAG Omni

inju

ry

F 2 But they can't take away the pain you'll experience until the injury is fixed. 2009 FIC Analog

M ---

R 19+19 He ran his hand over her face. " I broke her nose trying to keep her from killing me. " " Will she live with that injury?

2009 FIC Analog

leak

F 26+14 I'd been working in vain for years to fix a leak in the corner of the living room that dripped whenever a strong rain blew in from the east, and the balcony floor was beginning to get a little spongy in one place I'd soon have to fix.

2006 FIC Bk:SecondSight

M 1 (pl.) When an earthquake hit the San Diego area, Softub was saved not only by a staff of dedicated workers but also by the company's division in Columbus, Ohio, which continued to take orders while the Chatsworth office mended leaks in clients' tubs.

1994 MAG Inc.

R 22+14 It's difficult, if not impossible, to repair a leak without draining the pond. 1992 MAG MotherEarth

mes

s

F 24+1 We will have to do exceptional things, as we have done already, to fix this mess.

2009 SPOK ABC_ThisWeek

M ---

R 2 Look for him to repair that mess over the summer. 2006 NEWS SanFrancisco

mis

take

F 13+32 They thought that someone else had stolen their portion of glory, and that if they could fix that mistake all of the bad things they had done would be erased and their lives would be healed.

2010 FIC Bk:EveningsEmpire

M ---

R 3 (pl.) Tina Hesman Saey One possible way to demethylate DNA takes advantage of a system that repairs mistakes.

2008 MAG ScienceNews

poth

ole

F 3+9 […]given the press rare tours of the mayor's suite in City Hall; pledged to fix every pothole in the city; dealt with the backlash of dismissing 60 employees […]

2002 NEWS Atlanta

M ---

R 2 (pl.) In all of fiscal 2009, the county repaired 756 potholes, Shelton said. 2010 NEWS AJC

56

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

corp

us

Cita

tion

code

prob

lem

F 845+ 640

Oh, the problem is definitely fixable, but do you know what? This problem will never be fixed if you just tinker on the margin.

2009 SPOK NPR_TellMore

M 3 Those drastic funding problems were slowly mended with the rise of state income taxes in the 1910s and state sales taxes in the 1930s, both of which gave the states new revenue streams to tap.

1996 MAG WashMonth

R 20+37 The graphs at right show the percentage of ranges bought new between 2000 and 2006 that were ever repaired or had a serious problem that was not repaired.

2007 MAG ConsumRep

punc

ture

F 1+1 The backpacker's old standby, duct tape, will temporarily fix a puncture but will inevitably leak during the course of the night.

1997 MAG Backpacker

M ---

R 1 This includes blowouts caused by impacts, nonrepairable sidewall damage (sidewall punctures should never be repaired), cuts, snags, or any puncture in the tread that is too large to repair.

1991 MAG ConsumResrch

rava

ge

F ---

M ---

R 1 (pl.) Now there are an increasing number of products-as well as new technologies-to repair the ravages of time.

2001 MAG GoodHouse

rift

F ---

M 10+4 And I think if we ever were conscious of the need to mend the rift between races, it came in those late' 60s and into the' 70s.

1998 SPOK NPR_Saturday

R 4+2 After recruiting new prayer-leaders, Kauder set about to repair the biggest social rift in the village of Pomquet.

2002 ACAD AmerStudies

tear

F 3 (pl-) So many ways to fish it. Rub on a little fresh silicone to fix the tears from fish teeth. I call them Siliclones.

1995 MAG OutdoorLife

M 7+6 The tear had been mended, but the ball had acquired a lopsided bounce if it landed on the patched place.

2000 MAG ChildLife

R 10+10 Lawrence Taylor underwent surgery to repair the tear in his Achilles' tendon and doctors said the New York Giants linebacker might be able to begin running in four months.

1992 NEWS AssocPress

wou

nd

F 1+2 He fought to live long enough to fix the wound in my soul caused by his absence.

2007 FIC TribalCollege

M 9 (pl.) For the past five years, a team of psychologists, African traditional healers, and art therapists have worked to mend the emotional wounds of about 150 former soldiers who live among grass huts and banana trees on remote Josina Machel Island.

1999 NEWS CSMonitor

R 5+6 The idea that a monument can somehow repair a wound is passe in these circles.

2001 NEWS CSMonitor

57

Table 9: Comparison table of the BNC and COCA for the Category of

problems, defects and malfunctions:

Problems,

defects and

malfunctions

BNC COCA

F M R F M R

breach --- 1 1 2 1 11

bug 2 --- --- 40 --- 1

crack --- 2 9 6 1 20

damage 1 7 148 45 7 625

defect --- --- 2 14 --- 25

fault 3 1 8 5 1 ---

flaw --- --- --- 38 7 7

fracture --- --- 2 4 3 12

hole 2 5 6 38 9 44

injury 1 1 3 2 --- 38

leak 5 1 5 40 1 36

mess --- --- 1 25 --- 2

mistake --- --- --- 45 --- 3

pothole --- 1 1 12 --- 2

problem 24 --- 2 1485 3 57

puncture 1 4 3 2 --- 1

ravage --- --- 5 --- --- 1

rift --- 1 2 --- 14 6

tear --- 2 2 3 13 20

wound --- 1 1 3 9 11

Quite strong preference towards both fix and repair can be observed in

this semantic category. Mend is represented by only a few tokens, in contrast

with other two verbs.

In the case of the noun bug the difference between British and American

corpora is obvious. As it is of American origin, there are more tokens in COCA

for the verb fix – 40, in comparison with BNC with 2 tokens.

In the case of damage, we can see that repair has the most tokens of

the three verbs, although the corpora shows that mend and fix have also

occurred in texts.

58

With the noun defect we can observe a difference between the individual

corpora. While in BNC it was found only collocating with repair with 2 tokens, in

COCA it collocates both with fix and repair.

Another interesting situation is with the object flaw. It does not have any

tokens in BNC, while in COCA all the verbs are represented, with fix having the

most tokens.

A difference between the corpora can also be seen in the noun fault. In

BNC it has most hits with repair. On the other hand, in COCA it does not

collocate with repair at all.

A difference between British and American English can be observed in

case of noun mess. Whereas in BNC it was found only in one case collocating

with repair, in COCA it had 25 hits with fix and 2 hits with repair. Thus in British

English it collocates only with repair (if we can reason from one token) and in

COCA it strongly prefers the verb fix.

Another difference between the two corpora can be seen in the noun

mistake. In BNC it does not collocate with any of the three verbs. In COCA, on

the other hand, it collocates with repair (with 3 tokens) and with fix it has even

45 tokens.

Problem shows a very strong preference for the use of the verb fix.

Mend and repair here are represented only by a fraction, in BNC mend does not

collocate with problem at all.

The noun puncture also shows different preferences in the two corpora.

In BNC the most collocations are found with the verb mend, but other two

59

verbs are also represented. In COCA it was found only collocating with fix and

repair. The verb mend was not found as collocating at all.

3.5.4 Category of parts of clothing and fabric

Another category is made up by collocations of parts of clothing and

fabric:

Table 10: Category of parts of clothing and fabrics as found in the BNC:

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

corp

us

Cita

tion

code

boot

s

F ---

M 5 (pl.)

In the room afterwards he'd wondered why Amanda didn't bother about the holes in her tights or the fact that her boots needed mending

HDC W_fict_prose

R 3 (pl.)

Hari nodded, she was glad of the trade, orders had dropped off lately and now she no longer had the boots of Edward Morris to repair , she was finding work hard to come by.

CKD W_fict_prose

clot

hes

F ---

M 14 Lizaveta once mended his clothes : when we puzzle over the chance-induced actuality of her murder being so largely left to speak for itself we are creating a false problem by the inertness of our own metaphor.

A18 W_ac_humanities_arts

R 1 He married a girl who was with a firm who repaired old clothes . B24 W_non_ac_soc_science

clot

hing

F ---

M 2 This is a shortening of "not fit to be a patch on" (ie you wouldn't try to mend an expensive item of clothing with an inferior bit of material).

CBC W_newsp_other_social

R ---

coat

F ---

M ---

R ---

cur-

tain

s

F ---

M ---

R ---

dres

s

F ---

M ---

R 1 Why then attempt to patch up an old overall as if one were repairing a sumptuous evening dress?

EBS W_pop_lore

fabr

ic

F ---

M ---

R 2+1 We needed a new propeller, windshield, wing struts, rudder and other parts to repair the fabric .

BNV W_pop_lore

garm

ent

F ---

M 1 The " May " refers to hawthorn blossom rather than the month, and " clout " is derived from the Old English word " klut " meaning a piece of cloth, particularly a patch used to mend a garment .

CBC W_newsp_other_social

R

60

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

corp

us

Cita

tion

code

jack

et

F ---

M 1 Zylpha washing clothes in the beck, old Katie mending a torn jacket, Jake dismantling two old bicycles and trying to make one good one out of the spare parts, and Rosie, the little riddle-me-ree girl, splashing naked in the water.

ACK W_fict_prose

R 1 Seated by the window was Nancy, repairing Sikes' old jacket. FRK W_fict_prose

linen

F ---

M 1 And yet Raskolnikov's greater enormity is that having forgotten to bolt the door after killing the money-lender he is surprised by her half-sister, the woman who mends linen and has mended his in her time, apparently always pregnant, through simplicity, [...]

A18 W_ac_humanities_arts

R ---

pant

s

F ---

M ---

R ---

shirt

F ---

M ---

R ---

shoe

s

F ---

M 12 (pl.)

Because he had he used to have a big open fire there and all the kids would be sitting round it keeping warm while he was mending the shoes.

HML S_interview_oral_history

R 2+ 11

Not only does she repair shoes as good as any man, but she fights for her rights, too.

CKD W_fict_prose

sock

s

F ---

M 2 (pl.)

She read and read and read while her aunt mended the socks of her husband and brothers or sewed innumerable buttons on their shirts.

FRC W_fict_prose

R ---

stoc

king

s F ---

M 3 (pl.)

And Miss Temple, please make sure the girls" stockings are mended more carefully. Some of them have a lot of holes.

FR6 W_fict_prose

R ---

trou

ser

F ---

M 1 Nigel decided to take up jogging again in the grounds and got Flora to lend him a sewing kit to mend his trousers .

AC3 W_fict_prose

R ---

zipp

er F ---

M ---

R ---

Table 11: Category of parts of clothing and fabrics as found in COCA:

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

boot

s

F 1 (pl.) Besides, many repair shops don't carry the tools to fix boots with this design. 1997 MAG Backpacker

M 2 [...], a ruined arm, one pair of checkered pants, the equivalent of ninety-three marks, and a pair of boots mended with copper wire, [...]

2003 FIC KenyonRev

R 3 (pl.) Boots can be shined and repaired, keys made, jewelry melted and transformed into something new.

2003 NEWS Houston

clot

hes

F ---

M 30 Gordon wisely said nothing. Although the rider's clothes were mended and patched, the bridle held medallions of silver and the saddle was carved with ornate flowers.

2008 FIC Bk:EnglishHorses

R 4 Men and women from eleven sample households in Santa Cruz and Palomas make or repair clothes on home sewing machines, [...]

1997 ACAD Ethnology

61

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

clot

hing

F ---

M 5 My mother sat up for a long time with Kurbantach, the two of them mending old clothing and talking about something in low voices.

1996 FIC WorldLitToday

R 4 Our furnace burned wood we collected from the farm, and my mother made and repaired our clothing using a Singer sewing machine powered by a foot pedal.

2009 MAG America

coat

F ---

M 2 And we have to get your coat mended, too. 2001 FIC NewYorker

R ---

curt

ain

F 1 " Can you fix the curtain in the parlor? It's falling off. " 2007 FIC BkSF:ForeverBlue

M 1 Then the cloud passed. Light returned, revealing a greasy fingerprint on the edge of the screen, a fissure of thread where one of the curtains had been mended.

2001 FIC SouthwestRev

R ---

dres

s

F ---

M 7+1 Now, hundreds of tourists a year pay the monks a small entrance fee to see the catacombs' occupants, but family members no longer visit, and there's no one to mend a torn dress or reset a dislocated jaw.

2003 ACAD Archaeology

R 2 The dress could be repaired far more easily than the skinned hands and knees that had been almost daily occurrences since they'd left the train.

2009 FIC Bk:PaperRoses

fabr

ic

F ---

M 1 The flag itself was a tattered web of translucent gossamer the color of parchment, with patches of brown and scarlet where the fragile fabric had been mended in centuries past.

1991 FIC BkSF:Adept

R 2 While family members repaired tattered fabric, Bourgeois saw the bonds that knit them together unravel.

1993 NEWS CSMonitor

garm

ent

F ---

M 2+3 McMichael told Ailey to mend the garment immediately or she would hit her, and before Alley could respond, McMichael slapped her face.

2009 ACAD GeorgiaHisQ

R 1 Wardrobe assistant Jesli Banks repairs a garment. Hairstylist Johnny Wright styles model Tonya Dolphin's hair.

2007 MAG Ebony

jack

et

F ---

M 1 Meanwhile, Elspeth tended her rose geraniums and mended the jacket of a suit well-made in the first place, of wool and silk.

1991 FIC VirginiaQRev

R ---

linen

F ---

M 2 They also resembled aged cloth, reminding her of her family's trove of patched and mended linens when she was a child.

1996 MAG AmericanCraft

R ---

pant

s

F 4 She sat down to rest. Poor Papa, she thought. I'll fix those pants so he can wear them tomorrow.

2010 FIC Bk:PapasNewPants

M 3 He mended pants, darned socks, and plastered his picture window so densely in sale apparel that you could barely see inside the store.

2001 FIC Yankee

R 1 His ripped pants have been temporarily repaired with big pieces of masking tape.

1993 FIC Mov:FatalInstinct

shirt

F ---

M 7+4 His valet, Harper, looked up from the shirt he was mending. 2006 FIC Bk:ShesNoPrincess

R ---

shoe

s

F 5 (pl.) Will's going fishing in the Adirondacks. I've got to get my shoes fixed on 82nd and Amsterdam. I could come by your place after if you like.

1992 FIC Commentary

M 5 (pl.) Mostly, they are watching television, or mending shoes, or eating dinner. 1996 FIC MassachRev

R 1+16 Nate Caudell tried on the shoes Kelly had repaired. He walked a few steps, smiled broadly.

1992 FIC BkSF:GunsSouth

62

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

sock

s

F ---

M 2 (pl.) She was not impressed. By that point, she would spend part of the day sitting up in bed, mending my father's socks and moaning, " Agatha, whatever are we going to do? "

2006 FIC FantasySciFi

R ---

stoc

king

s F ---

M 5 (pl.) From then on, the daughters would be mending their own black lisle stockings. 2005 FIC America

R ---

trou

sers

F ---

M 2 Still he was glad, and, when he looked at his trousers that she'd mended, he shook his head and smiled.

2007 FIC NewEnglandRev

R ---

zipp

er

F 2 She had been planning to fix the zipper for me on my book bag. 2005 FIC LiteraryRev

M ---

R 7 (pl.) Tents: perform general sewing repairs, such as fixing holes and patching bug net; repair or replace zippers.

1997 MAG Backpacker

Table 12: Comparison table of the BNC and COCA for the Category of parts of clothing and fabric: Parts of

clothing and fabric

BNC COCA

F M R F M R

boots --- 5 3 1 2 3

clothes --- 14 1 --- 30 4

clothing --- 2 --- --- 5 4

coat --- --- --- --- 2 ---

curtains --- --- --- 1 1 ---

dress --- --- 1 --- 8 2

fabric --- --- 3 --- 1 2

garment --- 1 --- --- 5 1

jacket --- 1 1 --- 1 ---

linen --- 1 --- --- 2 ---

pants --- --- --- 4 3 1

shirt --- --- --- --- 11 ---

shoes --- 12 13 5 5 17

socks --- 2 --- --- 2 ---

stockings --- 3 --- --- 5 ---

trousers --- 1 --- --- 2 ---

zipper --- --- --- 2 --- 7

A tendency toward use of the verb mend can be observed within this

category. Fix has no collocates in BNC in this category and only a few in COCA.

Of course, fix does collocate with parts of clothing, but in a different sense – in

these cases fix mostly refers to adjusting, modifying and neatening. I have not

included this sense in the research. Repair is also represented by a portion of

63

objects, except for shoes in both BNC and COCA and zipper in COCA. This could

be due to different techniques and processes used in repairing shoes and

zippers than in mending parts of clothing.

The most numerous collocate in this category is clothes, collocating with

mend in both corpora. It also collocates with repair, but has less hits in this

case. Shirt is also frequent, but only in COCA. In BNC it is not represented at

all.

An interesting case is found in the nouns coat, curtains, pants and

zipper. In BNC these were not found at all, whereas in COCA they collocate at

least with one of the verbs.

Another difference between the corpora can be found in the noun dress.

In BNC it collocates only with repair in one case. In COCA, on the other hand, it

has most hits with mend, and it is also possible with repair.

64

3.5.5 Category of linear objects

Following chart is for a category of linear objects, both abstract and

concrete. Some of them are also covered in the next category of Parts of

building and Construction (for example bridge or road), but they are included in

both categories for the sake of stating the difference between the three verbs.

Table 13: Category of linear objects as found in the BNC:

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

corp

us

Cita

tion

code

brid

ge

F ---

M 1+2 There was much hilarity at this and requests to mend the bridge . ACK W_fict_prose

R 9+4 The Jacobites in fact opted for Crossford, where they repaired the bridge , and on 1 December marched on to Macclesfield.

BNB W_non_ac_humanities_arts

cabl

e

F ---

M 2 "I've been far too busy to look for one of those," Rain said. "I tried you at home earlier --; hasn't anyone mended your cable yet?"

GV2 W_fict_prose

R 2 The modern purpose-built vessel which operates from Southampton, is used to lay and repair subsea cable .

K9N W_misc

chai

n

F 2+1 Through the window he could see Barry still fixing his chain . Philip pushed the bell in the cage with his finger.

ABX W_fict_prose

M 3 She'd thought Harry was wonderful because he was able to mend her bicycle chain ; make bows and arrows and catapults; shin up trees to collect birds' eggs for her collection; find dormice nests, badger setts and squirrel dreys.

FS1 W_fict_prose

R ---

foot

-

path

F 1+1 Yes. they can't just say we're going to repair the footpath. JA5 S_meeting

M

R

gutte

r

F 2 (pl.)

The terrible prospect rears its ugly head of having to mow the lawn, fix the gutters, creosote the garden shed and push the Saturday-morning supermarket trolley.

FT9 W_pop_lore

M ---

R 3+1 A leaking gutter , for instance, can be repaired quickly and at a small cost, but if the leak remains unnoticed, water could seriously damage the fabric, resulting in expensive repairs for the future.

CG5 W_instructional

hedg

e

F ---

M 1 I would rather mend hedges & follow the plough, than write another. B0R W_biography

R 1 The Rev Young in his History of Whitby (1817) found that the use of this garth was " not easy to ascertain ", but thought the " horn " referred to the fact that the tenants who had to repair the hedge were summoned by the blowing of a horn.

BPK W_non_ac_soc_science

high

way

F ---

M ---

R 2 Swiss highways would not be repaired without them, or snow or city garbage removed.

CAK W_non_ac_polit_law_edu

line

F 2+1 That looks like the answer," commented Iris as Melissa pulled up. "Fix one line , foul up two more and then take a tea-break!

HNJ W_fict_prose

M 3 If I had some weight near to the crust I could mend the line without pulling it off course.

B0P W_misc

R 3+4 VANDALISED fencing along a rail line in Darlington is to be repaired . K55 W_newsp_other_report

65

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

corp

us

Cita

tion

code

path

F ---

M 1 The river, suddenly materalizing, would have poured straight down into the streets, flooding everything, including the prison. Something had already been done to mend its path of devastation.

HGS W_fict_prose

R 1+2 LANDLORD -- duty to repair path . release 021v king-v-south northamptonshire district council.tlr 3-12-91 ca. despite no implied obligation on a landlord to maintain land […]

HB3 W_misc

pipe

F 5+3 What is an easy way to fix a burst pipe ? One neat solution is to use what is known as a "slip" coupling.

AM5 W_instructional

M 2+1 If the cooling system sprang a leak pilots had to land and mend the pipe with chewing gum and insulation tape.

ASJ W_misc

R 8 Scores of firemen spent four hours after the explosion trying to repair a fractured gas pipe in the middle of High Street.

HJ4 W_newsp_other_report

road

F ---

M 1+2 To ensure that the crisis of February could never be repeated, Pétain employed the equivalent of more than a whole division of men permanently mending the road .

K91 W_non_ac_humanities_arts

R 7+5 I saw tank traps and great banks of boulder clay where the road had been repaired in make-shift fashion after the last perilous night of violent north-easterlies.

F9H W_misc

seam

F ---

M ---

R ---

stra

nd F ---

M ---

R ---

trac

k

F 2 The board can be made up in 25mm (1in) thick softwood to a length fractionally longer than the curtain track, to allow access to fix the track and hang the curtains.

GUB W_misc

M ---

R 3 When this happened the traffic was held up for three of four days whilst the track was repaired .

AMN W_non_ac_humanities_arts

Table 14: Category of linear objects as found in COCA:

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

corp

us

Cita

tion

code

brid

ge

F 12+13

I was as surprised as anyone when I got the call that the bridge was going to be fixed.

2010 SPOK Fox_Hannity

M ---

R 18+36

Army Corps engineers estimated that it would cost some $5 million and take less than five months to string the pipelines across the bridge once it was repaired.

2006 NEWS NewYorkTimes

cabl

e

F 8+2 That's how many times we had to call to get the cable TV fixed, the phone connected and even to get a bottle of water delivered.

2001 NEWS Chicago

M 1 The office on the mainland had promised that the cable under the water would be mended on the following day.

1999 FIC ChildLife

R 2+2 On the night of March 20, Diaz was watching mechanics repair a burned-out cable on his tank when Tomahawk cruise missiles soared overhead.

2003 NEWS Atlanta

chai

n

F 7+2 I'm pretty good about carrying tools-I'm always fixing someone's chain. 2001 MAG Bicycling

M 1 I found them again, and a jeweler mended the chain. 1992 FIC Bk:StarTrekNext

R 2 Further complicating matters, Wal-Mart must repair a chain whose sales peaked a decade ago.

2003 NEWS NewYorkTimes

66

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

corp

us

Cita

tion

code

foot

-

path

F ---

M ---

R ---

gutte

r

F 2+2 I could hear water dripping through, and all I could think about was what my mother had said-how my father would have known how to fix the gutter and would have done so already.

2005 FIC VirginiaQRev

M ---

R 1 (pl.)

What it is: Streets, transportation and public works system facilities bonds of $99.8 million for repairing streets and/ or increasing road capacity; improving multimodal accessibility; repairing sound walls; repairing and/or replacing curbs and gutters; improving transit stop connections, street- # scapes and upgrading medians; and building a Cherry Creek Solid Waste facility.

2007 NEWS Denver

hedg

e F ---

M ---

R ---

high

way

F 2+1 They've been fixing this highway since I was a child. 2003 FIC SmallAxe

M ---

R 3+ 12

Former rebel fighters are now helping repair the west coast highway, driving for international aid workers and working for the government reconstruction agency.

2005 NEWS WashingtonPost

line

F 12+19

He came over to make indecent advances. In his spare time, he fixed the telephone line.

2002 FIC Bk:ScandalousSummer

M 8 But because the line is now lying across the currents, it's necessary to mend the line to eliminate drag introduced as the currents tug against the belly of the line.

1992 MAG FieldStream

R 10+22

Contractors are repairing a sewer line in the area. 2009 NEWS Atlanta

path

F 5 As a result, I see multitudes of golfers twisting their bodies around, trying to fix a path that doesn't need fixing rather than concentrating on what they really need.

1996 MAG GolfMag

M ----

R 1+2 Three workers were busy painting upstairs and downstairs; another was repairing the front path.

1996 NEWS SanFrancisco

pipe

F 11+13

The bloated, corrupt state bureaucracy meant Argentines had to wait months to connect a telephone line or fix a leaky water pipe.

1999 NEWS NewYorkTimes

M 1 He was Sam Rover frantically mending a burst steam pipe on a riverboat. 1991 MAG Smithsonian

R 4+6 A year later, Grady had a heart attack while repairing a pipe in the water company yard and died.

1995 NEWS SanFrancisco

road

F 12+32

Cars fitted with pothole detectors could send a message that says " fix this road now.

2006 MAG PopMech

M 1+1 Since he would come back, then she must wait for him there by the mountain, maintaining everything just as it was, the road cleared and mended, the walls in good repair, the houses kept intact.

1995 FIC Bk:HarmonyFlesh

R 6+ 32

The road is being repaired from Catete to Luanda, where Angola's main port is located.

2010 NEWS AP

seam

F 2 He was fixing a seam, a simple matter, but he gave it all his concentration. 1990 NEWS WashingtonPost

M 2+2 She began sewing. First she mended the seam. 1996 FIC WorldLitToday

R 2 (pl.)

She looked the coat over carefully, repaired two seams in the lining, put it over her arm, went to the furrier and laid it on the counter.

2009 FIC Bk:Coat

stra

nd F 3 How to fix a strand of broken holiday lights: Roll strand of lights into a ball. 2001 MAG Esquire

M ---

R ---

trac

k

F 2+1 Amtrack says it has fixed the track where last week's terrorist derailment occurred.

1995 NEWS CSMonitor

M 1 [...] but was certain he mended tracks from coast to coast, from pole to pole, wherever he was needed.

1993 FIC Ploughshares

R 5+5 Railroad officials estimate it will take at least three months to repair track and bridges.

1995 NEWS NewYorkTimes

67

Table 15: Comparison table of the BNC and COCA for the Category of

linear objects:

Linear

objects

BNC COCA

F M R F M R

bridge --- 3 13 25 --- 54

cable --- 2 2 10 1 4

chain 3 3 --- 9 1 2

footpath 2 --- --- --- --- ---

gutter 2 --- 4 4 --- 1

hedge --- 1 1 --- --- ---

highway --- --- 2 3 --- 15

line 3 3 7 31 8 32

path --- 1 3 5 --- 3

pipe 8 3 8 24 1 10

road --- 3 12 44 2 38

seam --- --- --- 2 4 2

strand --- --- --- 3 --- ---

track 2 --- 3 3 1 10

The most numerous collocation is made by the noun bridge. It has 54

hits with the verb repair in COCA and is most numerous collocate with repair in

BNC as well. Another numerous collocation in COCA is found in road, in this

case collocating with fix, having 44 hits. It is also numerously represented with

repair. On the other hand, in BNC it does not collocate with fix at all.

A difference between BNC and COCA can be observed in the case of

cable. In BNC it collocates with mend and repair, but in COCA it has most hits

with fix, and it is also possible with mend and repair.

Another difference between British and American English can be seen in

nouns footpath and hedge. In COCA they were not found at all, but in BNC

footpath collocates with fix and hedge with both mend and repair. On the

contrary, seam and strand were found only in COCA.

There was another word collocating with mend – ways. But as this is an

idiom (to mend one’s ways) it was not counted among the collocations.

68

3.5.6 Category of parts of buildings and construction

This category deals with parts of buildings and construction. In this

category I have included both objects found inside the building and outside, as

well as more abstract nouns like premises or property.

Table 16: Category of Parts of buildings and construction as found in the BNC:

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

corp

us

Cita

tion

code

bank

F ---

M ---

R 1 In Rooke's Case' commissioners of sewers had repaired a river bank and taxed R for the whole amount despite the fact that other landowners had benefited from the work.

GU6 W_ac_polit_law_edu

bedr

oom

F ---

M ---

R ---

brid

ge

F ---

M 1+2 There was much hilarity at this and requests to mend the bridge . ACK W_fict_prose

R 9+4 The Jacobites in fact opted for Crossford, where they repaired the bridge , and on 1 December marched on to Macclesfield.

BNB W_non_ac_humanities_arts

build

i

ng

F ---

M ---

R 8+11 The idea's to repair the building to its unfinished state [...] K1J W_news_script

ceili

ng

F ---

M ---

R 1+1 Experts worked for three days to repair the ceiling. CH1 W_newsp_tabloid

chur

ch

F ---

M 1 Well, he not only refuses his tithes but seems to have a source of wealth which enables him to distribute alms, to mend the church as well as have it painted and refurbished.

H9C W_fict_prose

R 8+2 St Colmcille's Church is still being repaired after an arson attack, and Mass was held in the adjoining parochial hall, which was packed to overflowing.

K2N W_newsp_other_report

dam

F ---

M ---

R ---

door

F 9 Frankie went to fetch nails and hammer from Dad's tool box so he could fix the door before Mum returned and explanations were necessary.

CDM W_biography

M 4 I was trying to mend a broken door in the floor of the stage. FS3 W_fict_prose

R 2+1 I repaired the steel door years ago, loosening the rusted hinges and straightening the guides for the bolt.

HWC W_fict_prose

fenc

e

F ---

M 4 They tugged at the wire. "Will we mend the fence ?" said Lee. Philip nodded. ABX W_fict_prose

R 10+2 When the Pack met the following week the broken fence had been repaired and the DANGER notice repainted in vivid red, so that no one could miss seeing it.

B0B W_fict_prose

fenc

ing

F 1 Gates which are flush with adjoining fencing can be fixed with a strap hinge. CCY W_instructional

M ---

R 4 A BR spokeswoman said the fencing would be repaired as quickly as possible. K55 W_newsp_other_report

69

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

corp

us

Cita

tion

code

floor

F ---

M ---

R ---

gutte

r

F 2 (pl.) The terrible prospect rears its ugly head of having to mow the lawn, fix the gutters, creosote the garden shed and push the Saturday-morning supermarket trolley.

FT9 W_pop_lore

M ---

R 3+1 A leaking gutter , for instance, can be repaired quickly and at a small cost, but if the leak remains unnoticed, water could seriously damage the fabric, resulting in expensive repairs for the future.

CG5 W_instructional

hall

F ---

M ---

R 1 Local youngsters have formed themselves into an action group in Ness and have repaired and redecorated the community hall, sponsored a Job Creation project for further improvements to the kitchen facilities and environs, formed a local band, organised a sponsored clean up, established representation within the Community Association and plan to develop a workshop attached to the hall.

ALE W_non_ac_polit_law_edu

hom

e F ---

M ---

R 4+4 The Daniels believe it'll cost them thousands to clean and repair their home. K23 W_news_script

hous

e

F 3 "You will fix this house , Um Yusef?" the Sheikha asked as we sat in the family majlis, the small children tumbling over her lap like puppies, pushing themselves up for kisses, or simply basking on the warmth of her body.

CDX W_biography

M 2 Sir George would be a lot richer. He could mend that house . APR W_fict_prose

R 7+5 When people employ a builder to repair their house , they will probably want to agree a price beforehand.

J15 W_commerce

leve

e

s

F ---

M ---

R ---

lift

F 1 How is the lift fixed ? The tracks are usually fixed to the wall with special types of fixings.

A0J W_misc

M 1+1 But being able to mend the lift does not get you to the top in merchant banking. BMB W_commerce

R 1 If, for example, a hotelier contracts with a lift company to repair the lift of the hotel, and thereafter the lift malfunctions and causes injury to a guest, will the hotel or the lift company be liable to the guest?

FAU W_ac_polit_law_edu

prem

ises

F ---

M ---

R 5 A, the landlord, having (by conduct) told B, his tenant, "You need not fulfil your contractual duty to repair the premises within six months of the notice I have given you," could not forfeit the lease (that is, terminate the contract) on the ground that B had broken his contract.

H81 W_ac_polit_law_edu

prop

erty

F 2+1 If two persons agree that the price of property should be fixed by a valuer on whom they agree, and he gives that valuation honestly and in good faith, they are bound by it.

J6Y W_ac_polit_law_edu

M ---

R 7 Where the landlord has undertaken obligations to repair or decorate the demised property , he has an implied right to enter the demised property for that purpose

J6R W_ac_polit_law_edu

road

F ---

M 1+2 To ensure that the crisis of February could never be repeated, Pétain employed the equivalent of more than a whole division of men permanently mending the road .

K91 W_non_ac_humanities_arts

R 7+5 I saw tank traps and great banks of boulder clay where the road had been repaired in make-shift fashion after [...]

F9H W_misc

roof

F 4 He felt guilty at not returning to his own church but hoped that his few parishioners would understand. Had Simon the tiler fixed the roof ?

H98 W_fict_prose

M 7 She'd need a fire. Could she mend the roof ? No, not alone. APW W_fict_prose

R 11+3 We-ell, they're forecasting heavy rain," Simon pointed out, "but if I had a key to the cottage I could go in and fix up some temporary weatherproofing until the roof can be properly repaired .

HA7 W_fict_prose

70

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

corp

us

Cita

tion

code

room

F ---

M ---

R 2+2 This solution works particularly well in houses which have evolved over several centuries, where it is possible to repair a wing at a time, selling the houses as they near completion and recycling the investment.

AR9 W_non_ac_humanities_arts

scho

ol

F ---

M ---

R 1+6 The troops, officially involved in a US&dollar;2,500,000 civic action programme to repair a local school and to install a sewage system and water treatment plants, were accused of being an advance guard of a stepped-up US policy to eradicate the growing of coca, the raw material of cocaine, in the region; in the absence of a viable market substitute, thousands of local peasant families depended on the crop for a livelihood.

HLN W_non_ac_polit_law_edu

shed

F ---

M 1 (pl.) By late summer, the nousts and the sheds had been mended in Orkney, and there were keels in them, waiting for the harvest to finish.

HRC W_fict_prose

R 3+1 So he'd been to the doctors about few weeks ago and he'd been repairing his shed , said there was water coming in and he went to he said oh you've pulled a ligament or something he said, it'll take weeks for it to clear up but anyhow he went back again about a fortnight ago.

KD8 S_conv

step

F ---

M ---

R 5 (pl.) Sir Hans also helped with maintenance; he gave the Society £100 to repair the steps to the river and was certainly instrumental in gaining another £100 from the College of Physicians.

ALU W_misc

stre

et F ---

M ---

R ---

stru

ctur

e

F ---

M ---

R 4 Albert is under a statutory obligation to repair the structure . HXV W_ac_polit_law_edu

tow

er

F ---

M ---

R 3+1 They refused a request for a £5,000 grant to repair the 70ft church tower in North Ormesby.

K4W W_newsp_other_report

wal

l

F ---

M 3 As soon as the wall was mended, another truck's brakes would fail. C86 W_fict_prose

R 15+4 It's taken a year for this window to be repaired and replaced. K23 W_news_script

win

dow

F 2 They took it out and sort of temporarily fixed it in so that they could get this out at the funeral and then he had to go back later and fix the window in.

K6T S_interview_oral_history

M 1+2 Ludo makes him feel smart. "You punks mended that window yet?" I ask with a grin.

J13 W_fict_prose

R 3+4 It's taken a year for this window to be repaired and replaced. K23 W_news_script

win

g

F ---

M ---

R 2+2 This solution works particularly well in houses which have evolved over several centuries, where it is possible to repair a wing at a time, selling the houses as they near completion and recycling the investment.

AR9 W_non_ac_humanities_arts

71

Table 17: Category of Parts of buildings and construction as found in

COCA: co

lloca

te

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

bank

F 3+6 I am still waiting for details about how we are going to fix the bank. 2009 SPOK NBC_Today

M ---

R ---

bedr

oom

F 3 They may not go on a vacation, but they certainly will fix their bedroom. 2001 SPOK Fox_Cavuto

M ---

R ---

brid

ge

F 12+13 I was as surprised as anyone when I got the call that the bridge was going to be fixed.

2010 SPOK Fox_Hannity

M ---

R 18+36 Army Corps engineers estimated that it would cost some $5 million and take less than five months to string the pipelines across the bridge once it was repaired.

2006 NEWS NewYorkTimes

build

ing

F 6+12 He said locks will be placed on all building doors, the front gate lock will be repaired, the roof on Greene's building will be fixed, and a billboard will be placed out front to attract attention to improvements at the property.

2006 NEWS Houston

M ---

R 5+26 He had a devil of a time getting the building repaired, with nearly every man in Rapidan gone to war.

2008 FIC The Hudson Review

ceili

ng

F 5+1 Instead of sculpting a tomb, Julius now wanted him to fix a ceiling. 2008 SPOK ABC_20/20

M ---

R ---

chur

c

h

F ---

M ---

R ---

dam

F 3 This award, however, indicates that the jury did not take seriously the plaintiffs' charges that they had lost $3,000 during the three days they went without water or that it would cost $500 to fix the dam.

1992 ACAD Environment

M 5+1 Making the best ofa bad situation, they start mending the dam in the hope that the stream nearby will flood the pond bed and give them enough water for swimming.

2002 MAG ChildLife

R 3+11 Southwood Corp., current owner of the lake, is under orders from the state to repair the dam or breach it by July 7 because the structure endangers a downstream homeowner.

1997 NEWS Atlanta

door

F 12+5 When a policeman came back to fix the front door, Mary says she felt sure she had found a sympathetic ear as she told him about the drug activities in the apartment.

1991 NEWS CSMonitor

M 1 (pl.) Some of the walls have been rebuilt and the broken doors have been mended, but I could still see the ubiquitous pockmarks from rocket fire all around.

2003 ACAD Archaeology

R 7+1 She talks about how the two boarders say grace before meals and each have a Bible, and how they repaired a door in the house.

1995 NEWS SanFrancisco

fenc

e

F 11+4 Go on, leave me alone. I'll fix the damn fence. It's not like I hurt anybody. 2010 FIC Bk:ThenCameEvening

M 22 I can shoot a gun, ride a horse and mend a fence as well as any guy. 2007 MAG OutdoorLife

R 13+13 The fence was repaired and the race went on with fans filling up the prized seats where the debris had rained only minutes earlier.

2006 NEWS AssocPress

fenc

in

g

F ---

M ---

R ---

72

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

floor

F 8+3 " They had to get that floor fixed and sealed in a hurry, " Pong observed. 2009 ACAD EnvironHealth

M ---

R 1+2 He expressed his astonishment at the death of McQuade, helped Thi Kim finish cleaning up, and repaired his floor.

1997 MAG Atlantic

gutte

r

F 2+2 I could hear water dripping through, and all I could think about was what my mother had said-how my father would have known how to fix the gutter and would have done so already.

2005 FIC VirginiaQRev

M ---

R 1(pl.) What it is: Streets, transportation and public works system facilities bonds of $99.8 million for repairing streets and/ or increasing road capacity; improving multimodal accessibility; repairing sound walls; repairing and/or replacing curbs and gutters; improving transit stop connections, street- # scapes and upgrading medians; and building a Cherry Creek Solid Waste facility.

2007 NEWS Denver

hall

F ---

M ---

R 1 Christ Church in 1750 disposed of five hundred pounds worth of old plate " for the Hall to be repaired and beautified.

2004 MAG Antiques

hom

e

F 4+6 Antonio Alves, a 35-year-old farmer and carpen ter-we spoke as he carved a 15 -foot log canoe-said he was arrested this year for chopping down a tree to fix his mother's home in Quara Quara.

2009 MAG MotherJones

M ---

R 9+23 Wick said the development company sent a crew to repair the home with more than just paint, and she was told random people passing by came over to offer money toward us.

2009 NEWS Houston

hous

e

F 123+6 My sister and I have inherited his house. I've come to fix the house up and sell it.

2006 FIC BkSF:ProphetYonwood

M 2 Mending the house was a vast undertaking. Until recently, my grandfather had been involved in a feud over Five Queen's Road.

1995 FIC KenyonRev

R 16+13 But Williford's disability income and his girlfriend's casino job were verifiable, a contractor estimated the house could be repaired for $33,000, and the appraiser sounded no alarms, Yoswa said.

2006 NEWS Denver

leve

es

F 1+6 An area of land the size of Manhattan turns to water in south Louisiana every year even without hurricanes. You can't just fix the levees in New Orleans.

2005 SPOK MSNBC_MeetPress

M ---

R 1+26 City officials do not know if the levee will be repaired. 1993 ACAD Environment

lift

F ---

M ---

R 1 Jacques Michaud was only renting the park, but he used his own money to replace the broken windows and repair the lift.

2004 FIC New Yorker

prem

i

ses

F ---

M ---

R ---

prop

erty

F 2 (pl.) And no matter what their credit scores were, and so they can't buy more properties, they can't fix the properties they own.

2008 SPOK NPR_TalkNation

M ---

R 5+2 Health officials expect the tetanus threat to increase when the flood waters recede and people start to clean up and repair their property, the typical time for injuries in the wake of natural disasters.

1993 NEWS WashingtonPost

road

F 12+32 Cars fitted with pothole detectors could send a message that says " fix this road now.

2006 MAG PopMech

M 1+1 Since he would come back, then she must wait for him there by the mountain, maintaining everything just as it was, the road cleared and mended, the walls in good repair, the houses kept intact.

1995 FIC Bk:HarmonyFlesh

R 6+32 The road is being repaired from Catete to Luanda, where Angola's main port is located.

2010 NEWS AP

73

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

roof

F 43+6 With a decent severance package, he bought a Chevrolet convertible and drove to California to help his brother fix a roof.

2010 NEWS Denver

M 1 Emerging at the rent house, she found the grass mowed there, the roof mended, and the truck leaving with the broken-off limb.

1998 FIC SouthwestRev

R 29+5 Among them were plans to renovate swimming pools, straighten headstones at a cemetery and repair the roof on a fast food franchise on a military base.

2009 NEWS AJC

room

F ---

M ---

R ---

scho

ol

F 4+29 However, that only works if there's somebody in that troubled neighbourhood who can gather the resources to fix the bad school or create a new one from its ashes.

2001 MAG TodaysParent

M ---

R 5+14 Alamosa would repair its high school, damaged by fire a decade ago. 2008 NEWS Denver

shed

F ---

M ---

R 1+1 Outside, they tended the gardens, repaired the old garden shed, and trimmed and shaped the boxwoods.

1996 MAG SouthernLiv

step

F 2 Change the furnace filter next door, weed the perennial beds, fix the basement step, pack my clothes...

2000 FIC Bk:NewSong

M ---

R 2 (pl.) He told me that he was repairing the steps, and that he was barring the door from below so that I wouldn't fall to my death in a moment of forgetfulness.

2008 FIC Analog

stre

et

F 6 (pl.) Has first big victory as Atlanta voters overwhelmingly approve a $150 million bond issue he backs to fix streets, bridges, sewers and parks.

2006 NEWS Atlanta

M ---

R 6 (pl.) Atlanta's Public Works Department has 700 employees, just 13 workers are assigned to repairing the city's streets

2010 NEWS AJC

stru

ctur

e

F 2 Virtually nothing had been done -- or could be done -- to fix the industrial structure after the waste of so much capital.

1993 ACAD IntlAffairs

M ---

R 3+6 To the townspeople, some of whom may have assisted those contracted to repair or rebuild the structure, the lighthouse is the same lighthouse that has stood since before the days of the Revolution, performing the same function.

1999 FIC AntiochRev

tow

er

F 1 (pl.) The space shuttle's landing, " he says, " which means my cell-phone service should be better, because they fixed the towers up there.

2007 MAG RollingStone

M ---

R 4+1 Troops in Bagram worked to repair the control tower, now just a teetering shell with blown-out windows and broken instruments.

2001 MAG USNWR

wal

l

F ---

M 3+4 He'd tell her how he was rethatching the barn or mending a wall. 1993 FIC SouthernRev

R 13+7 The wall was impossible to repair without looking as if it had been patched. 2008 MAG TodaysParent

win

dow

F 11+12 If you don't commit to this plan which is this $14 billion, costs of the Big Dig in Boston, or two weeks of spending Iraq, you shouldn't fix a single window in New Orleans.

2005 SPOK MSNBC_MeetPress

M 2 Paint the walls, mend the windows -- Lee's smart with a hammer; she says she's worked, painting rooms up North.

1991 FIC SouthernRev

R 4+11 She'd thrown an old blanket over the backseat to shield anyone from missed slivers of glass until the window could be repaired and the car thoroughly cleaned.

2009 FIC Bk:KissDarkness

win

g

F ---

M 1 Tichenor and Thorp spent some three years applying chemical peels to the lingerie-colored surfaces, mending a remodeled wing and repairing the courtyard.

2000 MAG TownCountry

R 3+2 There's still no money to heat the complex through Bosnia's bitter winters, or to repair the empty prehistory wing.

2006 ACAD Archaeology

74

Table 18: Comparison table of the BNC and COCA for the Category of

parts of buildings and construction:

Parts of

building

and constructio

n

BNC COCA

F M R F M R

bank --- --- 1 9 --- ---

bedroom --- --- --- 3 --- ---

bridge --- 3 13 25 --- 54

building --- --- 19 18 --- 31

ceiling --- --- 2 6 --- ---

church --- 1 10 --- --- ---

dam --- --- --- 3 6 14

door 9 4 3 17 1 8

fence --- 4 12 15 22 26

fencing 1 --- 4 --- --- ---

floor --- --- --- 11 --- 3

gutter 2 --- 4 4 --- 1

hall --- --- 1 --- --- 1

home --- --- 8 10 --- 32

house 3 2 12 129 2 29

levees --- --- --- 7 --- 27

lift 1 2 1 --- --- 1

premises --- --- 5 --- --- ---

property 3 --- 7 2 --- 7

road --- 3 12 44 2 38

roof 4 7 14 49 1 34

room --- --- 4 --- --- ---

school --- --- 7 33 --- 19

shed --- 1 4 --- --- 2

step --- --- 5 2 --- 2

street --- --- --- 6 --- 6

structure --- --- 4 2 --- 9

tower --- --- 4 1 --- 5

wall --- 3 19 --- 7 20

window 2 3 7 23 2 15

wing --- --- 4 --- 1 5

In this category we can see a strong difference between the corpora –

whereas in BNC the preference is for repair in most of the nouns, in COCA it is

both fix and repair that prevail in the collocations.

The most numerous collocation is made by the noun house, having 129

hits with fix in COCA. In BNC, the most numerous collocates are building and

wall, both with 19 hits with repair.

75

A difference between the corpora is illustrated in the nouns church,

fencing, premises and room. These are present only in BNC, not in COCA. On

the contrary, the nouns bedroom, dam, floor, levees and street are found only

in COCA, with a strong preference toward fix and / or repair.

An interesting situation we can see is in the noun road. In BNC it has

most hits with repair, then with mend. It is not possible at all with the verb fix.

But in COCA, on the other hand, it has most hits with fix and then with repair.

It is also possible to use it with mend.

Quite similar case as the above one is the noun school. Whereas in BNC

it collocates only with repair, in COCA it has most hits with fix and it is also

collocable with repair.

In this category an idiom to mend fences (with) was found among the

tokens in the corpora. This idiom has not got the same sense as fix and repair.

Thus it had to be taken out from the list of tokens.

76

3.5.7 Category of machines

This category deals with machines – either mechanical or electrical

equipment.

Table 19: Category of machines as found in the BNC:

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

corp

us

Cita

tion

code

air-

cond

ition

ing F ---

M 2 When they'd first re-entered the apartment the place had been crawling with a crowd of men who were mending the air-conditioning, installing a computer and modem to a fresh telephone line, and plugging in the dreaded fax machine.

JXX W_fict_prose

R ---

boile

r

F 2+1 There is a story about an old man who was called in by a factory to fix their ancient boiler , which had ground to a halt.

CKS W_non_ac_polit_law_edu

M ---

R 1+1 The boilers are being repaired . Full power soon. H7F W_fict_prose

cam

era

F 1 Mary felt that it was too much of an intervention, operators and technicians floating around trying to get mikes here and that it was distracting... she decided it might be more useful to try and fix the camera .

HNW W_ac_soc_science

M ---

R ---

cloc

k

F ---

M 1+2 Between school hours he earned money cleaning and mending clocks and watches for a local clock-maker.

GTH W_biography

R 3+3 From a single room in Kingston-upon-Thames which he rented and where he lived with llya, he repaired watches and clocks .

CJT W_fict_prose

com

pute

r

F ---

M ---

R 1 If you work for a large company, with plenty of in-house techies to repair a computer if it goes wrong, or you are competent -- and confident -- enough to fix it yourself, then you could be justified in buying cheap and taking a risk.

CTX W_pop_lore

engi

ne

F 1+1 In this study the difference between conditions was that in the neutral set of slides the father was a car mechanic seen fixing an engine , while in the arousal version the father was a surgeon operating on a badly injured patient.

HPM W_ac_soc_science

M ---

R 1+2 He successfully repaired the engine and could not resist the chance of seeing Brooklands, the centre of British Aviation.

J1B W_misc

mac

hine

F 5+1 His reward for helping to fix the broken-down Time Machine is to travel to a time of his choice.

CC6 W_misc

M 2 The women were segregated from the male workers in the factory, and the remaining skilled jobs -- cutting the cloth and mending the machines -- were retained by the men, despite the willingness of some of the women to learn these skills.

F9S W_ac_soc_science

R 6+4 He had originally intended to polish up the wood and sell it for five shillings, but when he was fortunate enough to obtain the gramophone he realised he should repair the machine and install it in the cabinet.

EA5 W_fict_prose

mac

hine

r

y

F 3 At first, the machinery was fixed, standing within the barn. A79 W_misc

M ---

R 4 He has to repair all of the machinery but this seems impossible since his workmates have borrowed his tools.

HAC W_pop_lore

mot

or

F ---

M ---

R 2 The defendant garage was liable in damages because it took eight weeks to repair a motor vehicle when a normally competent garage would have taken about five weeks.

HXD W_ac_polit_law_edu

77

phon

e

F 2 It proved impossible to get British Telecom round to fix the phone until Thursday afternoon.

HTR W_fict_prose

M ---

R --- pu

mp

F 1 How should a submersible pump be fixed? A16 W_instructional

M ---

R 2+1 Technicians spent yesterday repairing the faulty pump for last night's performance.

AKV W_newsp_brdsht_nat_misc

radi

o

F ---

M 2 Please would you come back to my flat to mend my faulty radio ? CAT W_pop_lore

R ---

tele

phon

e

F ---

M 1 Then it mended the telephone. The Store nomes needed electricity. HTH W_fict_prose

R 1 (pl.)

Telephone Repairs Mr. Dunn To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will indicate the nature and range of discussions he has had with OFTEL on the length of time customers have had to wait to have their telephones repaired

HHV W_hansard

tele

-

scop

e F ---

M ---

R ---

TV

F ---

M ---

R 1 I took my TV to be repaired and the shop asked for a £35 deposit which I paid. C9X W_pop_lore

wat

ch

F 2 I must get my watch fixed . HWL W_fict_prose

M 1+1 She once mended my watch when it went wrong J2F W_fict_prose

R 3+3 Saturday, early afternoon, he'd gone into the city to get his watch repaired and returned about five o'clock.

HA2 W_fict_prose

Table 20: Category of machines as found in COCA:

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

air-

cond

ition

ing F 1 Instead, it's the porter who keeps the pool and property clean, the housekeeper

who keeps the laundry and party rooms clean and the maintenance technician who will fix a broken air-conditioning unit at 2 a.m., Shasteen said.

1997 NEWS Houston

M ---

R ---

boile

r

F 2+1 The Hovs had come to fix the boiler and were just leaving. 2010 FIC Bk:DearMoney

M ---

R 1+1 In later cases, more than one boiler was placed beside the cylinder, allowing uninterrupted operation while a boiler was being repaired.

2003 ACAD MechanicalEng

cam

era

F ---

M ---

R 2+1 Company employees arranged to meet the family on the road and repair the camera.

1997 NEWS AssocPress

cloc

k

F 7+4 And in any case there wouldn't be much point in knowing how to fix a modern electric clock, even a cheap one, since a teenager could grow old waiting for it to break.

1997 MAG Newsweek

M ---

R 4+6 I'd like to get the clock repaired. It was Grandmother's. 1992 FIC SouthernRev

com

pute

r

F 28+15

Bill said ruefully " Can you fix the transit computer? Can your friends? " 2010 FIC Analog Science Fiction & Fact

M ---

R 12+14

Perhaps you know exactly how to repair the faulty computer, but the system is located hundreds or thousands of miles away, in a college dorm room or at a relative's home.

2005 MAG PCWorld

78

engi

ne

F 24 +10

Eight days passed before we finally got the part Michael Jackson needed to fix the engine.

2006 FIC VirginiaQRev

M ---

R 9+13 By evening time, Harvey repaired the engine and we were on our way. 2006 FIC MassachRev

mac

hine

F 27 +14

" Was it grounded? " was the first thing Poli asked when they called him in the dead of night to fix the machine.

2010 FIC Bk:TipDay

M ---

R 6+14 Who would bother learning how to repair a machine that would not break down in their lifetime?

2007 FIC Analog

mac

hine

ry

F 1 Parts are scarce, however, and there are fewer and fewer steamboatmen around who know how to fix the machinery.

1991 MAG Smithsonian

M ---

R 16 John Graham, finance professor at Duke and director of the survey, says businesses are finding ways to repair existing machinery and buildings rather than replace equipment or move.

2008 NEWS USAToday

mot

or

F 2 The most painful part was that they were all good people who still knew how to get their hands dirty and fix a motor, prepare a casserole and teach a Sunday school lesson, and in their business lives they could balance a million-dollar budget.

2010 MAG ChristCentury

M ---

R 2+2 In her 1930 debut, Nancy Drew drives a convertible, pilots a speedboat, fixes a sprained ankle, repairs a motor, quotes Archimedes and finds a missing will in an old clock.

1991 MAG Smithsonian

phon

e

F 10+3 The plumber goes, the policeman goes, the people who fix your phone and the guy who coaches the softball team, " says Warner

2004 NEWS USAToday

M ---

R 4+2 That morning, Daniel spent 40 minutes making calls to try to get the phone repaired.

2009 NEWS WashingtonPost

pum

p

F 10+2 I'll fix the damn oven soon as I fix the damn fuel pump! 2009 FIC Bk:AussieRules

M ---

R 2+3 Oh, no -- listen, you don't just roll over and do nothing but repair the water pump.

2003 SPOK NPR_Daybreak

radi

o

F 9+1 I tell him, " I'll fix the radio. Don't worry. " 2009 FIC Bk:LarkTermite

M ---

R 4+5 I learned how much she had spent on dry-cleaning her clothes, on her cats' flea baths, and on having her car radio repaired.

1994 MAG HarpersMag

tele

ph

one

F ---

M ---

R ---

tele

scop

e

F 4+1 Well, my mom's in outer space and she's fixing a telescope.' 1993 SPOK CBS_Morning

M ---

R 22 Janna completed her freshman year at the University of Miami, and both Jerry and Janna were recendy at Cape Canaveral to witness the space shutde launch of Dr. John Grunsfeld, who, alongwith several crewmates, successfully repaired the Hubble telescope!

2010 MAG TechReview

TV

F 12+3 Just come here and see if you can fix the TV. 2003 FIC LitCavalcade

M ---

R 1+3 Smith in Chapel Hill, N.C., wanted to get his 18-year-old portable black-and-white TV repaired.

1998 NEWS USAToday

wat

ch

F 1+5 […] provide insight into the most subtle bits of science or history, write poetry or tell jokes, and, suitably equipped with the right end-effectors (arms and such), fix a watch or cook a souffle […]

1991 MAG Omni

M ---

R 5+3 A man finds himself in a strange town needing his watch repaired. 2007 NEWS Chicago

79

Table 21: Comparison table of the BNC and COCA for the Category of

machines:

Machines BNC COCA

F M R F M R

air-conditioning

--- 2 --- 1 --- ---

boiler 3 --- 2 3 --- 2

camera 1 --- --- --- --- 3

clock --- 3 6 11 --- 10

computer --- --- 1 43 --- 26

engine 2 --- 3 34 --- 22

machine 6 2 10 41 --- 20

machinery 3 --- 4 1 --- 16

motor --- --- 2 2 --- 4

phone 2 --- --- 13 --- 6

pump 1 --- 3 12 --- 5

radio --- 2 --- 10 --- 9

telephone --- 1 1 --- --- ---

telescope --- --- --- 5 --- 22

TV --- --- 1 15 --- 4

watch 2 2 6 6 --- 8

This category tends towards the verbs fix and repair. The verb mend has

least hits in BNC, in COCA it does not collocate with any of the nouns.

We can observe the difference between the corpora concerning the most

numerous collocations. In COCA, the most numerous collocate is computer,

collocating both with fix and repair. In BNC, on the other hand, the most

numerous is machine, collocating with repair, fix and mend, respectively.

Another difference between the British and American English is found in

the noun telephone. In BNC it collocates with the verbs mend and repair. In

COCA it was not found at all. An opposite situation is seen in the case of noun

telescope. In BNC it is not collocating with any of the three verbs, in COCA it

collocates with fix and repair. The difference can be seen also in the noun TV.

In BNC it only collocates with repair in one case. But in COCA it has more hits

with fix than with repair.

80

3.5.8 Category of concrete objects

This category consists of concrete objects that cannot be included into

the other categories, or parts of these objects. The noun leg has appeared in

the category of body parts above, here it is in the sense of part of a chair or a

table.

Table 22: Category of concrete objects as found in the BNC:

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

book

F 5 (pl.) The Greek government turned to Goldman Sachs, paying the firm $300 million to fix the books.

2010 ACAD AmerScholar

M 2+1 Up on the beach, Abo, his paddle captain, was mending a book with duct tape, while Dixie, who would be rowing their third boat, was assembling their picnic dinner.

2009 FIC Bk:HeartCanyon

R 3 Most notably we had a grant from the last Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, a matching grant for $15,000 to deacidify and repair a number of books from our garden-history collection.

1991 MAG Horticulture

brak

es

F 1 (pl.) I fixed the brakes again while Faith prepared the flight-plan. BNV W_pop_lore

M ---

R 1 (pl.) We refuelled, repaired the brakes and emptied some sand out of the aircraft, and the next day we checked the aircraft and weather and did some minor maintenance, returning to the hotel at 3.30 pm.

BNV W_pop_lore

chai

r

F ---

M 2+1 To think of it another way, if you were asked to mend a broken chair you would not use every tool you had just for the sake of showing that you had them.

FU3 W_misc

R 2 He could be content sitting cross-legged, weeding a flower bed, or repairing a broken chair .

EVH W_biography

equi

pme

nt

F 11 Parnell promised to fix the equipment. 2009 NEWS USAToday

M ---

R ---

fuse

F 1 Seems the purestrains can't pilot a ship, can't fire a gun, can't fix a fuse . CM4 W_fict_prose

M 1 Here are one or two activities as starting suggestions (you will think of many more): making bread -- painting the ceiling -- bathing the dog -- writing a letter -- mending a fuse -- changing a lightbulb.

C9R W_non_ac_medicine

R ---

furn

iture

F ---

M 2 The lights were replaced and all the broken furniture was mended. CCV W_non_ac_polit_law_edu

R 2 He made great play of all the tasks in the Casa Guidi he had been left to do --; furniture to repair , decorations to see to --; [...]

ADS W_fict_prose

gear

F ---

M ---

R ---

good

s

F ---

M ---

R 1 Add to this the fact that we are for the most part a manually unskilled population that doesn't know how to darn socks, rewire a lamp, or refinish a table, much less put a roof back on a house, and the tendency to replace rather than repair damaged goods becomes even greater.

2006 ACAD Archaeology

81

imag

e F ---

M ---

R ---

infr

astr

uctu

re F ---

M ---

R 3 Urban life depends upon an invisible stratum of people who repair the city's infrastructure while all the rest are abed.

B24 W_non_ac_soc_science

leg

F 1+2 I think you should try to get a table up there, or at least fix a leg on that one. CK9 W_fict_prose

M ---

R ---

light

F 11+6 " Got to fix this light, man. " ADA W_fict_prose

M ---

R 2+2 But CSX did not inform the police officer that a maintenance worker had repaired the light while the officer was busy conducting his investigation.

2004 NEWS NewYorkTimes

net

F ---

M 8 They sat at their windows or in their small front gardens, making and mending nets and dyeing saffron the cloth for the coloured sails that were traditional on Elling craft.

AEA W_fict_prose

R 1 Drop nets can also be bought or made yourself from netting available to repair prawn nets .

C95 W_pop_lore

part

F ---

M ---

R ---

piec

e

F 2+1 Fraser and Azhar experimented to see how the feedforward net reacted when they fixed a piece of metal weighing 450 grammes onto the gripper.

FNR W_ac_tech_engin

M 1 He can mend pieces , or advise on what to do. A70 W_pop_lore

R ---

pot

F ---

M 1 Fishermen would repair to the woods to cut hazel and withies to make or mend their pots , then set out in their small boats to their chosen

B0G W_non_ac_humanities_arts

R ---

prod

uct

F 1 (pl.) Amplification products were fixed to nitrocellulose filters and alleles detected using the following probes with washing in 6xSSC at the stated temperature: […]

CRM W_non_ac_nat_science

M ---

R 2+1 A National Consumer Council opinion poll this year found 98 per cent thought it important that consumers should have a legal right to demand a replacement or refund if a product can not be repaired reasonably quickly.

A9F W_newsp_brdsht_nat_report

pain

ti

ng

F ---

M ---

R ---

tabl

e

F ---

M ---

R 1 Senior staff tried to resolve the problem through a combination of individual counselling sessions and by eliciting his help in a long-term project to repair the pool tables .

FPJ W_ac_soc_science

tap

F 1 (pl.) […]Hampshire and Sussex have been asked to turn off the tap when brushing their teeth, take showers not baths, and to fix dripping taps to save water.

AKY W_newsp_brdsht_nat_misc

M 1+1 If you're likely to be tackling full-scale plumbing installation work rather than just mending the occasional dripping tap , it will pay you to collect some specialist hand tools.

AM5 W_instructional

R 1 (pl.) Don't wash under a running tap. Repair dripping hot taps. A0Y W_non_ac_soc_science

thin

g

F 3+17 I don't have to pay well over a hundred quid to get the thing fixed again. K6V S_speech_unscripted

M 1+6 The first former's stared at her in surprise, they knew she never mended any thing if she could help it.

KCD S_conv

R 6 I was brought up to be mechanical, to make and repair things . K5C W_newsp_other_social

82

whe

el

F 2+1 The family had to wait about two days for the wheel to be fixed. ANJ W_biography

M 1+2 When everyone else had gone, Gabriel helped Lucie to mend the cart's wheel . HTN W_fict_prose

R 4 The defendants had repaired the wheel shortly before the accident and were held to be manufacturers.

HXV W_ac_polit_law_edu

wor

ld

F ---

M 2 You know I can't leave dear Shelley. He means to mend the world, but he needs me to mend his clothes...

HGS W_fict_prose

R 1 Active life is a condition of existence in time, translating the love of God into actions that will repair the fallen inner world of the psyche and the external world of society.

HY6 W_ac_humanities_arts

Table 23: Category of concrete objects as found in COCA:

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

book

F 1+5 He fixed the log book? Setback. Big setback. 1992 FIC Mov:FewGoodMen

M 2 Up on the beach, Abo, his paddle captain, was mending a book with duct tape, while Dixie, who would be rowing their third boat, was assembling their picnic dinner.

2009 FIC Bk:HeartCanyon

R 2 (pl.) Kyle, who works for the National Library Bindery, will offer one-on- one advice about preservation, what a bindery will do to repair books, and how much it will cost.

1999 NEWS Atlanta

brak

es

F 6 (pl.) You normally say, well, go ahead and fix the brakes because you don't want to risk your life driving an unsafe car.

2005 SPOK CNN_Dolans

M ---

R 2 (pl.) Bent pedals, rear derailleurs, chainrings, and brakes can be repaired by straightening or replacing parts.

1996 MAG Bicycling

chai

r

F 8 I'll fix your chair. " // She rose and took a step toward the edge of the terrace. 2008 FIC Bk:WorldBeforeHer

M 2 I appreciate your sorrow, but that won't mend my chair. 1998 FIC LitCavalcade

R 2 (pl.) The people who repair the chairs were let go a few years ago. 2006 FIC Triquarterly

equi

pmen

t

F 14 He was as comfortable in the gunner's seat of an armored vehicle as he was fixing communication equipment.

2006 FIC Triquarterly

M ---

R 49 When Food and Drug Administration inspectors visited Peanut Corp. of America's plant here in late 2001, they noticed peanut-processing equipment had been improperly repaired with duct or cellophane tape.

2009 NEWS USAToday

fuse

F 1+1 " Oh, good, the fundraiser is here! " " Will you please fix that fuse! 2004 FIC SouthernRev

M ---

R ---

furn

iture

F ---

M 1 He looked around at the pleasant attic with its rafters festooned with strings of fragrant apples, onions, and red peppers; at the leathercovered trunks, and piles of furniture waiting to be mended.

1998 MAG ChildLife

R 5 The couple had repaired the furniture, dusted off the old books and reframed and displayed a few photos that were overlooked by Edie (who usually saved everything).

2009 MAG TownCountry

gear

F ---

M ---

R 13 Organize, clean, and repair gear within a day of returning from one trip so it's prepped for the next.

2008 MAG Backpacker

83

good

s

F ---

M ---

R 2 Add to this the fact that we are for the most part a manually unskilled population that doesn't know how to darn socks, rewire a lamp, or refinish a table, much less put a roof back on a house, and the tendency to replace rather than repair damaged goods becomes even greater.

2006 ACAD Archaeology

imag

e

F 2 RAWs are output from a camera before any automatic adjustments have corrected hue and tone. They fix the image in its purest, unaltered state.

2005 MAG PopScience

M ---

R ---

infr

astr

uctu

re

F 8 And so, I guess, a municipal water manager - that is one thing to investigate and it may be worth the monetary investment to go ahead and try and fix this infrastructure which is going to be costly, but in the long-run, is going to A, save water, and B, you're going have a better water accessibility during a drought situation.

2007 SPOK NPR_TalkNation

M 1 At the Eudora Welty Library, Jamil outlined in whispered Urdu how Jackson's population was small and seventy percent black, its infrastructure always being mended, its tax base vanished.

2005 FIC SouthwestRev

R 34+1 How in God's name does he think we're going to repair this nation's infrastructure, stay competitive, give safety to our people, improve our quality of lives?

2010 SPOK ABC_ThisWeek

leg

F 9+2 He'll fix your leg. He can fix most anything. 2007 ACAD LiteraryRev

M 6 But six weeks ago, I saw a boy hit by a car and I went out and helped mend his leg.

1996 FIC FantasySciFi

R 6+4 But yes, there are internal fixation devices such as screws and some heavy almost like stainless steel rods that can be used to repair the leg and to try to transfer the weight bearing away from the damaged areas to allow it to heal as best as possible.

2006 SPOK CNN_LiveSun

light

F 17+8 The Girl was left by the engineer and fireman, who went up front to fix a light. 2004 FIC Storyworks

M ---

R 2+2 But CSX did not inform the police officer that a maintenance worker had repaired the light while the officer was busy conducting his investigation.

2004 NEWS NewYorkTimes

net

F 2+2 A man saw some fishermen fixing their nets one day and took some with him to create a new goal.

1995 NEWS Denver

M 5+5 A fisherman mends a glimmering net, a big porpoise is jumping in the sea 1996 SPOK NPR_ATC

R 2 An old man patching an aluminum boat and another old man repairing a fishing net in back of his house

2000 FIC Storyworks

pain

ting

F ---

M ---

R 4+1 She promised herself she'd take the time to repair the painting before she hung it in the new house.

2009 FIC Bk:Insight

part

F ---

M ---

R 6+17 Because Anseth's hydrogels are versatile -- hypothetically any number of protein growth factors can be mixed in -- she envisions gels that can repair almost any part of the body.

2009 MAG Esquire

piec

e

F 6+1 The famous De fixes a piece of cardboard for his daughter to slide in her candle so the wax will not drip on her clothes.

2007 FIC MichiganQRev

M 3+2 When they reached the house, they found the front door open and an old woman sitting in the doorway mending a piece of lace.

2009 FIC Analog

R 2+2 Instead of repairing the piece, the city removed the bolts that kept the sculpture in place and put it in storage, where it has remained.

2000 MAG AmerArtist

pot

F

M 1+2 After a few hours of failing to mend the pot, I took it round to the Pratts shoppe. 2010 FIC Bk:RealMartianChronicles

R 1+7 I remember accompanying my grandfather to the blacksmith's shop, a shed just a few blocks off the square, to have a pot repaired.

1999 ACAD AmerScholar

prod

uct

F 4+6 With the LH, they've not only fixed the product, they've fixed the process. 1992 NEWS USAToday

M ---

R 1+8 So thrift stores may offer a cheap way to repair a product. 2005 MAG PCWorld

84

tabl

e

F 3 The maker, Bernard Orth, " fixed this table for present of my wife and she is a good wife, 25 Jan 1859.

2004 MAG AmHeritage

M ---

R 1 (pl.) It takes money to pump out the privies, repair the picnic tables, pick up the trash and protect hiking trails from erosion.

1997 NEWS Denver ta

p

F 2 In household settings, water priced below cost provides little incentive to fix leaky taps or install low-flow fixtures, [...].

2003 ACAD Environment

M ---

R 1 But when I married Peter, I knew I wasn't getting somebody who could repair a leaky tap.

1999 FIC NewEnglandRev

thin

g

F 93 +476

I could have fixed the whole thing myself in my basement. 2010 MAG TechReview

M 10 (pl.) She believed they had the ability to mend things. 2008 FIC GoodHouse

R 5+24 The oldest man in the world could not make head or tail of the time of day by such a watch, and so I went again to have the thing repaired.

1994 FIC SatEvenPost

whe

el

F 14+7 Our friend Mr. Ledbetter is at the black-smith's getting a wagon wheel fixed. 2008 FIC Bk:FrontierCourtship

M ---

R 3 Together he and the boy repaired the wheel while the woman cooked supper. 1992 FIC Bk:IAmClay

wor

ld

F 38 Let's strive to fix the world as best we can. 2008 SPOK NPR_TellMore

M 1 Pranks can provide sudden jolts of awareness or catharsis, but we shouldn't expect them to both mock and mend the world.

2009 MAG MotherJones

R 15 Tikkun olam means to heal or repair the world, one person at a time. 2005 ACAD IndepSchool

Table 24: Comparison table of the BNC and COCA for the Category of

concrete objects:

Concrete objects

BNC COCA

F M R F M R

book 5 3 3 6 2 2

brake 1 --- 1 6 --- 2

chair --- 3 2 8 2 2

equipment 11 --- --- 14 --- 49

furniture --- 2 2 --- 1 5

fuse 1 1 --- 2 --- ---

gear --- --- --- --- --- 13

goods --- --- 1 --- --- 2

image --- --- --- 2 --- ---

infrastructure --- --- 3 8 1 35

leg 3 --- --- 11 6 10

light 17 --- 4 25 --- 4

net --- 8 1 4 10 2

painting --- --- --- --- --- 5

part --- --- --- --- --- 23

piece 3 1 --- 7 5 4

pot --- 1 --- --- 3 8

product 1 --- 3 10 --- 9

table --- --- 1 3 --- 1

tap 1 2 1 2 --- 1

thing 20 7 6 569 10 29

wheel 3 3 4 21 --- 3

world --- 2 1 38 1 15

85

This category shows a slight tendency toward repair, but fix and mend

are also present, they are not as numerous, though.

In BNC the most frequent collocating noun is thing, second is light. In

COCA it is thing as well, which has outnumbered the other nouns by a large

number.

A difference between the corpora can be seen in the nouns gear, image,

painting and part. These are present only in COCA, but not in BNC.

An interesting difference between British and American English can be

found in the case of the noun chair. Whereas in BNC it collocates only with

mend and repair, in COCA the most numerous collocating verb is fix, and the

other two verbs are also represented.

A similar case as the above one is with the noun equipment. In BNC it

only collocates with fix, but in COCA it has most hits with repair, and is also

possible to use with fix.

Another difference between the corpora is in the noun leg. In BNC it

appears only with the verb fix, but in COCA it is possible with all the three

verbs, fix and repair being the most numerous.

86

3.5.9 Category of abstract objects

This category consists of abstract nouns. Some of the nouns have

already appeared in the above category (for example image or net), but here

they are in the abstract sense.

Table 25: Category of abstract objects as found in the BNC:

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

corp

us

Cita

tion

code

busi

-

ness

F ---

M ---

R ---

econ

-

omy

F ---

M ---

R ---

effo

rt F ---

M ---

R ---

fam

ily F ---

M ---

R ---

imag

e

F 1 You will have your own body image fixed in your mind. AD0 W_non_ac_medicine

M 3 If intercepted, it may mend the image of us that the aliens would have deduced from our television shows.

2001 MAG NaturalHist

R 26 A new national security policy that would repair our image in the world, they promised real change because remember - - remember, you're here.

2010 SPOK Fox_Beck

mar

riage

F ---

M 3 The unit was reopened yesterday. Jagger and Jerry in secret weekend bid to mend marriage

CH6 W_newsp_tabloid

R 1 He told viewers he longed get back with Maggie, 36, and repair their broken marriage .

CEN W_newsp_other_report

mat

ter

F ---

M 4 But matters are mended with the arrival of the crates -- antiques that epitomised an antique land, brief monuments to the old Angola.

A05 W_ac_humanities_arts

R ---

min

d

F ---

M ---

R ---

net

F ---

M ---

R ---

omis

sion

F ---

M ---

R 4+1 […] Bingham er did say specifically that he wasn't pursuing er the matter of er audit, it wasn't his responsibility er the government should certainly have repaired that omission by pursuing it themselves, by inquiring er into er what went wrong.

JSF S_Parliament

pro-

gram

F ---

M ---

R ---

87

rela

tions

F ---

M ---

R 6 Rabin's commitment to peace process and unity Rabin outlined his future government's policies at a press conference on June 24, promising to move immediately to promote the peace process, repair Israel's relations with the USA, and halt large-scale government investment in settlements.

HLL W_non_ac_polit_law_edu

rela

tions

hip

F 1+2 The neck is the focus of special attention, at times competing with the head with which its relationship is never securely fixed, always open to negotiation.

HAD W_misc

M 2 But where there is resistance to change and unwillingness to mend the troubled relationship on behalf of just one partner, understandably the chances of improvement are meagre, and final breakdown, if not inevitable, is certainly threatened.

CGE W_religion

R ---

repu

-

tatio

n F ---

M ---

R ---

rift

F ---

M 1 A visit to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, last weekend by Strobe Talbott, America's ambassador-at-large to the former Soviet countries, brought hope that the rift could be mended.

CRA W_pop_lore

R 5 After recruiting new prayer-leaders, Kauder set about to repair the biggest social rift in the village of Pomquet.

2002 ACAD AmerStudies

situ

atio

n

F 1 It's a situation that can be fixed and I believe we'll be much faster, " said the three-times Indycar champion

K5J W_newsp_other_social

M 3 We'll have to see if we can mend the situation . HH1 W_fict_prose

R ---

soul

F ---

M ---

R ---

syst

em

F ---

M ---

R 1+2 The lives of others, I believe, are not mere management problems, their despairs are not simply amenable to technical solutions which " repair the system as it is "; they are cries for radical solutions, solutions which go to the root of the problem: the structures of society which gnaw away at their lives, their self-worth.

GUR W_ac_polit_law_edu

wor

k

F 2 You use me when it suits you, you get me to fix your dirty work FPB W_fict_prose

M ---

R 4 I was worried why am I bleeding the system after I've done the radiators and changed them, you know repair the pipe work.

KCL S_conv

Table 26: Category of abstract objects as found in COCA:

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

c

es

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

corp

us

Cita

tion

code

busi

ness

F 7+2 The idea is to offer executives and their teams quick ways to fix their business.

2003 MAG Fortune

M 1 Can the CEO of a corporate giant help him mend his business before it splits at the seams?

2005 SPOK CNN_Turn

R 2 Now, Zelnick, who was hired as part of a shareholder revolt, must repair the company's business -- and its reputation.

2007 NEWS USAToday

econ

omy

F 116 And we want to continue to work with him to help fix this economy. 2009 SPOK NBC_MeetPress

M 3 The economy continues to mend gradually, and retail sales have gained momentum since last spring.

1992 NEWS Atlanta

R 7 I look forward to being part of the president-elect's team, which believes that we must repair the economy and put us on a path forward towards sustainable energy.

2008 SPOK Fox_News

88

effo

rt

F ---

M ---

R 2 The schematic shows battle damage and repair efforts. 1994 FIC Mov:StarTrek08

fam

ily

F 8+4 I imagined that the African American women who rang the doorbell on Friday mornings, prepared to sweep, mop, and vacuum, would, like Beulah, fix my broken family and make everything okay.

1999 ACAD ReVision

M ---

R 2 Seeley felt a moment's sadness for Leonard and for his brother's dream of repairing a family that was broken from the start.

2008 FIC Bk:PatentLie

imag

e

F 14 " I told the guys before the season we had to fix our image, " says Weber. 2009 MAG SportsIll

M 3 Several events combined to propel BRING forward and mend its image. Lane County, of which Eugene is the seat, opened its Glenwood Central Receiving Station, affectionately known as " the dump, " in 1976.

2000 ACAD BioCycle

R 26 Now the big question today is was it real or is this just an attempt to repair his shattered image.

2010 SPOK CBS_Early

mar

riage

F 13+1 Headnote Once again, you've resolved to lose weight, fix your marriage, or get out of debt.

2007 MAG GoodHouse

M 4+1 Last month, he reportedly offered to leave the Navy and break off with a woman he had dated casually if Sarah would agree to mend the marriage.

1996 MAG People

R 8+1 If everything you say is true and you haven't overstated your husband's bad behavior out of exhaustion or frustration, the real question is why you would want to repair your marriage

2010 MAG Redbook

mat

ter

F ---

M 1 But that did in nowise mend the matter, or at all soften the hard heart of the learned gentleman with the copy of Blackstone.

2009 FIC Bk:HERMANMELVILLE

R ---

min

d

F ---

M 2 He was 20 years old at the time and spent much of 1983 in rehab waiting for bones and tissue and mind to mend.

2007 MAG OutdoorLife

R 4 You have to repair the mind, the body, the soul, so you provide program components that address all aspects of a person, " says Dooley.

2005 NEWS CSMonitor

net

F 3 Well, the problem is -- and we want to serve those people, and we, of course, want to fix the safety net.

2010 SPOK PBS_NewsHour

M ---

R 2+5 Until the safety net has been repaired, it will be up to social workers to mobilize neighborhoods' informal resources to promote working parents' health and well-being.

2007 ACAD HealthSocialW

omis

sion

F 1 (pl.) The omissions were to be fixed after the treaty was ratified. 1992 ACAD ForeignAffairs

M ---

R 1 (pl.) Accordingly, in March 1991 Democratic Congressman Sam Gibbons (an active partisan of CBI-2) introduced in the House of Representatives a bill -- a putative CBI-3 -- designed to repair both these omissions from the previous legislation.

1992 ACAD InterAmStud

prog

ram

F 14 Politicians " don't have the guts to fix " the program, Boyd says, although " triage has to be performed.

2009 NEWS USA

M ---

R 4+3 Why have the nation's leaders been debating for more than twenty years how to repair the program without reaching any consensus?

2005 ACAD SocSciRev

rela

tions

F 1+4 And they don't try to step in and fix the relationship, step in and fix the relation between you and Paris?

2005 SPOK CNN_King

M 21 Exchange programs are not the only way to mend relations between the US and Muslim countries, but they are an important one, " Beiser says.

2008 NEWS CSMonitor

R 37 (pl.) At its most basic, Putin's attempt to repair relations with the West reflects the fact that Russia badly needs foreign cash.

2010 MAG Newsweek

rela

tions

hip

F 10+2 And they don't try to step in and fix the relationship, step in and fix the relation between you and Paris?

2005 SPOK CNN_King

M 10+7 We have to repair, to mend the relationship between the two countries. 2003 SPOK CNN_Q&A

R 38+16 So, I think a good start has been made to repair the relationship that has been damaged in recent months, but I think there is a long way to go to have the kind of strong partnership that is needed that can produce results on the ground.

2010 SPOK PBS_NewsHour

89

repu

tatio

n

F 2 And the new president is going to have to fix the reputation that we've left with the rest of the world.

2008 SPOK NBC_MeetPress

M 1 The episodes unraveled an effort by Allen to mend a reputation for racial insensitivity that has pursued him through his steady rise from Palos Verdes to college athlete, lawyer, state legislator, governor and, in 2000, U.S. senator.

2006 NEWS WashingtonPost

R 9 Can Thailand's reputation be repaired? 2010 MAG Newsweek

rift

F ---

M 10 It is a symbolic move that's been approved by the McCain camp in an effort to mend the rift with staunch Hillary Clinton supporters.

2008 SPOK Fox_Election

R 4 After recruiting new prayer-leaders, Kauder set about to repair the biggest social rift in the village of Pomquet.

2002 ACAD AmerStudies

situ

atio

n

F 43 France will probably have to step in and try to figure out a way to fix the Greek situation.

2010 SPOK Fox_Baier

M ---

R 9+1 As they marched toward Lexington Green, he thought about whether he needed to go back to repair the situation with her.

2009 FIC FantasySciFi

soul

F 2 If I'm going to fix your soul, I need it nice and still. 2002 FIC FantasySciFi

M 2 It was a journey he insisted at the time, not to mend his tattered soul but to simply keep moving.

2006 SPOK NPR_Sunday

R 1 (pl.) [...]I asked him how long before they would be able to live together, looked around at a village in which every building had been destroyed and said, We will repair our buildings long before we repair our souls.

1999 SPOK NPR:TalkNation

syst

em

F 272+40 Maybe that's where we should start looking to fix the system, because that's a change we can all agree on and we can change it today.

2010 SPOK Fox_Beck

M 2 Everyone here has long been aware of the need to mend this broken system. 2006 NEWS AssocPress

R 89+26 An Irish telecom DigiCell (ph) is working to repair Haiti's phone system. 2010 SPOK Fox_Baier

wor

k

F ---

M ---

R ---

Table 27: Comparison table of the BNC and COCA for the Category of

abstract objects:

Abstract objects

BNC COCA

F M R F M R

business --- --- --- 9 1 2

economy --- --- --- 116 3 7

effort --- --- --- --- --- 2

family --- --- --- 12 --- 2

image 1 3 26 14 3 26

marriage --- 3 1 14 5 9

matter --- 4 --- --- 1 ---

mind --- --- --- --- 2 4

net --- --- --- 3 --- 7

omission --- --- 5 1 --- 1

program/me --- --- --- 14 --- 7

relations --- --- 6 5 21 37

relationship 3 2 --- 12 17 54

reputation --- --- --- 2 1 9

rift --- 1 5 --- 10 4

soul --- --- --- 2 2 1

situation 1 3 --- 43 --- 10

system --- --- 3 312 2 115

work 2 --- --- --- --- ---

90

This category shows a significant difference between the corpora. In

BNC there are only few tokens, except the noun image, which collocates with

repair, having 26 hits. A lot of the nouns that have at least one collocating verb

in COCA do not collocate with any of the verbs in BNC. These are business,

economy, effort, family, mind, net, program/me, reputation and soul.

COCA, on the other hand, offers some of the most numerous collocations

of the whole research of the three verbs. The noun system is the most

numerous collocate in this category with 312 hits with fix and 115 hits with

repair. Another numerous collocate is economy with 116 hits with fix.

An interesting difference between British and American English can be

seen in the noun relationship. In COCA it is most numerously represented

collocating with repair and other two verbs are possible too. In BNC, on the

other hand, it is not possible to use it with repair at all.

There are two words collocating with mend which were not included into

counting – manners and matters. These are idioms (to mend one’s manners

and to mend matters) that do not share the same sense as the verbs fix and

repair, so they are not counted with in the research.

91

3.5.10 Category of locations

This category deals with locations and places that can be fixed, mended

or repaired.

Table 28: Category of locations as found in the BNC:

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

corp

us

Cita

tion

code

area

F 1 Although, in theory perhaps, it may be possible for Parliament to set up a tribunal which has full and autonomous powers to fix its own area of operation, that has, so far, not been done in this country.

ASB W_ac_polit_law_edu

M ---

R 3+3 The Fao area was repaired to the extent that it was possible for loading to be resumed at a restored Mina al-Bakr terminal.

HRE W_non_ac_humanities_arts

cent

re

F 2 The man from Horsley Road had fixed the music centre . GUM W_fict_prose

M ---

R 4 Darlington council must decide by mid-March which of the companies bidding for the contract to repair the leisure centre will do the work.

K54 W_newsp_other_social

city

F 1 I'm not here to fix the city , rather to take the work that has already been done onto the next stage.

K32 W_newsp_other_sports

M ---

R 3 Not only did he build and restore churches and monasteries, but also he repaired the city walls; he corresponded with Caesarius of Clermont about laying underground water-pipes, and he was responsible for severing road-communications with the south to prevent the spread of plague.

HY0 W_ac_humanities_arts

coun

try

F 1 (pl.) Klaus announced on March 22 that the government had decided to cancel Czechoslovakia's multilateral agreements with the CMEA (COMECON) under which the exchange rates between the crown and the currencies of the other CMEA countries were fixed by joint arrangement

HKS W_non_ac_polit_law_edu

M ---

R ---

plac

e

F 3+1 She'd fixed the place where he'd been, stooped to pick up her baggage, and gone after him, not doubting that it was he.

CRE W_fict_prose

M ---

R ---

stat

e

F 2 The first difference is simply that we are allowed to specify less in the way of " conditions or data " in order to fix the state .

EW6 W_non_ac_nat_science

M ---

R ---

tow

n

F ---

M ---

R ---

92

Table 29: Category of locations as found in COCA:

collo

cate

verb

num

ber

of

occu

rren

ces

Mod

el

sent

ence

from

cor

pus

Cita

tion

code

area

F 5+4 Well, does that mean there was brain damage originally maybe some place in early life that, you know, caused the damage and then brought on the depression, and now you're going to regrow and fix that damaged area?

2003 SPOK NPR_TalkNation

M ---

R 8+3 This healing occurs when healthy cells of the mucosal lining multiply and migrate to repair the wounded area.

2008 MAG TotalHealth

cent

er F ---

M ---

R ---

city

F 29 Florence, of visual idioms within an explosively prolific culture of image production tends to fix that city and its fifteenth-century inhabitants at the heart of this transformation.

2008 ACAD ArtBulletin

M ---

R 6 Why is it, four years after Katrina, were still fighting with the federal government for money to repair our devastated city?

2009 SPOK PBS_NewsHour

coun

try

F 12 Let's balance the budget. Let's fix the country. That's what they are saying. 2009 SPOK Fox_Hannity

M 1 Laney as a symbol of bipartisanship, stressing throughout his 11-minute address his desire to mend the country.

2000 NEWS SanFrancisco

R 9+1 If Iraq has billions in U.S. banks, as reported on NBC News, why are we spending billions to repair their country?

2008 NEWS Denver

plac

e

F 14+1 Embarrassed and therefore angry, I started bullying her, barking orders and blaming her when after an hour we still had a creature of the night darting around our living room, executing that hideous mid-air hover like treading water in space as its sonar fixed his place in the room.

2007 FIC LiteraryRev

M 1 (pl.) I'm going to have to clean thoroughly, give a coat of varnish to the wooden staircase and put in order all Lunula's dresses, iron them and mend the places where the silk has been torn by the passage of time.

1993 FIC WomenLanguage

R 7+2 EVER SINCE THE AUSCHWITZ memorial and museum first opened to the public, in 1947, workers have repaired and rebuilt the place.

2010 MAG Smithsonian

stat

e

F 4 I mean, it's incredible about state's rights and he's tired of the government coming in and telling the states exactly how to fix their state.

2009 SPOK Fox_Beck

M ---

R ---

tow

n

F 1 (pl.) Strikingly, the U.S. grid fixed more inland towns than the DLC system, and for longer, because its reach away from initial settlement was greater.

2006 ACAD GeographRev

M ---

R ---

Table 30: Comparison table of the BNC and COCA for the Category of

location:

Location BNC COCA

F M R F M R

area 1 --- 6 9 --- 11

centre/center 2 --- 4 --- --- ---

city 1 --- 3 29 --- 6

country 1 --- --- 12 1 10

place 4 --- --- 15 1 9

state 2 --- --- 4 --- ---

town --- --- --- 1 --- ---

93

This category shows a tendency toward fix. Mend is not collocating with

any of the nouns in BNC and with only a few in COCA.

The most numerous collocate in BNC is area with 6 hits, collocating with

repair. In COCA it is city with 29 hits, collocating with fix.

94

4 CONCLUSION The aim of this thesis was to compare the usage of the verbs fix, mend

and repair. In order to find differences between the verbs, their collocating

words were divided into ten categories. These categories have shown

tendencies of the collocating words towards one (or more) of the verbs.

The thesis was divided into two main parts – theoretical and practical.

Basic theoretical background, based on different authors, was dealt with in the

first part.

Section 2.1 dealt with meaning and problems with defining it. Several

types of meaning were listed. The notion of sense and reference were also

described.

Section 2.2 presented synonymy as one of the sense relations.

Synonymy was defined here. True or absolute synonymy was contrasted to

near or loose synonymy. Attention was also focused on cognitive synonymy.

Section 2.3 enumerated different kinds of sense relations, to contrast

them with synonymy which was dealt with in the previous section. Antonymy,

hyponymy, meronymy, homonymy and polysemy, plesionymy, member-

collection and portion-mass relations, feature-whole relation and other word set

were described.

Section 2.4 offered basic facts about the corpora used in the practical

part – the British National Corpus and the Corpus of Contemporary American

Corpus.

Section 2.5 described verbs as a part of speech with special attention to

tense and aspect.

95

The last section of the theoretical part dealt with collocations and their

restrictions and contrasted them with idioms.

Section 3.1 provided general introduction to the practical part. Verbs fix,

mend and repair are classified in correlation with information from the

theoretical part. The limitations of the research are mentioned in this section.

Section 3.2 listed definitions of the three verbs from two printed

dictionaries – Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English and The Random

House Dictionary of the English Language – and one online dictionary – Oxford

English Dictionary Online. The findings from dictionaries were compared. They

showed that the definitions in OED were the most comprehensive. The verbs of

course share the meaning in which they are synonymous. But each of them

have also meaning(s) that are not shared by the other two verbs.

Fix differs from the other two verbs in the following senses, as defined in

LDCE:

- to fasten firmly

- to agree on, arrange

- to protect from the effects of light by chemical treatment

- to cook or prepare

- to attract (one’s attention)

- to fasten (a bayonet)

- to arrange the result of

- to influence someone wrongly

- to deal with , get even with

Additional definitions from RHD:

96

- to put in order or in good condition

- to pace definitely and more or less permanently

- to direct (the eyes, the attention) steadily

- to make set or rigid

- to put or place (responsibility, blame) on a person

- to provide or supply with

- to put in condition or position to make no further trouble

- to castrate or spay

- to make stable in consistency or condition

- to convert atmospheric nitrogen into a useful compound

- to kill, make rigid, and preserve for microscopic study

Some more definitions found in OED:

- to establish as a permanent property of subsequent generations

(genetics)

- to hold a person engaged or occupied, so as to prevent his leaving

the spot

Mend differs from the other two verbs in the following senses according to

LDCE and RHD:

- to improve

- to regain one’s health

- to build up (a low fire)

Additional senses from OED:

- to make amends or reparation for, atone for

- to free from sin or fault

97

- to profit, advantage

- to fatten, cause to gain weight

Repair differs in the following senses, as found in LDCE:

- to be able to be mended

Additional senses in RHD:

- to make amends for, to compensate

Other senses in OED:

- to rebuild (a city)

- to regain, recover (something lost)

The verbs mend and repair share the sense “to reconstruct (defective or injured

body parts) surgically” (OED).

Section 3.3 dealt with definitions of the verbs found in dictionaries of

synonyms and thesauruses: Oxford Thesaurus – An A- Z Dictionary of

Synonyms, The Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, Cassell’s Guide to Synonyms and

Related Words, Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary and Longman

Synonym Dictionary. All the dictionaries of synonyms and thesauruses list the

verbs fix, mend and repair as being synonymous.

Section 3.4 compared etymologies of the verbs, as found in Oxford

English Dictionary in section Etymology. From the etymology of the verbs in

section 3.4 it was found out that the oldest verb is mend, which was first used

in literature in 1225. Fix is the youngest of the verbs, first used in 1762 in the

same sense as mend and repair.

98

Section 3.5 comprised of the actual corpus analysis and was divided into

ten subsections. The findings from the corpora were divided into ten semantic

categories, each category was dealt with in each subsection.

Subsection 3.5.1 presented the Category of means of transport. The

corpora showed a slight tendency towards repair, but the other two words were

also found as possible.

The following subsection dealt with the Category of parts of bodies,

either of people or animals. No preference was shown in this category, but

differences between BNC and COCA were found.

The Category of problems, defects and malfunctions was analysed in the

subsection 3.5.3. Quite strong tendency towards fix and repair was observed in

this category.

Subsection 3.5.4 dealt with the Category of parts of clothing and fabrics.

A strong preference for the verb mend was shown by the corpora.

Subsection 3.5.5 analysed the Category of linear objects. This category

has not shown any tendency towards one of the verbs. However, differences

between BNC and COCA were observed.

Subsection 3.5.6 dealt with the Category of parts of buildings and

construction. Differences between the British and American English were found

in this category.

The Category of machines is analysed in subsection 3.5.7. A tendency

towards the verbs fix and repair was observed in this category.

99

Subsection 3.5.8 dealt with the Category of concrete objects, where a

slight tendency toward repair was found, but fix and mend were also present in

the corpora.

Subsection 3.5.9 analysed the Category of abstract objects. The research

showed a significant difference between the corpora.

The last subsection analyses the Category of locations and shows a

tendency towards the verb fix.

Several problems occurred during the research. One of them is the

different size of the British and American corpora. The American corpus, COCA,

is much larger than the British one. Thus in comparing the corpora this fact has

to be taken in consideration.

Another problem was with phrasal verbs and idioms. Idioms or phrasal

verbs were found during the research in both dictionaries and corpora. Fix

appeared as part of phrasal verbs (fix up and fix on/upon) or collocations (fix

cell/tissue in a solution) that have different senses from mend and repair. Mend

appeared as part of idioms to mend (one’s) fences, to mend matters and to

mend one’s manners. In case of the verb repair, there were no phrasal verbs

found, collocations of different sense or idioms during the research of the

corpora.

100

To sum up, the corpora have not shown big differences in the use of the

verbs, although some slight nuances can be observed:

1) When a word is collocating with repair, it is also possible with fix (but not

always vice-versa) – this was shown in the following categories:

The Category of means of transport:

Corporal Rose had tried to fix the car but discovered a bent track rod end which was beyond his capabilities. (BNC)

They've got to repair daddy's car because it could be dangerous, Grant. (BNC) Coquillette, who discovered her love for auto repair after taking a night class to fix her own car, has drawn attention from the media for her work converting standard hybrid cars into plug-in hybrids. (COCA) But if you don't have access to those computer codes, no matter what technology you have, no

matter how brilliant you are of an auto technician, you still can't repair the car. (COCA) Forced landings were common, even Charlie Chaplin was seen standing on the sands of Bologne in the early 1920s while his pilot fixed the aircraft . (BNC) The retention of the wreckage for detailed scrutiny must not be frustrated because of the owner's wish to repair the aircraft and return it to service without delay. (BNC) The partnership enlisted the help of private-sector executives to help the air base, whose main mission is to repair military aircraft, operate more efficiently, said retired Maj. Gen. Ron Smith, [...] (COCA)

On the examples above it is obvious that car can be used both with fix and

repair. On the other hand, aircraft is in BNC possible with fix and repair,

while in COCA it is possible only with repair, not with fix.

The Category of problems, defects and malfunctions:

Even if he had been able to fix the damage , (BNC) Only then can we begin to repair the damage caused since the Tories came to power. (BNC) And it would cost them another $ 1700 on top of what they'd already paid to fix the hidden damage. (COCA) The implications of this redevelopment project stretch far beyond Fairfax County, as suburbs and exurbs across the country look for ways to repair the damage from five decades of outward, rather than upward, expansion. (COCA)

As long as they conformed outwardly, they were fairly safe, for Elizabeth and her ministers had to tread carefully to repair the breaches of confidence in the Tudor monarchy that Mary's policies had opened. (BNC) The Corps of Engineers and the state national guard have been working around the clock with the local officials and they've built the levee -- they've fixed the levee breach and they've built the levee up higher than it was over the weekend. (COCA) And WWL-TVs reporter, Lucy Bustamante (ph), was up in a chopper this afternoon, reported that from noon to 4 when she was circling around the area, she saw no efforts to repair the breach even late this afternoon. (COCA)

101

Examples above illustrate that damage is in both BNC and COCA possible

with fix and repair, while breach is possible only with repair in BNC. In

COCA, breach is possible both with fix and repair.

Category of machines:

In this study the difference between conditions was that in the neutral set of slides the father was a car mechanic seen fixing an engine , while in the arousal version the father was a surgeon operating on a badly injured patient. (BNC) He successfully repaired the engine and could not resist the chance of seeing Brooklands, the centre of British Aviation. (BNC) The defendant garage was liable in damages because it took eight weeks to repair a motor vehicle when a normally competent garage would have taken about five weeks. (BNC) Company employees arranged to meet the family on the road and repair the camera. (COCA)

Examples above show that engine is possible with both fix and repair in

BNC and COCA. Motor and camera, on the other hand, are possible only

with repair in both corpora.

Category of concrete objects:

The Greek government turned to Goldman Sachs, paying the firm $300 million to fix the books. (BNC) Most notably we had a grant from the last Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, a matching grant for $15,000 to deacidify and repair a number of books from our garden-history collection. (BNC) He fixed the log book? Setback. Big setback. (COCA) Kyle, who works for the National Library Bindery, will offer one-on- one advice about preservation, what a bindery will do to repair books, and how much it will cost. (COCA) He could be content sitting cross-legged, weeding a flower bed, or repairing a broken chair . (BNC) Organize, clean, and repair gear within a day of returning from one trip so it's prepped for the next. (COCA)

The above examples illustrate that book is possible both with fix and repair.

On the other hand, chair and gear are only possible with repair in the

corpora.

2) Mechanical defects and malfunctions usually collocate with fix or repair.

This can be observed especially in the following categories:

Category of means of transport

I must find him before I sail home, and come to think of it I'll need to fix the boat too! (BNC) Like Frejji, who'll fix the ship better than anyone. (BNC)

102

And how will you repair your boat , Breakspear, or even take her away, if I put your name on the Stop List? (BNC) [...] proves more than just a minor hazard for the astronauts as they race against time to repair the ship . (BNC) Dodge, if this isn't incentive enough to fix that boat, I don't know what is. (COCA) If you should fix your bicycle yourself when it breaks down, write A. If you should take it to a bicycle repair shop, write E. (COCA) Well, as soon as we repair our boat. We'll leave you alone, and the fleet will have no reason to invade. (COCA) The auction raises money for the Sopo Bicycle Cooperative, a nonprofit bike repair shop in East Atlanta Village that teaches people how to repair their bicycles and sells cheap repairable bikes. (COCA)

These examples illustrate that boat, ship and bicycle can be used with both

fix and repair. It has to be noted, though, that boat and ship can also be

used with mend in the BNC.

Category of machines:

There is a story about an old man who was called in by a factory to fix their ancient boiler , which had ground to a halt. (BNC) At first, the machinery was fixed, standing within the barn. (BNC) The boilers are being repaired . Full power soon. (BNC) He has to repair all of the machinery but this seems impossible since his workmates have borrowed his tools. (BNC) The Hovs had come to fix the boiler and were just leaving. (COCA) Parts are scarce, however, and there are fewer and fewer steamboatmen around who know how to fix the machinery. (COCA) In later cases, more than one boiler was placed beside the cylinder, allowing uninterrupted operation while a boiler was being repaired. (COCA) John Graham, finance professor at Duke and director of the survey, says businesses are finding ways to repair existing machinery and buildings rather than replace equipment or move. (COCA)

On the examples from the corpora it is shown that boiler and machinery

can be used with both fix and repair in the BNC and COCA.

3) Parts of clothing and fabrics collocate with the verb mend. This can be

observed on the Category of parts of clothing and fabrics, illustrated on the

following examples from the corpora:

Lizaveta once mended his clothes : when we puzzle over the chance-induced actuality of her murder being so largely left to speak for itself we are creating a false problem by the inertness of our own metaphor. (BNC) Gordon wisely said nothing. Although the rider's clothes were mended and patched, the bridle held medallions of silver and the saddle was carved with ornate flowers. (COCA) And we have to get your coat mended, too. (COCA) Now, hundreds of tourists a year pay the monks a small entrance fee to see the catacombs' occupants, but family members no longer visit, and there's no one to mend a torn dress or reset a dislocated jaw. (COCA) His valet, Harper, looked up from the shirt he was mending. (COCA)

103

4) There are differences between British and American English in the following

categories:

Category of parts of bodies:

Collocates brain, DNA, muscle, shoulder and skin were found only in COCA

and not in the BNC.

Foot in the BNC collocates only with the verb mend, whereas in COCA it

was found collocating both with fix and repair. It is illustrated on the

examples below:

" But the foot really is mending ? " " It's fine. Another day or two and I'll be skipping like a ram on the high hills. (BNC) We're going to see the nice man who's going to help get your foot fixed, and then you can run around and jump and... oh, play soccer. (COCA) Forward Larry Stewart (surgery to repair broken right foot) is on the injured list (COCA)

Heart collocates with both fix and mend in the BNC, while in COCA it is

possible with all the three verbs with repair having the most tokens:

It took all his willpower and concentration to banish the sound of it, and fix heart and soul on the celebration of the Mass. (BNC) It was about a wife who'd cheated on her husband, she'd left him for his best friend, and now the man was on the road trying to mend his broken heart . (BNC) I pretty much laid it out:' This is a bad deal, but let's follow it. We'll fix the heart, and we'll deal with the tumor,' " Sutton says. (COCA) But first, a new way to mend a broken heart. Doctors have shown, for the first time in a controlled study, that they can inject stem cells into the hearts of patients suffering from heart failure, and these adult stem cells taken from the patients' own bone marrow will, in effect, regenerate the heart tissue and significantly improve heart function. (COCA) One day, heart patients may be able to use their own skin cells to repair their hearts, using a new type of stem cells called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). (COCA)

Leg only collocates with mend in the BNC. All three verbs are possible in

COCA, though:

"Couldn't Uncle Walter come here till his leg 's mended?" said Philip. "We won't be here, Philip," said his Mum. (BNC) Well, you just lie quiet and I'll fix your leg. Here, that's all right. Everything OK? Fine. (COCA) I just wanted to hide out when we got here, But six weeks ago, I saw a boy hit by a car and I went out and helped mend his leg. And his mother knew what I was doing. (COCA) At the hospital, doctors worked to repair his leg and replenish his blood supply. (COCA)

104

Category of linear objects:

Collocates hedge and footpath were found only in BNC, while seam and

strand were found only in COCA.

Cable collocates with mend and repair in the BNC, and it is possible with all

three verbs in COCA:

"I've been far too busy to look for one of those," Rain said. "I tried you at home earlier --; hasn't anyone mended your cable yet?" (BNC) The modern purpose-built vessel which operates from Southampton, is used to lay and repair subsea cable . (BNC) That's how many times we had to call to get the cable TV fixed, the phone connected and even to get a bottle of water delivered. (COCA) The office on the mainland had promised that the cable under the water would be mended on the following day. (COCA) On the night of March 20, Diaz was watching mechanics repair a burned-out cable on his tank when Tomahawk cruise missiles soared overhead. (COCA)

Category of parts of buildings and construction:

Collocates church, fencing, premises and room were found only in the BNC,

while bedroom, dam, floor and levees are found only in COCA.

Road collocates with mend and repair in the BNC, whereas in COCA it is

possible with all three verbs, fix having the most tokens:

To ensure that the crisis of February could never be repeated, Pétain employed the equivalent of more than a whole division of men permanently mending the road . (BNC) I saw tank traps and great banks of boulder clay where the road had been repaired in make-shift fashion after [...] (BNC) Cars fitted with pothole detectors could send a message that says " fix this road now. (COCA) Since he would come back, then she must wait for him there by the mountain, maintaining everything just as it was, the road cleared and mended, the walls in good repair, the houses kept intact. (COCA) The road is being repaired from Catete to Luanda, where Angola's main port is located. (COCA)

School collocates only with repair in the BNC, while it has numerous tokens

with fix and repair in COCA:

The troops, officially involved in a US&dollar;2,500,000 civic action programme to repair a local school and to install a sewage system and water treatment plants, were accused of being an advance guard of a stepped-up US policy to eradicate the growing of coca, the raw material of cocaine, in the region; in the absence of a viable market substitute, thousands of local peasant families depended on the crop for a livelihood. (BNC) However, that only works if there's somebody in that troubled neighbourhood who can gather the resources to fix the bad school or create a new one from its ashes. (COCA) Alamosa would repair its high school, damaged by fire a decade ago. (COCA)

105

Category of abstract objects

Work was found only in the BNC, while business, economy, effort, family,

mind, net, program, reputation and soul were found only in COCA.

Relationship collocates with fix and mend in the BNC, while in COCA it was

found to collocate with all three verbs:

The neck is the focus of special attention, at times competing with the head with which its relationship is never securely fixed, always open to negotiation. (BNC) But where there is resistance to change and unwillingness to mend the troubled relationship on behalf of just one partner, understandably the chances of improvement are meagre, and final breakdown, if not inevitable, is certainly threatened. (BNC) And they don't try to step in and fix the relationship, step in and fix the relation between you and Paris? (COCA) We have to repair, to mend the relationship between the two countries. (COCA) So, I think a good start has been made to repair the relationship that has been damaged in recent months, but I think there is a long way to go to have the kind of strong partnership that is needed that can produce results on the ground. (COCA)

The analysis of the verbs fix, mend and repair showed that there are

only very little differences between the uses of these verbs. They definitely are

not absolute synonyms, because they are not interchangeable in all contexts.

But when comparing the individual uses with collocations, it can be said that

these verbs are cognitively synonymous – the sense of e.g. mend the bridge

and repair the bridge remain unchanged. Of course, there are some exceptions,

as was shown in the summary above.

106

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111

Résumé

The aim of the present thesis is to research and compare meanings of

three verbs – fix, mend and repair. These are usually considered as synonyms.

The thesis is divided into two parts, theoretical and practical. The first part

offers a theoretical background for the actual research in the second part.

Meaning, sense relations focused on synonymy, verbs and collocations are

described here, as well as the two corpora used in the practical part for the

research of usage of the verbs – the British National Corpus and Corpus of

Contemporary American English. The second part presents the research of the

meaning and usage of the three verbs. It compares the definitions of these

verbs in monolingual dictionaries and dictionaries of synonyms and

thesauruses. It also deals with etymology of these verbs. The usage of the

three verbs is researched in the British National Corpus and the Corpus of

Contemporary American English. With the help of the corpora, the British and

American English are compared. In order to find any differences between the

verbs, the collocating words were divided into ten semantic groups: Category of

means of transport, Category of parts of bodies, Category of problems, defects

and malfunctions, Category of parts of clothing and fabrics, Category of linear

objects, Category of parts of buildings and construction, Category of machines,

Category of concrete objects, Category of abstract objects and Category of

locations. Within each category the collocations were compared and analysed to

what degree the verbs are synonymous and whether they can be used in any

context, or their use is restricted to only some contexts.

Keywords: synonymy, collocation, verb, corpus

112

Resumé

Cílem této diplomové práce je porovnání významů třech anglických

sloves – fix, mend a repair. Tato slovesa jsou obvykle považována za

synonyma. Práce je rozdělena do dvou částí, teoretické a praktické. První část

tvoří teoretický základ pro vlastní výzkum v části druhé. V této části je popsán

význam, synonymie a ostatní sémantické vztahy, slovesa, kolokace, stejně jako

korpusy, které sloužily jako základ pro výzkum vybraných sloves – Britský

národní korpus (British National Corpus) a Korpus současné americké angličtiny

(Corpus of Contemporary American English). Druhá část zkoumá významy a

použití vybraných sloves. Srovnává definice v monolingválních slovnících i ve

slovnících synonym. Srovnává také významy sloves v etymologických slovnících.

Použití slov bylo zkoumáno a porovnáváno za pomoci korpusů British National

Corpus a Corpus of Contemporary American English. Kolokující slova byla

rozdělena do deseti sémantických kategorií podle rozdílností v užití těchto tří

sloves: Kategorie dopravních prostředků, Kategorie částí těla, Kategorie závad a

chyb, Kategorie částí oděvů a látek, Kategorie lineárních předmětů, Kategorie

částí budov a staveb, Kategorie strojů a přístrojů, Kategorie konkrétních

předmětů, Kategorie abstraktních objektů a Kategorie lokací. Slova kolokující

s vybranými slovesy byla porovnána, aby bylo možné zjistit, do jaké míry jsou

slovesa synonymní a zda mohou být použity v každém kontextu.

Klíčová slova: synonyma, kolokace, sloveso, korpus