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A Corpus Based Analysis of Adjectives Adorable, Charming, and Cute on COCA

Article in Jurnal Pustaka Budaya · May 2022

DOI: 10.24843/PJIIB.2022.v22.i01.p09

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A Corpus Based
PUSTAKA Vol. Analysis
XXII, Noof
. 1Adjectives
• 55 – 58 Adorable.......... Ni Putu Desi Ramayanti, Ni Wayan Sukarini, Putu
P-ISSN : 2528-7508
Weddha Savitri
E-ISSN : 2528-7516

A Corpus Based Analysis of Adjectives Adorable, Charming,

and Cute in Corpus Contemporary American English (COCA)

Ni Putu Desi Ramayanti, Ni Wayan Sukarini, Putu Weddha Savitri

English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Udayana University, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia

desi.ramayanti06@gmail.com, wayan_sukarini@unud.ac.id, weddha_savitri@unud.ac.id

Abstract
In order to avoid misunderstanding in the process of communication, knowing well the meaning of a word is important.
Especially, when the two or three words share similar meaning and often used interchangeably in the sentences such as
the adjectives word; adorable, charming, and cute. Therefore, this study aimed to find and to analyse the collocative
meaning of the three adjectives. In this study, the data were collected from Corpus of Contemporary American English
(COCA) by applying the documentation method with the note-taking technique. This study used a corpus-based analysis,
with the help of the theory of collocative meaning and supported theory of lexical collocation were applied. The result
showed that the collocative meaning of the three adjectives share similar meanings which collocated with the word
attractive. Moreover, the three adjectives were most likely to co-occur with nouns such as; baby, guy, boys, and etc. The
three adjectives were also commonly paired up with adverbs such as; quite, so, always and etc.

Keywords: collocation, collocative meaning, corpus, COCA

Abstrak
Untuk menghindari kesalahpahaman dalam proses komunikasi, penting untuk mengetahui arti kata dengan baik terutama
ketika dua atau tiga kata memiliki arti yang sama dan sering digunakan secara bergantian dalam kalimat seperti kata sifat;
adorable, charming, dan cute. Oleh karena itu, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menemukan dan menganalisis makna
kolokatif dari ketiga kata sifat tersebut. Dalam penelitian ini, data dikumpulkan dari Corpus of Contemporary American
English (COCA) dengan menggunakan metode dokumentasi dengan teknik mencatat. Penelitian ini menggunakan analisis
berbasis korpus, dengan bantuan teori makna kolokatif, dan didukung teori kolokasi leksikal. Hasil penelitian
menunjukkan bahwa makna kolokatif dari ketiga adjektiva tersebut memiliki kesamaan makna yang dikolokasikan
dengan kata attractive. Selain itu, ketiga kata sifat tersebut sering muncul bersamaan dengan kata benda seperti; baby,
guy, boys dan lainnya. Ketiga kata sifat itu juga biasanya dipasangkan dengan kata keterangan seperti; quite, so, always
dan lain-lain.

Kata Kunci: kolokasi, makna kolokatif, korpus, COCA

Introduction (1984: 155), collocation is concerned with how

words go together. However, a pair of words may
Word is a unit of language which consists of
not be completely incorrect, and people will
one or more spoken sounds that function as a
understand what they mean, but they may not be
principal carrier of meaning. In order to avoid
natural, because sometimes some words are only
misunderstanding in the process of communication,
suitable for specific situations.
knowing well the meaning of a word is important.
Corpus linguistics was used because it is
The study that is concerned with word meanings is
capable of helping people to make it easier to learn
called semantic. Semantics is oriented to
and understand the collocation. In corpus
examining the meaning of signs and the study of
linguistics, the concordance line is the list of each
relations between different linguistic units and
occurrence word in a text of corpus which is
compounds, such as synonyms. Synonyms are two
presented with the words surrounding it. Reading
or more forms, with very closely related meanings,
concordances may give a vision of words meaning
which are often, but not always intersubstitutable in
in their context of occurrence in the text, allows the
sentences (Yule, 1985). In this case, collocation
reader to see the meaning of its word in the text,
occurs when the use of synonyms may not be
and guides to see how each meaning is created in
absolutely interchangeable. According to Larson

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PUSTAKA Vol. XXII, No. 1 • Pebruari 2022

the particular case. In doing so, it is vital to step finding out collocate words in concordance
comprehend its type of word class that follows after lines by looking at the (adjective + noun) and (adv
or before the word in question, so that the word that + adjective) types based on the supporting theory
comes in the term of collocation can be determined. about lexical collocation purposed by Benson et.al
Therefore, a specific topic is chosen in this (1986). The second step is to examine the meaning
study, a corpus-based study between English of each collocated words found by applying the
adjective word adorable and its synonyms; theory of collocative meaning by Leech (1974).
charming and cute. This study is chosen to be This study used an informal method in
conducted in order to help the readers avoid the presenting the data. the informal method was used
misunderstanding about the meaning of a word, to present the analysis of the distribution and the
especially the collocative meaning of adjectives collocative meaning descriptively.
adorable, charming, and cute.
Result And Discussion
Method
This section showed the analysis of the
This research is a corpus-based study in collocative meaning of the English adjective
which the data was collected from COCA in the adorable, charming, and cute that is found in
form of sentences that using the English adjectives COCA. The analysis focuses on the (adjective +
adorable, charming, and cute. The data was taken noun) and (adverb + adjective) collocation of the
from The Corpus of Contemporary American three adjectives.
English on (https://www.english-
corpora.org/coca/). The Corpus COCA was created [1] We’ve got 3 boys! Congrats on your adorable
in 2008 by Mark Davies, Professor of Corpus baby Henry! [COCA,
Linguistics at Brigham Young University. This BLOG:…lthytippingpoint.com]
data source was chosen because Corpus COCA is
The application of collocative meaning was found
one of the largest currently available corpora and is
in the data above. The phrase adorable baby occurs
the only publicly available corpus of American
in the environment because of the usual co-
English. In corpus, there are more than one billion
occurrence with certain types, adjective + noun.
words of text (20 million words each year from
Thus, it has the meaning when the adjective
1990 until 2019) from eight genres, including
adorable going together with the noun baby. This
spoken, fiction, popular magazines, newspapers,
kind of meaning is used to describe words that
academic texts, and in March 2020, the COCA
regularly appear together in common use. Hence,
update and add TV and Movies subtitles, blogs, and
the collocated words mean “an expression to
other web pages to their genres.
describe a new born who is lovely and worthy of
The data was collected through the
being adored.”
documentation method by accessing COCA on
(https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/). The
[2] You’re always adorable Andy. [COCA, FIC:
technique used in collecting data is the note-taking
Analog]
technique, where the data obtained were noted,
highlighted and printed, before then being sorted up The phrase always adorable occurs in the
into a table. Key Word in Context (KWIC) featured environment because of the usual co-occurrence
was used in this study to find the distribution of the with certain types, adverb + adjective. Thus, it has
English adjectives adorable, charming, and cute. the meaning when the adverb always going
Further, find out the collocated words in each together with the adjective adorable. This kind of
concordance lines. Therefore, by applying the meaning is used to describe words that regularly
theory of collocative meaning (Leech, 1974), the appear together in common use. Hence, the
meaning of each collocated words will also be collocated words have the meaning of “someone
presented. who looks attractive all the time”
This study is a corpus-based analysis,
therefore it applied qualitative methods in [3] I met this charming guy yesterday. [COCA,
analyzing data. The qualitative method is used to TV: The Mindy Project]
explain the data descriptively. There are two steps
applied to analyse the data in this study. The first

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A Corpus Based Analysis of Adjectives Adorable.......... Ni Putu Desi Ramayanti, Ni Wayan Sukarini, Putu Weddha Savitri

The collocative meaning appears in the data above. Conclusion

The phrase above is included as collocative
This study illustrated that the collocative
meaning because the adjective charming is
meaning in the three adjectives, the three adjectives
followed by the noun guy and it conveys a meaning.
share similar meanings which collocated with the
The phrase charming guy occurs in the
word attractive. The adjective adorable, charming,
environment according to adjective + noun types.
and cute indicates that these adjectives are
This type of meaning brings the function of
commonly used when people want to describe the
collocative meaning for describing words that
attractiveness of something. The collocative
commonly appear together. Hence, charming guy
meaning of these adjectives is also considered by
means “a male who has a pleasant and attractive
their usages in the sentences.
characteristic.”
The adjective adorable is usually used to
describe someone or something that has
[4] “...she says, you were quite charming and
characteristics or appearances that are attractive
hilarious.” [COCA, FIC: Arkansas Rev]
and likable for others. Meanwhile, the adjective
The collocative meaning appears in the data above. charming seems to have a deeper degree of
The phrase above is included as collocative attractiveness compared with the adjective
meaning because the adverb quite is followed by adorable and is likely used to portray someone or
the adjective charming and it conveys a meaning. something that brings joy and delight towards
The phrase quite charming occurs in the others who sees them. Further, the adjective cute is
environment according to adverb + adjective type. generally used to describe the attractiveness of the
This type of meaning brings the function of lovely and funny traits of a person or thing that
collocative meaning for describing words that makes another person overwhelmed with joy.
commonly appear together. Thus, the collocated Based on the data found, the three adjectives
words mean “someone who has a fairly pleasant adorable, charming, and cute have some nouns that
characteristic.” co-occurs such as: baby, guy, boys, and etc. The
three adjectives were also commonly paired up
[5] There are those cute boys again. [COCA, with adverbs such as; quite, so, always and etc.
MOV: The Dukes of Hazzard] Thus, it indicates the three adjectives share similar
meanings and can be used interchangeably in some
The collocative meaning appears in the data above.
particular context.
The phrase above is included as collocative
meaning because the adjective cute is followed by
the noun boys and it conveys a meaning. The phrase References
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