Study of collocations with physical magnitudes in the Basque language, in the specific case of five types of magnitude

Abstract

The aim of this research is to gather some types of collocations occurring in technical texts and develop a criteria for classifying them. We have focused on nouns of magnitude found in the Basque scientific-technical corpus identifying pairs. However, given the quantity and diversity of the magnitudes, we have selected five specific magnitudes for our analysis. We have studied the verbs occurring with each magnitude, the verbs that appear only with one specific magnitude and the common verbs that appear with all those magnitudes. In this case, we have used the aspectual concept of lexical aspect (Aktionsart) to examine in greater depth the nature of those common verbs. Finally, we have also payed attention to non-lexical collocations, in order to evaluate ways in which the magnitudes select the appropriate postposition with each verb.