12:58 PM
@Malavika a collocation is just a combination of words.
For example, "red car" is a common collocation, and "mathematical car" is not.
When you do research on collocations, that simply means that you look at which words commonly combine with a given word, and which do not.
So in your example, you are looking for verbs that collocate with crime.
You can use a corpus search for that. For example, COCA has a tab specifically for finding collocations.
In the first search box, you enter "crime". In the second, you enter "verb.ALL" to cover all possible verb forms. So it finds and counts not just commit, but also commits, committed, committing.
And then you click on the numbers to specify the relative position of the verb that you want the search results to include.
So for example, only selecting the number -1 will match "commit crime" and "reduce crime", but not "commit a crime" or "solve a horrible crime".
Likewise, selecting +4 will match "crime has been swiftly solved" but not "crime was solved".
And then you just click on the "find" button and look at the results.
From these you see that a crime can be committed, solved, reduced, fought, organized, and so on. But not done. You do not do a crime.
@marcellothearcane that's a wonderfully funny thing to say.
A language with no collocations would need to consist of just one word. And you'd only use the word once and then never say anything ever again.
As soon as you said the word twice in a row, it'd already collocate with itself.
"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is just all collocations all the time.
Counting them shall be left as an exercise to the reader.