Is “Absorb Knowledge” An Improper Collocation?

Abstract

Collocation is practically very tough to Chinese English learners. The main reason lies in the fact that English and Chinese belong to two distinct language systems. And the deep reason is that learners tend to develop different metaphorical concept in accordance with distinct ways of thinking in Chinese. The paper, taking "absorb knowledge" as an example, intend to explore how to present the potential collocation patterns of "knowledge"in the learner's dictionary for Chinese learners, based on a series of search results of BROWN and LOB as well as CLEC, by comparing the usual combinational patterns of "knowledge"of Chinese learners and English native speakers.