Re: Help with collocations, please

Woody Wordpecker wrote:
> On Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:22:05 GMT, "Django Cat"
> <notareal@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> said:
> 
>> This fine morning I'm working on the e-learning project on studies
skills for
>> Doctoral students I've been commissioned to develop. I'm writing about
how a
>> knowledge of collocations is essential to develop academic writing
skills, and
>> I'm putting together a table of examples. (Collocations are words which
>> commonly hang out with each other in phrases which form accepted blocks
of
>> meaning. In this context I'm looking especially at collocations with
adjectives
>> and adverbs).
>>
>> This is what I've got so far:
>>
>> adverb + adjective 
>> abundantly clear
>>
>> adjective + noun
>> colossal explosion
>> substantial reduction
>> pleasant environment
>> admirable gesture
>> sound investment
>> fantastic op****tunity 
>> high quality
>> unmitigated disaster
>> heavy rain 
>> deep sleep
>> strong denial
>>
>> noun + adjective
>> proof positive
>>
>> verb + adverb
>> rain heavily
>> sleep deeply
>> deny strongly
>>
>> adverb + verb 
>> richly deserve
>>
>> Then a moment ago I posted a reply with the words, 'I stand corrected',
which
>> is verb+adjective and reminiscent of the recent and regular 'why is it
"he
>> looks sad" and not "he looks sadly"?' thread, but please lets not go
there. [1]
>>
>> Anyway, I'd be very grateful if I could sample auers', aeurs' and
melees'
>> suggestions for further inclusion in the four lists.  The things I've
got so
>> far are OK, but none of them sound as though they might have come from
a piece
>> of academic writing, and that's the sort of example I'm after.
> 
> acid test
Is that a litmus test?
I was going to add: foregone conclusion

T.