hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2023-02-19

■ #5046. silence と共起する形容詞 [adjective][collocation][bnc][corpus]

　昨日の記事「#5045. deafening silence 「耳をつんざくような沈黙」」 ([2023-02-18-1]) で取り上げた共起表現について，BNCweb により例文を引き出してみた．いくつか挙げてみよう．

　・ All that remained on the barren expanse was a deafening silence.
　・ But the countryside! Absolute deafening silence. Not a tractor in sight. No buzzing saw mills, no electric milking machines humming away. Just horses and ploughs and, for want of a better word, peasants.
　・ now there is almost a deafening silence, broken only by the odd apologetic cough as the minutes tick towards 8.30.
　・ In the deafening silence inside the gallery she could hear her heart thumping madly against her ribs.
　・ It was a relief when a couple of minutes later, amidst the deafening silence that had descended on the room, Mrs Aitken poked her head round the door. 'Dinner will be served whenever you're ready.'

　この撞着語法 (oxymoron) の共起表現に関心を焚きつけられて，silence という名詞はほかにどのような形容詞で修飾されることが多いのだろうかと問いが湧いてきた．これは共起 (collocation) に関する初歩的な類いの疑問で，コロケーション辞書や活用辞書を引けば済む話しだが，行きがかり上 BNCweb で調べてみることにする．"_AJ* {silence/N}" と検索した上で Frequency breakdown の機能を用い，50位までの頻度ランキングを出してみた．

No.	Lexical items	No. of occurrences
1	long silence	145
2	stunned silence	53
3	complete silence	44
4	total silence	43
5	tense silence	37
6	awkward silence	31
7	brief silence	28
8	short silence	27
9	sudden silence	23
10	absolute silence	22
11	deafening silence	22
12	embarrassed silence	22
13	uncomfortable silence	22
14	shocked silence	16
15	stony silence	15
16	dead silence	14
17	deep silence	13
18	Eerie silence	13
19	heavy silence	13
20	small silence	12
21	thoughtful silence	12
22	uneasy silence	12
23	utter silence	12
24	ensuing silence	11
25	sullen silence	11
26	momentary silence	10
27	fraught silence	9
28	ominous silence	9
29	terrible silence	9
30	brooding silence	8
31	companionable silence	8
32	sponsored silence	8
33	virtual silence	8
34	dignified silence	7
35	horrified silence	7
36	Hushed Silence	7
37	lengthy silence	7
38	long silences	7
39	longer silence	7
40	strained silence	7
41	uncanny silence	7
42	awful silence	6
43	cold silence	6
44	comparative silence	6
45	continuing silence	6
46	embarrassing silence	6
47	gloomy silence	6
48	great silence	6
49	strange silence	6
50	angry silence	5

　deafening silence も10位タイに入っており，それなりに知られた共起表現だということがわかる．stunned silence, stony silence, dead silence など味わい深い表現があるものだ．

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