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

2023-02-19

 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 itemsNo. of occurrences
1long silence145
2stunned silence53
3complete silence44
4total silence43
5tense silence37
6awkward silence31
7brief silence28
8short silence27
9sudden silence23
10absolute silence22
11deafening silence22
12embarrassed silence22
13uncomfortable silence22
14shocked silence16
15stony silence15
16dead silence14
17deep silence13
18Eerie silence13
19heavy silence13
20small silence12
21thoughtful silence12
22uneasy silence12
23utter silence12
24ensuing silence11
25sullen silence11
26momentary silence10
27fraught silence9
28ominous silence9
29terrible silence9
30brooding silence8
31companionable silence8
32sponsored silence8
33virtual silence8
34dignified silence7
35horrified silence7
36Hushed Silence7
37lengthy silence7
38long silences7
39longer silence7
40strained silence7
41uncanny silence7
42awful silence6
43cold silence6
44comparative silence6
45continuing silence6
46embarrassing silence6
47gloomy silence6
48great silence6
49strange silence6
50angry silence5


 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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