On meaning of adjectives as a cause and consequence of their collocabilities

This paper explores a theoretical point of view that the collocability is determined by the meaning of a lexeme and also represents its consequence. Our main goal is to show that these two factors may contribute with different intensity, and that context may have greater or lesser effect on the meaning of a lexeme. The analysis proves that the context has a lesser effect on more frequent lexemes and does not have a permanent effect on their meaning, but on the other hand, context has a greater effect on infrequent lexemes and has a greater effect on their semantic content. This even applies in a case of a lexeme used separately. Even analysis of two unrelated languages (Serbian and German) shows that the most frequent associations on infrequent adjectives are the nouns frequently used with them, which means that frequently used collocations produce an effect on them even out of context. Furthermore, there are examples in lexicography that infrequent adjectives are defined by collocations peculiar for infrequent lexemes. On the other hand, the most frequent verbal associations of Serbian and German respondents on very frequent adjectives are not the nouns usually found in their collocations, but their antonyms, thus it is possible to conclude that the context has no any effect. The conclusion is that collocability is determined by the meaning of a lexeme and it also represents its consequence, and at the same time the collocation effect on a lexeme is greater if the lexeme is less frequent.