RUNNING HEAD: Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
Heather Swenddal
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis:
“Try” and “Attempt”
San Francisco State University
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
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Introduction
For this collocation and phraseology assignment, I conducted a corpus analysis of the
words “try” and “attempt.” I think of these words as synonyms, and when students have asked
me if there is any difference between them, the only distinction which comes to mind relates to
register: to me, “attempt” seems much more formal and academic than “try.” I wanted to see if
this assumption would be borne out in a corpus analysis, and I was also curious to see what other
differences I would find between these words by analyzing their collocations and phraseologies.
This information will be helpful for my future teaching, since both of these words are fairly
common in English.
I began by formulating three research questions, which appear below. The first question
was designed to test my initial instinct about the register associations of these words, and to
investigate the distribution of noun and verb forms of “try” and “attempt” in the frequency data.
The second question focuses on right collocates of the verb forms of these words, attempting to
identify what things and actions people “try” and “attempt.” The third question was designed to
reveal frequent phraseologies of both words, allowing me to explore the different patterns of
both the noun and verb forms of “try” and “attempt.” I chose to avoid limiting Questions 2 and 3
by register, opting instead for a broad approach that would yield maximum data. The research
questions I used were as follows:
1. How frequent are the words “try” and “attempt” in the spoken, fiction, magazine and
academic registers of COCA?
a. How frequent are the verb forms of “try” and “attempt” in these registers?
b. How frequent are the noun forms of “try” and “attempt” in these registers?
2. What words appear most frequently after the verbs “try” and “attempt” in all
registers?
a. What nouns frequently occur directly after these verbs: [try/attempt + noun]?
b. What verbs frequently complete the [try/attempt + infinitive] verb
construction?
3. What are the most frequent phraseologies of “try” and “attempt” in all registers?
My initial hypotheses for the first question were that “try” would be more common than
“attempt” in general, that “try” would be more frequent than “attempt” in the spoken register,
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
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and that “attempt” would be more frequent than “try” in the academic register. For the second
question, I hypothesized that “to” would be the most common right collocate for both words, and
that two patterns would emerge: [try/attempt + noun] and [try/attempt + infinitive]. This
expectation informed my formulation of follow-up questions to analyze the kinds of words that
fit these patterns. Question 3 is designed to continue this exploration and identify which patterns
are most common for both verbs and nouns. My only hypothesis for this question was that the
[try/attempt + infinitive] pattern would likely be the most frequent phraseology for both words.
Methods
In this section I will describe the steps I took to carry out this research. These methods
are presented in order, according to the research question that each attempted to answer.
1. How frequent are the words “try” and “attempt” in the spoken, fiction, magazine and
academic registers of COCA?
To address this initial general question, I ran a simple search for each word in COCA,
using the chart feature to display each word’s frequency in the four registers COCA contains. For
this basic question, I did not identify these words as nouns or verbs: I wanted all forms of the
words to be counted. Thus, the first search was for “[try]” and the second was for “[attempt].”
1a. How frequent are the verb forms of “try” and “attempt” in these registers?
For this question my search was similar to that of Question 1, but in this case I specified
that the lemmas for both words must be verbs. In the word box I typed “[try].[v*]” for the first
search and “[attempt].[v*]” for the second search.
1b. How frequent are the noun forms of “try” and “attempt” in these registers?
This question was conducted in the same way as Question 1a, but in this case I searched
for nouns instead of verbs. In the word box I typed “[try].[nn*]” for the first search and
“[attempt].[nn*]” for the second search.
The three searches described above produced charts that respectively address Question 1,
Question 1a and Question 1b. To answer these questions, I analyzed these charts individually and
using the normed frequency data to compare them to each other. To answer Question 1 about the
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
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general frequency of “try” versus “attempt” across registers, I determined the average frequency
for each word by adding the normed frequency counts for each register together and then
dividing this sum by five (representing the five COCA registers). I used this same method to
determine the average frequency of nouns and verbs across registers, and then compared these
figures to the overall frequency averages to determine the general distribution of nouns and verb
forms of “try” and “attempt.” All charts and findings related to frequency appear in the Results
section of this paper, under their respective research question headings.
2. What words appear most frequently after the verbs “try” and “attempt” in all registers?
I began this search by searching for the first right collocate of the verb forms of each
word, using a mutual information score of 3. For “try,” for example, I typed “[try].[v*]” in the
word box, “0” in the left collocate box, and “1” in the right collocate box. I accepted the default
mutual information setting, since I was interested in first identifying strong right collocates. A
screen shot of each search box appears below.
I analyzed the collocate lists that these searches provided and grouped frequent collocates
by part of speech and—when applicable—semantic association. I also compared the frequent
right collocates for “try” with the frequent right collocates of “attempt,” noting similarities and
distinctions. These findings appear in the Results section of this paper, under the Question 2
heading. Right collocates that appeared to be part of longer lexical bundles warranted further
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
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investigation, and this data contributed to my later analysis of phraseologies, the results of which
are presented under Question 3 in the Results section.
2a. What nouns frequently occur directly after these words: [try/attempt + noun]?
I began this investigation by searching in the same way as with Question 2, but now
specifying that the collocate to the right be a noun. I also changed the mutual information score
to zero, in an effort to prevent the system from omitting any important common-word
collocations. The screen shots of these searches appear below.
To be thorough, I felt that this search should also include noun collocates two spaces to
the right, to account for objects with an article or determiner (“try a cookie,” for example).
However, when I selected “2” from the right-collocate drop down menu and searched this way
without changing anything else in the search box, I discovered a problem with this approach.
COCA seems to identify as nouns many words that could be used as nouns or verbs. “Broker,”
“piece,” and “deal” appeared prominently in the results for this search, but the concordance lines
revealed that they were actually verbs in infinitive constructions. “Try to broker a deal,” “try to
piece something together,” and “try to deal with something” were some patterns that emerged.
To address this issue, I searched specifically for “[try/attempt + determiner/article + noun]”
patterns, with “2” in the right-collocate field box. Screen shots for these searches appear below.
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
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I analyzed the data that these searches provided and grouped frequent nouns by semantic
association. I also noted differences between the results for the verbs “try” and “attempt.” These
findings appear in the Results section of this paper, under the Question 2a heading.
2b. What verbs frequently complete the [try/attempt + infinitive] verb construction?
To identify frequent infinitive right collocates of the verbs “try” and “attempt,” I searched
for the combination of each of these words plus the word “to” and a verb. For example, for the
verb “try,” I typed “[try].[v*] to [v*]” in the word box. This search provided information on the
common verbs which complete these constructions, and it also helped identify some common
phraseologies, since various forms of the lemmas [try] and [attempt] appeared in different
phraseologies. Screen shots of each of these search boxes appear below.
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
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I analyzed the verb patterns that this search yielded and grouped them semantically. I
thought it would be helpful to run a vocabulary analysis on the verbs that completed these
constructions, so I used Microsoft Word’s find-and-replace feature to isolate the base forms of
these infinitive constructions and then used www.lextutor.ca to analyze these verb lists. My
findings from these searches appear under Question 2b in the Results section of this paper.
3. What are the most frequent phraseologies of “try” and “attempt” in all registers?
In addition to analyzing the data that I amassed in the collocation investigation, I ran
several phraseology searches to address this question. Since “try” and “attempt” often occur in
three-word patterns with infinitives—the data for which had already been revealed through the
collocation analysis—I wanted to run phraseology searches that would identify larger chunks. To
do so, I searched COCA for four- and five-word lexical bundles that included any form of “try”
or “attempt,” typing the following combinations into COCA’s word search box:
[try] * * *
* [try] * *
* * [try] *
* * * [try]
[try] * * * *
* [try] * * *
* * [try] * *
* * * [try] *
* * * * [try]
[attempt] * * *
* [attempt] * *
* * [attempt] *
* * * [attempt]
[attempt] * * * *
* [attempt] * * *
* * [attempt] * *
* * * [attempt] *
* * * * [attempt]
As expected given their general frequency distinctions, this revealed more data for “try”
than “attempt.” To obtain a workable amount of data, I chose to limit my focus to four-word
lexical bundles in which “try” or “attempt” is the second word. I reported the top 30 lexical
bundles for each word, and then analyzed this data to identify common phraseologies present in
each of these lists. The results of this research appear in the Results section of this paper, under
the heading for Question 3.
Results
In this section I will present my findings from the research I described in the Methods
section above. Each of these findings is presented under its respective research question. Please
note that in my presentation of normed frequency data, I have rounded figures up to the nearest
whole number.
1. How frequent are the words “try” and “attempt” in the spoken, fiction, magazine and
academic registers of COCA?
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
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My initial general search of the “try” and “attempt” lemmas in COCA generated the
charts presented below as Figures 1 and 2. These data confirm my original hypotheses. First,
“try,” occurring at an average of 737 times per million words, is much more common throughout
registers than “attempt,” which occurs roughly 135 times per million words. “Try” is also, as
hypothesized, much more common than “attempt” in the spoken register of COCA: “try” occurs
in this register 1,091 times per million words, while “attempt” occurs only 76 times per million.
Most surprising, perhaps, given the frequency disparity between “try” and “attempt” across
registers, is that my hypothesis regarding the frequency of these words in the academic register
was correct. I thought that “attempt” would be more common in this register than “try,” and it is
indeed slightly more common, with “try” occurring 260 times per million words and “attempt”
occurring 281 times per million words. COCA’s academic register is the only genre in which
“attempt” occurs more frequently than “try”; in all other registers, “try” occurs far more often
than “attempt.”
It is also interesting to note that both of these words show a strong association between
certain registers. Spoken language and fiction seem particularly linked: “try” occurs in the
spoken corpus 1,091 times per million words, and in the fiction corpus it occurs 1,008 times per
million words. A similar pattern can be found in the “attempt” search results: this word occurs 76
times per million in the spoken corpus and 77 times per million in the fiction corpus. Magazine
and newspaper registers also seem linked: “try” occurs 660 times per million words in magazines
and 666 times per million in newspapers. Similarly, “attempt” occurs 116 times per million
words in the magazine corpus and 125 times per million in the newspaper corpus. This could be
coincidental, but the fact that these patterns exist in both the “try” and “attempt” data may
indicate that some genres or sub-genres show a strong preference for one of these words. Perhaps
fiction writers use “try” when writing dialogue that mirrors actual speech, disfavoring “attempt”
because it sounds unnatural in spoken English. It is also possible that some magazines and
newspapers in these corpora are more academically inclined, favoring “attempt,” while others,
which may be reporting speech or employing more colloquial language, favor “try.”
Regardless of the reasons for these patterns, however, it is clear that “try” is strongly
associated with spoken English, and “attempt” is strongly associated with academic English.
This finding will be addressed in further portions of this analysis.
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
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FIGURE 1: Frequency of “try” across registers in COCA
FIGURE 2: Frequency of “attempt” across registers in COCA
1a. How frequent are the verb forms of “try” and “attempt” in these registers?
1b. How frequent are the noun forms of “try” and “attempt” in these registers?
These searches produced four charts, which I have grouped by word in Figures 3, 4, 5
and 6. Figure 3 shows the verb forms of “try” across registers and Figure 4 shows the noun forms
of “try” across registers. Figures 5 and 6 display, respectively, the verb and noun forms of
“attempt” in all registers.
A fascinating distinction between “try” and “attempt” is evident in these data. “Try” is
used almost exclusively as a verb, with very few cases of “try” as a noun occurring across
registers: of the 737 times “try” appears in general per million words, 727 of these instances are
verbs (Figure 3) and only 10 are nouns (Figure 4). “Attempt,” however, occurs with higher
frequency as a noun than as a verb: as a verb it occurs 57 times per million words (Figure 5), and
as a noun it occurs 78 times per million words (Figure 6). Although Dictionary.com cites both
noun and verb possibilities for both words, this corpus data seems to suggest that “try” is very
rarely used as a noun, while “attempt” is commonly used in both form capacities.
Since Question 1’s analysis revealed a strong link between “try” and spoken language
and “attempt” and academic language, I will turn to these registers to further investigate the form
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
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distinctions between these words. In the spoken register, where “try” in general is most
prominent, “try” occurs as a verb 1,078 times per million words (Figure 3) but only 13 times per
million words as a noun (Figure 4). An analysis of “attempt” in its most frequent register—the
academic writing genre—reveals a much more even distribution: it occurs here 124 times per
million words as a verb (Figure 5) and 157 times per million as a noun (Figure 6). These form
distinctions are important discoveries that could be very valuable for students. Fixed expressions
using the noun form of “try” like “give it a try” (a frequent result in the concordance lines) may
occur frequently in the language classroom, but this form is actually quite rare, particularly in
academic language: “try” as a noun occurred only 2.8 times per million words in this register
(Figure 4). If students assume that “try” and “attempt” are perfect synonyms that can be used the
same way, they might use the noun form of “try” instead of the noun form of “attempt” in an
academic essay: a choice that this data reveals would be quite marked. Clearly, “try” and
“attempt” are not interchangeable.
FIGURE 3: Frequency of the verb “try” across registers in COCA
FIGURE 4: Frequency of the noun “try” across registers in COCA
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
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FIGURE 5: Frequency of the verb “attempt” across registers in COCA
FIGURE 6: Frequency of the noun “attempt” across registers in COCA
These findings related to the frequency of “try” and “attempt” in general and their noun
and verb form distinctions offer several instructional lessons for English-language teachers. ESL
and EFL teachers would be well advised to teach “try” as a verb and possibly avoid using the
expression “give it a try” with lower-level classes to avoid confusion, as the noun form of this
word is rare and colloquial. Teachers should also take care to teach both the noun and verb forms
of “attempt,” since student will likely encounter both of these forms, particularly in academic
discourse. Finally, teachers should avoid relating these words as pure synonyms: while their
meaning may be similar, these words cannot be used interchangeably. At a minimum, students
should know that “attempt” is preferred in academic writing and “try” is preferred in speech.
2. What words appear most frequently after the verbs “try” and “attempt” in all registers?
This initial right-collocate search was limited to the first space on the right side of the
verb forms of “try” and “attempt,” using a mutual-information score of 3. Figure 7 below shows
the right-collocate results for the verb form of “try”; all collocates that occur 10 times or more in
COCA are included. Figure 8 shows the same data for the verb form of “attempt”; since this
yielded so few results, I have shown the top 10 most frequent collocations in this chart, but I
have shaded those that occur fewer than 10 times in COCA. As these charts reveal, “try” has
several frequent right collocates, while “attempt” almost exclusively collocates with “to.”
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
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FIGURE 7: Frequent immediate-right collocates of verb “try” (MI score: 3+)
RIGHT
COLLOCATE
TOTAL
OCCURRENCES
OF COLLOCATION
ALL OCCURRENCES OF
RIGHT COLLOCATE
WORD
% OF COLLOCATION
IN ALL
OCCURRENCES
MUTUAL
INFO
SCORE
231346
10691573
2.16
4.89
1
TO
2
AGAIN
2066
216414
0.95
3.71
3
HARD
1152
123894
0.93
3.67
4
DESPERATELY
399
5982
6.67
6.52
5
HARDER
396
16032
2.47
5.08
6
UNSUCCESSFULLY
329
1210
27.19
8.54
7
REPEATEDLY
77
9532
0.81
3.47
8
EXPLAINING
54
7819
0.69
3.24
9
MARIJUANA
50
5772
0.87
3.57
10 MIGHTILY
40
630
6.35
6.45
11 VAINLY
34
240
14.17
7.60
12 FRANTICALLY
34
2051
1.66
4.51
13 VALIANTLY
29
227
12.78
7.45
14 SWITCHING
27
2877
0.94
3.69
15 SEPARATELY
26
4453
0.58
3.00
16 L'OREAL
20
221
9.05
6.96
17 IMAGINING
19
2710
0.70
3.27
18 NEUTROGENA
17
222
7.66
6.72
19 CONTACTING
17
969
1.75
4.59
20 L'ORAL
16
128
12.50
7.42
21 OLAY
16
158
10.13
7.12
22 AVEDA
15
210
7.14
6.61
23 PANTENE
14
112
12.50
7.42
24 KHALID
14
994
1.41
4.27
25 CLARINS
13
114
11.40
7.29
26 ACUPUNCTURE
13
733
1.77
4.61
27 CLAIROL
12
139
8.63
6.89
28 CLINIQUE
12
226
5.31
6.19
29 SNOWBOARDING
12
607
1.98
4.76
30 REDKEN
11
82
13.41
7.52
31 MAYBELLINE
11
143
7.69
6.72
32 LANCOME
11
179
6.15
6.40
33 HYPNOSIS
11
863
1.27
4.13
34 GAMELY
10
276
3.62
5.64
35 REVLON
10
380
2.63
5.17
36 CPR
10
949
1.05
3.85
37 CHANEL
10
1400
0.71
3.29
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
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FIGURE 8: Frequent immediate-right collocates of verb “attempt” (MI score: 3+)
RIGHT
COLLOCATE
1
TO
2
TOTAL
OCCURRENCES
OF COLLOCATION
ALL OCCURRENCES OF
% OF COLLOCATION
MUTUAL
RIGHT COLLOCATE WORD IN ALL OCCURRENCES INFO SCORE
19250
10691573
0.18
5.01
SUICIDE
255
15080
1.69
8.24
3
UNSUCCESSFULLY
17
1210
1.40
7.97
4
ESCAPE
11
16298
0.07
3.59
5
PREGNANCY
4
8036
0.05
3.15
6
CPR
3
949
0.32
5.82
7
RISKY
3
5308
0.06
3.34
8
29,028-FOOT
2
6
33.33
12.54
9
50-PERCENT
2
80
2.50
8.80
10
LEGISLATIVELY
2
157
1.27
7.83
It is interesting to note the variety of words in the immediate-right collocate slot for the
verb “try.” In addition to “try to,” the strongest collocation, prominent right collocates include
adverbs that describe the way in which someone tries something (“hard,” “desperately”), nouns
that describe a product someone tries (“marijuana,” “Neutrogena”), and gerunds that describe an
action to be tried (“contacting,” “snowboarding”). “Attempt” has much fewer strong collocates,
but it also collocates strongly with “to”: its mutual information score for this collocate is slightly
higher, at 5.01, than the MI score for the collocation of “try” and “to,” which is 4.89. Still, we
see some range for “attempt” right collocates in these results: in addition to “to,” “attempt”
collocates with nouns that describe things that people attempt (“suicide,” “escape,”) and adverbs
that describe the way someone attempts something (“unsuccessfully”).
2a. What nouns frequently occur directly after these words: [try/attempt + noun]?
As Figures 8 indicates, “suicide” and “escape” are the only frequent noun collocates that
occur to the immediate right of the verb “attempt,” while the verb “try” collocates with many
nouns in this position. Figure 9 below illustrates the nouns that occur to the immediate right of
“try.”
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
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FIGURE 9: Frequent immediate-right noun collocates of verb “try”
RIGHT
COLLOCATE
TOTAL
OCCURRENCES
OF COLLOCATION
ALL OCCURRENCES OF % OF COLLOCATION
RIGHT COLLOCATE
IN ALL
WORD
OCCURRENCES
MUTUAL
INFO
SCORE
1
THINGS
133
231275
0.06
-0.34
2
CASES
105
61359
0.17
1.23
3
TO
52
10691573
0.00
-7.23
4
MARIJUANA
50
5772
0.87
3.57
5
DRUGS
33
36475
0.09
0.31
6
TIMES
24
148252
0.02
-2.17
7
CIRCUMSTANCES
23
18776
0.12
0.75
8
PEOPLE
23
717698
0.00
-4.51
9
HEROIN
21
4292
0.49
2.75
10 PAINTING
20
27916
0.07
-0.02
11 FISHING
18
19351
0.09
0.35
12 SUICIDE
17
15080
0.11
0.63
13 THINKING
17
68586
0.02
-1.56
14 STUFF
16
44522
0.04
-1.02
15 YOGA
15
2997
0.50
2.78
16 TERRORISTS
15
10380
0.14
0.99
17 DIPLOMACY
14
4269
0.33
2.17
18 ACUPUNCTURE
13
733
1.77
4.61
19 DR
13
86322
0.02
-2.27
20 WAR
13
165475
0.01
-3.21
21 COCAINE
12
6488
0.18
1.34
22 THERAPY
12
15286
0.08
0.11
23 MEN
12
163663
0.01
-3.31
24 DAY
12
316961
0.00
-4.27
25 IT
12
4063632
0.00
-7.95
26 HYPNOSIS
11
863
1.27
4.13
27 POT
11
12352
0.09
0.29
28 ALCOHOL
11
16934
0.06
-0.17
29 HOMOSEXUALITY
10
3115
0.32
2.14
30 VARIATIONS
10
5770
0.17
1.25
31 ORIGINS
10
5812
0.17
1.24
32 CIVILIANS
10
7037
0.14
0.96
33 DIET
10
15703
0.06
-0.19
34 WALKING
10
34059
0.03
-1.31
35 PRODUCTS
10
40516
0.02
-1.56
36 COVER
10
46197
0.02
-1.75
37 WRITING
10
48290
0.02
-1.82
38 COLLEGE
10
89435
0.01
-2.70
Before discussing the common noun collocates occurring to the right of the verb “try,” I
must address some of the unusual results in this list. The first is the high frequency of “to.” Since
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
14
“to” is not a noun, I investigated this collocation at the concordance line level. This search
revealed that COCA is recognizing “to” as a noun erroneously in cases where the base verb is
omitted in a [try + infinitive] construction—typically in spoken responses like “I’m trying to.”
Since it appears to be filling an object slot, COCA has identified it as a noun. Since this is
incorrect, the presence of “to” on this list can be ignored for our purposes.
Two other important anomalies are the presence of “times” and “cases” on this list. These
indicate two unusual versions of “try.” “Trying times” occurs in the concordance lines of the [try
+ times] collocation: “We live in trying times” is an example of this construction. In this case,
“trying” is an adjective that means “tiring” or “frustrating.” Because this form is unusual, COCA
has identified “trying” here as a verb, and thus displayed this collocation. The collocation [try +
circumstances] and some instances of [try + people] also reflect this meaning of “try.”
With “cases,” no COCA error has occurred; instead, this frequency data reveals an
important—and not uncommon—use of “try” in legal vocabulary. To “try” a case is not to
“attempt” it, but rather to represent a party involved in a courtroom trial. Further investigation
revealed other instances of this version of “try” in frequent collocations: [try + civilians], [try +
terrorists], and to a lesser extent [try + people] all involve this meaning of “try.”
With these exceptions noted, I will return to an analysis of the types of nouns that
collocate with the verb “try” as it is typically used. As was revealed in the general right-collocate
search, products people try (“drugs”) and activities they try (“fishing”) are common results.
Below are some of the frequent noun collocates for the verb “try” grouped by meaning.
Objects/Products
Activities
Actions
Experiences
Things
Marijuana
Drugs
Heroin
Stuff
Cocaine
Pot
Alcohol
Origins (cosmetic)
Products
Painting
Fishing
Thinking
Walking
Writing
Suicide
(Waging) War
Things
Stuff
Yoga
Acupuncture
Therapy
Homosexuality
Diet
Concepts
College
To identify other frequent noun collocates of the verbs “try” and “attempt,” I searched for
constructions that fit the [try/attempt + determiner/article + N] pattern. As with the previous
search, this revealed many more noun collocates for the verb “try” than the verb “attempt.”
Figure 10 shows the common noun collocates for the verb “try” and an article or determiner.
(Constructions which occur 10 times or more are included.)
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
15
FIGURE 10: Frequent noun collocates of verb “try” + article/determiner
RIGHT
COLLOCATE
TOTAL
OCCURRENCES
OF COLLOCATION
ALL OCCURRENCES OF
RIGHT COLLOCATE
WORD
% OF COLLOCATION
IN ALL
OCCURRENCES
MUTUAL
INFO
SCORE
1
CASE
255
157390
0.16
4.83
2
DOOR
140
108417
0.13
4.50
3
TIMES
100
148252
0.07
3.56
4
EXPERIMENT
68
12735
0.53
6.55
5
LOT
58
213747
0.03
2.25
6
WAY
55
432821
0.01
1.15
7
NUMBER
51
151293
0.03
2.56
8
COUPLE
49
68477
0.07
3.65
9
APPROACH
46
53839
0.09
3.90
10 TECHNIQUE
45
13383
0.34
5.88
11 TRICK
39
7815
0.50
6.45
12 VARIETY
38
30249
0.13
4.46
13 TACK
37
1521
2.43
8.73
14 EXERCISE
35
30343
0.12
4.34
15 THINGS
35
231275
0.02
1.41
16 SMILE
34
31406
0.11
4.24
17 DAY
32
316961
0.01
0.82
18 KINDS
31
26101
0.12
4.38
19 RECIPE
30
8637
0.35
5.93
20 CASES
29
61359
0.05
3.05
21 DRUG
28
54493
0.05
3.17
22 KIND
28
169232
0.02
1.53
23 KNOB
27
1694
1.59
8.12
24 TWIST
27
6139
0.44
6.27
25 TIPS
27
11305
0.24
5.39
26 RECIPES
25
6311
0.40
6.12
27 DIET
25
15703
0.16
4.80
28 SORTS
23
8586
0.27
5.55
29 DOORKNOB
22
672
3.27
9.16
30 PATIENCE
22
6840
0.32
5.82
31 HANDLE
22
23356
0.09
4.04
32 LINE
22
107168
0.02
1.85
33 PROGRAM
22
133115
0.02
1.53
34 METHOD
21
22493
0.09
4.03
35 YEAR
21
324377
0.01
0.18
36 BACK
21
517658
0.00
-0.49
37 TEST
18
62435
0.03
2.34
38 TACTIC
17
2654
0.64
6.81
39 KEY
17
57988
0.03
2.36
40 PIECE
16
43418
0.04
2.69
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
41 SPORT
15
42 FOOD
43 THING
16
25356
0.06
3.37
15
98205
0.02
1.42
15
191681
0.01
0.45
44 JOKE
14
11322
0.12
4.44
45 STRATEGY
14
30956
0.05
2.99
46 PRODUCT
14
33230
0.04
2.88
47 STUFF
14
44522
0.03
2.46
48 SHOT
14
53577
0.03
2.19
49 MOVE
14
86591
0.02
1.50
50 SYSTEM
14
157215
0.01
0.64
51 WATER
14
166096
0.01
0.56
52 PEOPLE
14
717698
0.00
-1.55
53 TECHNIQUES
13
17814
0.07
3.68
54 DRILL
12
5332
0.23
5.30
55 BITE
12
8380
0.14
4.65
56 BUNCH
12
12443
0.10
4.08
57 RADIO
12
43748
0.03
2.26
58 VARIATION
11
6206
0.18
4.96
59 CHICKEN
11
23106
0.05
3.06
60 VERSION
11
28624
0.04
2.75
61 TYPE
11
45827
0.02
2.07
62 TREATMENT
11
49010
0.02
1.97
63 WORD
11
71277
0.02
1.43
64 GUY
11
73924
0.01
1.38
65 IDEA
11
92024
0.01
1.07
66 GAME
11
102821
0.01
0.91
67 MAN
11
281746
0.00
-0.55
68 TIME
11
668606
0.00
-1.80
69 EXERCISES
10
6800
0.15
4.69
70 COMBINATION
10
17564
0.06
3.32
71 WAYS
10
70180
0.01
1.32
72 FORM
10
74044
0.01
1.24
73 FIELD
10
75898
0.01
1.21
74 WEEK
10
140136
0.01
0.32
Many of the semantic categories revealed in Figure 10 are similar to those in Figure 9,
but this search also reveals two other major categories: multi-word determiners like “a sort of”
and achievement-oriented problem-solving words like “technique.” Frequent examples of these
words are listed below.
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
17
Multi-word determiners
Problem-solving words
TRY…
TRY ____ …
A lot of
Experiment
A way of
Approach
A number of
Technique
A couple of
Trick
A variety of
Tack
All kinds of
Twist
A kind of
Tips
All sorts of
Method
A version of
Tactic
Strategy
This search revealed a few more noun collocates for the verb form of “attempt” than the
simple right-collocate search. However, this list is miniscule compared to the same construction
with the verb “try.” This reflects the earlier finding that “attempt” collocates primarily with
infinitives. Figure 11 shows the five frequent right noun collocates of “attempt” and an article or
determiner. (Constructions which occur 10 times are more are included.)
FIGURE 10: Frequent noun collocates of verb “attempt” + article/determiner
RIGHT
COLLOCATE
TOTAL OCCURRENCES
OF COLLOCATION
ALL OCCURRENCES OF
RIGHT COLLOCATE WORD
% OF COLLOCATION
IN ALL OCCURRENCES
MUTUAL
INFO SCORE
1
COMEBACK
29
3158
0.92
10.71
2
SMILE
26
31406
0.08
7.24
3
COUP
14
5789
0.24
8.79
4
RESCUE
10
11303
0.09
7.34
5
ESCAPE
10
16298
0.06
6.81
2b. What verbs frequently complete the [try/attempt + infinitive] verb construction?
Since “to” appeared as the most frequent right collocate of both “try” and “attempt,” I
was curious to analyze the frequent infinitives occurring at the immediate right of both words.
Figure 11 shows these data for the verb “try,” and Figure 12 shows the results for the verb
“attempt.” Due to the large number of collocates for each of these verbs, I have only shown the
top 50 results in each of these charts.
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
18
FIGURE 11: Frequent infinitives in [try + infinitive] construction
CONSTRUCTION
TOTAL
OCCURRENCES
OF COLLOCATION
ALL OCCURRENCES OF
RIGHT COLLOCATE
WORD
% OF
COLLOCATION
IN ALL
OCCURRENCES
MUTUAL
INFO
SCORE
1
TRYING TO GET
9747
530166
1.84
4.11
2
TRYING TO DO
5011
1383075
0.36
1.77
3
TRYING TO MAKE
4859
373962
1.30
3.61
4
TRY TO GET
4098
530166
0.77
2.86
5
TRYING TO FIND
3409
182052
1.87
4.14
6
TRYING TO FIGURE
2703
74569
3.62
5.09
7
TRYING TO BE
2645
1942849
0.14
0.35
8
TRY TO MAKE
2637
373962
0.71
2.73
9
TRIED TO GET
2345
530166
0.44
2.05
10
TRYING TO KEEP
2221
140937
1.58
3.89
11
TRY TO DO
2188
1383075
0.16
0.57
12
TRY TO FIND
1681
182052
0.92
3.12
13
TRIED TO MAKE
1631
373962
0.44
2.03
14
TRY TO KEEP
1554
140937
1.10
3.37
15
TRY TO BE
1471
1942849
0.08
-0.49
16
TRYING TO HELP
1442
187810
0.77
2.85
17
TRIED TO DO
1393
1383075
0.10
-0.08
18
TRYING TO SAY
1341
390873
0.34
1.69
19
TRYING TO PUT
1057
196900
0.54
2.33
20
TRYING TO TELL
1039
174201
0.60
2.48
21
TRYING TO TAKE
1009
304850
0.33
1.64
22
TRIED TO KEEP
953
140937
0.68
2.67
23
TRY TO HELP
859
187810
0.46
2.10
24
TRIED TO BE
852
1942849
0.04
-1.28
TRYING TO
UNDERSTAND
26 TRYING TO SAVE
823
87735
0.94
3.14
804
34832
2.31
4.44
27
TRYING TO SELL
780
33232
2.35
4.46
28
TRY TO TAKE
778
304850
0.26
1.26
29
TRIED TO EXPLAIN
731
33295
2.20
4.36
30
TRYING TO KILL
708
34812
2.03
4.25
TRYING TO
CONVINCE
32 TRYING TO SEE
701
8516
8.23
6.27
696
440888
0.16
0.57
33
TRYING TO BRING
676
76822
0.88
3.05
34
TRYING TO REACH
674
39566
1.70
4.00
35
TRIED TO KILL
663
34812
1.90
4.16
36
TRIED TO FIND
659
182052
0.36
1.76
37
TRY TO PUT
653
196900
0.33
1.64
38
TRYING TO WORK
651
329398
0.20
0.89
39
TRYING TO DECIDE
650
24608
2.64
4.63
40
TRY TO FIGURE
641
74569
0.86
3.01
25
31
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
41
TRYING TO CHANGE
631
42
TRYING TO EXPLAIN
43
TRIED TO TAKE
44
19
126011
0.50
2.23
628
33295
1.89
4.15
622
304850
0.20
0.94
TRYING TO BUILD
620
39073
1.59
3.90
45
TRYING TO THINK
616
582955
0.11
-0.01
46
TRYING TO CREATE
607
49311
1.23
3.53
47
TRYING TO AVOID
605
31912
1.90
4.15
48
TRYING TO
PROTECT
TRYING TO CATCH
604
33125
1.82
4.10
49
589
27514
2.14
4.33
50
TRYING TO STOP
569
78104
0.73
2.77
FIGURE 12: Frequent infinitives in [attempt + infinitive] construction
1
ATTEMPTING TO DO
160
ALL
OCCURRENCES OF
RIGHT COLLOCATE
WORD
1383075
0.01
0.40
2
ATTEMPTING TO MAKE
137
373962
0.04
2.06
3
ATTEMPTED TO DO
129
1383075
0.01
0.09
4
ATTEMPTED TO MAKE
117
373962
0.03
1.83
5
ATTEMPT TO MAKE
112
373962
0.03
1.77
6
ATTEMPT TO DO
104
1383075
0.01
-0.22
7
ATTEMPTING TO GET
102
530166
0.02
1.13
8
ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN
89
33295
0.27
4.93
9
CONSTRUCTION
TOTAL
OCCURRENCES
OF COLLOCATION
% OF COLLOCATION
IN ALL
OCCURRENCES
MUTUAL
INFO
SCORE
ATTEMPTED TO GET
78
530166
0.01
0.74
10 ATTEMPTING TO CREATE
73
49311
0.15
4.08
11 ATTEMPTED TO USE
73
230958
0.03
1.85
12 ATTEMPTED TO EXPLAIN
71
33295
0.21
4.60
13 ATTEMPTING TO BE
70
1942849
0.00
-1.29
14 ATTEMPTED TO IDENTIFY
64
21788
0.29
5.06
15 ATTEMPT TO USE
64
230958
0.03
1.66
16 ATTEMPTED TO ADDRESS
62
37588
0.16
4.23
17 ATTEMPTED TO TAKE
61
304850
0.02
1.19
18 ATTEMPTING TO
UNDERSTAND
19 ATTEMPTED TO
DETERMINE
20 ATTEMPTED TO CREATE
60
87735
0.07
2.96
59
26903
0.22
4.64
55
49311
0.11
3.67
21 ATTEMPT TO DETERMINE
54
26903
0.20
4.51
22 ATTEMPTING TO TAKE
54
304850
0.02
1.01
23 ATTEMPT TO GET
54
530166
0.01
0.21
24 ATTEMPTING TO
ESTABLISH
25 ATTEMPT TO UNDERSTAND
52
15204
0.34
5.28
50
87735
0.06
2.70
26 ATTEMPT TO FIND
50
182052
0.03
1.64
27 ATTEMPTING TO EXPLAIN
48
33295
0.14
4.04
28 ATTEMPTING TO FIND
47
182052
0.03
1.56
29 ATTEMPT TO CREATE
45
49311
0.09
3.38
30 ATTEMPTING TO
INFLUENCE
43
35066
0.12
3.80
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
31 ATTEMPTING TO BUILD
43
32 ATTEMPT TO PROVIDE
33 ATTEMPTED TO BE
20
39073
0.11
3.65
43
72836
0.06
2.75
43
1942849
0.00
-1.99
34 ATTEMPTED TO ANSWER
42
63515
0.07
2.91
35 ATTEMPT TO CHANGE
42
126011
0.03
1.92
36 ATTEMPT TO KEEP
42
140937
0.03
1.76
37 ATTEMPTING TO KEEP
41
140937
0.03
1.73
38 ATTEMPTING TO USE
41
230958
0.02
1.02
39 ATTEMPTED TO ESTABLISH
40
15204
0.26
4.90
40 ATTEMPTED TO BRING
40
76822
0.05
2.57
41 ATTEMPTED TO FIND
40
182052
0.02
1.32
42 ATTEMPTING TO ACHIEVE
39
18063
0.22
4.62
43 ATTEMPT TO ANSWER
39
63515
0.06
2.81
44 ATTEMPT TO BRING
39
76822
0.05
2.53
45 ATTEMPTING TO ADDRESS
38
37588
0.10
3.53
46 ATTEMPTED TO PROVIDE
38
72836
0.05
2.57
47 ATTEMPTED TO SHOW
38
157722
0.02
1.46
48 ATTEMPT TO RESOLVE
37
8956
0.41
5.56
49 ATTEMPTING TO
DETERMINE
50 ATTEMPT TO MEASURE
37
26903
0.14
3.97
37
30893
0.12
3.77
One of the first things that I noticed about this data was that some words appear quite
prominently in both lists. “Get,” “do,” “make,” and “be” are all among the top 10 most frequent
infinitive constructions for both “try” and “attempt.” I also found it interesting that “try” seemed
to collocate with simpler, shorter words like “make,” “find,” “keep,” “help” and “say,” while
“attempt” collocated with longer, more academic words like “explain,” “create,” “identify,”
“address,” and “determine.” To investigate this further, I ran both lists through the
www.lextutor.ca Vocabulary Profile system (for this step I used a longer, 100-result list for each
construction). This yielded interesting results. While only 2% of the “try” infinitive collocates
contained academic words, a full 13% of the “attempt” infinitive collocates were identified as
academic. These academic words include “achieve” and “resolve,” which appear with one form
of “attempt”; “define,” which appears with two forms of “attempt”; and “create,” “establish,”
and “identify,” which all occur with three forms of “attempt.” This data supports the earlier
findings associating “try” with spoken English and “attempt” with academic English, and it
shows that the entire constructions used with these verbs also reflect this genre split. Further, the
fact that some of these words occur in multiple forms suggests that these are lexical bundles
common to academic language; students learning to communicate in this discourse may benefit
from learning these bundles as chunks.
3. What are the most frequent phraseologies of “try” and “attempt” in all registers?
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
21
The research I carried out for this question yielded many interesting patterns. For this
paper I chose to focus on four-word lexical bundles in which “try” or “attempt” is the second
word, since this formation allows for an infinitive on the right—“to get,” for example—as well
as a subject like “he,” the copula “to be,” or an article or other word on the left. I limited my
charts to the top 30 results for each word. These charts are presented in Figure 13 below.
FIGURE 13: High-frequency phraseologies for [ * try * * ] and [ * attempt * * ] patterns
RANK
* [try] * *
FREQ
RANK * [attempt] * *
FREQ
1
TO TRY TO GET
1542
1
AN ATTEMPT TO GET
138
2
, TRYING TO GET
1317
2
AN ATTEMPT TO MAKE
120
3
'RE TRYING TO DO
1173
3
AN ATTEMPT BY THE
109
4
TO TRY TO MAKE
785
4
AN ATTEMPT WAS MADE
90
5
'RE TRYING TO GET
781
5
EVERY ATTEMPT TO REMAIN
86
6
WAS TRYING TO GET
691
6
AN ATTEMPT TO KEEP
73
7
, TRYING NOT TO
672
7
AN ATTEMPT TO CREATE
68
8
, TRYING TO MAKE
633
8
AN ATTEMPT TO FIND
67
9
I TRY NOT TO
599
9
NO ATTEMPT WAS MADE
65
10
TO TRY TO FIND
582
10
AN ATTEMPT TO BRING
64
11
, TRYING TO FIND
569
11
AN ATTEMPT TO AVOID
59
12
, TRYING TO KEEP
557
12
AN ATTEMPT TO UNDERSTAND
59
13
TO TRY TO DO
521
13
AN ATTEMPT TO ''
56
14
ARE TRYING TO DO
477
14
AN ATTEMPT TO REDUCE
50
15
IS TRYING TO DO
458
15
NO ATTEMPT TO HIDE
47
16
IS TRYING TO GET
456
16
AN ATTEMPT TO PROVIDE
43
17
ARE TRYING TO GET
438
17
AN ATTEMPT TO DETERMINE
41
18
BEEN TRYING TO GET
421
18
AN ATTEMPT TO IDENTIFY
41
19
I TRIED TO GET
421
19
AN ATTEMPT TO IMPROVE
41
20
WAS TRYING TO DO
420
20
AN ATTEMPT AT A
40
21
JUST TRYING TO GET
418
21
AN ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN
39
22
AND TRY TO GET
415
22
AN ATTEMPT TO GAIN
38
23
, TRYING TO FIGURE
407
23
AN ATTEMPT TO BE
38
24
'M TRYING TO GET
394
24
AN ATTEMPT TO SAVE
38
25
'RE TRYING TO MAKE
375
25
AN ATTEMPT TO PREVENT
36
26
WERE TRYING TO GET
360
26
AN ATTEMPT TO BREAK
35
27
TO TRY TO KEEP
358
27
AN ATTEMPT TO CONTROL
35
28
I TRIED NOT TO
343
28
AN ATTEMPT TO INCREASE
34
29
TO TRY TO HELP
334
29
AN ATTEMPT TO SHOW
34
30
TO TRY AND GET
334
30
AN ATTEMPT IS MADE
33
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
22
Perhaps the most striking feature of these results is that “attempt” appears in this list
exclusively as a noun: a fact that is apparent due to the constant presence of the article “an,” a
determiner like “every,” or the negation word “no” in the immediate-left collocate slot.
Conversely, “try” appears exclusively as a verb, with the infinitive marker “to,” forms of the
copula “to be,” and subjects appearing in the immediate-left slot. It is also interesting that “try”
appears often with personal pronouns like “I” and in copula patterns that imply them like “ ‘re”
and “ ‘m” (I confirmed with a concordance-line search the prevalence of “we’re,” “you’re” and
“I’m” in these results). These personal-pronoun subjects suggest that “try” is used to express
ideas that have some immediacy to the speaker or writer. “Attempt,” on the other hand,
frequently appears on this list as the noun for passive verbs: “an attempt was made” is an
example of this. This use of the passive implies greater distance from the speaker: “an attempt
was made (to do something)”—the fourth most frequent construction on the “attempt” results
list—is much less immediate than “(we)’re trying to do (something),” the third most frequent
result on the “try” frequency list. When using “attempt” in academic language, writers
apparently often use the passive: a feature of this word that students may benefit from knowing.
My final exploratory measure in this process was to identify several high-frequency
phraseologies for “try” and “attempt.” To do so, I reviewed Figure 13 and grouped phraseologies
by common patterns. The results of this analysis appear in Figures 14 and 15.
FIGURE 14: High-frequency phraseologies for the [ * try * * ] pattern
PHRASEOLOGY
to try to + VP
, trying (not) to + VP
MEANING
Shows actor’s intent but
reveals that
speaker/writer is unsure
of actor’s ability to
complete action.
(That “to try” is not
needed syntactically
underscores this
disconnect.)
Shows adverbial
information about why
speaker/writer did
something (if self is
subject) or why
speaker/writer thinks
someone did something.
EXAMPLE SENTENCES
“I think a lot of Americans are going to the
Embassy to try to get information…”
(SPOKEN)
“She continues to try to make me feel guilty
and to impose her beliefs on me.” (MAG)
“And he continues to try to find ways to
merge advertisers messages into the network's
programming.” (NEWS)
“He fled down the street, pointed the weapon
at a vehicle , trying to get that person to
stop.” (SPOKEN)
“I shuffled back down the
aisle , trying not to stumble against the little
man.” (FICTION)
“Right now, I'm steadily climbing ,
trying to make a name for myself.” (MAG)
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
S + copula + trying to + VP
what + S + copula + trying to + VP +
copula
(Often occurs in subject slots)
to try and + VP
Shows actor’s intent but
reveals that
speaker/writer is unsure
of actor’s ability to
complete action.
Used instead of the “S +
copula + trying + VP” to
reframe this information
as the subject, possibly
to emphasize a
distinction between what
the actor is trying to do
and it appears the actor
is trying to do.
A colloquial form of “to
try + infinitive,” this is a
common construction
that means the same
thing.
23
“They 're trying to do it as orderly as
possible.” (SPOKEN)
“It's not like you 're trying to get rid of a
tractor trailer.” (FICT)
“Beckham is trying to do too much, he's
desperate to try to do good.” (NEWS)
“But we're -- what we 're trying to do is
improve two or three things in it.” (SPOKEN)
“… what we are trying to do is to look at
where there may be gaps in our provision…”
(ACAD)
“But I think what the NFL is trying to do is
get rid of that old mindset.” (SPOKEN)
“So that day in' 93 I made a
promise to try and get a school built
there.” (SPOKEN)
“She stuck her fingers on the rim of the
pane to try and get any part of her body
warm…” (FICT)
“When the time came to try and get an agent,
I contacted some of those agents.” (ACAD)
FIGURE 15: High-frequency phraseologies for the [ * attempt * * ] pattern
PHRASEOLOGY
NP + copula + an attempt + infinitive
MEANING
Used in as subject or
object predicative
positions to evaluate the
actor’s motivation in
taking a course of action.
EXAMPLE SENTENCES
“Some legislators felt the move
was an attempt to make the General
Assembly powerless to decide how state
money is spent.” (NEWS)
“…this bill is an attempt to reduce the
country south of Mason and Dixon's line.”
(ACAD)
in/as + an attempt to + VP
Used in adverbial
constructions to show
what the speaker or
writer believes an action
was intended to achieve:
the motivation behind an
action.
“LoCicero says these celebrations are
often an attempt to find meaning and
reassurance.” (NEWS)
“Now, there were some big issues that were
dropped in an attempt to get to 60
votes.” (SPOKEN)
“…the idea of jihad was deliberately
developed as " an attempt to keep alive the
momentum lost... and as an attempt to
spiritualize'…” (MAG)
“…the menu underwent a complete overhaul
in an attempt to bring some of the glamour
back to this iconic Atlanta eatery.” (NEWS)
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
an attempt + by (someone) + to + VP
an/no + attempt was made + infinitive
an attempt + at + NP
Used in NP positions to
show the
speaker/writer’s opinion
about the actor’s action.
Often carries a negative
connotation, suggesting
that the attempt was
unsuccessful, and for
good reason.
Passive construction
declines to identify actor,
often due to
speaker/writer’s apparent
disapproval of action.
Frequently used in news
and academic registers.
“At” is used in this
construction to replace
infinitives of
achievement like “to
produce” or “to
become.”
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“This is certainly an attempt by the company
to assert primacy over its rivals.” (ACAD)
“Some on the right say this
is an attempt by the left to stir up old
grievances.” (SPOKEN)
“Avila's mother says the case
was an attempt by the ex-girlfriend to seek
revenge for the failed relationship.” (ACAD)
“An attempt was made to rob a person of
property.” (NEWS)
“An attempt was made to select tall girls of
fair skin color…” (ACAD)
“No attempt was made to test adolescents
who were not present on assessment day.”
(ACAD)
“It was an attempt at a corporate takeover.”
(SPOKEN)
“With an attempt at a careless shrug, he
admitted, ‘Left lung collapsed.’ " (FICT)
“Lowering the entrance price, however,
amounts to an attempt at a rear-guard
action.” (NEWS)
Since my original assumption about “try” and “attempt” is that they were synonymous, I
wanted to test whether they could be used interchangeably with these phraseologies.
Interestingly, in all but the final example of “try” phraseologies shown in Figure 14, “try” could
be replaced with “attempt.” “Try and (do something)” does not allow such a replacement,
however, probably because this is a rather colloquial form used primarily in speech: “attempt and
(do something)” would be quite marked, due to the incongruity between the academic “attempt”
and the casual language. Still, save this single construction, “attempt” can generally stand in for
“try” when “try” is used as a verb, as it is in these examples. This is not the case with the reverse
scenario: in examining the replacement potential of “try” for “attempt” in Figure 15’s
phraseologies, it is clear that “try” cannot stand in for “attempt” in any of these circumstances.
“Try” as a noun is rare, and seemingly limited to very colloquial expressions like “give it a try”
or “nice try.” Although using it a noun is acceptable, “try” cannot replace the noun forms of
“attempt” in these phraseologies.
Collocation and Phraseology Analysis: “Try” and “Attempt”
25
Conclusion
This analysis of “try” and “attempt” revealed several major findings. Question 1 revealed
that “try” is far more frequent than “attempt” across registers in COCA, that “try” appears more
frequently than “attempt” in the spoken register of COCA, and that “attempt” occurs more
frequently than “try” in the academic register of COCA. Research into Question 2 revealed that
both “try” and “attempt” appear more frequently with infinitives (try/attempt + infinitive) than
with other right collocates, and that “try” takes a wider range of right collocates than “attempt.”
This process also revealed several different types of nouns that occur to the right of “try” and
several infinitive constructions that occur with both “try” and “attempt.” Question 3 relates to
phraseology; it revealed that “try” is often used in present- and future-oriented verb phrases and
adverbials to differentiate between an actor’s intention and the speaker/writer’s expectation of
the actor’s ability to achieve this action. “Attempt” is used more often to describe a past
unsuccessful action or to explain the motives behind this type of action; passive constructions are
often used to communicate this information.
Overall, these analyses of “try” and “attempt” confirm my early assumption that
“attempt” is more formal and academic than “try,” but they expand this distinction with the
additional information that “attempt” occurs with few right collocates other than infinitives and
is commonly used in passive voice constructions. This information would be very helpful to
academic English students, and I will use it to inform my future teaching—particularly at upper
levels. In the future I would like to expand this analysis with further study of the phraseology
patterns I discovered in this research. Though the data for [* try/attempt * * ] proved interesting,
this pattern is only one of many meaningful phraseologies associated with these words. I look
forward to investigating this further in the future.