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Collocation or not collocation?

In which cases do we put a collocation, and in which cases a small word is part of the spelling?

Small words are part of the spelling when the form is a grammatical unit, that is to say, when the sum of all the form words is not grammatically equal to the sum of its parts (see Grammatical unit or phrase?). In these case, there are no collocations, all the form words are in the spelling. For instance, "by way of" is a preposition as a whole, so "of" is not a collocation and will be written in the form spelling.

We will have:

• collocation: none
• spelling: "by way of"

Small words are collocations when they are additions to the form which doesn't change its grammatical nature. They can be easily added, removed, sometimes declined. Here are the usual cases when a form has a collocation:

• Pronominal verbs pronouns, for instance, in French "se peigner". "Peigner" is still a verb when we add the pronoun, we can find it without a pronoun and the pronoun can be declined ("je me peigne", "tu te peignes", etc.). We will have:
  • collocation: "se"
  • spelling: "peigner"
• Prepositions after verbs, for instance, in French "accoucher de. "Accoucher" is still a verb when we add the preposition, and we can find it without a preposition. We will have:
  • collocation: "de"
  • spelling: "accoucher"
• Prepositions after nouns or adjectives, for instance, in "worthy of". "Worthy" is still an adjective, and we can find it without the preposition.
  • collocation: "of"
  • spelling: "worthy"
• Articles before nouns, when they need to be displayed (it can happen, for instance, when a collective singular noun translates or is equivalent to a plural noun). For instance, in Occitan "l'aucelum" translates the French "les oiseaux" and is equivalent to the Occitan "los aucèls". All of these words can be found without an article and still be nouns, and this article can be declined ("l'oiseau", "les oiseaux").
  • collocation: "les"
  • spelling: "oiseaux"

In these cases, the small word is added to the form as a collocation and doesn't appear in the spelling.

One or many collocations?

When there are many small words added at the beginning or at the end of the form, do we use one or many collocation elements?

If these collocations are interchangeable (you use one OR the other OR the other), either because we united many constructions in one form ("pensar a" and "pensar de" in Occitan which are equivalents, united in "pensar a/de") or because they are the same small word in many dialects ("partir per/entà" in Occitan), you use many collocations, one for each small word.

We will have:

• collocations: "a", "de"
• spelling: "pensar"

or

• collocations: "per", "entà"
• spelling: "pensar"

If these collocations are consecutive (you use one AND the other), you use only one collocation. For instance, in French "se la raconter", you will only have one collocation:

• collocation: "se la"
• spelling: "raconter"

If there are collocations with different positions (before and after the form), you will have many collocations. For instance, for French "se méfier de", you will have:

• collocation: "se", "de"
• spelling: "méfier"