This sounds odd to me: issues of collocational acceptability in an English-Italian dictionary

The present work aims to assess the acceptability of a set ofcollocations from the point of view of a native speaker who uses the language actively. A survey of 50 Italian collocations selected from the Il RagazziniEnglish-Italian dictionary (2013 edition) was carried out with the participation of 20 native Italian speakers who were asked to judge the examples providedon the basis of acceptability and usage . Analysis of the results confirms that, when it comes to collocations, the speakers’ judgments are extremely heterogeneous. Moreover, the percentage of collocations deemed questionable or unacceptable is hefty , calling for reflection on the kind of language that is represented in dictionaries. From the point of view of usage , the data are not encouraging either, as many peripheral collocations seemed to be provided. The paper reflects on the practical and theoretical implications of such findings.