Cooperation vs Collaboration

Please   Thu Oct 01, 2009 12:13 am GMT
"But seriously. My whole career has been based on cooperation." Stavros said.
"Cooperation is one thing," Belknap said gruffly. "Collaboration is anohter."
"I quite see," said Stavros, who obviously did not. "I'm always game for collaboration."
"Collaboration." The operative's eyes narrowed. "With our adversaries."
"No!" Stavros yelped. "Not that. Never that."
=======================
What's the difference?
blanc   Thu Oct 01, 2009 9:52 am GMT
Dear Please

I am sure that you could look up the dictionary definitions of these two words.

Look up: Quisling

A quisling is someone who collaborates with the enemy. So, 'collaboration' has got a bad name.

Perhaps it is not so obvious!


Xie mentioned a linguistic theory of conversation. In which people contribute in a give and take sort of way. I cannot remember the name now.
Please   Thu Oct 01, 2009 11:39 am GMT
Dear blanc,
Thanks for the response and the invaluable tip about the dictoinary. But just an FYI, I did look up those 2 before posting the question on here. I believe typing two words on a dictionary website would save a hell of lot of time as compared with typing an entire exchange up now wouldn't it?

The definition you provided doesn't quite fit the meaning intended here, or so I think.
Why would Stavros implicate himself by saying that he's down with collaboration if it meant 'cooperation with the enemy?'
I assure you Belknap would have wrung his neck at once if that's what he was implying.

Now, do you see why I posted the question?
GOD BLESS AMERICA   Fri Oct 02, 2009 6:39 pm GMT
<img src="http://www.unc.edu/~johnd530/Dubya_files/President-George-W-Bush-Official-Portrait.jpg">
>   Fri Oct 02, 2009 7:44 pm GMT
"I quite see," said Stavros, who obviously did not. "I'm always game for collaboration."


Stavos does not see the difference between 'collaboration' and 'cooperation'.


The meaning of these two words is very similar. It is just that 'collaboration' has come to have negative connotations.

Did you look up 'quisling'?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quisling - Cached - Similar

"collaborationist Norwegian government"

The name Quisling regime can also be used as a derogatory term referring to political regimes perceived as puppet governments imposed by occupying foreign enemies.

Nazi collaborators and some German leaders were later subjected to a legal purge.
Another Guest   Sat Oct 03, 2009 1:34 am GMT
It would help if your discussed the context. There's a difference between the two words, beyond even the connotation, but it's hard to describe in abstract.
saxophone   Tue Oct 06, 2009 2:32 am GMT
Cooperation and collaboration are essentially the same thing. I think Stavros is confused like anyone else would be. Maybe there is a bit of a difference, I think of cooperating with other people but collaborating occurring with businesses or schools.
blink   Tue Oct 06, 2009 3:43 am GMT
I thought I gave a complete answer to this question.

'Collaboration' is associated with working with the enemy.

The initial post included the context in which the word was being used.



________________________________________________________

"I quite see," said Stavros, who obviously did not. "I'm always game for collaboration."


Stavos does not see the difference between 'collaboration' and 'cooperation'.


The meaning of these two words is very similar. It is just that 'collaboration' has come to have negative connotations.

Did you look up 'quisling'?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quisling - Cached - Similar

"collaborationist Norwegian government"

The name Quisling regime can also be used as a derogatory term referring to political regimes perceived as puppet governments imposed by occupying foreign enemies.

Nazi collaborators and some German leaders were later subjected to a legal purge.
When does it stop!   Tue Oct 06, 2009 5:20 am GMT
I have noticed in the past that a lot of the questions asked by 'Please' seem to come straight out of a text book. What makes it difficult answering these questions, is that you do not know what section of the text book the question comes from. In this case it could be the section called 'Connotations and Denotations'.

___________________________________________________________

Please Thu Oct 01, 2009 12:13 am GMT

"But seriously. My whole career has been based on cooperation." Stavros said.
"Cooperation is one thing," Belknap said gruffly. "Collaboration is another."
"I quite see," said Stavros, who obviously did not. "I'm always game for collaboration."
"Collaboration." The operative's eyes narrowed. "With our adversaries."
"No!" Stavros yelped. "Not that. Never that."
=======================
What's the difference?

_____________________________________________________

'Connotations and Denotations'

What's the difference?


Please refer to page 236 of your text book.

Please look it up on the internet.

This is quite a good web page.

http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/English_Literature/terms/denotation.htm

______________________________________________________

The example is an example of the difference between connotation and denotation. Both words, cooperation and collaboration, mean the same thing according to the dictionary. However the emotional connotations attached to both words are completely different. To put it crudely:

cooperation - good

collaboration - bad

________________________________________________________

Why is this?

Generally, it is a good thing to cooperate with other people.

However it is a bad thing, to collaborate with the enemy.

Cooperating with the enemy is called collaboration - which is a bad thing!

Collaborating with colleagues is a good thing, unless it is cheating in order to pass an exam. When collaborating with colleagues is a good thing - it is called 'cooperating'.

When 'cooperating' is a bad thing, it is called 'collaborating'.
steve   Tue Oct 06, 2009 6:45 am GMT
Once again Robin Michael is wrong.
The only kind of collaborating that is bad is 'with the enemy'. Collaborating can be anything and is not the same as cooperation.
Scientists writing a paper together collaborate and although, yes, they do cooperate, that's not really the same thing.

And how can Robin Michael dare to get annoyed about this guy's questions when he is the most annoying person ever to exist? At least this guy is actually asking a clearly defined question, and isn't just posting tonnes and tonnes of copy and pasted nonsense from Wikipedia that no one cares about!
Robin Michael   Tue Oct 06, 2009 10:31 am GMT
The problem with some people who contribute to this forum; Steve, Guest, Edward Teach, is that they only write negative comments; they never put down anything positive.

I know that scientists collaborate when they write a scientific paper. So why do people use a different word?

Why say 'collaborate' rather than 'cooperate'?


You may criticise my posts because they ramble and meander. The reason why they ramble and meander is because I do not have a book of answers. I ask myself the question and then I look for an answer and I put down all the stages of my search.

We are not in the classroom now. Not everything has an answer at the back of the text book.

First of all, I knew of this use of the word 'collaborate' when I wrote the previous posts. However I did not want my knowledge to obscure my posts. I did not want to be confusing.

I could look up the words 'collaborate' and 'cooperate'. But I won't! I do not see why I should be the only one who does any work in this forum.

Of the top of my head, the reason why I suggest that 'scientists collaborate' is because they often work in a cooperative way with people that they are competing with.

Scientists are often very competitive.

Ok, let's see what it says for 'collaborative'.

Collaboration - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For processes and methods of collaboration, see Collaborative method. For the Canadian television series from the 1970s, see The Collaborators. ...
History - Contemporary examples - See also - References

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration - Cached - Similar

"Collaboration is also present in opposing goals exhibiting the notion of adversarial collaboration, though this is not a common case for using the term."

-Linguistically, "collaboration" implies more or less equal partners who work together-

Massively distributed collaboration
The term massively distributed collaboration was coined by Mitchell Kapor, in a presentation at UC Berkeley on 2005-11-09, to describe an emerging activity of wikis and electronic mailing lists and blogs and other content-creating virtual communities online.




So, what a surprise, the same English word, can mean different things to different people!
Robin Michael   Tue Oct 06, 2009 10:38 am GMT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Collaborators

The Collaborators was a Canadian police procedural crime drama television series which aired on CBC Television between December 1973 and December 1974.

Plot
The Collaborators was about a team of forensic scientists who investigated crime scenes taking evidence to the crime lab to examine to solve crimes.


Collaborator - has a more negative meaning in French than in English because of the occupation. Possibly, this meaning was intended in Canada where there is a large French speaking minority.
Robin Michael   Tue Oct 06, 2009 10:43 am GMT
My personal pet hate are abbreviations:

"But just an FYI, I did look up those 2 before posting the question"

I have to look up 'FYI' to understand what he means. Also as a question of style, two should be spelt.
Travis   Tue Oct 06, 2009 1:25 pm GMT
>>Collaborator - has a more negative meaning in French than in English because of the occupation. Possibly, this meaning was intended in Canada where there is a large French speaking minority.<<

Are you sure about that? In contexts dealing with wartime, military occupation, and like, the meaning of "collaborator" is quite clear in present-day English, and it is very much pejorative in its connotations with regard to such.
saxophone   Tue Oct 06, 2009 3:10 pm GMT
Huh, well just because I've never heard collaboration being pejorative, doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Native speaker here, for what it's worth.