LEXIS

Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed

(Wilkins, 1972)

Issues of definition

1. Lexis or vocabulary?

The term lexis has a wider scope than vocabulary. It conveys a wider and at the same

time more specific meaning: the more formal study of how words operate in certain

regular patterns, as well as issues connected with how words are best learnt.

2. What does it mean to know a word?

To know a word, learners need to learn its:

spelling

pronunciation

meaning

use

relatives (i.e. is it part of a sense group? does it belong to a word family?)

derivatives

register

collocations

connotations

From theory to classroom

1. What are sense relations and how can they facilitate vocabulary learning?

Sense relations refer to how a word might be semantically linked to other words in

certain systematic ways.

Sense relations provide a way of grouping words together in sets and a fairly

efficient way of recording vocabulary.

Some relationships (e.g. opposites) are easy to remember and some words can

be learned in pairs.

When teaching new words, it is useful to refer to types of X; species o Y, etc

(hyponymy).

Students frequently come across words with multiple meanings (polysemy).

When teaching pronunciation or spelling, it is useful to refer to words with the

same sound (but different meaning) - i.e., homophones; and words with the

same spelling (but different sound and meaning) - i.e., homographs.

2. What are word families and how are they useful in teaching?

A word family comprises the base word plus its inflexions and its most common

derivatives. Derivatives are formed by affixation (the addition of prefixes or suffixes).

They provide a framework for learners to see the relationships between words.

They make it easier for learners to see certain generative patterns.

It is easier to learn word families than learn words separately.

3. What are compounds?

A compound is the combination of two or more independent words to produce other

lexical items which might range from simply being a sum of parts (e.g. pencil case) to

forming an item which bears a less obvious semantic relationship to its constituents (e.g.

pacemaker).

Phonology, the written form and meaning all need to be considered when

discussing compounds in class.

4. What is meant by collocation?

Collocation is when two or more specific words tend to be used together in a fixed

combination. The substitution of one of these words by another would sound odd.

Thornbury (2002) makes the point that students regularly make mis-collocations

and that this sort of error constitutes a large proportion of their mistakes and

contributes most to the foreign quality of their English

5. Connotation & style

They relate to appropriateness and are important aspects of lexical learning. Two words

may be synonyms but each may evoke different associations.

Students tend to over-use items which are too formal or not formal enough, or

lift inappropriate words from a dictionary.

Being unsure of the connotations of some words may cause problems for the

learners.

Lexis is the core or heart of language but in language teaching has always been the

Cinderella (Lewis, 1993)

What is a lexical item?

Lewis (1993) defines a lexical item as, (a) socially sanctioned independent unit, which

may sometimes be a single word, but which often (consists) of (a) multi-word (unit)

(p.90). Like the term lexis, it is more precise and wider in scope. It encompasses words,

phrases and larger units.

There is evidence that our brains store language in the form of chunks and

phrases.

We should encourage our learners to use what Nattinger & DeCarrico (1992) call

lexical phrases right from the start.

What are the different types of lexical items?

1. Polywords

This is a term coined by Nattinger & DeCarrico and it encompasses all sorts of multi-

word phrases (e.g. compound nouns, two and three-part multi-word verbs,

adverbial phrases, fixed idioms) that operate as single semantic units.

It would be helpful to make these phrases explicit from the beginning in

class.

2. Phrasal constraints

This term was also coined by Nattinger & DeCarrico. Phrasal constraints are similar

to polywords, except that they allow variability- it is possible to slot different

elements into gaps (e.g. Its all lmy/their/Daves fault!).

Grammatical analysis of phrasal constraints is difficult and quite futile.

A more convenient term, which includes both polywords and phrasal constraints, might

be multi-word items (or multi-word phrases)

3. Prefabricated utterances

These might be defined as stretches of spoken language (or written sentences)

which do not necessarily need to be taken apart and analysed before (or after)they

are used.

They can be retrieved from memory as ready-made chunks (according to

Lewis).

They sound like real English.

They have more flexibility than fixed idioms.

4. Idiomatic items

Lewis suggests that the most effective way to understand language is to think in

terms of a spectrum of idiomaticity (p98), with, at one end, language which is

literal, transparent, and comprehensible as the sum of its parts, and at the other

end, language which is metaphorical, opaque, and not related to an understanding

of the sum of its parts.

They involve metaphorical images, and metaphor permeates everyday

spoken language.

Whole idiomatic utterances provide learners with ready-made chunks of talk

which are natural-sounding.

Whole phrases and utterances provide the scaffolding on which learners

may hang the more creative part of their talk.

They can give learners the confidence to develop fluency, establish their turn

to talk and so on.

Bibliography:

Lewis, M (1993) The Lexical Approach LTP

Nattinger, J and DeCarrico, J (1992) Lexical Phrases and Language Teaching OUP

Thornbury, S. (2002) How to Teach Vocabulary, Longman

Wilkins, D (1972) Linguistics in Language Teaching Edward Arnold

Further reading:

McCarthy, M., Schmitt, N. (1998) Vocabulary, CUP