Unit 2 The Study of English

Module 3 Lexis

At the end of this module you will:-

a) have a basic understanding of the formation of words and their

relationships

b) understand the importance of teaching appropriate language

c) have more understanding of the difficulties ESOL students face

in their choice of vocabulary

d) have begun to think more deeply about the language you

are going to teach
 LEXIS

Lexis refers to the vocabulary, or words of a language and is a vitally

important part of learning a language. A student acquires vocabulary in
two ways: the first is by discovery, through interaction/conversation or
reading materials which the student has chosen for himself/herself; the
second is by having words presented to him/her in the classroom in a
more formal manner. The teacher has various ways of achieving this:
s/he can point to objects in the classroom, draw pictures, mime an
action, explain a concept in simple words, etc. We shall focus on what
aspects of lexis need to be taught to students and then we shall
consider when to teach words, what words to teach and how to teach
them.

1. Lexical features

Parts of speech

Students need to know the facts about the formation of words and how
words with the same stem form different parts of speech. For example
take the word 'smile'. 'Smile' can be a verb and a noun, and the present
participle 'smiling' can also be used as an adjective:

The children never smile at the teacher.

The teacher looked angry then he gave me a smile.
Happy children are always smiling.
The smiling face of the Mona Lisa looks down on the crowd.

This use of the same form of a word for both a verb (smile) and a noun
(a smile) is not a feature of all languages and can be very confusing for
students. Students also need to know how verbs change from the
present to the past and into participles (check this word if you are not
familiar with it), how adjectives can be formed from nouns, how adverbs
are typically formed from adjectives and so on. They need to be able to
identify a group of words with the same stem (or ‘root’).

For example (the stem is highlighted):

love - verb and noun

loving - adjective, gerund and present participle
loved - past simple and past participle
lovingly - adverb

Unit 2 1 Module 3
In some forms, there can be changes to the stem, in particular the vowel
in it. Look at the past simple form in the following example:

grow – verb
growth – noun
grew – past simple
grown – past participle
growing – present participle and gerund

SELF-CHECK 2:3 1

Can you think of three more words, apart from 'smile' and 'love', where the verb and
the noun are the same?

SELF-CHECK 2:3 2

What do these adjectives have in common in the way they are transformed into
other parts of speech? What useful things can you tell your students about them?

broad
long
deep
wide

Comments are on page 16.

Unit 2 2 Module 3
Multi-word lexical items

Students may also find it useful to know how the components of lexical
items are put together. The component parts of multi-word items may
themselves be different parts of speech, perhaps a combination of two
nouns making a single compound noun

eg - lampshade

a noun and a gerund making one item of two words

eg - skating rink

two hyphenated words making one item

eg - play-off

Prefixes and suffixes

Students need to know common prefixes:

a- auto- dis- pre- in- (im-, ir-, il-)

ante- co- ex- re- over-

anti - con- mis- sub- under-

an- non- per- un- super-

and suffixes:

-able -ism -er -ist -less

-or -ise -ic -ness -ship

-ify -tion -ity -ly -ing

. . . . and how they work

Unit 2 3 Module 3
For example they can make words opposite in meaning:

mis + understand = misunderstand

un + happy = unhappy

They can show the degree of something:

over + react = overreact

under + estimate = underestimate

Or a noun can be formed from an adjective

happy – y/i + ness = happiness

Or a noun can be formed meaning a person

teach + er = teacher
opportune + ist = opportunist

You as a teacher also need to be familiar with common meanings of

prefixes and suffixes so look them up if there are any with which you are
unfamiliar. There are a lot of Greek- and Latin-based prefixes, suffixes
and roots in English that have a clear meaning. Show students for
example that mis- and dis- are usually negative in tone.

When a prefix or suffix is added to a word, of particular importance is

how the word is stressed as this can alter the meaning and make the
word incomprehensible.

Eg im + potent = impotent, put the stress on the wrong syllable and it will
sound like 'important'. Be careful not to insult a visiting ‘V.I.P.’!

SELF-CHECK 2:3 3

Place each of these roots in a circle on a piece of paper and add words to the legs
of the spider that have a word form connection with them.

‘vision’ (comes from the Latin root ‘vis’ see).

‘ject’ (comes from the Latin ‘throw’ or ‘put’)

Unit 2 4 Module 3
 reject
vision
ject

Television

Think about how the words relate to the root meaning.

Synonyms and antonyms

Students also need to know how the meaning of one lexical item relates
to another.

Items which mean the same or almost the same are synonyms -

Sizeable and large are synonyms of big.

Items which mean the opposite are antonyms -

Sad is an antonym of happy.

Please note that when a student is translating from his/her mother

tongue he/she will choose one word but there may be many synonyms.
As the student's proficiency level increases, he/she will be able to make
an educated choice among the synonyms available bearing in mind the
context and appropriacy (which style and register need to be used). Two
words cannot be exactly the same in meaning, otherwise there would be
only one word.

Thus, synonyms of 'angry' include 'cross', which is acceptable in most

situations; 'mad', which is less likely to be used in formal situations; and
'pissed off' which is extremely informal and more often than not
inappropriate. It is important to ensure that students are taught, and
know how to choose, appropriate language for particular situations. Lack
of awareness in students can cause offence, confusion and can lead to
students not being taken seriously.

An important point to make is that along with its denotation, ie what

object, action, characteristic, etc a word refers to, each word has
connotation, ie an extra meaning that the speaker needs to know to be
able to use it appropriately. If we look at the word 'mad' in the example

Unit 2 5 Module 3
above, its denotation is 'angry' and its connotations are 'informal, refers
to intense anger, has associations with insanity'. To be able to use
vocabulary appropriately, not to cause offence or make surrounding
people raise their brows, a higher-level learner of English with a
command of synonyms should be aware of both the denotation and the
connotations of different words.

SELF-CHECK 2:3 4

1. Read the following passage and pick out as many prefixes and suffixes as you
can.

2. Find a synonym for the underlined words. Then find an antonym for the words in
bold. Be careful…….

3. Now look at the words in italics. How are they constructed?

In 2005 a famous chef called Jamie Oliver made the government aware of the
unhealthy school meals children were being given every day. His campaign worked
and school meals have improved considerably. They are now often cooked daily at
the school rather than defrosted from large weekly or monthly deliveries. The
nutritional value of meals has undergone changes and several foods have been
highlighted as unsuitable.

The push to change eating habits is encountering opposition from the kids though.
They want their chips back! And the lack of exercise has not been dealt with.

SELF-CHECK 2:3 4

Think of 5 synonyms for the word 'drunk'. What are the connotations of each of
them?

Unit 2 6 Module 3
A ‘word’ is not always ‘a’ word

What does this mean? Well only that it is not always appropriate to
teach words as single units. Sometimes it is important to teach ‘chunks’,
and the concept of ‘lexical chunks’ has become very important in TEFL.
This refers to teaching phrases as groups of words that commonly occur
together and are sometimes inseparable.

Let’s look at the sentence:

Can I have a word with the head please?

If we break this down into individual words then we have a very odd
scenario in front of us - a person asking for a single word with a part of
the body.

The ‘chunks’ here would be ‘have a word’ and ‘the head’ - ‘have a word’
is a verb phrase that means to have a quick conversation with. ‘Head’
with ‘the’ in front of it can mean the headmaster or principal of an
institution. We can make students aware that words fit together or
‘collocate’ and that they have different meanings depending on the
situation and the words next to them.

Interestingly, this was a problem with early computer translation systems

that could not cope with word forms in English.

So a phrase like ‘Time flies fast’ appeared in translation as:

A type of insect (time flies) do not eat (fast).

This was a result of one word translation and not recognising the context
of the statement.
These days the translations are much better! But our students still need
to be encouraged not to look at words in isolation.
You will read more about lexical chunks in the excerpt from Jeremy
Harmer's book later in this module.

Homonyms

Homonyms are unrelated words which share the same pronunciation

and spelling. English is full of homonyms, which may puzzle foreign
learners.

Here are some examples:

Unit 2 7 Module 3
bank can mean a financial institution or the side of a river

table can mean a piece of furniture or a way to present data on paper

tip can mean a piece of advice, an amount of money, or the sharp end
of an object.

SELF-CHECK 2:3 5

Look around yourself. Are there objects that have homonyms, ie the same words
with totally unrelated meanings? What about the screen you are looking at? What
other meanings can it have as a noun or a verb?

Think of as many examples are possible. (NB: the meanings should be really
unrelated; thus 'a mirror' as an object in your room vs the verb 'to mirror' meaning to
reflect is not a good example because the meanings are actually related).

Unit 2 8 Module 3
 2. Teaching vocabulary

What vocabulary to teach? When and how to teach it?

Here are a few quick tips for teaching vocabulary that can be
investigated further for TASK 7 of this unit.

Selection

The vocabulary you introduce may to a large extent depend on the

course book your school uses, but you are free to introduce other areas
of vocabulary when you feel that it is relevant to your teaching. However
it is essential that your students do not "drown" in too much new
vocabulary as, if this is the case, they will retain little of it. Long lists of
words without the structure, relevant context, form and idiom will not
bring about language competence.

When teaching lexis the teacher also has to make a judgement on which
words need to be taught now and which words could be left until a later
stage of learning or for the student to discover for him/herself.

Frequency

We use the word ‘frequency’ to talk about words having ‘high frequency’
and ‘low frequency’. For example, the word ‘Stop!’ is a high frequency
word, which means it is often used by English speakers in various
contexts.
Stop writing.
Stop talking.
Stop here please (taxi)
Next stop, Central Station. (train)

The general rule is to teach high-frequency words early on and low-

frequency words later. Thus 'stop' will be taught to beginners. Other
synonyms of 'stop', such as desist, cease and halt, will be taught at
higher levels because their frequency is lower and they have special
uses and connotations. Of course your students will need these words
at some time, but at lower levels most of your teaching should be with
high-frequency words.

The only exception is when you teach ESP (English for specific
purposes). For instance, while the chances of you ever deciding to teach
the word 'rudder' to a standard class of beginners are very small, if you

Unit 2 9 Module 3
are teaching a group of pilot trainees, that word will probably taught from
the first stages.

Language with strong connotations, such as slang, humorous language

or very formal vocabulary should also be avoided at lower levels.

Context

As with grammar, words need to be introduced in a context where

students can see how they are used and you need to help students see
connections between groups of words.

The most useless thing you can do is simply present the following list of
words in your lesson and get students to memorise them:

table
octopus
art
driver

One possible improvement is to introduce a lexical set, ie words that are

logically connected. For example

table
chair
shelf
bookcase

The above words form the lexical set 'furniture'.

However, presenting these words as a list, ie out of context, is still not

going to help your students remember them. Introduce them in a text or
dialogue, where someone describes his/her room (let it be an unusual
room to make it more memorable). Highlight the target words and use
picture cards to check understanding. Hold up the cards and drill. Then
let the students put the words in a context of their own by describing
their room and maybe showing everyone a photo of it. Have them point
to each object they name.

Students' age

Your students’ age is another factor that may determine whether they
need to be taught some words. Think about the need for the words you
are teaching.

Unit 2 10 Module 3
You can’t teach ‘general election’ vocabulary with 9 or 10 year olds if
they do not understand about voting.

You can’t ask the class to ‘have a debate’ if they do not have the
vocabulary to do it.

An adult class will not want to know words like 'playground', 'bricks' or
'toy' as early as a children's class will. That's because these are high-
frequency words for children and low-frequency words for adults.

SELF-CHECK 2:3 6

1. Which of the following words would you normally teach to

beginners? Which would you not teach?

woman

strong

prescription

easy

to turn

to mince

pirouette

fox

2. Think how you would use context to teach each word you decided to teach from
the list.

3. Now look at the words that you decided not to teach. Under what circumstances
might you decide to teach them to beginners after all?

Unit 2 11 Module 3
Selecting the right number of words to teach

Ask yourself:

Have I got too much?

too little?
or just the right amount of language?
Teachers can make mistakes easily here. Sometimes they try to make
students learn long lists of words. If you are teaching vegetables, do not
teach all of them including ones that the students rarely eat. Turnip,
radish, endive, artichoke, swede and parsnip can be left for later unless
you are teaching vegetable market tradesmen! Teach a few common
ones, do a role play, bring in some real vegetables and research others
for homework.

Sometimes teachers do not introduce enough words. It is very boring for

students to repeat and repeat ‘This is my mother, this is my father. Is
this her brother? Is this their sister?’

Set aside part of every lesson for the students to experiment a little.
Give them a communicative task and see what vocabulary they require
in the process. It will not hurt to introduce ‘step-brother’ if someone in
the class needs the word to describe their family.
Have a listening where someone talks about their family. Also build in
time for them to ask questions: How do I say my sister’s child? Is it the
same as my brother’s child?

Timing
‘Teaching vocabulary’ does not need to go on for hours - small
concentrated sessions are good, especially if you make sure the
students see, hear and use the words.

Teacher language

The language of instructions and explanations should be easier than the

level of language you are teaching.
Be especially careful about using too many grammatical terms.

Say:

Unit 2 12 Module 3
We are going to look at describing things using ‘who, which and that’.
NOT:

Today we will be considering the intratextual uses of defining and non-

defining relative clauses.

SELF-CHECK 2:3 7

Look at these two lesson transcripts and homework assignments.

Decide which statements apply to which lesson - A or B.
The classes are both 15-16 years old.

EXAMPLE:

1) The students do not speak at the beginning of the lesson ( Lesson A)

2) The students are asked to speak right from the start. (Lesson B)

Statements

3) Long words are used: conjunctions, connectives, and there are vague phrases:
‘thing,… thing’
4) The context is not connected with the students.
5) The language is simple, and the teacher gives the function of the language.
6) The students give their own context and talk about themselves.
7) The sentences on the board all have the same ending.
8) There are three different sentences on the board.
9) The students do not choose their sentences in the practice exercise.
10) The students give personal information to each other and so make more
sentences.
11) The teacher does not find out whether they know any of this language already.
12) Students’ mistakes and correct language tell the teacher about what the class
can do.
13) The homework is personalised and open-ended.
14) The homework is not personalised and only some of the sentences are open-
ended.

Unit 2 13 Module 3
Lesson A

Teacher: Good morning class. Do you all have your books ready? Good.
This morning we look at the use of conjunctions in English. Write down the following
connectives in your book under the heading ‘conjunctions’.
(Teacher writes these words on side of the board)
So that
In order to
Because

We will look at how to join sentences so that we can give reasons for doing things.

Look at these three sentences (writes them on board).

He is saving money so that he can buy a new car.

He is saving money to buy a new car.
He is saving money because he wants to buy a new car.
They all show the man’s intention. He is doing one thing so that he can do another
thing. The structures are different.
Write down the sentences in your books.

Teacher: Have you all finished? Good. Now turn to page 4 in your books and do
exercise 2.

Lesson B

Teacher: Good morning everyone!

Who in this class has a money box? Are you saving money? (Draws coins or notes
going into a money box).

Everyone: yes.. yes…..

Mohammed: (hand up, teacher gestures him to answer) I no money box my mum
buy everything.

Teacher : OK, but many people have a money box.

Why are you saving money in your box. Ali?

Ali: For buy mobile phone (Teacher writes ‘mobile phone’ and draws picture to the
right of the board space)

Jamila: For ‘Prada’ bag (Twrites ‘new bag’ + picture underneath the phone)

Peter: So that I can buy an electric guitar because my mum she is not paying for
one. (T writes 'electric guitar', plus picture under the bag)

Teacher :

Ok, class. This morning we are talking about why we do things, our plans for the
future. (writing on board)

Unit 2 14 Module 3
 Ali is saving money to buy a mobile phone.
Jamila is saving money because she wants to buy a new ‘Prada’ bag.
Peter is saving money so that he can buy an electric guitar.

So what are the 3 ways to say why we are saving money? (T elicits the target
phrases)
Now, in pairs, see if you can tell your partner 3 things you are saving money for.

Now look at the homework of the two classes.

Lesson A Lesson B

Fill in the blanks with one of the clauses Finish the sentences.
of purpose: Talk about plans using the language from the
eg She is going to the shops to buy some lesson.
bread/ because she wants to buy some
bread/ so that she can buy some bread. 1. Write 3 sentences about yourself:
 I am learning Greek …….live there. I am learning English
because I want to…
 The dog chased the cat……… catch to………
it.
so that I can …….
 He is going to exercise classes …..
lose weight. 2. Write 3 sentences about something else you
 I bought this book …… study sharks. are learning or studying. For example:
 She turned on the TV …….. I am learning the guitar because I want to be a
 I have bought a car ………….. famous pop star.
 The postman bought a bicycle 3. Write 3 sentences about your family’s plans.
because …………… For example:
 I am going to Egypt on holiday ……. My mother is saving money to go to Dubai on
holiday.

Unit 2 15 Module 3
COMMENT

SELF-CHECK 2:3 2

For example, you could tell students that nouns are formed from these
adjectives using the suffix 'th', whereby the vowel in the stem changes:

breadth, length, depth, width.

Verbs are formed from these adjectives using the suffix -en, whereby
the vowel change occurs only in the stem of 'long':

broaden, lengthen, deepen, widen.

SELF-CHECK 2:3 6

You would teach 'woman', 'strong', 'easy' and 'to turn'.

You would not teach 'prescription', 'to mince' and 'pirouette'. However,
you might teach these early if your students are, respectively, doctors,
chefs and ballet dancers/choreographers.
'Fox' would normally be taught to young children at the beginner level,
because it's a word frequently used in fairy tales. It would be taught to
adults at a higher level.

SELF-CHECK 2:3 7

1) The students do not speak at the beginning of the lesson. (A)

2) The students are asked to say something right from the start. (B)
3) Long words are used: conjunctions, connectives, intention and there are vague
phrases: ‘thing,… thing’. (A)
4) The context is not connected with the students. (A)
5) The language is simple, and the teacher gives the function of the language. (B)
6) The students give their own context and talk about themselves. (B)
7) The sentences on the board all have the same ending. (A)
8) There are three different sentences on the board. (B)
9) The students do not choose their sentences in the second exercise. (A)
10) The students give personal information to each other and so make more
sentences. (B)
11) The teacher does not know whether they know any of this language already. (A)
12) Students’ mistakes and correct language tell the teacher about what the class
can do. (B)
13) The homework is personalised and open-ended. (B)
14) The homework is not personalised and only some of the sentences are open-
ended. (A)

Unit 2 16 Module 3
Overall, in the second lesson the students are more engaged in the
topic and it seems as if they will have more fun. As for the homework, it
is going to give them the opportunity to use words that they need. The
first lesson’s vocabulary and homework task are very limited and
controlled. Watch out for this when you are planning lessons.

Unit 2 17 Module 3
Now consider the following extract:

One of the reasons we are now able to make statements about vocabulary with considerably more
confidence than before is because lexicographers and other researchers are able to analyse large
banks of language data stored on computers. From a corpus of millions of words (made up of novels,
scientific articles, plays, newspapers, brochures, speeches, recorded conversations, etc. stored on
computers) quick accurate information can be accessed about how often words are used and in what
linguistic contexts. We can find out what other words are commonly used with the word we are
interested in, and we can also state, with some confidence, how frequently words are used in the
language. This is a huge advance on, say, the pioneering work of Michael West (see West 1953) who
tried to get the same kind of information through manual sweat and toil and a card index. It was
impossible for him and his researchers to achieve even a fraction of what computers can now tell us.

Users of computer corpora can get a concordance for words they are looking for. A concordance is a
selection of lines from the various texts in the corpus showing the search word in use. Here for
example, is a 20-line concordance for the word asleep in written English:

FIGURE 1 : Twenty-line concordance for asleep from the British National Corpus (written), generated by the Compleat Lexical
tutor (www.lextutor.ca)

Twenty lines is just a small sample of the many occurrences of asleep found in the written corpus. But
even with such a small sample, some things are instantly clear - partly because the computer was
asked to provide the lines in alphabetical order of the words immediately to the left of asleep. Thus we
can see that in writing it seems that fall asleep, half asleep and was/were asleep are very common
word combinations.

The Compleat Lexical Tutor (a free concordance program) allows us to look, as well, at how asleep is
used in speaking.

FIGURE 2: Twenty-line concordance for asleep from the British National Corpus (spoken), generated by the Compleat Lexical
tutor (www.lextutor.ca)

Unit 2 18 Module 3
It becomes clear immediately that fast asleep is a more common word combination in speaking than
in writing, but that the other combinations we noticed in writing also occur in speech.

Lexicographers work with considerably more complex concordance information than this, of course,
but the principle is the same, and it allows them to provide dictionary entries which not only give
definitions, but also list frequently occurring combinations (collocations), and say how common words
are. In the dictionary entry for asleep (Figure 3) we see that it is one of the 2,000 most common words
in speech, but that it falls outside the 3,000 most common words in written English (because no
frequency information is given for writing [W]).

Word meaning
The least problematic issue of vocabulary, it would seem, is meaning. We know that table means a
thing with three or four legs which we can write on and eat off and that book is a collection of words
between covers. But of course the situation is more complicated than this. Both words have many
different meanings, quite apart from those already mentioned. We can eat off a table, or we can table
a motion at a conference. We can summarise information in a table, too. Then again, when we have
read our book, we can ring up a restaurant and book a table, but if we drive too fast on the way, we
might be booked for speeding. Some people have been keeping a book on whether we will keep our
job because everyone knows we've been cooking the books for years. The point is that the same
collection of sounds and letters can have many different meanings. As with multi-meaning
grammatical forms, this polysemy is only resolved when we see the word in context. It is
understanding the meaning in context that allows us to say which meaning of the word is being used in
this particular instance.

What a word means is often defined by its relationship to other words. For example, we explain the
meaning of full by saying that it is the opposite of empty; we understand that cheap is the opposite of
expensive. Such antonyms reinforce the meaning of each word in the pair, though of course because
a word can be polysemous it may have more than one antonym (e.g. a rich person - a poor person,
rich food - plain food, etc.).

Words can also have synonyms that mean exactly or nearly the same as each other. We say that bad
and evil are synonymous, as are good and decent in certain situations, such as She's a good/decent
pianist. Once again, much will depend on the context in which the words appear. Yet in truth it is very
difficult to find real synonyms. Costly and expensive might seem on the surface to mean the same, yet
they are subtly different: we tend to use the former about larger projects and larger amounts, while

Unit 2 19 Module 3
expensive has a broader range of use. We would be unlikely to say That pen you've got there looks
very costly, but The new building programme is proving very costly sounds perfectly all right.

Another relationship which defines the meaning of words to each other is that of hyponymy, where
words like banana, apple, orange, lemon, etc. are all hyponyms of the superordinate fruit. And fruit
itself is a hyponym of other items which are members of the food family. We can express this
relationship in the following diagram.

Part of a word's meaning, therefore, concerns its relations with other words, not only in terms of
antonymy and synonymy, but also in terms of how it fits into the vocabulary hierarchy.

One final point should be made about word meaning, namely that what a word means is not
necessarily the same as what it suggests - or rather that words have different connotations, often
depending on the context they occur in. Thus the word chubby has a very positive connotation when it
is combined with baby, but it suddenly becomes somewhat negative in tone if it is combined with
middle-aged English teacher! And what about a sentence like He's really smart, where smart would
seem to have a positive connotation of intelligence yet could be interpreted as suggesting the man is
somewhat devious or self-seeking.

Extending word use

Words do not just have different meanings, however. They can also be stretched and twisted to fit
different contexts and different uses. We say that someone is in a black mood (very cross) or
someone is green (naПve), yet we are not actually describing a colour. In such contexts black and
green mean something else.

There are many examples of how the literal meaning of words can be extended. We say, for example,
that the price of mangoes went up but went up here cannot mean the same as it does in she went up
the stairs. When we say that prices have taken a dramatic tumble, how are we to explain the
meanings of dramatic and tumble?
Such metaphorical use of words allows us to move beyond their purely denotational use (where a
word only describes a thing, rather than the feelings or ideas it suggests). It helps us extend our range
of expression and interpretation, allowing us the opportunity to explain our feelings about things in a
way that creates readily available images. Poets use such metaphors all the time, of course. Consider,
for example, these lines:

The wind clawed through the shrunken trees

And scratched and bit and roared with rage.

Some metaphors become fixed into phrases which competent speakers recognise at once, even
though the meaning of the phrase is not decipherable from any understanding of the individual words.
We all know that She kicked the bucket means She died and that He has bitten off more than he can chew
means that he has attempted something that is too difficult for him. If someone says I've got him eating
out of my hand, we understand the metaphor, but it is not original; it is a common expression, an
accepted idiom. The metaphorical and idiomatic use of words and phrases is not always popular,

Unit 2 20 Module 3
however, as the following example shows. For some years it became commonplace for people to
describe someone who had suffered a disappointment as being as sick as a parrot, and this idiomatic
expression became so widely used that it began to irritate everybody, except, perhaps, when used
ironically. As sick as a parrot had become a clichй, what Crystal calls a 'lexical zombie'. Money doesn't
grow on trees, you know qualifies as a clichй, too, so does the phrase to add insult to injury.

However, a clichй is not necessarily strongly metaphorical all the time as the following two lines of
dialogue from a recent radio soap opera episode show:
EX-LOVER: I never meant to hurt you.
JILTED LOVER: Oh please, Richard, not that tired old clichй.

Word combinations

Although words can appear as single items which are combined in a sentence (She was asleep), we
have seen that they can also occur in two-or-more item groups (She was half asleep all through dinner,
but fast asleep the moment coffee was served).

Word combinations (also known as collocations) have become the subject of intense interest in the
recent past, in part spurred on by discoveries from language corpora (see above). Collocations are
words which co-occur with each other and which language users, through custom and practice, have
come to see as normal and acceptable. It is immediately apparent that while some words can live
together, others cannot. We can talk about a clenched fist and even clenched teeth, yet we cannot talk
about clenched eyebrows.

The way in which words combine collocationally and in larger chunks has led people to talk about
lexical phrases. Such phrases are often part of longer memorised strings of speech. We know, for
example, what the word ironic means, but we can also say that it is typically used in the phrase It is
ironic that ....

Lexical phrases or language chunks are like pre-fabricated building units. Apart from phrasal verbs,
collocations and compound words, such as traffic lights, walking stick and workshop (where two words
join together to form one vocabulary item), language also chunks itself into functional phrases (by the
way, on the other hand, if you see what I mean), idiomatic or fixed expressions (a close shave, an only child,
in love) and verbal expressions (can't afford to, not supposed to, don't mind). Michael Lewis, a proponent
of the Lexical approach, demonstrated how a 'lexical unit', like I'll, crops up time and time again in
what he calls archetypal utterances, such as I'll give you a ring, I'll drop you a line, I'll see what I can do, I'll
see you later, etc. (Lewis 1993: Chapter 5).

The chunking of language in this way suggests that talking about vocabulary exclusively in terms of
words is not sufficient to account for the different kinds of meaning unit which language users have at
their disposal. A phrasal verb (e.g. take off, put up with) is made up of two or more words (if we accept
one definition of what a word is), yet it is only one meaning unit. We could argue that wide awake and
a close shave are single meaning units, too. Some people refer to such meaning units as lexemes, but
whatever we call them, we need to see that words-in-combination have to be perceived as meaning
units in their own right, just as single words such as book or table do.

What we are saying is that we use words either in prefabricated chunks or insert them into the
templates provided by grammar. As Steven Pinker expresses it, ' ... the mind analyses language as
some mixture of memorised chunks and rule-governed assemblies' (1999: 26).

Adapted from The Practice of English Language Teaching, Jeremy Harmer 2007,
Longman.

Unit 2 21 Module 3
 TASKS FOR SUBMISSION TO YOUR TUTOR

TASK 1

Find at least 2 other different forms of the following words. Name the
forms and demonstrate them in sentences as in the example:

Argue (verb)

1. Argument (Noun)
The newly-weds had a big argument on their wedding night.

2. Arguably (Adverb)
He is arguably one of the best in his profession

repentance

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grief

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cleanliness

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Unit 2 22 Module 3
allowance

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tolerance

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Unit 2 23 Module 3
TASK 2

Give 5 examples of each of the following compounds:-

1. Two nouns making a single compound noun

a..................................................................................................................................

b..................................................................................................................................

c..................................................................................................................................

d..................................................................................................................................

e..................................................................................................................................

2. A noun and a gerund making one item

a..................................................................................................................................

b..................................................................................................................................

c..................................................................................................................................

d..................................................................................................................................

e..................................................................................................................................

Unit 2 24 Module 3
3. Two hyphenated words making one item

a..................................................................................................................................

b..................................................................................................................................

c..................................................................................................................................

d..................................................................................................................................

e..................................................................................................................................

TASK 3

Form 2 words from each of the following prefixes:-

1. auto ....................................................................................................................

2. con ...................................................................................................................

3. per ....................................................................................................................

4. sub ....................................................................................................................

5. ante ....................................................................................................................

Form 2 words from each of the following suffixes:-

1. –able ....................................................................................................................

2. –ness ....................................................................................................................

3. –er ....................................................................................................................

4. –ise ....................................................................................................................

5. –tion ....................................................................................................................

Unit 2 25 Module 3
TASK 4

List 5 words like 'tip' which have a frequent and varied use, giving
examples of two or more homonyms.

Example: Tip:
a) Piece of advice:
The teacher gave us good tips for preparing the test
b) The very end of an object
She poked me with the tip of the pencil
c) A small amount of money given to someone who has provided you
with a service:
The waitresses like him; he always leaves large tips

1..................................................................................................................................
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2..................................................................................................................................

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3..................................................................................................................................

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Unit 2 26 Module 3
4..................................................................................................................................

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5..................................................................................................................................
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Unit 2 27 Module 3
TASK 5

Which of the following words would you not teach beginners and why?

orange......................................................................................................

jacket.................................................................................................……

student................................................................................................…

welder...................................................................................................….

omelette................................................................................................…

bloke....................................................................................................….

chauffeur..............................................................................................….

hungry...................................................................................................…

telephone..............................................................................................…

car.........................................................................................................…

angry.....................................................................................................

Unit 2 28 Module 3
TASK 6

How many different lexical choices do we have to say someone has

died? Select a few common ones and describe the situations/contexts
in which they would be appropriate.

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Unit 2 29 Module 3
TASK 7

Consider the following quotations:

"A general principle of vocabulary selection has been that of frequency. We can
decide which words we should teach on the basis of how frequently they are used by
the speakers of the language. The words which are most commonly used are the
ones we should teach first.

Another principle that has been used in the selection of vocabulary is that of
coverage. A word is more useful if it covers more things than if it only has one very
specific meaning...."

"Especially at intermediate levels and above, discovery techniques (where students

have to work out rules and meanings for themselves rather than being given
everything by the teacher) are an appropriate alternative to standard presentation
techniques. This is certainly true of vocabulary learning where students will often be
asked to 'discover for themselves' what a word means and how and why it is being
used"

What ideas would you bring to the classroom to make the learning of
vocabulary more interesting and rewarding?

Your answer should be between 500 and 750 words. It should show
research and personal examples and ideas.
Please use references to show where any information has come from.

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Unit 2 30 Module 3