Unit 2 · Lexis

Lexis refers to individual words or sets of words that carry a specific meaning — from single items such as tree to multi-word units such as get up or all’s well that ends well. Words relate to one another through their meaning and form, and they occur in collocations, fixed expressions and idioms.

◆What is lexis?

LexisIndividual words or sets of words, e.g. homework, study, whiteboard, get dressed, be on time. Lexical means connected with words or sets of words. See lexical approach, lexical set, lexical unit. click to keep open · see glossary refers to individual words or sets of words, for example: tree, get up, first of all, all’s well that ends well, i.e. units of vocabulary which have a specific meaning.

◆Key concepts — what kinds of meaning can words have?

What kinds of meaning can words have?

We often speak of the meaning of words. In fact words have different kinds of meaning. Firstly, there is the meaning that describes the thing or idea behind the vocabulary item, e.g. a tree is a large plant with a wooden trunk, branches and leaves. This meaning is called ‘denotation’, and we speak of ‘denotative meaning’. Then there is figurative meaning. We speak, for example, of ‘the tree of life’ or ‘a family tree’. This imaginative meaning comes from, but is different from, a word’s denotative meaning. There is also the meaning that a vocabulary item has in the context1. The situation in which language is used or presented; e.g. a story about a holiday experience could be used as the context to present and practise past tenses. Photographs can help to provide a context for a magazine article. 2. The words or phrases before … click to keep open · see glossary (situation) in which it is used, e.g. in the sentence ‘We couldn’t see the house because of the tall trees in front of it’ we understand how tall the trees are partly from knowing the meaning of tall and partly from knowing how tall a house is, so the meaning of tall in this sentence is partly defined by the context.

◆Key concepts — word formation and chunks

The meaning of some vocabulary items can also come from their formThe form of a grammatical structure is the way it is written or pronounced and the parts which combine to make it; e.g. the present perfect simple (grammatical structure) is made up of have + past participle (this is the form). click to keep open · see glossary, e.g. from prefixes, suffixes or compounds (nouns made from two or more separate words). Adding prefixes or suffixes to base words (the basic words or parts of a word from which other words can be made) can, for example, give them an opposite meaning (e.g. unsafe, illegal) or a comparative (e.g. easy–easier), or superlative meaning (e.g. new–newest). It may also change their part of speech (e.g. instruct–instruction, quick–quickly). The process of adding affixes is called affixationA letter or letters added to the beginning or end of a word to make a new word, which can be a different part of speech from the original word, e.g. interview, interviewer; ‘er’ is an affix added to interview to make the new word interviewer. Affixation is the… click to keep open · see glossary. Compound nouns get their meaning from being together (e.g. telephone number, bookshop). They have a different meaning from the individual words they are made up of.

There are also words that regularly occur together, such as collocations, fixed expressions and idioms. Collocations are words that often occur together (e.g. to take a holiday, heavy rain, arrive at, depend on). There are many words which collocate in a language, and the degree of collocation can vary. For example, watch out is a very strong collocation as these words very often occur together, whereas watch a video is less strong and watch the postmen is not a collocation. The words in watch the postmen can occur together but don’t do so often enough to make them a collocation.

Fixed expressions are expressions which can’t be changed (e.g. to tell you the truth, new born, it’s up to you). Idioms are a kind of fixed expression as they can’t be changed, but their meaning is usually different from the combination of the meaning of the individual words they contain (e.g. to be under the weather, to have green fingers, once in a blue moon). Collocations, fixed expressions and idioms are all different kinds of chunksAny pair or group of words commonly found together or near one another, e.g. phrasal verbs (get on), idioms (it drives me crazy), collocations (make the bed), fixed expressions (How do you do?). See lexical unit. click to keep open · see glossary. ‘Chunks’ refers to language that occurs in (semi-)fixed units and that we usually learn as one piece. Have a good trip, I’d like to …, how about …, my name’s … are further examples of chunks.

◆Key concepts — relationships between words

Words also have different relationships with one another. They may, for example, be synonyms (words with the same or similar meanings) or antonyms (words with opposite meanings). They may be part of the same lexical setA group of words and/or phrases which are about the same topic or subject; e.g. a lexical set on the topic of weather could be: storm, rain, wind, cloud. click to keep open · see glossary (groups of words that belong to the same topic area, e.g. family, furniture, food). They may also belong to the same word familyA group of words that come from the same root or base word, e.g. economy, economist, economic. See root word, base word. click to keep open · see glossary (words that come through affixation from the same base word, e.g. real, really, realistic, unreal).

False friendsA word in the target language which looks or sounds similar to a word in the learners’ first language but does not have the same meaning in both languages. For example, in French, ‘librairie’ is a place where people can buy books. In English, a library is a pl… click to keep open · see glossary, homophones, homonyms and varieties of EnglishEnglish is spoken as a first or second language in many countries around the world, but the English spoken may be slightly or significantly different in each country or in different parts of one country; e.g. different vocabulary or grammar may be used. An exa… click to keep open · see glossary are other ways in which words can relate to one another. False friends are very important in language teaching and learning. They are words which have the same or a similar form in two languages but a different meaning. Embarazado, for example, means pregnant in Spanish. It does not mean embarrassed, though it looks as if it does to an English speaker! Homophones and homonyms are important, too, in language learning. Homophones are words with the same pronunciation but a different meaning or spelling (e.g. know–no; whether–weather; there–their). Homonyms are words with the same spelling and pronunciation as another word, but a different meaning, e.g. ‘they sat on the river bank’, ‘he put all his savings into the bank’. Words can also relate to one another through being examples of different varieties of English, i.e. different kinds of English spoken around the world, e.g. Indian, Australian, US, South African, British. These varieties sometimes affect lexis as the same things can be called by different names in different varieties, e.g. flat (British English), apartment (US English), unit (Australian English), or cookie (US English) and biscuit (British English).

The table below shows examples of some of the form and meaning relationships of two words.

We can see from this table that words sometimes have several denotations. The context in which we are writing or speaking makes it clear which meaning we are using. Words can also change their denotations according to what part of speech they are, e.g. the adjective clear and the verb to clear. We can also see from the table that not all words have all the kinds of form or meaning relationships.

◆Key concepts and the language teaching classroom

Read these tips and tick the ones which are most important for you:

• Fully knowing a word involves understanding its form and meaning, e.g. what part of speechA way of categorising words according to their grammatical function and meaning, e.g. noun, verb, adjective, pronoun, adverb, preposition, conjunction. Similar to word class. See word class. click to keep open · see glossary it is, how it is pronounced and spelt, all the meanings it can have. This cannot take place the first time a learner meets a new word. It takes learners a long time to fully understand and use a word. At first they will probably just learn its most frequent denotative meaning, its spelling and pronunciation.
• Learners need to meet the same words again and again as they advance in their language learning. In this way their memory of them will be consolidated and they will get to know more about the word, e.g. other meanings, collocations, the lexical sets they are part of. They can meet words again in texts, or in vocabulary extensionAn activity that gives learners more practice or extends their language beyond what has just been taught. click to keep open · see glossary activities (i.e. activities that give more practice), such as brainstormingTo quickly think of ideas about a topic and also possibly note them down. This is often done as preparation before a writing or speaking activity; e.g. before learners write a description of their city they make a list of all the positive and negative adjectiv… click to keep open · see glossary, labelling, categorising, making lexical sets.
• Whether we are learning our first or our second language, we often recognise a word before we can use it, and we can often recognise the meaning of many more words than we can use. The words we recognise are called our ‘receptive’ vocabulary; the words we can use are called our ‘productive’ vocabulary. A teacher usually teaches learners key (important) words and exposes them to many more. The learners pick these words up, initially only recognising their meaning, then eventually using them productively.
• As words can get part of their meaning from context, and context helps to show the meaning of words, it is useful to teach them in context rather than in isolation, e.g. through texts, stories or descriptions of events that we tell the students about.
• We can use the relationships in meaning between words (synonyms, lexical sets, word families, etc.) and the ways in which they can be built (prefixes, suffixes, compounds) to make activities to help our students extend their knowledge of words, e.g. making opposites, building words through affixation, brainstorming lexical sets and word families.
• When we teach learners new words we can check if these words have any false friends in their language or if these words are homophones or homonyms of others they know. Then we can point this out to the learners and help to save them from misunderstandings.
• At beginner level and with young learners, we often teach general words for categories first, then gradually introduce different items from that category. For example, we may teach clothes before teaching jeans, shirt, T-shirt, etc.
• A lot of language often occurs in chunks, e.g. collocations, fixed expressions. Experts think that children learning their first language learn the chunks as a whole rather than in parts. This helps them to remember them better and recallTo remember, bring something back into the mind; e.g. in a test, learners might have to recall vocabulary they learned the week before. click to keep open · see glossary (remember) them more quickly. As teachers we can highlightTo draw learners' attention to particular language, e.g. by underlining it or asking them to notice it. click to keep open · see glossary (draw learners’ attention to) chunks of language for learners.
• It is useful for learners to keep vocabulary records in which they record the meaning of the new words, their part of speech, examples of use, any collocations, their pronunciation, any synonyms, etc. Students can return to add information about individual words as they learn more about them.

✎Follow-up activity

💡Reflect

🔍Discovery activities

✎TKT practice tasks

These multiple-choice tasks are exactly as in the book, but interactive: pick your answers, check your score, and retry anytime. The scoring uses the official answer key from the back of the book.

📖Glossary terms in this unit

Key terms highlighted in this unit — study them on the flashcards page.