Newcastle University

ECLS
Applied Linguistics and
Communication
Language Awareness
ALT 8021

SESSION 2: Introduction to Lexis

Objectives:
To raise awareness of words, word families, lexemes etc.
To evaluate what it means to know a word
To look at semantic relationships
To consider what learners (and teachers) need to know about lexical items

From last week:

Discuss your reading of Chapter 2, Describing the English language, from Harmer
(2015)

Compare your answers for questions 2-7.

Share with your group the three questions you wrote, based on what
knowledge you felt you needed to improve after the introductory session.
Any issues with finding the answers?

Discuss your answers to these two questions:

1

1. What do you think is the aim of the chapter?

8. What is the most interesting thing you learnt through reading this
chapter?

Task 1: The size of the lexicon

Estimate (in thousands) how many words each of the following individuals will
know:
A native speaker child entering school at 5/6
The average, educated, adult native speaker
And how many words are needed in order to
Understand an upper level graded reader for adult EFL students
Successfully read a written text (e.g. a newspaper, novel, academic text) in
an L2
Watch a TV programme or film in an L2
Task 2. How many words are there in the following sentences?
1. Reports of the number of words in English range from four hundred thousand
words to over two million.
2. Most people know more words in their first language than they know in their
second language.
Task
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

3. How many words are there in the following eight groups? Why?
All right, alright, till, until, colour, color, judgment, judgement
Decide, decides, deciding, decided
Happy, happier, happiest, happily, unhappy, unhappily, happiness
Lexis, vocabulary.
Foot (of a bed), foot(of a mountain), foot(as measure of distance)
Bark (of a dog), bark(of a tree)
Put on, put off, put out, put down
On the one hand, on the other

Task 4: Semantic meaning (task from Thornbury, 1997: 49)

Identify the sense relation between the underlined words in the following extracts
(from The Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald). The first is done for you.
a) He took a taxi to St Angelicus to fetch his gown. / Fred asked the cab to wait.
Synonyms
b) I hope you young gentlemen slept sound, she asked us the first morning.
There was a sound like a vast heap of glass splintering.
c) She crossed the river and turned left down Jesus Lane. That was a mistake,
she would have to go right again somewhere
d) Daisy suggested taking the lift up to the Tea Gardens. / She crossed the road
and stood by the ditch, waiting for a lift.
e) There was a cupboard inside from which he took a broom, a dustpan and a
brush, and began to sweep up the nave.
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f)
g)
h)
i)

By the way, who was that man, your friend, or enemy, with a beard?
There was no possibility, or let us call it likelihood, of her being buried alive.
What are those birds? Daisy asked. Were they quails, Fred?
Run out and buy me a morning paper. / The house, like all houses which
have stood vacant for any length of time, seemed full of bits of paper.

Task 5: Word relations

Working in your groups, as fast as you can, organise the words into different groups
or categories.
fish
typhoon
sister
love
aunt
flood
father
adore
loathe

mother
bird
crustacean
drought
detest
uncle
famine
cyclone
cousin

hurricane
like
earthquake
brother
marsupial
admire
reptile
hate
abhor

Task 6: Teaching and learning lexis

In groups, discuss the following questions:
1. What do learners need to know about lexis?
2. What do teachers need to consider when deciding what vocabulary
items to teach?
3. Is it a good idea to teach idioms? Why, why not?
4. What about slang; phrasal verbs; figures of speech?

For next week:

Read Winkler, E. G. (2007) Understanding Language. London: Continuum. Chapter
7

Based on the reading and your in-class discussion, write a short paragraph to
answer the 4 questions in Task 6 and post it on Blackboard.
Make a note of any questions you have, or anything that you do not
understand.

Additional Reading
Aitchison, J (2012) Words in the mind: An Introduction to the Mental Lexicon.
Hoboken: Wiley. (available online in the library)
Jeffries, L. (2006) Discovering Language. The Structure of Modern English.
Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Chapter 6
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