 Bring a discourse dimention to teach vocabulary
 Not abandoning vocabulary teaching, instead offering
a supplement to conventional vocabulary teaching
 Using traditional and recent, more communicative
approaches in vocabulary teaching and activities
Lexical Cohesion
Repetiton of words and the role played by certain
basic semantic relations between words in creating
textuality.
Reiteration: either restating an item in a later part of
the discourse by direct repetition or else reasserting its
meaning by exploiting lexial relations.
 Hyponymy (rose-flower/ chair-furniture)
 Synonymy
(commence-begin)
Reiteration
 Is extremely common in English discourse,
 Adds new dimensions and nuances to meaning,
 Serves to build up increasingly complex content.
Implications for language pedagogy
 Disturbing the lexical patterns of texts may lead to
unnaturalness and inauthenticity at the discourse
level.
 Simplification may mean unnatural amount of
repetition.
 Observing lexical links in a text could be useful for
language learners in various ways.
 Lexical reiteration supplies learners with meaningful,
controlled practice and chances to improve their textcreating and decoding abilities by providing more
varied contexts for using and practising vocabulary.
Lexis in talk
 Lexical relations can be applied to spoken data as well.
 Relexicalisation: speakers reiterate their own and take
up one another’s vocabulary selections in one form or
another from turn to turn and develop and expand in
doing so.
 The connection between development and
modification and reworking of lexical items used
before makes the conversation develop coherently.
 In this way, neither side is dominant in the
conversation, which makes the conversation a joint
activity (ethnometodological approach to D.A.).
 Relexicalisation of some elements provides aggrement
and contribution to relevance.
 Conversation classes where topics are pre-set may be
very suitable for this kind of development.
 As the transition from superordinates to hyponyms
and from synonyms to antonyms is a common feature
of conversation, students can be equipped to use this
skill by regular practice.
 As soon as the necessary vocabulary is met, language
learners can be encouraged to use communicative
value of these lexical items at an early stage.
Textual aspects of lexical competence
 Sometimes our expectations as to how words are
conventionally used are disturbed when the writers
arrange usual lexical relations for particular purposes
of the text.
The depressing feature of Allen’s documents is the
picture which emerges of smart but stupid military
planners, the equivalent of America’s madder
fundamentalists, happily playing the fool with the future
of the planet.
( The Guardian, 13 November 1987: 15)
 There are other readjustments of lexical items which
are valid in particular texts only.
 Their interpretations may not correspond to
dictionary definitions.
 The good listener/reader has to decide when words are
being used as synonymous or when these same words
are used to stress the difference in meaning-potential.
 Discourse-specific lexical relations can be called
instantial relations (J. Ellis, 1966).
 Although these relations frequently found in texts in
all languages, the problems learners encounter with
such uses are usually psychologically-generated.
 Because they come to texts with the expectations that
the words have fixed relationships with one another.
 Instantial relations often present important stylistic
features in text:
 Creative lexical usage,
 Devices of evaluation or irony,
 Particular focus.
 By definition, each case has to interpreted individually.
 Theachers should raise an awareness that such uses of
typical vocabulary are often readjusted in individual
texts.
Vocabulary and Organisation of text
Grammar
• Function words, empty words
• Closed system
words
Lexical words
Discourse
Organising
Words
• Content words, full words
• Open system
• Share the qualities of both the
open and the closed-set words.
 Here I want to spend some time examining this issue. First I
propose to look briefly at the history of interest in the
problem, then spend some time on its origins and
magnitude before turning to an assessment of the present
situation and approaches to its solution. Finally, I want to
have a short peek at the possible future prospects.
These words stand in a place of segments of text.
They are called discourse organising words because
they organise and structure the argument.
These words build up expectations about the whole
discourse.
They operate predictively and retrospectively.
The Characteristics of Some Discourse-organizing
Words in the Passage Above
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
this  preceding text check-up
issue  anticipating problem-solving processes
problem  seeking for solutions
assessment  performing evaluation of the problem
and providing solutions
solution  fulfillment of task
 How many such words are there in a language like
English?
 Winter (1977-78) vocabulary 3
 Francis (1986) anaphoric nouns
 Jordan (1984) vocabulary index
Signalling larger textual patterns
 Besides representing segments of text and parcelling
up phrases, discourse organising words signal to reader
what larger textual patterns are being reliased.
 E.g.
 Problem-solution pattern
 Claim-counterclaim pattern (Hypothetical-real)
Headline
TV Violence: No Simple Solution
Opening sentence
There is no doubt that one of the major concerns of both
viewers and broadcasters is the amount and nature of
violence on out television screens.
(main text)
Closing sentence
The chief ‘lesson’ of all our viewing, reading and discussion
is that there is no simple solution to the problem of
violence on television.
The words in yellow predict (solution in the headline,
concern) and reinforce (solution, problem) the problemsolution pattern.
Discourse organising words for problem-solution pattern
Problem
Concern, difficulty, dilemma, drawback, hamper,
hind(er/ance), obstacle, problem, snag
Response
Change, combat, come up with, develop, find, measure,
respo(d/se)
Solution/result
Answer, consequence, effect, outcome, result, solution,
(re)solve
Evaluation
(in)effective, manage, overcome, succed, (un)successful,
viable, work
See Jordan’s (1984) word list for claim-counterclaim pattern p. 80
Register and signalling vocabulary
 Register is closely related with lexical selection.
 Lexical choice depends on
 Context (textbook, magazine, news report)
 Audience (cultured, educated, readers of popular press)
 Written or spoken style
 Idioms are good metaphors for textual segments.
The Employment of Idioms
Restriction of idiom application:
 It is not always easy to find natural
contexts in which to present idioms or
idiomatic expressions.
2. Characteristics of idiom application:
 Idioms or idiomatic phrases are applied to (1)
organize discourse, and
(2) signal evaluation.
1.
Modality
 Modality is generally thought to belong to closed class
of modal verbs (must, may, can, will, etc.) and treated
as part of the grammar.
 However, there are a lot of words (nouns, verbs,
adverbs and adjectives)having the same or similar
meaninings with the modal verbs.
E.g. Appear, assume, doubt, look as if, actually, certainly,
possibly and nouns and adjectives related to them.
Means of Making Modality in English
Modal Verbs
Adjectivals
Participials
Nominal Modal Expressions (be able to, be going to… )
Modal-like Adjectives (necessary, probable, certain,
advisable… )
6. Modal-like Adverbs (necessarily, probably, certainly,
perhaps, maybe… )
7. Parentheticals (I think, I believe, I’m sure… )
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Comparison of Neutral and Modalized Sentences
I suppose it’s possible the cat just may have sat on
the mat.
2. The cat sat on the mat.
1.
 These modality words carry important information
and are concerned with assertion, tentativeness,
commitment, detachment and other important
aspects of interpersonal meaning.
 Discourse analysts have presented that modality is
crucial in the creation of discourse.
 Holmes (1988) shows that the larger vocabulary of
modal lexical items is often under-presented in the
teaching materials.
Tasks for Teachers and Learners
Is it possible to delimit procedural vocabulary?
2. What happens if the most common signaling words
are not known by learners?
3. If all languages have text-organizing vocabulary, can
the teaching/learning process capitalize on transfer
in some ways?
1.