1. Module1: Applied Linguistics
Lexis and Semantics
By:
Mohamed Oubedda
Lahcen Tighoula
Trainer: Mr. Akkouch
October 11th, 2012
Inspectors’ Training Center
Rabat
1

2. Outline
1- What is language ?
2- What is Linguistics
3- What are the branches of Linguistics
4- The scope of Sematics
5- Difficulties of Studying Meaning
6-Theories of Sematics
Lexis:
1- What is lexis?
2- A rationale for studying lexis
3- What’s in a word?
4- Lexis and grammar
5- Implications to ELT: “The Lexical Approach”
2

3. What is Language ?
" The system of human communication
which consists of the structure
arrangement of sounds in larger units"
Richards and Scmidt ( 2002)
3

4. Linguistics?
" The scientific study of Language, some of
the basic issues of this field are :
* What is langauge ?
* How is it organised ?
* How is it analyzed ?
* Where is language stored and How is it
learned ?
4

5. Another definition of language
a. Communication of thoughts and feelings through a
system of arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds,
gestures, or written symbols.
b. Such a system including its rules for combining its
components, such as words.
c. Such a system as used by a nation, people, or other
distinct community; often contrasted with dialect.
5

6. Linguistics
Other issues :
*How did the language originate ?
*What does it have in commonwith animal
communication?
* How many distinct families or Stocks of
languages are there in the 6000 or so known
languages today? What original languages did they
come from? How have they changed over time?
* what is the relationship between language and
culture ?
* Language and thought?
6

7. Branches of Linguistics
* Phonetics
* Phonology
*Morphology
*Syntax
*Semantics
* Pragmatics
7

8. What branch of linguistics is this?
• 1. the study of speech sounds in their physical
aspects.
• 2.the study of speech principles that govern the
way sounds are organised in lges and to explain
the variations that occur.
• 3.the study of the formation of words.
• 4.the study of the formation of sentences
• 5.the study of meaning.
• 6.the study of language use .
8

9. Interdisciplinary branches
* Historical Linguistics
* Sociolinguistics
* Psycholinguistics
* Ethnolinguistics
*Dialectology
* Computational Linguistics
*Psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics
*Applied Linguistics
9

10. Applied linguistics
• The branch of linguistics concerned with
practical applications of language studies,
with particular emphasis on the
communicative function of language, and
including such professional practices as
lexicography, terminology, general or
technical translation, language teaching
(general or specialized language, mother
tongue or second language), writing,
interpretation, and computer processing of
language. (BTB Translation Bureau Canada)
10

11. The Scope of Semantics
• " Semantics is the study of meaning in
Language. We know that Language is
used to express meaning which can be
understood by others but meaning exists
in our mind and we can express what is in
our mind through the spoken and written
forms of llanguage as well as through
gestures, actions,...etc In other words
semantics is that level in Linguistic
Analysis where meaning is analysed" 11

12. Difficulties In the Study of
Meaning
* The problem of meaning is quite difficult.
some linguists especially structuralists
went to the extent of excluding semantics
from linguistics. They think it is only the
form of Language which can be studied
and not the abstract functions.
12

13. Difficulties In the Study of
Meaning
• 1- Abstract words create problems in specifying
their meaning. For example nobody can exaclly
tell what the word "good" really mean.
• 2- The connotative use of words adds further
complications.
• 3- Metaphoric and poetic use of language
• 4- Above all is the question : Where does
meaning exist? in the words themselves or in the
speaker or the listner or in both or in the context
or situation ?
13

14. What is lexis?
• A term in linguistics for the vocabulary of
a language. Adjective:lexical.
http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/lexisterm.htm
• lexis is the stock of words in a given
language.
• Jim Scrivener (2005) states that while
vocabulary « typically refers mainly to
single words », lexis « is bigger… It refers
to our internal database of words and
complete ready-made fixed / semi-fixed /
typical combinations of words… »

15. A rationale for studying lexis

16. What’s in a word?
• Word classes
• Word families
• Word formation
• Multi-word units
• Collocations
• Homonyms – polysemes – synonyms and
antonyms – hyponyms –
• Lexical fields
• Associative fields

17. Word classes
(or parts of speech) – nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs,
prepositions, conjunctions, etc. – and most dictionaries give word class
labels to lexical items as a matter of course. Apart from getting information
about use, we also need to be aware of word class for spelling, to
distinguish between nouns (eg licence, practice) and verbs
(eg license, practise).
Within this, we can also make distinctions between grammatical
words and lexical words.
 Grammatical words (or finctional words) contribute to the grammatical
structure of the sentence and are generally pronouns, conjunctions,
prepositions..etc
 Lexical words ( or content words) carry a high information load. They are
usually nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elltankw/history/Vocab/B.htm

18. Word families
• A word family contains the base word and
its inflexions and its most common
derivatives.
example:
plays, playing, played (inflexions),
replay, player, playful (derivatives)

19. Word formation
Can be done by:
• Affixation: e.g.misunderstand
• Blending: e.g. brunch, edutainment,
• Compounding: e.g. Second-hand, record-
player
• Conversion: from one part of speech to
another. e.g. She upped and left,
• Clipping: shortening words; eg. Flu, dorm,
email.

20. Multi-word units
also called lexical chunks; these are
combinations of more than one word,
which can function as a meaningful unit
with a fixed or semi-fixed form.
Examples are:
out of the blue (fixed)
it’s up to you , (semi-fixed)
what a nice day!,
year after year

21. Collocations
• Looser than multi-word units
• Two words are collocates if they are used
together frequently. Examples would be:
world record, once more, first time, capital
city..

22. • Homonyms: words that have the same form but have
different meanings.
• Homophones: words that sound the same but have
different spellings and different meanings.
• polysemes : words that have multiple but related
meanings. E.g. A book, to book a hotel room,
• synonyms and antonyms
• hyponyms : words that have a « type of » relationship.
Example: a hammer is a type of tool. So here hammer is
a hyponym of tool.

23. Lexical fields
• Words that pertain to one thematic
relationship are said to belong to the same
lexical field.
e.g. Classroom, pencil, understand, pupils

24. Associative Fields
• Associative fields : associative networks of
words in a language
• “The Swiss linguist Ferdinand
de Saussure made a distinction
between associative
relations and syntagmatic relations. We
tend to use the term paradigmatic
relations instead of associative relations
today.

25. http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elltankw/history/Vocab/B.htm

26. Lexis and Grammar
• « Grammar refers to the generalisable
patterns of the language and to our ability
to construct new phrases and sentences
out of word combinations and grammatical
features…to express a precise meaning »
J.Scrivener (2005)
26

27. • “Without grammar very little can be
conveyed; without vocabulary nothing
can be conveyed.” (Wilkins 1972:111)
27

28. Pedagogical Implications:
« The Lexical Approach »
• Lexis is the basis of language.
• Lexis is misunderstood in language teaching because of the
assumption that grammar is the basis of language and that
mastery of the grammatical system is a prerequisite for
effective communication.
• The key principle of a lexical approach is that “language
consists of grammaticalized lexis, not lexicalized grammar.”
• One of the central organizing principles of any meaning-
centered syllabus should be lexis.
28

29. Referrences
• Srivener, J . Learning Teaching (2005)
• Thornbury, S. How to Teach Vocabulary
(2002)
• http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elltankw/history/Vocab/
B.htm
• http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/lexisterm.htm
29