“The Search for Units of Meaning”, Textus IX, 1996, 75-106

1. “The Search for Units of Meaning”, Textus IX, 1996, 75-106

2. The starting point of the description of meaning in language is the word…

3. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2007/may/03/guardianobituaries.obituarieshttp://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2007/may/03/guardianobituaries.obituaries Obituary John Sinclair Brilliant language scholar and deviser of the 'idiom principle' Michael Hoey The Guardian, Thursday 3 May 2007 John Sinclair, who has died of cancer aged 73, was a giant in English language studies and a world leader in three fields, two of which he helped create, as well as a contributor to many others. Birmingham University's professor of modern English language (1965-2000), he was a pioneer in the field of discourse analysis, a superb lexicographer, and an outstanding corpus linguist, whose books are compulsory reading for any serious language student.

5. PART 1: The case for extended units of meaning The word, however, does not reign unchallenged, as the basic unit of language American linguistics: the morpheme as the smallest unit of grammar No previous linguistic models take lexis seriously into account

6. Words… …enter into meaningful relations with other words around them …give a massive contribution to meaning The reason for this marginalization is that grammars are always given priority and grammars barricade themselves against the individual patterns of words.

7. The primary unit of lexical meaning is the word, however… compounds= two words phrasal verbs brought to prominence by ELT – “dictionaries for learners make special provision for them” – “grammars make apologies for their very existence” idioms, fixed phrases, clichés, proverbs Unlike phrases and clauses, which fit together like chinese boxes, they spill out all over the place…

8. game (phrases) • to give the game away • new to a particular game • to beat someone at their own game • something is all part of a game • someone is playing games • someone is playing silly games • the game is up

9. Relationship between words and meaning Apparently no relationship (Idiomatic) = to bear on (be relevant to) Partial relationship= to beat someone up Full relationship= the rain beats down (collocation) To evaluate lexical constraints it is possible to use numerical methods

10. The focus of lexical investigation is… …on repeated events A language patterns has to occur a minimum of twice; a single occurrence is unremarkable (chance) The only available measure of significance is to compare the frequency of the linguistic event against the likelihood that it has come about by chance.

11. Open choice vs idiom principle (1) • Open choice principle: the combination of words in text is only governed by grammaticalness (“colourless green ideas sleep furiously”) • Idiom principle: the combination of words is determined by the existence of semi-preconstructed phrases that constitute single choices

12. Open choice vs idiom principle (2) Terminological tendency= a word has a fixed meaning in reference to the world Phraseological tendency= words tend to go together and make meanings by their combination (hence collocations, idioms, etc.) Linguistic patterns: strong tea and powerful engine (on collocational grounds the adjectives are not interchangeable)

13. The units of meaning are phrasal • Not very many words are chosen according to the open-choice principle • Words cannot remain perpetually independent in their patterning • This leads to great regularity of collocations and offers a platform for specialization of meaning (eg compounds) • Beyond compounds we can see lexical phrases which have to be taken as wholes in their context for their distinctive meaning to emerge

14. workshop • Adj+N hands-on, interactive, practical • (involving a lot of work) intensive • (how long it lasts) two-day, half-day, weekend • V+N (organize a workshop) arrange, hold, host, organize, run • (teach) conduct, deliver, do, lead, present, teach • (design a workshop) design, plan, tailo • (go to a workshop) attend, go to, participate in, take part in • N+n (what is done) discussion, presentation, session • (person) attendee, delegate, facilitator, leader, participant, presenter

15. Phraseology is central in the description of meaning • naked eye (idiom) • true feelings (frequent collocation) • brook (v) uncommon verb • place (n) very common word

16. Naked eye • It is idiomatic because we cannot explain it on the basis of the core meanings of the two words • “without the aid of a telescope or microscope” • several metaphorical extensions

17. left context • N-1 95% the (the naked eye) • N-2 90% with, to • … you can see with the naked eye • … just visible to the naked eye Colligation= the co-occurrence of grammatical choices • N-3 see, seen, visible, invisible

18. semantic preference(visibility) • (v) see, detect, spot, appear, perceive, view, recognise… • (adj) apparent, evident, obvious, undetectable “visibility+preposition+the+naked+eye”

19. semantic prosody (difficulty) • 85% of instances • small, faint, weak, difficult • barely, rarely, just • invisible • can, could (ability) The choice of semantic prosody is pragmatic, it links meaning to purpose

20. true feelings • semantic prosody of reluctance-inability will never reveal… prevents me from expressing… less open about showing… • semantic preference of expression communicate, show, reveal, give vent to… • colligation: possessive adjective Her true feelings • the core (true feelings)

21. place N-1 possessive, esp. my N-2 preposition, esp. to N-3 adverb of place: back, over, round, up Semantic prosody: informal invitation Semantic preference: local travel (verb of movement, come, go, walk, directional adverb) …would you like to come back to my place for a while…

22. change & happen cf. Zurich insurance company’s tagline “Because changehappenz” cf. Renault’s tagline “Drive the change” S. Nuccorini “’Because change happenz’”: on the phraseological environment of CHANGE and HAPPEN, in L.Pinnavaia, N.Brownlees , Polimetrica, 2010