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This paper investigates the intentional creation of ambiguity by composers of cryptic crossword puzzles. Taking a research question of "what makes a cryptic clue more difficult to solve than a simple crossword clue," it compares a sample of cryptic and quick crosswords from "The Guardian" and attempts to isolate the linguistic factors that make the cryptic crosswords more difficult to complete. Cryptic crosswords represent creative employment of linguistic resources within specific conventions to produce a particular form of language as entertainment. It was found that the cryptics, on the whole, do not use more difficult vocabulary than the quicks and that both types of crosswords indicate the senses and denotations of the target words in broadly similar ways. The cryptics do employ more non-prototypical sense of target words and make much use of lexical and syntactic ambiguity in their clue writing to create a "misleading context" that leads the solver "up the garden path." It is argued that cryptic clues provide interesting material to investigate how persons process ambiguity and explore verbal play and humor. Cryptics involve the solver's whole semantic and syntactic competence in the resolution of ambiguity. An appendix offers sample clues with solutions. (Contains 14 references.) (Author/NAV)

This paper offers a theoretical approach to vocabulary instruction from the evidence provided by lexical errors as the main sources of difficulty in the EFL acquisition process, it reviews previous research and from it suggests new ways of dealing with lexical errors in the classroom. Some practical implications are concluded which rely on lexical error categories identified in previous studies. Our main starting point is that lexical errors can serve as a guideline for teachers and researchers to improve vocabulary instruction. Identifying the main causes of lexical errors can help teachers understand the difficulties of their learners and assist them in planning and designing lessons and materials for the vocabulary class. Embarking from this premise, we have reviewed the main lexical error sources identified in the literature and provided some suggestions for vocabulary instruction.

There is no doubt that second/foreign language teaching and learning has evolved over the years, distinguishing varied trends in the course of its history. Interestingly, vocabulary has been the dominant focus in the last decades despite it being an undervalued and often overlooked component in the earlier stages. This reorientation is reflected not only in terms of classroom practices and education policies, but also in second/foreign language acquisition (SLA) research. The following seeks to provide an understanding of the position assigned to lexis within the scope of different methods implemented throughout the years, thus allowing us to: 1) trace the evolvement of the significance of vocabulary in SLA, and 2) appreciate the importance of lexical development in SLA. In congruity with these elements, current trends and practices related to second/foreign language vocabulary knowledge development are also discussed. This paper is of significance to scholars, researchers, language educators and curriculum designers.

This paper identifies the cohesive devices obtainable in two selected ESL academic papers: S. Faniran, Paralinguistic communication in Chinua Achebe's "A man of the people" and S.A Fabunmi's "The 'Nigeria project' and the indigenous languages of National integration". It examines the various lexical and grammatical cohesive devices used in the papers mentioned above. These cohesive devices are identified and highlighted as they connect one another to form a whole. The analysis of the cohesive features used in these academic papers revealed that for a text to be cohesive, it must be held together by some lexical and grammatical linguistic devices. The study adopts the taxonomy of cohesive relationship as provided by Halliday and Hassan to establish relationship within a text. These authors have given the most comprehensive and adequate treatment of the subject (cohesion in text) and has become the standard text in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a response to Paul Meara's (2005) critique of the Lexical Frequency Profile (LFP). Using simulated data, he challenges the claim that LFP is a sensitive and reliable tool for assessing vocabulary use in L2 speakers. In my response to his paper, I discuss the nature of lexical competence, in light of which LFP results should be interpreted. I question the robustness of computer generated artificial data on which the critique of LFP is based, and I show that Meara's criticisms contain various misrepresentations of our original work.

Knowing the origin of a language helps us to determine the historical background of that language. As language itself is such a system of a society that is continuously evolving as that aforementioned society learns and technologically develops along with its roots or origins. Like many other languages, English is also a language that has roots or origins in many different languages. In this sense, the English language, rooted as Anglo-Saxon, is known to derive most of its words from the Latin and Greek languages by whose modern cultures, it is assumed to be affected most. In this study, this derivation of words and the intrinsic difficulties probable to occur for English as a Foreign Language learners (hereafter EFLs) with a special interest upon the case of pluralization are scrutinized. That is why it is enlightened by the author of this paper within the scope of the historical background, the etymology of the English language within a linguistic perspective. As a result, the most common and confusing plural forms of Greek-originated English words, and some curing methods are defined.

Discourse is essential in communicating thoughts and ideas. People around the world communicate their ideas through stretches of language. In order to understand any discourse, it must achieve cohesion. The purpose of this paper is to define and describe the cohesive devices based on the work of Halliday and Hasan (1976). It also aims to emphasize the necessity of using these devices by analyzing a Michigan English Language Assessment Battery (MELAB) sample examination of a student's essay writing. The student's writing shows clear evidence of cohesion and demonstrates the use of grammatical and lexical devices. It is noticed that the most grammatical devices used are reference and conjunction. On the contrary, there is little evidence of using lexical devices. Although the essay is somewhat cohesive, some areas still need improvement.

This paper explores the role of lexical phrases in language education in general (native language or L1; and second/foreign language or L2) and more specifically, in the education of English learners in US and European contexts as well as in other English-speaking countries worldwide. Even though this topic has been addressed by researchers and linguists for over 30 years now, it does not seem to be a prominent one among classroom teachers, teacher educators, reading specialists, and others directly involved in the practicalities of classroom life. I suggest here that lexical phrases can contribute to serving the interests of these learners in the early years, primary, middle and elementary schools. I argue that these phrases can serve not only their linguistic concerns, but also their literacy in general, identity, personal, and socio-cultural concerns while simultaneously attending those of native English-speaking children in these areas too. On this basis I propose that lexical phrases are an ideal unit for teaching children in linguistically and culturally diverse settings. I conclude the paper with a discussion of some pedagogic implications which are directly relevant to everyday classroom life. (Contains 2 notes.)

The "Analects" is the most influential and enduring Chinese classics, which shows its splendor as early as 2,400 years ago between the spring and autumn and the warring states periods, covering a wide scope of subjects from politics, philosophy, literature and art to the education and moral cultivation. To the translator, the most important and most difficult problem is to understand the words and expressions of the archaic Chinese, and the culture background when translating literary classics. In this paper, we choose two versions to compare and analyze. One is from the Arthur Waley, whose version is considered to be the best and the complete one, another is from Ding Wangdao who is a Chinese professor. Compared to two versions, we will study the strategies of the book-domestication and foreignization from lexical level, syntactic level, stylistic level and cultural level.

How do people define ethnicity and its membership? Primordialists argue that people group themselves using "primal" or permanent characteristics like physical similarity or a common language, religion, or history. Social mobilizationists, however, see ethnicity as more situational social phenomena, as an informal organization whereby people group themselves in order to strengthen their political power, especially under conditions of class and stratification. Although these approaches seem incommensurate, I argue that for "minority" populations, both perspectives are valid. In other words, both the ethnic image that mainstream society holds and ethnic identity of the minority groups themselves influence the formation of ethnic categories and their memberships. I will show how the perspective of Vantage Theory can elucidate much that is often overlooked in the study of ethnicity. In this paper I look at how Japanese Brazilians, Japanese Brazilian "dekasegi" returnees, and Okinawans form their notions of ethnicity. In particular, this paper explores the lexical semantics of the terms: "Nihon-jin", "Nihon no hito", "returnee", "Japones, Brasirelo/a", "dekasegi", "Yamato-nchu", and "Uchinaa-nchu" to extract the meaning and the understandings held by members of these various groups in their socially-embedded contexts, using the formal mechanisms of Vantage Theory. In all three cases, as Vantage Theory explains how various properties become more-emphasized and less-emphasized, we can better understand the dynamics of ethnic category construction and the way they are used by participants. That is, by both (1) examining what formal linguistic and lexical vantages are constructed by members of these groups and finding what the entailments ensure, and (2) exploring the less formal social vantages and perspectives held--and under what contexts--we can offer not only a more robust ethnographic and linguistic analysis, but one that is more theoretically sound as well. (Contains 1 table and 9 figures.)

Rote memorization of vocabulary has long been a common way for Chinese students to learn lexical items. Cultural, educational background and traditional teaching practice in China are identified to be the factors that contribute to many students' heavy reliance on memorization as their sole approach to vocabulary learning. In addition to rote memorization which has been proved useful and effective in the Chinese ELT context, this paper suggests that students be presented with vocabulary learning strategies and be taught how to build vocabulary through other useful learning methods.

False friends are words in two languages that are similar in form but different in meaning (e.g. English "library" "place for reading and borrowing books" vs Spanish "libreria" "bookshop"). From the point of view of EFL teaching and learning, false friends are important because they lead us to errors in L2 production and comprehension (e.g. "I am very constipated"; "it has been a fastidious speech" and "you should eat food without preservatives"). This paper intends to present some useful tools (dictionaries, online resources, glossaries and blogs) for the teaching and learning of false friends. The resources presented here will allow us to discover the complexity of the false friend phenomenon and will contribute to the teaching and to the learning of these words. (Contains 2 figures.)

This paper presents a theoretical account for how learners might draw upon L1 lexical and conceptual knowledge when making assumptions about connections between words in the L2 lexicon. It is suggested that L1 lexical knowledge can be both a help and a hindrance when forming L2 connections, particularly in respect to collocations. Furthermore, some of the commonly-held assumptions about the significance of paradigmatic and syntagmatic connections for L2 lexical development are challenged in light of the theoretical proposals presented in the paper.

This paper explores some properties of very simple network structures. It argues that the behaviour of these structures might be able to throw some light on how real lexicons behave. The paper argues that working with very explicit and over simplified models of lexicons might sometimes have advantages over working with more realistic but vague models, whose detailed workings are underspecified. The simple models make it easier to determine what features of bilingual lexicons are merely general properties of networks, and which features arise because of the specific properties a real lexicon might have.

This paper examines the effectiveness of routinizing lexical phrases to a group of second language learners. A group of proficiency class students were drilled or routinized with semi-fixed and fixed phrases which are commonly used in problem-solving group discussion. Basic frequency counts and interview were carried out to see improvement in learners' communicative ability and how the lexical phrases benefit them. The learners can use a number of phrases appropriately in several group discussions. Thus, the practice of routinizing lexical phrases which is based on the lexical approach can be applied in second language learning.

This paper discusses on the mapping of the English preposition "at" in the context of forward and backward translation in temporal domain based on the temporal sense of "at" of the English preposition and its extension to different lexical positions in the Arabic language. This can be explained in the way the conceptual mapping sense is used to an underlying concept and finding its lexical meaning in the target language. The forward and backward translation tests are suggested in order to identify the concept of mapping of the three different groups, using the temporal sense, in three semantic mapping categories (SDM, ZDM and DDM).

This paper addresses the crucial question of the structuring of scientific Notions for the purpose of their proper teaching/acquisition. It aims to demonstrate that non-taxonomic structures, derived from the systematic lexicographic definition of terminological lexical units, can be rigorously constructed and are adequate for implementing a non-isolationist approach to terminology modeling: one that embeds the description of terminological units within a more global model of the general lexicon. Using theoretical and descriptive principles of Explanatory Combinatorial Lexicology and the lexicography of lexical networks known as Lexical Systems, we apply our approach to the core terminology of chemistry and chemistry-related environmental terminology. This allows us to propose Notion building road maps for three languages—English, French and Russian—that can be used as guides for the teaching/acquisition of chemistry Notions. Additionally, exploiting the special case of the noun carbon—which pertains to chemistry, environmental science and, even, general language—we demonstrate the potential of our non-isolationist approach for interfacing distinct sectors of terminological knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the content and history of two linguistic manuscripts from the collection left after Anders Johan (Johann Andreas, Andrej Mihajlovič) Sjögren (1794-1855) at the Archives of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. It turns out that -- unlike most other manuscripts in this collection -- they stem from A. J. Sjögren's own field work among the speakers of Olonets Karelian, Veps, Lapp (5 dialects, including the now extinct Sompio and Kuolajarvi dialects), Nenets and Komi. While the Lapp glossaries by A. J. Sjögren are well known to the Lappologists (though mistakenly believed to have been compiled by Rev. Jacob Fellman), the never published Mezen' Nenets glossary from 1826 is an attestation of A. J. Sjögren's direct contribution to Samojedology, as well as an important early source of Western Tundra Nenets data. The paper contains an alphabetically arranged list of Nenets words found in this glossary (with correspondences from later Nenets dictionaries). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates using data-driven learning (DDL) as a means of stimulating greater lexicogrammatical knowledge and reading speed among lower proficiency learners in an extensive reading program. For 16 weekly 90-minute sessions, an experimental group (12 students) used DDL materials created from a corpus developed from the Oxford Bookworms Graded Readers, while a control group (10 students) had no DDL input. Both classes were required to read a minimum of 200,000 words during the course. An embedded-experiment design (Edmonds & Kennedy, 2017) was adopted consisting of both qualitative and quantitative forms of investigation. Quantitative data from the Vocabulary Levels Test by Nation and Beglar (2007) and a C-test (Klein-Braley & Raatz, 1984) constructed from an upper-level Bookworms reader found statistically significant lexicogrammatical improvements for both groups, but greater improvement took place within the control group. Qualitative data derived from a repertory grid analysis of student constructs revealed several possible reasons for the experimental group's lack of engagement with DDL. The study concludes that careful attention to students' learning preferences and a softening of the DDL approach may ensure better results with lower proficiency learners.

K'iche' Maya divides the breaking and cutting domains into much more specific actions than either English or Spanish. K'iche' does not have a general word for breaking that can be substituted for the specialized breaking verbs in the way that English "break" can be used to describe more specific senses of picking, popping, smashing, or shattering. Twenty-seven definitions for English "break" are listed versus 42 meanings in K'iche'. Thus, K'iche' has gaps in its lexical and conceptual structure with no equivalent lexical or phrasal expressions for English "break" and "cut." K'iche' examples illustrate that "cut" verbs do not universally fail to undergo the causative alternation. Such facts pose severe difficulties for the notion of a universal conceptual structure underlying language. It is concluded that K'iche' breaking verbs are difficult to define because their meaning is not captured by the same set of semantic features that underlies English breaking verbs. It is concluded that the assumption of semantic indeterminacy expands the scope of field investigations and is preferable to the assumption of semantic determinacy. (Contains 16 references.) (Author/NAV)