1. Syntactic relationships
Collocations. between elements in
the clause or sentence
The result of a very The open choice The idiom principle. A language user has
large number of principle available a large number
complex choisesn of semi-preconstructed
phrases.
Sequence of two or
Multi-word items.
more words.
The degree to which a
multi-word ítem is
Institutionalisation
conventionalized in
the language.
Non-compositionality. There are 3
important Multi- Fixedess.
word items The degree to which a
The degree to which a multi-word ítem is
multi-word item cannot be frozen as a sequence
interpreted on a word-by- of words.
word basis. These 3 criteria
operate together.
Very complex group.
Idioms.
The largest and
Compounds.
most tangible
There are different
group. General term to cover
types of Multi-word
ítems. a number of Multi-
Fixed-
word items.
phrases.
Phrasal verbs.
Combinations of verbs
and adverbials or Pre-constructed
Prefabs.
prepositional particles. Traditions and models. phrases which are tied
to discoursal
situations.
Syntax-based model. Semantic-based
model.
To take gramatical This are in many
well-formedness as respects the most
their starting point. traditional.

2. One million
words.
First generation.
Corpus evidence To examine lexis in a
more scientific and
objective way.
Twenty million Second generation.
words.
British/American.
Variability.
Varying lexical
component.
Stylistic errors.
Unstable verbs.
The use of an Multi-word ítems are
excessively marked presented as a problem in Truncation.
multi-word ítem. teaching a foreign language.
Transformation.
Pragmatic errors.
Formal errors.
The inappropiate use Failure to recognise a Teaching multi-word
of multi-word ítems in string as non- ítems.
discoursal contexts. compositional.
Pedagogical
techniques.
The use of short To choose topics on the
basis of frecuency, need,
dialogues.
transparency etc.