The document discusses the importance of idiomatic lexical chunks in language, focusing on their identification, usage, and teaching methods. It presents examples of idiomatic expressions and emphasizes their grammatical irregularities and semantic opacity. Additionally, it highlights the significance of teaching these chunks effectively in various contexts, underlining their prevalence in both spoken and written texts.

1. Coming to terms with lexical chunks: Identifying, using and teaching . Helen Osimo, University of Haifa Oranim Academic College of Education, Israel [email_address]

2. Jerusalem is lost in translation !! Tourism officials in Israel did little to sell the city of Jerusalem as a must-see for visitors when a brochure suggested it did not exist. The sightseeing pamphlet was translated from Hebrew to English and read:

3. "Jerusalem - there's no such city !", instead of the slogan: "Jerusalem - there's no city like it !". Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/5364192.stm Published: 2006/09/20 14:27:14 GMT (taken from Maariv)

4. IDIOMATIC LEXICAL CHUNK ILC full idioms semi- transparent/ variable chunks |____________________________________________| kick the bucket no such city/word/person

5. … a formulaic unit "is no longer obliged to be grammatically regular or semantically logical" Wray (2002:33)

6. IDENTIFYING ILCs CRITERIA : an idiomatic lexical chunk is a multiword unit that is 1.grammatically irregular – at least one component does not follow regular grammatical rules; irregularity includes fixedness and grammatical constraints

7. and/or 2. semantically opaque in varying degrees – at least one component in the unit does not convey its conventional meaning.

8. semantically opaque I’m all ears come to terms with by and large

9. grammatical irregularities tense: It’s about time you went to bed

10. grammatical irregularities tense: It’s about time you went to bed article: Just say the word

11. grammatical irregularities tense: It’s about time you went to bed article: Just say the word fixed tense: Come to think of it

12. grammatical irregularities tense: It’s about time you went to bed article: Just say the word fixed tense: Come to think of it restricted to the plural: I’m all ear s

13. Julia and I go way back. The relationship isn’t perfect and we’ve had our ups and downs. Sometimes she makes me furious and I am ashamed to admit that once or twice I've even knocked her about a bit. What drives me crazy is the way her ‘P’ keeps getting stuck, and that now and again her shift becomes loose. I never see eye to eye with her about her messy ribbons either, nor the fact that every intimate nook and cranny is constantly clogged up with dust. But Julia and I make the best of it. After all, we've been through a lot over the years: two books, reams of journalism, and hundreds of letters. Come to think of it, we're partners because we understand each other. In the lonely business of writing, Julia is my one and only companion – for better or for worse – and her loyalty means a lot. My friends and colleagues are always making fun of me and call me an old dinosaur. They insist that sooner or later I’ll have to start using a word-processor and get rid of Julia – my faithful old typewriter!

14. Julia and I go way back . The relationship isn’t perfect and we’ve had our ups and downs . Sometimes she makes me furious and I am ashamed to admit that once or twice I've even knocked her about a bit. What drives me crazy is the way her ‘P’ keeps getting stuck , and that now and again her shift becomes loose. I never see eye to eye with her about her messy ribbons either, nor the fact that every intimate nook and cranny is constantly clogged up with dust. But Julia and I make the best of it : After all, we've been through a lot over the years : two books, reams of journalism and hundreds of letters. Come to think of it , we're partners because we need each other . In the lonely business of writing, Julia is my one and only companion – for better or for worse – and her loyalty means a lot . My friends and colleagues are always making fun of me and call me an old dinosaur. They insist that sooner or later I’ll have to start using a word-processor and get rid of Julia – my faithful old typewriter !

15. PERCENTAGE OF CHUNKS IN THE TEXT 189 words 19 ILCs (66 words) 35% of the text comprises ILCs

16. PERVASIVENESS OF LEXICAL CHUNKS 58.6% spoken and 52.3% written texts (Erman & Warren:2000)

17. USING ILCs three structural patterns : fixed variable discontinuous

18. Julia and I go way back . The relationship isn’t perfect and we’ve had our ups and downs . Sometimes she makes me furious and I am ashamed to admit that once or twice I've even knocked her about a bit. What drives me crazy is the way her ‘P’ keeps getting stuck , and that now and again her shift becomes loose. I never see eye to eye with her about her messy ribbons either, nor the fact that every intimate nook and cranny is constantly clogged up with dust. But Julia and I make the best of it : After all, we've been through a lot over the years : two books, reams of journalism and hundreds of letters. Come to think of it , we're partners because we need each other . In the lonely business of writing, Julia is my one and only companion – for better or for worse – and her loyalty means a lot . My friends and colleagues are always making fun of me and call me an old dinosaur. They insist that sooner or later I’ll have to start using a word-processor and get rid of Julia – my faithful old typewriter !

19. Julia and I go way back . The relationship isn’t perfect and we’ve had our ups and downs . Sometimes she makes me furious and I am ashamed to admit that once or twice I've even knocked her about a bit. What drives me crazy is the way her ‘P’ keeps getting stuck , and that now and again her shift becomes loose. I never see eye to eye with her about her messy ribbons either, nor the fact that every intimate nook and cranny is constantly clogged up with dust. But Julia and I make the best of it : After all, we've been through a lot over the years : two books, reams of journalism and hundreds of letters. Come to think of it , we're partners because we need each other . In the lonely business of writing, Julia is my one and only companion – for better or for worse – and her loyalty means a lot . My friends and colleagues are always making fun of me and call me an old dinosaur. They insist that sooner or later I’ll have to start using a word-processor and get rid of Julia – my faithful old typewriter !

20. Julia and I go way back . The relationship isn’t perfect and we’ve had our ups and downs . Sometimes she makes me furious and I am ashamed to admit that once or twice I've even knocked her about a bit. What drives me crazy is the way her ‘P’ keeps getting stuck , and that now and again her shift becomes loose. I never see eye to eye with her about her messy ribbons either, nor the fact that every intimate nook and cranny is constantly clogged up with dust. But Julia and I make the best of it : After all, we've been through a lot over the years : two books, reams of journalism and hundreds of letters. Come to think of it , we're partners because we need each other . In the lonely business of writing, Julia is my one and only companion – for better or for worse – and her loyalty means a lot . My friends and colleagues are always making fun of me and call me an old dinosaur. They insist that sooner or later I’ll have to start using a word-processor and get rid of Julia – my faithful old typewriter !

21. Julia and I go way back . The relationship isn’t perfect and we’ve had our ups and downs . Sometimes she makes me furious and I am ashamed to admit that once or twice I've even knocked her about a bit. What drives me crazy is the way her ‘P’ keeps getting stuck , and that now and again her shift becomes loose. I never see eye to eye with her about her messy ribbons either, nor the fact that every intimate nook and cranny is constantly clogged up with dust. But Julia and I make the best of it : After all, we've been through a lot over the years : two books, reams of journalism and hundreds of letters. Come to think of it , we're partners because we need each other . In the lonely business of writing, Julia is my one and only companion – for better or for worse – and her loyalty means a lot . My friends and colleagues are always making fun of me and call me an old dinosaur. They insist that sooner or later I’ll have to start using a word-processor and get rid of Julia – my faithful old typewriter !

22. IDIOMATIC LEXICAL CHUNKS FIXED VARIABLE (verb tense, pronoun, negation) DIS- CONTINUOUS (+ lexical items)

23. The fixed pattern once or twice nook and cranny come to think of it each other over the years

24. The variable pattern [see] eye to eye saw eye to eye have never seen eye to eye didn’t see eye to eye [ Make] the best of [it]

25. The discontinuous pattern keeps getting stuck which would be represented keeps getting [ADJ] keeps getting lost/sick/tired/bored

26. She kept getting sick They keep getting lost represented thus : [keep] getting [ADJ]

27. ILCs grammatically irregular and/or semantically opaque FIXED once or twice each other VARIABLE [see] eye to eye DIS-CONTINUOUS [keep] getting [ ADJ ]

28. TEACHING ILCs Should we teach them? Which chunks should we teach? Who should be taught? How should we teach them?

29. TEACHING ILCs text-oriented approach goal-oriented approach practice tasks organisational frameworks

30. CATEGORIES as an organisational framework speech acts modal verbs delexicalised verbs ( make, get, have ) binomials

31. BINOMIALS fixed multiword units usually composed of two lexical items joined most frequently by and, or, but ups and downs once or twice now and again nook and cranny one and only for better or for worse sooner or later

32. They often have synonyms: sooner or later = eventually They sometimes repeat the same word: again and again little by little They often start with the same letters or sounds: first and foremost last but not least born and bred

33. some rhyme wear and tear wine and dine similar in Hebrew but not the same sooner or later more or less for better or for worse no Hebrew equivalent back to front the same in Hebrew one and only

34. DELEXICALISED VERBS MAKE [make] [me] [ADJ] ( furious, happy, upset, curious …) [make] the best of [it/them] [make] fun of [me]

35. add chunks from the same category [make] sure [make] up [your] mind [can’t] make head or tail of

36. A HEADWORD THAT OCCURS FREQUENTLY IN CHUNKS way a very frequent idiomatic intensifier [go] way back

37. other examples of way as an intensifer way above, way below, way beyond, way too long, way out of reach

38. For HETEROGENEOUS CLASSES Add chunks with the same headword by the way [pave] the way for set in [his] ways [rub] [NP] up the wrong way

39. VOCABULARY UNIT chunks which share meaning agree – [see] eye to eye o ccasionally – once or twice now and again

40. add chunks with similar meanings on and off; now and then; once in a while; once in a blue moon

41. GRAMMAR UNIT present simple tense with temporals - sometimes + ILC - now and then

42. IDENTIFYING A CONTINUUM OF IDIOMATICITY 1. Is it grammatically irregular ? and/or 2. Is it semantically opaque ?

43. USING THREE STRUCTURAL PATTERNS FIXED VARIABLE (verb tense, pronoun, negation) DISCONTINUOUS (+ lexical items )

44. TEACHING TWO APPROACHES Text-orientated goal-orientated ↓ ↓ categories head words shared meaning …

45. Be aware !! Idiomatic chunks are all over the place

46. Thank you for

47. Thank you for [bearing] with [me] [email_address]