{"id":1184,"date":"2023-02-26T12:27:27","date_gmt":"2023-02-26T12:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laurajanebaxter.com\/?p=1184"},"modified":"2023-02-26T12:27:32","modified_gmt":"2023-02-26T12:27:32","slug":"what-a-lexical-item-is-and-why-you-need-to-know-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laurajanebaxter.com\/?p=1184","title":{"rendered":"What a \u201clexical item\u201d is and why you need to know about it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is lexis? What are lexical items? How are they different from vocabulary? Are you learning vocabulary or lexis when you study foreign languages?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The problem with learning vocabulary, rather than lexical items<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are just so <\/em>many words to remember!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was requested by one of my readers. When I asked, \u201cWhat do you struggle most with when trying to learn a language?\u201d, one of the answers I got was how to learn vocabulary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s think about the challenge of learning vocabulary. Look around you right now. Everything you see – literally everything – every item of furniture, every object, every material it is made out of, everything you can see out of the window, every word you read on this screen, there’s a word for each of those thigns in your target language. Every thought you\u2019ve had today and, in fact, every thought you\u2019ve had ever<\/em>, and every feeling you\u2019ve had – there is a sound or set of sounds, and spelling, for every single one of those things in your target language. All of them. Sometimes, with all of these new ways of identifying everything, it feels like a foreign language is a secret code and everything that everyone is saying is completely encrypted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, if you ask me, that\u2019s a pretty overwhelming realisation. How am I supposed to memorise a sound and a visual symbol – for every single thing ever, that has ever existed? Think about how long it took you to memorise all the answers to the multiplication tables up to 12 (if you ever did). Now imagine having to memorise something like that for everything, ever. It\u2019s a herculean, mammoth task that seems utterly ridiculous and impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. How do we make it easier to learn all these words?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This problem comes with three key aspects:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. expose yourself<\/strong> to a new word you\u2019ll actually understand,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. get it to stick <\/strong>in your head, and <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. learn it so that you can actually <\/strong>use <\/em><\/strong>it.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Through my own experience, it turns out that (2) doesn\u2019t automatically lead to (3). Just because you have the word memorised, doesn\u2019t mean you can actually use it<\/em> in conversation. Today I\u2019m discussing (3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3. What is the difference between \u201cvocabulary\u201d and a \u201clexical item\u201d?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    In short, vocabulary is a word, whereas a lexical item is a bit of language, and sometimes a bit of language can be a series of several words that you usually find together. For example, in English, we have a lot of \u2018phrasal verbs\u2019, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n