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PART II - 8. THE NATURE OF THE LEXICON
The term “ lexicon ” is known in English from the early 17th century, when it referred to a book containing a selection of a language’s words and meanings, arranged in alphabetical order. The term itself comes from Greek “ lexis ” [word, speech]. Within linguistics it refers to the total stock of meaningful units in a language (words, idioms, prefixes, and suffixes). To study the lexicon of English is to study all aspects of the vocabulary of the language (how words are formed, how they developed over the time, how they are used now…). It is a study which is carried on by lexicologists, who are thus practicing lexicology. Lexicographers lexicologists who choose to write a dictionary and their calling is lexicography. Lexicographers need to have had some training in lexicology, if they are to come up with good dictionaries. But one can be a good lexicologist without ever having written a dictionary at all. Lexemes units of lexical meaning, which exist regardless of any inflectional endings it may have or the number of words it may contain. (fibrillate, rain cats and dogs, come in, face the music, happiness…). The headwords in a dictionary are all lexemes. It may have several inflectional forms or grammatical variants (loved; loving; lover). Lexemes are grouped into semantic fields, and the relationships between them are strictly plotted. One of the most challenging tasks in English studies is the lexical study for its sheer quantity and range and because of the important balance between the stock of native words and the incredible amount of foreign borrowings into English over the centuries. There are ways in which language is most alive, such as the cases of catch phrases, vogue words, slangs, slogans, graffiti; and other cases in which language is dead or dying, such as clichés, archaisms, quotations. ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviations are one of the most noticeable features in present-day English linguistic life; the fashion for them can be traced back over 150 years. They were used with a humoristic and satirical intent mostly by society people. The fashionable use of abbreviation comes and goes in waves, though it is never totally absent. Reasons to use abbreviations are: Nowadays, there is the need of linguistic economy in many specific fields such as science, technology, media, drug trafficking, armed forces. Succinctness and precision are highly valued, and abbreviations can contribute to a concise style. Abbreviations help to convey a sense of social identity: using an abbreviated form to be part of a social groups. Types of Abbreviations : Initialisms (alphabetisms) : items which are spoken as individual letters (BBC, USA…). Not always they use the first letters of the constituent words: PhD uses the first two letters of the word philosophy; Tv takes a letter from the middle of the word. Acronyms : word formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts, so, initialisms which are pronounced as single words (ex. NATO, laser, UNESCO = United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). Such items would never have periods separating the letters. Clipping : the shortening of a longer word, often reducing it to one syllable (ex: ad, phone). Sometimes it is kept the first part of a word (exam), sometimes the last (bus) and sometimes a middle part (fridge). Several clipped forms also show adaptation, such as fries (French fried potatoes), Betty (Elizabeth). Blends : words which are made of shortened forms of two other words, such as brunch (breakfast + lunch) or smog (smoke + fog). Scientific terms frequently make use of blending. Facetious forms : TGIF=Thanks God It’s Friday; CMG (Call Me God). Latin abbreviations : etc.; et al… Awkward cases: abbreviations which do not fall clearly into the above categories. Some forms can be used either as initialisms or acronyms (UFO), some mix these types in one word (CDROM), some can form part of a larger word, using affixes (pro-BBC), some are used only in writing (Mr.).
PROPER NAMES
We do not usually count proper names as part of vocabulary. If it were otherwise, we could call ourselves lexically fluent only by knowing towns, streets and shop names of a foreign country. However, there are rules of pronunciation which must be followed, and rules of grammar which apply to proper names in a special way. There are names which have taken on an additional sense (such as The White House=“the US government”). English proper names are on the boundary of the lexicon. Some of them are so closely bound up with the way meaning is structured in the language that it would be difficult to exclude them from any superdictionary. They are felt to belong to the language and often have a language-specific form (ex. Christmas, January, the Moon…). HOW LARGE IS YOUR LEXICON? It depends on a person’s hobbies and educational background. Someone who reads several novels a week is obviously going to pick up a rather larger vocabulary than someone whose daily reading is restricted to the telephone directory. There must always be two totals given when presenting the size of a person’s vocabulary:
- One reflecting active vocabulary (lexemes active used in speech or writing).
- One reflecting passive vocabulary (lexemes know but not used). PART II - 9. THE SOURCES OF THE LEXICON In English language there are a million or more lexemes to deal with. There is a common approach looking at the origins, given that English language is the first in the world speaking of foreign borrowings and loan words (over 120 languages are on record as sources of its present-day vocabulary). The reason for this is historical: English was originally a Germanic language, related to Dutch and German. However, after the Norman Conquest in 1066 it was hugely influenced by Norman French (the language of the ruling class) and by Latin (the language of scholarship and of the Church). English is very ready to welcome foreign words. NATIVE VOCABULARY Many lexemes have arrived with the Germanic invaders (settled in Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries) and have never fallen out of use. The invaders all spoke a language that was Germanic and displaced the original Celtic- speaking inhabitants. The Anglo-Saxon lexical character continues to dominate everyday conversation, whether it be grammatical words (in, on, be, that), lexical words (love, name) or affixes (mis-, un-, -ness, -less). Anglo-Saxon lexemes provide almost all the most frequently used words in the language, even though they comprise only a small part of the total modern lexicon. Anglo-Saxon words: Parts of the body (arm, bone, chest, ear, eye, foot, hand, heart) The natural environment (field, hedge, hill, land, meadow, wood) The domestic life (door, floor, home, house) The calendar (day, month, moon, sun, year) Animals (cow, dog, fish, goat, hen, sheep, swine) Common adjectives (black, dark, good, long, white, wide) Common verbs (become, do, eat, fly, go, help, kiss, live, love, say, see, sell, send, think) A good way of developing a feel for the Anglo-Saxon element in the lexicon is to place Old English lexemes alongside later French or Latin borrowings. It is possible to notice that the later forms are usually more formal, bookish, and polite (guts courage; house mansion…). Writers like George Orwell, Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy criticized many other writers that habitually used words of Latin, Greek or French origins because they were considered grander than Anglo-Saxon words.
o Affix to noun (ologies and isms) o Phrase to noun (a has-been, a free-for-all…) Abbreviations A word or phrase is shortened (ex: Dr.). Compounds A lexeme that consists of more than one stem (ex: cupcake). There appear to be two (or more) lexemes present, but in fact the parts are functioning as a single item, which has its own meaning and grammar. Its tool is the hyphen, as in “flower-pot” (which can also be written as one single word, “flowerpot”). In order to be sure to have a compound we have to look carefully at the meaning of the sequence and the way it is grammatically used: earthquake= the earth quakes (subject+verb), crybaby= the baby cries, scarecrow= scares crows (verb+object), goldfish, homesick…; there are forms classical in origin which are linked to the other element of the compound by a linking vowel like -o, -a or -I (agriculture, biotechnology…). Morphological derivation The process of forming a new word from an existing word, often by adding a prefix or suffix (ex: unhappy). Calque or loan translation A word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word- for-word or root-for-root translation (e.g. It goes without saying). UNUSUAL STRUCTURES: Back-formation A new lexeme formed by deleting an imagined prefix or suffix to an old one. Their number increases each year, and some of them are coined because they meet a real need, as in the example of the verb “to therap” from therapist. Blends It takes two lexemes which overlap in form and welds them together to make one; enough of each lexeme is usually mantained so that the elements are recognizable (ex. motor+hotel=motel, breakfast+lunch=brunch, smoke+for=smog…) N.W.: in most cases the 2nd element is the one which controls the meaning of the whole (brunch is a kind of lunch and not a kind of breakfast) Reduplicatives it contains two identical or very similar constituents; some of them imitate sounds (ex. ding-dong) or suggest alternative movements (exs. ping-pong, flipflop). Reduplication is perhaps the most unusual means to create new lexemes in the English language. Portmanteaux two meanings packed up into one word (ex. slithy= lithe and slimy, where lithe is something like “active”) Familiarity markers a combination of an abbreviation and an affix producing a lexeme which is highly informal in tone and often used as part of the slang of a social group. The affixes themselves may combine (exs. auntie, daddy, Billy, aggro=aggravation, arvo=afternoon, weirdo, moms, gramps, bananas=mad) Nonsense words ex. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (from Mary Poppins movie) LEXICAL CREATION The general term for a newly-created lexeme is coinage, but in technical usage a distinction can be drawn between nonce words and neologisms. Nonce words : meaning created “for the once, the occasion”, it is a lexeme created for temporary use to solve an immediate problem of communication (ex: “fluddle” = the product of a storm, something bigger than a puddle but smaller than a flood). Neologism : it is literally “a new word in the language” and it stays new until people start to use it without thinking or until it falls out of fashion. We can never know which neologisms will stay and which will go. A very particular characteristic of English people is that native speakers seem to have a mania to trying to fill lexical gaps: if a word does not exist in the language, they are very ready to invent one. Some examples of words creations: Blinksync (the guarantee that, in any group photo, there will always be at least one person whose eyes are closed), Fagony (a smoker’s cough), Polygrouch (a person who complains about everything), Kellogulation (what happens to your cereals when you are called away just after you have poured milk on it), Leximania (a compulsive desire to invent new words). PART II. - 11. THE STRUCTURE OF LEXICON
Traditional dictionaries are the most widely used and appreciated books in seeking guidance about the lexicon of a language because of their efficient alphabetical organization and their sensible and succinct sense-by-sense entry structure, but their point of weakness is that they contain very little information about how the lexicon is structured. Lexicon’s structure : the network of meaning relationships which binds lexemes together what is known as semantic structure. Nearly all lexemes are someway bonded together. As soon as we think of one lexeme (uncle), a series of others come to mind, such as father, mother, brother or relate to it closely meaning (aunt, cousin, nephew), other have a looser semantic connection (family, relatives.). These associations can be objective or idiosyncratic (i.e. very personal, which change from person to person). SEMANTIC FIELDS They represent named areas of meaning in which lexemes interrelate and define each other in specific ways. If we think, for example, of all the lexemes we know to do with ‘fruit’, ‘colour’ we shall have no difficulty assigning banana, red etc. to their respective fields. The problem is to establish to what extent it is possible to assign all the lexemes in English to a semantic field in an unambiguous way.
- Some lexemes seem to belong to fields which are very difficult to define or which are vague
- Some seem to belong to more than one field
- Some seem to fall midway between two fields Semanticists try to relate the neatness of their analytical categories to the fuzziness of the real world, even though a very large number of lexemes can be grouped together into fields and subfields in a clear-cut way.. THE THESAURUS The notion of semantic fields suggests that there may be other possible approaches to lexicography than the traditional one using alphabetical order. Francis Bacon and John Wilkins firstly outlined a way of dividing everything into a small number of major areas, each being progressively subclassified until all concepts are dealt with in their appropriate place. Their work opened the way to the birth of the thesaurus. The first thesaurus, published in 1852 by its pioneer Peter Mark Roget, divides the lexicon into six main areas, that are then further subclassified giving a total of 1.000 semantic categories: abstract relations, space, the material world, the intellect, volition, sentient/moral powers. A thesaurus acts as a complement to the traditional dictionary: in a dictionary, we have a lexeme in mind, and wish to check on its meaning or use; by contrast, in a thesaurus we have a meaning I mind and wish o check on the lexemes available to express it. A Thesaurus does not provide any definitions: if we do not know the meaning of a lexeme in the thesaurus, we still need to look it up in a dictionary. The traditional thesaurus is limited, for reasons of practicability, to the more commonly occurring lexemes, but in recent years, efforts have begun to be made in order to reduce these limitations. LEXICAL STRUCTURE One way of imposing order on the thousands of lexemes which compose the English vocabulary is to group them into semantic field. We can think of lexemes being related along two intersecting dimensions:
- On the horizontal dimension (syntagmatic) we sense the relationships between lexemes in a sequence (there is a certain mutual expectancy between the main lexemes in a specific sentence). Horizontal expectancies of this kind are known as collocations or selectional restrictions.
- On the vertical dimension (paradigmatic), we sense the way in which one lexeme can substitute for another (substitution) and relate to it in meaning. So, the predictable links between lexemes are called sense relations, which are at the core of any account of lexical structure. Investigating collocations Every lexeme is surrounded by its lexical content, which plays a crucial role when we have to analyze its meaning. The various meanings of the lexeme begin to appear when we examine the collocations. There is a central lexeme (node), surrounded by a fixed amount of language – the span within which the search for collocations takes place. Often, collocational studies look only at the lexemes which are immediately adjacent to a node, or at those which fall within three or four places con either side of it. For common lexemes, we need to examine quite a wide span, and to look at many examples of use, in order for clear lexical patterns to emerge.
N.W.: the vast majority of lexemes in the language have no opposites at all (ex., there is no opposite of “rainbow”, “sandwich” or “chemistry”)
- Hyponymy: the relationship between a general term and the specific terms included within it. It can be best shown in the form of a tree diagram, where the more general term (hypernym) is placed at the top and the more specific terms (hyponyms) are placed underneath (ex. Flower daffodil, tulip, rose, pansy…). The most illuminating way of defining a lexeme is to provide a hypernym along with various distinguishing features. It is usually possible to trace a hierarchical path through a dictionary, following the hypernyms as they become increasingly abstract, until we arrive at such general notions that clear sense-relations between lexemes no longer exist.
- Incompatibles: we talk about incompatibility when we want to exclude one meaning from another, while hyponymy was related to the inclusion of one meaning into another (“I am thinking of an object which is painted in a single color, and it is red and yellow”: there is a problem with the sentence, because “red” and “yellow” are both hyponyms under the same hypernym (color) and so they are incompatible, while “red” and “dirty” would not be, because they do not belong to the same set and they can be used together without difficulty. Other sense relations: Notions such as synonymy and hyponymy are fundamental to semantic analysis because they express basic logical relationships which are represented widely throughout the lexicon. There are certain other kinds of meaning relationship which are much less widespread:
- Parts and wholes: a door is a part of a house and a house is a part of a village. However, it would be unusual to say that a door is a part of a village. It is unclear why some chains of items permit a relationship between non-adjacent items and others do not. There is a distinction between those parts which are an essential feature of an entity and those which are optional (for ex., an arm is an essential part of a male body, but a beard is not).
- Hierarchies: graded series of lexemes in which each item holds a particular rank being “higher” or “lower” than adjacent items (ex. Corporal-sergent-lieutenant). It represents a special kind of incompatibility. Several lexical domains are organized as hierarchies, reflecting for example relationships between people (military ranks, church seniority). Notions of quantity are also important, especially in relation to units of measurement (ex. Second-minute-hour)
- Series: the number system is unique because its items are members of an open-ended series in which the place of each item is defined by mathematical rules (one, two, three…, but also cyclical series such as the days of the week and the month). Making sense: a definition is the linguistic mechanism which brings everything together. It is a special type of sentence which relates all the relevant aspects of a lexeme’s meaning, enabling us to understand it. Definitions are listed in dictionaries. The basic structure of a definitional sentence has been known since Aristotle, who distinguished two factors: a general category to which a word belongs and the specific features or attributes which distinguish that word from related words. Semantic fuzziness: definitions are not always as precise as we would like them to be, because the entities and events which we want to talk about in the real world are not always clear and determinate. The more abstract is a word, the more difficult is to arrive at a precise lexical definition. PART II. ENGLISH VOCABULARY
- LEXICAL DIMENSIONS The English lexicon is so vast and varied that it is impossible to classify it into neat categories. A single lexeme contains information relating to several linguistic dimensions: when it came into English, how it is formed, whether it is in standard use ore restricted to a dialect, whether it carries resonances of gender, class, formality or ethnicity. The lexicon is an index of historical, social, and technological change. THE LOADED LEXICON
Denotation: the dictionary meaning of lexemes. It is the object relationship between a lexeme and the reality to which it refers (the denotation of purple is a colour with certain definable physical characteristic). A denotation identifies the central aspect of lexical meaning, which everyone would agree about. Connotation: it refers to the personal aspect of lexical meaning – often, the emotional associations with a lexeme incidentally brings to mind. (e.g. bus has such connotations as ‘cheapness’ or ‘convince’, for kids with ‘school’). Connotation varies according to the experience of individuals. When a lexeme is highly charged with connotation, we commonly refer to it as ‘loaded’. The language of politics and religion is full of such loaded expressions: capitalism, radical, dogma, pagan. In general, the more a domain or topic is controversial, the more it will contain loaded vocabulary, providing people with the lexical ammunition they need to reinforce their point of view. Taboo items which people avoid using in polite society, either because they believe them harmful or feel them embarrassing or offensive. The possibility of harm may be genuinely thought to exist, in the case of notions to do with death and the supernatural. Embarrassment tend to be associated with the sexual act and its consequences. Offensiveness relates to the various substances exuded by the body and to the different forms of physical, mental and social abnormality. The prohibition on use may be explicit as in the law courts and the broadcasting media. Most commonly, it is a tacit understanding between people. There are various ways of avoiding a taboo item. One is to replace it by a more technical term. Common in writing, is to part spell the item (f--k). The everyday method is to employ an expression which refers to the taboo topic in a vague or indirect way – a euphemism (e.g. ‘fall asleep’ to say ‘die’). Swearing this term is often used as a general label for all kinds of ‘foul-mouthed’ language, whatever its purpose. Swearing refers to the strongly emotive use of a taboo word or phrase. It is a substitute for an aggressive bodily response and can be aimed either at people or at object. Swearing has important social functions. It can mark social distance, as then a group of youths display their contempt for social conventions by swearing loudly in public or writing obscene graffiti on walls. When we join a new social group, it seems we are much influenced by its swearing norms. Swearing is contagious. The commonest notions about swearing are that of obscenity (related to sexuality), blasphemy (lack of reverence towards God) and profanity (irreverent reference to holy things and people). Jargon it’s itself a loaded word. One dictionary defines it as ‘the technical vocabulary or idiom of a special activity or group’, but this sense is almost completely overshadowed by another: ‘obscure and often pretentious language marked by a roundabout way of expression and use of long words’. Jargon is said to be a bad use of language, something to be avoided at all costs. The up side: the reality is that everyone uses jargon. It is an essential part of the network of occupations and pursuits which make up society. All jobs present an element of jargon, which workers learn as they develop their expertise. All sports and games have their jargon. The phenomenal turns out to be universal. The down side: jargon has a bad press because it can exclude as well as include: we may not be concerned if we find ourselves faced with an impenetrable wall of jargon when the subject matter has little perceived relevance to our everyday lives, as in the case of hydrology or linguistics. But when the subject matter is one where we feel implicated, and think we have right to know, and the speaker uses words which act as a barrier to our understanding, then we start to complain. The Doublespeak campaign During the 1970s in the USA there was a marked increase in concern about the way jargon was being used to confuse or deceive by people in power. The National Council of Teachers of English passed two resolutions on language: On Dishonest and Inhumane Uses of Language: That the National Council of Teachers of English find means to study dishonest and inhumane uses of language and literature by advertisers, to bring offenses to public attention and to propose classroom techniques for preparing children to cope with commercial propaganda. On the Relation of Language to Public Policy: The National Council of Teachers of English find means to study the relation of language to public policy, to keep track f, publicize and combat semantic distortion by public officials, candidates for office, political commentators and all those who transmit through the mass media. In the 1973 the Council decided on its way forward, forming a Committee on Public Doublespeak. The Committee focused on classroom activities and on professional awareness, publishing a newsletter and other materials. Doublespeak it is ‘language which pretends to communicate, but really doesn’t. It is language which makes the bad seem good, the negative seem positive, the unpleasant appear attractive, or at least tolerable. It is language which avoids or shifts responsibility, language which is at variance with its real or its purpose meaning. It is language which conceals or prevents thought’.
Slogans Originally, the word slogan was used to describe the battle-cry or rallying-cry of a Scottish clan. Today the application is different – to form a forceful, catchy, mind-grabbing utterance which will rally people to buy something. In their linguistic structure, slogans are very like proverbs. Sentences tend to be short, with a strong rhythm: Safety First. They often have a balanced structure, especially if they get at all lengthy : Make love, not war. Slogans are used for far more than advertising commercial products but are an essential part of all campaigns – political, safety, protest. Graffiti The word graffito originally referred to a drawing or inscription scratched on an ancient wall, such as those which have been found at Pompeii. In the present century, the name has come to be used for any spontaneous and unauthorized writing or drawing on walls, vehicles, and other public places. It is typically obscene or political in character, but a great deal of humour and popular wisdom can also be found, which has formed the basis of several collections by folklorists and humorists. Graffiti are often occasional, responding to current events and preoccupations, such as an election or a famous scandal. Most graffiti, however, bear no relation to a particular time or place. The same themes recur, over the years, as do some of the favorite formulae of the graffiti-writers. There is a great deal of straightforward praise or invective, for or against particular gangs, religious groups, political parties, protest groups, etc. The group's symbols or logos often play a prominent role in the design. Likewise, a large amount of space is devoted to obscenity and dirty jokes in general, as is only to be expected from data which originates on lavatory walls. A common tactic is to respond to a well-known quotation or slogan. Biblical quotations are frequently used as are commercial slogans. Graffiti dialogues also exist, as writers react to each other. In some Graffiti, puns and word play abound. These are usually of the category that might charitably be described as execrable, but they are sometimes highly ingenious - in some cases, playing with the words of a once popular song_._ Slang is language of a highly colloquial type, considered as below the level of educated standard speech, and consisting either of new words or of current words employed in some special sense. It is language of a low or vulgar type and the special vocabulary or phraseology of a particular calling or profession. This sums up the paradox of slang very well. People look down on it, but can hardly avoid using it. There is upper-class slang alongside lower-class slang, the slang of doctors and of lawyers, the slang of footballers and philatelists, as well as the slang which cuts across social class and occupation, available to anyone as the most colloquial variety of language. Slang is one of the chief markers of in-group identity. As such, it comes very close to jargon. THE USES OF SLANG People use slang for any of at least 15 reasons. Among them:
- As an exercise either in wit and ingenuity or in humour.
- To be different, to be novel.
- To be picturesque (either positively or negatively).
- To escape from clichés, or to be brief and concise.
- To enrich the language.
- To speak or write down to an inferior, or to amuse a superior public or merely to be on a colloquial level with either one's audience or one's subject matter.
- For ease of social intercourse. (Not to be confused or merged with the preceding.)
- To show that one belongs to a certain school, trade, or profession, artistic or intellectual set, or social class, to establish contact. Hence, to show or prove that someone is not 'in the swim'.
- To be secret-not understood by those around one. THE DYING AND DEAD LEXICON A word is dead when no one uses it anymore. A word can also be obsolescent (in occasional use by a few) or obsolete (used by no one). We can rarely observe the birth of a word and never its death. Quotations are fragment of socially embalmed language. It is language which has been placed on a pedestal, freely available for anyone to use, but readily sensitive to abuse. Anything which someone has said or written can be a quotation, but the term usually refers to those instances which have become famous over the years. It is important to distinguish from catch phrases and quotations. The first one is a species of quotation, tend to be of spoken origin, very short, subject to variation and popular for only a short period. Quotations tend to be of written origin, indeterminate in length, semantically more profound and capable of standing the test of time.
Proverbs : they convey the notions of a piece of traditional wisdom handed down by previous generations, and their effectiveness lies largely in its brevity and directness. Proverbial expressions have a simple syntax, vivid images and domestic allusions which make them easy to understand “Curiosity killed the cat”. Archaisms are features of an old state of the language which continues to be used while retaining the aura of its past. Grammar and lexicon provide the chief examples, thought older pronunciations will from time to time be heard and archaic spelling seen (e.g. unto, behold). They can be found in religious and legal settings, in trade names and commercial advertising. They mainly come from Middle and Early Modern English, and they can be found in an unexpected diverse range of contexts (for ex. historical novels, plays, poems and films about such topics as King Arthur or Robin Hood). Anyway, not all archaisms are very ancient: many items evoke Victorian or Edwardian times and include a great deal of slang and social usage. A writer who used archaisms in his novels is Walter Scott (ex. Ivanhoe). Ex: behold, sire, damsel… Clichés are fragments of language apparently dying, yet unable to die. They emerge when expressions outlive their usefulness as conveyors of information. They are dying not from underuse, as with the gradual disappearance of old- fashioned words, but from overuse. Such phrases have come to be so frequently used that they have lost their power to inform, to enliven, to mean. They have become trite, hackneyed expressions. And yet they survive, in a kind of living death, because people continue to use them, despite complaints and criticisms. They receive such a bad press because to use expressions which have been largely emptied of meaning implies that the user is someone who cannot be bothered to be fresh, clear, careful, or precise, or possibly someone who wishes to avoid clarity and precision. But clichés have their defenders, who point out that many of the expressions cited as clichés have a value: the ability to express what the critics condemn. If we wish to be lazy or routine in our thinking, if we wish to avoid saying anything precise, then clichés are what we need. Life is full of occasions when a serious conversation is simply too difficult, or too energetic, and we gratefully fall back on clichés. They can fill an awkward gap in a conversation; and there is no denying that there are some conversations which we would rather not have. In such circumstances, clichés are an admirable lexical life jacket. The words won’t lie down Whatever else we may say about the lexicon, and whatever we call the units (words, lexemes, lexical items, idioms...), it is undoubtedly the area of language which is most difficult to systematize and control. Its size, range, and variability is both an attraction and a hindrance. It comprises the largest part of the forms and structures which make up a language. The words won’t lie down, even if we left words alone, they would not, for vocabulary grows, changes, and dies without anyone being in charge. But we do not leave words alone. We do not even let them rest in peace. There are linguistic resurrectionists, who try to revive words that have been dead for centuries. There are reincarnationists, who recall the previous existence of a word, and let it influence their lives. Lastly, there are the linguistic necrologists, who collect last words and pore over them, attributing to them a fascination which no other quotations could possibly possess. The utterances are a source of pathos, humour, irony, joy, bewilderment, sadness - indeed, all possible human emotions. They provide an apposite coda to any study of the lexicon.
