Lexis Eight

1.    Style

So it appears we come back to this again. ‘Style,’ which I can’t help but feel is very much like pornography – no-one can really define it, but we all know it when we see it.

“They are used for stylistic variation… [t]his can be problematic for learners, particularly where their first language does not use stylistic (elegant) variation to the same extent.”

* * * * *

“Procedural vocabulary is the vocabulary used to define and discuss other, more complex and specialized words.”

2.    Frustration

“Discourse is language in use, and the ‘usefulness’ of an item as a contribution to an unfolding discourse is a measure of its communicability.”

(McCarthy, p188)

“Discourse value is a feature of linear encoding rather than a product model of the lexicon…”

(Ibid, p191)

“In naturally occurring texts, words which have fixed values in an abstract lexicon can be subject to a process of negotiation.”

(Carter, p87)

These quotes seem to cut to the heart of the matter for me. Though that’s probably a direct result of the not insignificant frustration I feel when fielding my colleagues questions about specific word choice within a structure. The overly-rigid conception of the slot-and-filler model of language induced by the grammar-translation method leads to the view that there must be significantly different meanings for different individual words, and the overall effect of context and relation is ignored.

To be fair, most of my Japanese colleagues seem to get this, but when they check things with me it’s normally with regard to textbooks and tests (i.e. written texts) which insist that there much be a single ‘right’ answer in isolation.

I’m loving doing this course, but by christ it’s frustrating when viewed through the prism of my working environment.

That’s your lot for this. Gonna have to let this wash around in my head for a bit before I can get anything like a decent handle on it. Need examples. Need applications. Need a bit more concrete.