How to use a dictionary effectively

Keep a lexical notebook!  Each time you come across a new word, write it down in a special notebook.  For each word, check its pronunciation and collocation.  Pay particular attention to idioms and phrasal verbs. When you record them in your notebook, be sure to add an example of their use.

Collocations Collocations are words that co-occur. If a word collocates with many other words, the result is a free combination and we say that the word does not have a fixed collocation (e.g. ‘go’, ‘girl’, ‘car’). On the contrary, if a word can be found only with certain other words, we say that the word has or forms a fixed or restricted collocation (e.g. ‘ajar’ and ‘door’, 'auburn' and 'hair', 'nod' and 'head', 'shrug' and 'shoulder' etc.).

a tall order (hard to achieve) For example: do homework make the bed do me a favour take a risk a faint smell a tall order (hard to achieve)

There are no rules on how these collocations are formed, they simply ‘sound right’ to the native speaker. For example: You say heavy smoker but you would never say strong smoker. Referring to height, we would never say Tom is high (!!!), we say Tom is tall. We take a quick shower, not a fast shower. We have a heated argument, not a hot argument.

Collocations and use of dictionary Always check collocations carefully in your monolingual dictionary before deciding whether the word you have chosen suits your text or not. If you miss the right collocation, your writing might sound awkward or even incomprehensible!

Idioms An idiom is a special type of collocation. The word 'idiom' can be paraphrased as a group of words that together have a meaning that is different from the ordinary meaning of each separate word.

Idioms For example, if you are feeling ‘under the weather’, it means that you are not feeling very well (the weather has nothing to do with it; you are not referring to the weather in a literal way).

Idioms can show different degrees of semantic opacity. For instance, 'green light' is less opaque than 'red herring‘: to give somebody the green light = to allow a project, plan etc. to begin) to be a red herring = a fact or idea that is not important but is introduced to take your attention away from the points that are important.

CAVEAT! The use of idioms requires very good language knowledge. Think carefully before including an idiom in your essay!

Phrasal verbs Phrasal verbs combine verbs and prepositions to make new verbs whose meaning may be very different from that of the original verb. For instance, 'give up' is a phrasal verb that means 'stop doing' something, which is very different from 'give'.

Phrasal verbs (main verb+adverb particle) often have meanings which we cannot easily guess from their individual parts. The particle may come before or after the object if the object is not a personal pronoun. Ex. 1) Would you like me to hand the copies out / to hand out the copies? 1) I’ve made some copies. Would you like me to hand them out?

Phrasal verbs They are widely used in both written and spoken English, and new ones are formed all the time as they are a flexible way of creating new terms. See examples with UP.

Even if a phrasal verb can often be paraphrased using words that are more familiar for non-native speakers, English native speakers tend to prefer and use the phrasal verb because the substitute word is often too formal. Ex. Put out (extinguish) “Could you put out your cigarette, please?” Ex. Get rid of (eliminate) “She decided to get rid of her old car.”

Prepositional verbs Prepositional verbs have two parts: a verb and a preposition which cannot be separated from each other. ex. The US is the only country in the world that depends upon for-profit insurance companies for the majority of their health-care coverage.

CLASS SHIFT We speak of class shift when the basic form of a word does not change, but its function does. Ex. ‘can’ (it. ‘lattina’) Noun > “Please open the can.” Adjective > “Use a can opener.” Verb > “Help me can the food.” Of course, morphological rules hold, ex. “Yesterday I canned some food.”

yield /ji:ld/ (to) yield [verb] = (to) produce profit, food, information yield [noun, usually singular] = profits

Class shift coupled with stress shift: -’progress / pro’gress - ‘decrease / de’crease - ‘project / pro’ject - ‘increase / in’crease Stress on the first syllable: noun Stress on the second syllable: verb

survey (noun) = / ’sɜ:veɪ / to survey (verb) = /sɜː’veɪ/ Exercise: ‘Survey’ (NB: stress pattern varies) survey (noun) = / ’sɜ:veɪ / to survey (verb) = /sɜː’veɪ/

1) With which grammar functions has the word ‘survey’ been used in the following text excerpts? We need to run a survey. / ’sɜ:veɪ / b. The survey population consisted of 500 men and 500 women. c. I asked him to survey the population using a questionnaire. /sɜː’veɪ/