To be in the red

To ride the storm

To take pot luck

To blow a raspberry

9. What is the meaning of these new words?

Foodie

Edutainment

Emoticon

Couch surfing

Tomb stoning

If you want to learn more of these, go to http://www.macmillandictionary.com/buzzword/recent.html

10. What do these symbols in dictionaries mean?

[U] [C] [T] [I] V+ing V-LINK PHR-V IDM DET

11. Which words collocate with:

honesty, friendship, utter (adj.), sheer

12. Look up in the Visual English Dictionary:

· three parts of a violin

· find some terminology for your favourite sport and make your colleagues guess which sport you are referring to

WORKSHEET 1

LEXICAL RELATIONS

Collocations

1. Here are some examples of sentences written by learners of English. Put in bold any odd or unacceptable collocations and suggest alternatives:

1. His books commanded criticism from many people.

2. There was a high difference between the two teams.

3. I am doing this exam because I want to achieve a step in my career.

4. He had been found guilty of some slight crimes.

5. She won many competitions, forming fame in the process.

6. I was very grateful, because he had rescued my life.

2. In the text below, pick out typical (unmarked) collocations from the context of “phone”, and unusual (marked) collocations that the writer is using creatively.

“He went into a cafe and asked if he could use the phone. He dialled Sandra’s number and waited. Any second now, two hundred miles away, in Sandra’s flat, her phone, perched on its mahogany table, would ring with, he hoped, a tone of urgency reflecting his panic. But would she answer it? Or, worse still, had she disconnected it, as she sometimes did when she was working? After what seemed like an eternity it purred into life and began its regulated chirping”.

WORKSHEET 2

LEXICAL MEANING

1. What are the grammatical and lexical meanings of the following words:

table

arrived

water

longer

2. Lexical meaning. Denotation. What do these words denote?

Lexical meaning. Connotation.

Examine these synonymic groups. Which word on each line has the strongest connotation? Is it positive or negative? Is it formal, informal or neutral?

Supply some examples of synonyms with different connotation of your own and let your colleagues guess.