Lexical chunk is an umbrella term for "words that go together" and covers various types of lexical relationships such as:
- collocations (eg heavy rain, wild idea, narrow minded, depend on)
- idioms ( eg not in a month of Sundays, beat around the bush, let the cat out of the bag)
- polywords (in spite of, of course, by dint of)
- binomials (tried and tested, sink or swim)
- trinomials (hook, line and sinker, tall, dark and handsome, blood, sweat and tears)
- multiword verbs (give over, take after, run out of, take up with)
- gambits (The thing is..., If you ask me..., Can I just say that...)
Test Your Understanding...
...with this activity: Lexical Chunks (1)
Recommended Reading
Lewis, M. The Lexical Approach, CENGAGE ELT
Lewis, M. The Lexical Approach, CENGAGE ELT
