Tag: lexis

Literary figures in everyday speech

Written by Hugh Dellar on January 18, 2023. Posted in Chunks, Phrase of the day. 2 Comments on Literary figures in everyday speech

In one of my recent classes, we were discussing the way in which the use of social media inside authoritarian countries like Russia, China and Iran is almost always monitored, and how posting something that’s deemed to be subversive or in opposition to the state can land you in hot water. Share an anti-government meme or express support for Ukraine or the Women, Life, Freedom protesters and you might find the secret police knocking on your door in the small hours.Many people living inside such countries are all-too well aware of the fact that Big Brother is always watching you. Now,...

Why teachers shouldn’t prefer blonde

Written by Hugh Dellar on November 5, 2014. Posted in Opinions, Vocabulary Choice. 7 Comments on Why teachers shouldn’t prefer blonde

I recently asked a couple of colleagues which word they thought was more frequent – arise or blonde. Almost immediately, the answer blonde came back. However, despite the confidence of the response, according to the British National Corpus (BNC) and various dictionaries, my colleagues were wrong! Arise is in fact nine times more frequent than blonde in the BNC. There is some evidence to suggest that my colleagues are not alone. Teachers (and students) are not very good at recognising frequency of words (see McCrostie 2007).Examples you can think of, rather than frequencyOne of the...