Pedagogical Descriptions of Language: Lexis

Any account of the lexcial description of English with reference to second language teaching over the past decade is essentially a review of developments in pedagogical lexicography over the same period. It is not simply that English monolingual dictionaries designed for foreign learners have increased astonishingly in number, variety, and authority throughout this time (McArthur 1989, Zgusta 1989); it is also the case that much recently published lexical analysis with an applied linguistic focus has either had the partial aim of improving existing dictionaries (Herbst 1984, Bolinger 1985) or been a preliminary to the compilation of new ones (Cowie 1981, Sinclair 1985).