Fixed expressions in English:

reference books and the teacher

Richard J. Alexander
A brief discussion of the need to focus on fixed expressions in English is
followed
by a summary
analysis of the types to be found. Thirteen
dictionaries
and reference
works are inspected
to ascertain
their
coverage of fixed expressions. An annotated
bibliography
assesses the
utility of selected reference works for both teacher and learner.
Introduction

Vocabulary
phraseology,
advanced

learning,
and the
learner

Teachers and learners of English are being bombarded

by an ever larger
number of books, dictionaries, and reference works which purport to be of
help in the teaching and learning of idioms in English. It has hitherto
been one of the major deficits of both linguistics and applied linguistics
that vocabulary learning has tended to be viewed as an insignificant part of
the process of foreign language learning. But, particularly at the advanced
level, most teachers are aware of the kinds of learning problems their
students are confronted with; they know that vocabulary plays an imporapproach to
tant part in the process. What is needed is a principled
vocabulary learning in general and to the analysis in linguistic terms of the
lexis of a language. One area where this can be started is that of fixed
expressions in English. The first section of this article addresses itself to the
general issues involved. In the second section the various types of fixed
expressions in English are discussed. The third section adopts a practical
approach and illustrates by means of a spot check what kind of coverage of
fixed expressions the teacher and the learner can expect to find in reference
works of English. The article closes with an annotated
bibliography
in
which dictionaries and other reference works are examined with a view to
helping the teacher in his or her teaching of vocabulary in general and
fixed expressions in particular.
Recently, among applied linguists and language teachers, there has been a
quickening of interest in vocabulary learning and teaching (see Alexander
1982c, Rivers 1981, and, especially, Meara 1980 and 1983 for a survey of
the area). At the same time, we find attention being directed at a hitherto
neglected area of linguistic analysis, namely the subset of lexicology we
might term phraseology. A range of topics within this area has been
treated: I have discussed fixed expressions in general (1978/79), Fillmore
(1978) refers to the phrasicon,
Makkai (1972) was a pioneer of the
linguistic study of idioms, Fernando and Flavell (1981) have taken a recent
look at the concept of idiom, while Luelsdorff (1981) investigates cliches,
Mackin (1978) collocations, and Norrick (1981) proverbs.
When one attempts to assess the implications
of this work for second
language (L2) learning, in particular the learning and teaching of English
as a foreign language, one is impressed by the close meshing of knowledge
of language with knowledge
of culture.1 And consequently
one also
becomes aware of the problems involved in finding a principled approach
towards the teaching of this fuzzy area.
ELT Journal

Volume 38/2 April I984

127

articles

welcome

Particularly
for advanced learners of English, the development
of
linguistic competence
is largely a question of lexical expansion.
I have
suggested that this process is not purely lexical: the lexicon proper
interacts with the encyclopedia, the stored knowledge, of the L2 learner.
Also, the learning process may benefit if emphasis is placed on the three
Cs of vocabulary learning: collocation,
context, and connotation.
The
complex connections between words and things, and their many ramifications both on the denotative and on the connotative
level need to be
demonstrated
to the advanced learner (see Alexander 1982a and 1982c).
The broad category of fixed expressions appears to offer an opportunity for systematic organization
of vocabulary work at university level.
The methods which can be used will not be discussed here; they will vary
according to local conditions and student and teacher expectations. In one
place an informal approach, incorporating
word games and puzzles, may
be preferred. In another institution,
one may be expected to proceed in a
more formal manner with vocabulary presentation,
vocabulary expansion
exercises, and the like. In yet another, a different approach may be more
appropriate.
Whichever approach is adopted, it is essential that teachers
should be aware of sources for their teaching. At the advanced level, it is
also essential that students should be informed about what kind of service
they can expect from reference works and dictionaries.
The rest of this
article takes the form of a survey of the information provided in such works.
In Alexander (1979) I gave a preliminary
survey of reference works, and
discussed the kind of information available in them. Here I shall attempt to
extend the picture. The increase in published works in the area is itself an
indication of the great strides forward which Anglo-American
lexicography
has been making in recent years. I shall make no attempt to be exhaustive
here. Instead, some of the more useful works will be selected and discussed
from the point of view of their relevance for the EFL teacher.
Types
expressions

Types of

fixed

expressions

and

works

128

of fixed
surveyed

of reference

As a preliminary
step, let us distinguish some of the major types of fixed
expressions
to be found in English. I have distinguished
five broad
categories of fixed expressions, ranging from lexically oriented idioms and
their many subcategories,
through discourse-structuring
devices, such as
gambits and proverbs and proverbial idioms, to the more encyclopedia-oriented
expressions such as catchphrases and quotations (cf. Alexander 1979).
As should be clear from Table 1, I have simplified the presentation
considerably;
hence many types of idioms (in 1 and 3) have been omitted.
In order to check the range and coverage of the various works, I shall add
the categories of phrasal nouns or compound
nouns, metaphorical,
idioms or allusions, and similes. Examples of phrasal compounds
are hot
cakes, redneck, greenback, melting pot, etc. Allusions would include Hollywood,
Big Brother, shipshape and Bristol-fashion, a lounge lizard, etc. Idioms of comparison or similes include those like as sober as a judge, etc.
For a spot check on the various reference works discussed below, eight
types of fixed expressions were chosen. The list of tokens was chosen more
or less at random as items likely to be of difficulty for the German learner
of English. The spot check consisted of looking up the twenty items
(tokens) listed in Table 2 in dictionaries or reference works. (The full list
of works consulted appears in the Annotated Bibliography.) The sampling
procedure adopted was rough and ready and will perhaps appear rather
arbitrary. My only defence is to stress that vocabulary work proceeds very
Richard Alexander

articles

welcome

Table 1: Types of fixed

expressions
in English

1 Idioms
1.1 Phrasal verbs
1.2 Tournures
1.3 Irreversible

to give away
to kick the bucket
to put the cat among the pigeons
cash and carry
uphill and down dale
bag and baggage

binomials

2 Discourse-structuring
devices
2.1 Greetings, formulae
2.2 Connectives, gambits

Long time no see!

For a kick off...

3.1 Proverbs
8.2 Proverbial

You scratch my back and Ill scratch yours.

the proof of the pudding

(metaphorical)

idioms

Whats up doc?
Are you sitting comfortably?
when all is said and done
live happily ever after
Your country needs you.

Catchphrases

4.1 Cliches
4.2 Slogans
5

Quotations,

Then Ill begin.

Youve never had it so good.

The ladys not for turning.
By the pricking of my thumbs,
wicked this way comes.
Now what I want is facts.

allusions

something

Table 2: Fixed expressions: tokens selectedfor spot check

Tokens

Types of fixed expressions

1 Im only here for the beer!

2 Long time no see!

I Catchphrases
Greetings
II Proverbial
Proverbs
III Tournure

IV Irreversible
(freezes)

3 the Land of Nod

4 It never rains but it pours.

idioms

5 buy a pig in a poke

6 smell a rat
7 pull a fast one

idioms

binomial

V Phrasal compound

idioms

idioms

VIII Idiomatic

similes

11 dead duck
12 red tape
13 tear off (=rush away)
14 stand down

VI Phrasal verb idioms

VII Metaphorical/allusive

8 cloak and dagger

9 assault and battery
10 snakes and ladders

idioms

15
16
17
18

a dogs breakfast
like something the cats brought
send someone to Coventry
Fleet Street

in

19 as thin as a rake
20 as different as chalk from cheese

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much in a hit or miss fashion, as most teachers will probably agree. Even
when one attempts to inject systematic components
into it, there is
inevitably a marginal area which one has overlooked, or students will want
to know more about.
Semantic space still remains
relatively badly
charted - lexically
speaking, that is. Working with dictionaries and other
works of reference, one similarly proceeds in a rather random fashion.
Teachers may demonstrate
the many useful aspects of dictionaries to their
students, only to find classroom pressures forcing them to think on their
feet and to come up with off the cuff or rule of thumb definitions.
The point of the survey is to provide orientation.
One cannot be
dogmatic about reference works. Some learners are dictionary worms;
others (perhaps the majority) only use bilingual dictionaries, for example,
when forced to do translations.
All too few are aware of the learning
resources that monolingual
reference works and dictionaries
offer the
language student who is working alone. Questions of learning styles and
learner types clearly enter into the equation. But having said all this, even if
teachers hate using dictionaries themselves, they should be able to point
students in the direction of sources they might profitably use. So the survey
looks at the following categories of publication :
learning dictionary:
Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of
Current English and Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English;
a desk dictionary of English: Collins Dictionary of the English Language;
general idiom dictionaries
and reference works: Dictionary of English
Colloquial Idioms, Longman Dictionary of English Idioms, English Idioms and
How to Use Them;
specialized dictionaries (e.g. on phrasal verbs, etc.): Oxford Dictionary of
Current Idiomatic English, Dictionary of English Phrasal Verbs and Their Idioms,
English Prepositional Idioms, English Proverbs Explained, A Dictionary of
Catch Phrases ;
a crossword dictionary: The Modern Crossword Dictionary;
a thesaurus for the learner: Longman Lexicon of Contemporary English.

a. the general
b.
c.

d.

e.
f.

Although the boundaries

between these categories are not always sharp,
they remain useful for orientation.
Table 3 gives a summary of those items in the spot check for which there
are entries, and indicates in which dictionaries or reference works they were
found. The entries, of course, differ, depending on the type of publication.
In the dictionaries,
all entries, except the cross-references,
usually give a
gloss or definition of the meaning of the fixed expression in question. The
Modern Crossword Dictionary, however, simply lists the items according to the
number of letters they possess; this book was included in the spot check as
it provides an interesting barometer of the degree of fixedness, and the
culture-linguistic
relevance of fixed expressions.
Clearly a quantitative
survey of this kind does not say very much about
the reference works. The most one can say in general terms is that, as one
might expect, the more specialized the dictionary (e.g. ODCIE), the fewer
items it will have, if at all, which fall outside its specialized scope. On this
reckoning, then, one might argue that the more general a dictionary, the
more useful it appears to be for the student. Certainly the two rival
learners dictionaries - OALDCE
and LDOCE - compare
well, with the
former having the edge, at least in terms of the spot check undertaken.
For
the teacher who may want the fullest possible coverage, with good
examples, of the kind of material which he or she can mug up or employ
130

Richard Alexander

articles

welcome

Table 3: Results of a spot check of items in

13 reference works

Types of fixed expressions

I Catchphrases

2
II Proverbial

idioms

III Tournures

IV Irreversible

binomials

++

++

Cf

++

+c

++

+*

12

allusive idioms

15

c+

++

++

fC

+i

+c

++

c+

c+

+
+
+

c+

+c

C+

+
+

+
?

+
+

17

18

+C

19
20

++

c+

16

VIII Similes

+c

14

13

VI Phrasal verbs

+++

+
++

c+

11

V Phrasal compounds

10

VII Metaphorical

++

TOTAL Tokens with 1 entry or more

13

12

16

TOTAL entries

18

14

21

.,

++

(+i

CC+

10

12

15

10

23

14

15

KEY
+ = entry
c = cross-reference
(e.g. See at ... ); only in OALDCE, LDOCE, DECI, and LDOEI.
OALDCE = Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English
LDOCE
= Longman Dictionary of Contemporary
English
= Collins Dictionary of the English Language
CED
English
LLCE
= Longman Lexicon of Contemporary
MCD
= The Modern Crossword Dictionary
= Dictionary of English Colloquial Idioms
DECI
LDOEI
= Longman Dictionary of English Idioms
EPI
EI
= English Idioms and How to Use Them
EPE
ODCIE
= Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English (Vols. I and 2)
DCP
DEPV
= Dictionary of English Phrasal Verbs and Their Idioms

= English Prepositional Idioms

= English Proverbs Explained
= A Dictionary of Catch Phrases

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in self-written materials, the CED would seem to be the best bet. This is,
however, definitely a desk dictionary. The learners dictionaries will still
retain their utility, as classroom instruments in view of their size and weight.
A welcome addition to the range of tools of the trade when it comes to
idioms is undoubtedly
LDOEI.
In the annotated
bibliography
which
follows, comments on each of the books checked, plus some others, are to
be found.
Conclusion

The systematic treatment

of vocabulary
as a component
of English
language teaching is coming to be recognized as a worthwhile activity. I
have suggested that the study of phraseology is an area which may serve as
a useful starting point for a principled approach to vocabulary learning
and teaching. There are, to be sure, a number of other avenues which will
also need to be explored. But it is to be hoped that the brief survey of the
resources available will serve both as an aid and as an incentive to English
teachers to g-rasp the nettle of lexical complexity.

Received

March

1983

Note

I In Alexander (1980 and 1982b) I singled out the

area of verbal humour in English as being one in
which the language/culture
discussed.

mesh

can be profitably

References
Alexander,
R. J. 1978/1979.
Fixed expressions
in
English:
a
linguistic,
psycholinguistic,
sociolinguistic
and
didactic
study.
Anglistik
und
Englischunterricht 6: 171-88;
7:181-202.
Alexander,
R. J. 1980. English
verbal humour
and
second
language learning. LAUT Paper, Series B
No. 60 (Trier).
Alexander,
R. J. 1982a. Whats in a four-letter
word?
Word
meaning in English and second language
learning.
Die Neueren Sprachen 81:219-24.
Alexander,
R. J. 1982b. Verbal humour:
its implications for the second language
teacher and learner.
Grazer Linguistische Studien 17/18 :7-16.
Alexander,
R. J. 1982c. Vocabulary
assimilation
and
the advanced
learner of English:
a brief survey of
the issues. Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik
7:59-75.
Fernando,
C. and R. Flavell. 1981. On Idiom. Critical
Views and Perspectives. Exeter: University
of Exeter.
Fillmore,
C. E. 1978. On the organization
of semantic
information
in the lexicon
in D. Farkas,
W. M.
Jacobsen,
K. W. Todrys (eds.). Papers from the Parasession on the Lexicon. Chicago:
Chicago
Linguistic
Society, pp. 148-73.
Luelsdorff;
P. A. 1981. What is a cliche? LAUT Paper,
Series A No. 85 (Trier).

132

Mackin,
R. 1978. On collocations:
words
shall be
known by the company
they keep in P. D. Strevens
(ed.). In Honour of A. S. Hornby. Oxford:
Oxford
University
Press.
Makkai,
A. 1972. Idiom Structure in English. Mouton:
The Hague.
Meara, P. 1980. Vocabulary
acquisition:
a neglected
aspect of language
learning.
Language Teaching and
Linguistics: Abstracts 13:221-46.
Meara,
P. 1983.
Vocabulary
in a Second Language.
(Specialized
Bibliography
3.) London:
CILT.
Norrick,
N. R. 1981. Proverbial
linguistics:
linguistic
perspectives
on proverbs.
LAUT Paper, Series B No.
69 (Trier).
Rivers, W. M. 1981. Apples
of gold in pictures
of
silver:
where
have all the words
gone?
Studia
Linguistica 35:114-29.

The author
After reading
Modern
Languages
at Cambridge
and
doing the PGCE (EFL) at the Institute
of Education,
London
University,
Richard Alexander
taught English
as a Foreign
Language
and linguistics
for fifteen years
to adults and university
students
in Finland,
Italy, and
the Federal
Republic of
Germany.
He is currently
Lecturer
in English Language
at the University
of Birmingham.
His research
interests
include
the sociocultural
aspects
of second
language
learning
and
problems
of vocabulary
learning.
He is the co-author
of a textbook
for adult learners
of English,
On The
Way, published
by Ernst Klett, Stuttgart.

Richard Alexander

articles

welcome

Appendix
Dictionaries
and Reference
Annotated
Bibliography
The works
are listed under
headings:

Works
the

Consulted:
following

Learners
dictionaries
of English
General dictionary
of English
General idiom dictionaries
and reference
Specialized
dictionaries
Miscellaneous
dictionaries
Exercise and practice books.

An
section

works

Learners dictionaries of English

Hornby,
A. S. (ed.) 1974. Oxford Advanced Learners
Dictionary of Current English. Oxford:
Oxford University Press. (OALDCE)
As the spot check shows, this perennial
standby
of
the English
language
teacher
comes off third best.
There
is a wealth
of information
on
fixed
expressions
and idioms,
in addition
to straightforward
lexical,
grammatical,
and
phonetic
information
between
its covers.
Students
cannot
afford to be without a copy. A must for teachers.
Proctor.
P. (ed.) 1978. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. London:
Longman
(LDOCEI)
Although
this did not fare as well as its older rival in
this relative
newcomer
to the
our
spot
check,
Learning
Dictionary
stable has a wide coverage
of
fixed expressions
and can be of great use to the
learner.
It is perhaps
worth
mentioning
that the
exercise
book
by Janet
Whitcut:
Learning
with
LDOCE (Longman
1979) contains
helpful exercises
on idioms of comparison
and others in Section 6.
General dictionary of English
Hanks,
P.(ed.).
1979. COllins Dictionary of the English
Language. London
and Glasgow:
Collins. ICED)
This is included
because
it is the authors
current
favourite
English
monolingual
dictionary
and
because
it undoubtedly
has the best coverage
of
phraseology.
This is not hard to believe in a book
with 162,000
references
and 14,000 biographical
and geographical
articles.
Obviously
any teacher of
English will profit, as our spot check demonstrates;
it comes out tops both in breadth
and depth.
General idiom dictionaries and reference works
London,
T. H. and
D. Summers
(eds.).
1979.
Longman
Dictionary
of English
Idioms.
London:
Longman.
(LDOEI)
Fairly wide coverage
of all kinds of idioms,
other
than phrasal
verbs, dealt with in Table 3 (II, III,
IV, V, VII, VIII). 4,500 idioms are explained
and
their grammatical
behaviour
is also noted. There is
a good cross-referencing
system.
Seidl, J. and W. McMordie.
How to Use Them. Oxford:
(EI)

1978. English Idioms and

Oxford
University
Press.

This is an extremely
useful book.
It provides
the
teacher
with
a rationale
for
treating
idioms.
Categories
are
made
explicit.
The
otherwise
amorphous
field of idiomatic
phrases
becomes
a
manageable
entity, without
losing touch with the
practical
necessities
of the teaching
situation.
For
the advanced
learner,
too, this small
tome can
provide
material
for intermittent
perusal on the bus
or train. The many examples
provided,
for instance,
in the five sections
that deal with prepositions
in
various
constructions,
certainly
allow the book to
live up to its subtitle:
And How to Use Them. A
must for every English teacher.
Wood,
F. T. and R. Hill. 1979. Dictionary of English
Colloquial Idioms. London:
Macmillan.
(DECI)
Despite the fact that this book has been updated
and
revised, its usefulness
is extremely
limited. The term
colloquial
idioms
in the title has been stretched
too far, not only to include idioms in the real sense
but also to allow the authors
to incorporate
entries
which are simply
lexical peculiarities
of English,
such as Guinea
pig and the verb to dock = to
reduce,
esp. money.
Hence the range is uncertain,
and the student
is better advised
to use a general
learning
dictionary.
Teachers
might
find some of
the usage notes of help in their teaching,
however.
4 Specialized dictionaries
Cowie, A. P. and R. Mackin.
1975. Oxford Dictionary
of Current Idiomatic
English.
Vol. 1: Verbs with
Prepositions and Particles. Oxford : Oxford
University
Press. (ODCIE1)
In my terms a very specialized
dictionary
of idioms.
However,
unsurpassed
so far as its treatment
of
phrasal
verbs is concerned.
The front matter
on
collocations
can be used with advanced
learners
to
great benefit.
For look-up
value,
it offers both
teacher
and student
a wealth
of information
on
possible
grammatical
transformations
of idioms,
stylistic and register
markings
for the idioms listed,
and fairly
exhaustive
lists of collocates
for the
expressions
listed.
Cowie, A.. P., R. Mackin and I. R. McCraig.
1983.
Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English. Vol. 2:
Phrase, Clause and Sentence Idioms. Oxford:
Oxford
University
Press. (ODCIE 2)
This volume
has extremely
wide coverage
(7,000
entries)
of tournures,
irreversible
binomials,
and
phrasal
compounds.
A particularly
useful detail is
the listing of idiomatic
similes of the type as ADJ as
NP under
as. The use of quotations
containing
the
items,
together
with
usage
notes,
where
pertinent,
and clearly written
definitions
make the
dictionary
a boon for advanced
learners.
Teachers
will benefit from the concise
introduction
to idiomaticity and related issues.

Fixed expressions in English: reference books and the teacher

133

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McArthur,
T. and B. Atkins.
1974. Dictionary of
English Phrasal Verbs and Their Idioms. Glasgow:
Collins. (DEPV)
As its title suggests, this is a specialized
dictionary.
It
can be used with intermediate
learners
and its
of 3,000
phrasal
verbs,
replete
with
coverage
example sentences,
makes it a useful classroom
tool.
Partridge,
E. 1977. A Dictionary of Catch Phrases.
London:
Routledge
and Kegan Paul. (DCP)
A very specialized
dictionary,
but one which every
good
library
of English
should
possess.
Its very
Eric
Partridge,
here
compiler,
idiosyncratic
produced
one of the few dictionaries
which can be
read with pleasure.
Ridout,
R. and C. Witting.
1967. English Proverbs
Explained. London:
Pan Books. (EPE)
Eight
hundred
of the most
common
English
proverbs
are classified
alphabetically
and provided
with a straightforward
gloss. There are also useful
cross-references
to related proverbs.
This is a book
which the intermediate
university
student of English
should purchase.
Its paperback
price makes it worth
it.
Wood,
F. T. 1967.
English Prepositional
Idioms.
London:
Macmillan.
(EPI)
Despite
a certain
quaintness
or datedness,
this
volume
contains
two useful complementary
parts.
In the first one, prepositions
are listed alphabetically and examples
are given
for their
different
meanings.
In the second
part nouns,
verbs, and
adjectives
are listed alphabetically;
in particular
the
fact that adjectives
are scattered
throughout
the
book is worthy
of mention.
There are not many
places
where
one can find relatively
rapidly
the
particles
which follow adjectives
like redolent (of),
remarkable (for), and rough (on). The book is useful
for the advanced
learner
to browse
in, but will
perhaps
be of most use to the teacher who is producing materials.
5 Miscellaneous dictionaries
McArthur,
T. 1981. Longman Lexicon of Contemporary
English. London:
Longman.
(LLCE)
This reference
work is a tool for general vocabulary
learning.
While it does give information
on collocations, it contains
very little on fixed expressions
such
as those discussed
in this article. The teacher can use

134

this thesaurus
in organizing
his or her own teaching
materials.
For instance,
the semantic
field classifications can be selected to which fixed expressions
can
be allocated,
although
the fixed expressions
themselves fall outside the scope of the dictionary.
N. G.
1979.
The Modern
Crossword
Pulsford,
Dictionary. London:
Pan Books. (MCD)
This is a book which can only really be used by the
native speaker.
You have to know what you are
looking
for -usually
a set phrase
with a known
number
of letters such as (11) POETS
CORNER.
For the teacher it is a useful device for jogging
the
mind.
The
names
and
everyday
expressions
included
make up three-fifths
of the book. 48,000
classified
phrases
and 36,000 words
are included
and classified
according
to the number
of letters
they contain-nothing
else.
6 Exercise and practice books
Broughton,
G. 1976. Know Your English. London:
Hutchinson
(published
in 3 volumes).
Stage 3 -for
the advanced
learner -is
of especial
use for fixed expressions.
The book
consists
of
multiple
choice questions
designed
to test knowledge
of vocabulary
and
structure.
Of special
interest
are the exercises
dealing
with collocations
and
miscellaneous
idioms;
the
exercises
are
scattered
throughout
each unit dealing
with metaphorical
idioms,
similes, and proverbs.
Broughton
also includes
phrases
and sayings which are part of
the socio-cultural
background
of English,
such as
lines from nursery-rhymes.
The exercises
are very
imaginative
and can serve as a model for the teacher
who wishes to produce
his or her own material.
Seidl, J. 1982. Idioms in Practice. Oxford:
Oxford
University
Press.
This is an extremely
helpful book of exercises
(114
in all) providing
practice
and teaching
material
for
the various
types
of idioms
covered
in Seidl/
McMordie
(see Section 3). The exercises are of four
basic types and hence rather
repetitive.
But it is a
book to be used, say, over a longer period of time
by a teacher.
It is also of use to the intermediate
learner
for private
study, as it contains
a key. Its
cross-references
to Seidl/McMordie
are a further
advantage.
Unlike many exercise
books of idioms
on the market,
this one has been very successful
in
contextualizing
the 800 or so idioms dealt with.

Richard Alexander

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