导读：

这篇文章是发表在British Council的Teaching English网站上一篇关于词汇教学的文章。delexicalised verbs指那些使用频率最高的动词（如get, do, make, take, have, go, send, set等），我们可以称之为“高频动词”。由这些动词可以构成许多短语或搭配。这些短语或搭配的第一个组成部分（即高频动词）并没有多少，甚至根本没有实际意义，因此也有人称其为empty verbs。短语的意义主要由其第二个组成部分表示，如get ready, get married等。

在这篇文章中作者首先回忆了一个学生的说法：如果不知道该用哪个动词，就用get代替，正确率在90%以上。但作者当时对这一看法并不认同。后来他才认识到：这个学生对高频动词的用法的归纳对于语义学习和使用是很有意义的。

作者接着分析了有关高频动词的四个问题：

1．  问题的提出（Where they come from）

语料库索引说明：这类动词使用频率高、搭配能力强，而且意义复杂，不易掌握。

2．  意义（meaning）

高频动词意义复杂。但大多数词典往往孤立处理它们的意义。作者指出：在短语、搭配中理解这类动词的多种意义要比孤立处理容易得多。

3．  高频动词及其搭配

高频动词必须结合搭配来学习。这种搭配的语义重心在它们后面那部分。因此按高频动词归纳短语、配时非常重要的。

4．  理解意义与选择词汇

作者以一位巴西学生写的一段话，指出学生更容易选用单个动词而避免使用由高频动词构成的短语动词。这样做的原因一是受母语影响，二是对由高频动词构成的搭配的意义和用法缺乏深入的理解，只注意到它们没有，或者没多少实际意义，而忽视了它们能使表达自然、灵活、地道这一使用价值，因而选用单个动词，而不是native speakers更喜欢用的短语、搭配。

作者进而把上面那段话按native speakers的习惯改写了，并在词语的选用上与原文做了比较。

那位巴西学生用了动词progressing，而native speakers感到用making progress这一短语更自然。这是因为学生认为progress这一动词已经足以表达意思，因而没必要使用短语。

作者进而对学生所用的visited the cinema，arrived there和native speakers使用的 went to the cinema, got there做了比较。指出：两者之间除了意义和搭配上的区别外，更重要的是后一种用法native speakers会感到更地道、自然，因此教师更应该注意为学生提供这种用法。

这篇文章给我们的启示是：

词汇学习必须“质、量”并重。一方面要努力扩大词汇的数量，另一方面更要注重词汇的质量。要特别重视那些使用频率高、搭配能力强、意义和用法复杂的高频动词以及由它们组成的短语、搭配。语言能力的一个重要方面是词语搭配能力。一个人掌握的短语、搭配越多，理解和表达能力就越强。因此我们在教学中必须培养学生围绕高频动词多记短语、搭配这一良好习惯，指导他们把短语、搭配作为一个语义整体，在语篇语境中领悟、归纳高频动词的意义和用法，逐步学会使用。尤其重要的是：这类动词学生熟悉，出现频率高，只要多积累由它们构成的短语、搭配，就能转化为运用能力， “以少胜多”, 不但能提高学习效率，而且可以使口、笔头表达更自然、地道。这在书面表达中尤其重要。

请看原文：

Delexicalised verbs
Shaun Dowling, Teacher trainer, Cultura Inglesa, Brasilia

 In the first part of this two part article Shaun Dowling looks at delexicalised verbs, and the problems they cause for our students.

    *Where they come from 

    *Meaning 

    *Delexicalised verbs and collocations 

    *Learner perceptions of meaning and choice

I remember in one of my first classes a young law student who was studying with me, saying that if I he didn't know what verb to use he would say 'get' as it is usually 90% of the time right. At the time we laughed and I said that this wasn't completely true and moved on quickly without giving him any help. As many teachers may know the word 'get' can seem to be a pretty complicated verb to deal with in your first few classes.

Of course, my student in this statement was generalising, but what he had done was to notice the use of what is probably one of the most common verbs in the language, the delexicalised verb. By telling me this, he had also shown me that he had realised the high frequency use of the verb and even the multiple meaning it has and I had unfortunately not.

With this in mind, let's look at 'get' further and the importance of the delexicalised verbs. Let’s see how right, rather than wrong, my student was and how we can deal with these words in our day to day teaching.

Where they come from
Concordance programmes have helped us become far more aware of how the language is used and the choices native speakers make when selecting words. One of the most important findings is the use of delexicalised verbs.

• Before we go any further, stop reading for a minute and see how many collocations you can make with 'get'.
  
  Did you think of many?
• Try this with your students at any level and I'm sure you'll be surprised, especially at an intermediate level, how many they themselves know.
• So here are some delexicalised verbs are.

They are some of the most frequently used verbs in the language (if not the most frequent) and if you look in a dictionary you will see the multiple meaning each of them have. These meanings can make life difficult for the teacher but let’s have a look at how this can be addressed.

Meaning
Once again let us go back with 'get' and the problems a verb like this could cause our learners. For some reason we may feel it is the most complicated verb there is and difficult to teach. One example of this is demonstrated when you click on online dictionaries, such as the useful Cambridge on line dictionary. Under the word 'get' you can scroll down pages of different meanings. It is enough to make your mind boggle. Do this same activity with the other verbs mentioned and you should find the similar results.

• The problem here is that most dictionaries looks at this word in isolation (a single word) but as I asked you to do in the first get exercise, in word combinations, dealing with multiple meaning is much easier. It is difficult for dictionaries to give definitions and examples of the many different delexicalised verbs and how they are used because there are so many different words that they collocate with.

Delexicalised verbs and collocations
It is almost impossible then to see delexicalised verbs by themselves. They must be seen with other words that form around them. The main form they can be seen in is collocations.

• In the original get task above. Maybe you came up with the collocations
  • get married,
  • get a divorce
  • get ready
  • get worse
  • get a drink
  • get angry
  • get home

If we look at this list, where is the main part of the meaning? Is it in the word 'get' or in the accompanying word(s)?

Yes, it is the second word that carries most of the meaning. Parrot (2000) calls these (the much easier to say and type) "empty verbs", rather than the tongue twisting delexicalised verbs. "Empty" because as he states "they contribute little or no meaning to the expression". Therefore, the meaning must be carried in the whole collocation but it is mainly found in the words following our delexicalised verb.

Learner perceptions of meaning and choice
Where I work in Brazil, it is easy for learners to avoid the use of collocations with delexicalised verbs. Here are some examples of what they say in English, maybe you'll find it similar if you are teaching another Latin based languages.

Here is an example:

"I think Brazil is progressing this year. One example is I visited the cinema last week and I arrived there and there was a big line of people to see Brazilian films."

Nothing grammatically wrong there you may think but it sounds a bit strange. You may choose to correct line for queue but the 'strangeness' the native listener may perceive is due to the avoidance I mentioned above of the speaker. A more realistic performance would have been:

"I think Brazil is making progress this year. One example is I went to the cinema last week and I got there and there was a big line of people to see Brazilian films."

From my work in the classroom my students make these choices mainly because of the problems with not just translation but the small amount of meaning delexicalised verbs carry. Let's now look at these problems I have discussed this extract in closer detail to try and see why they occur.

• 'Progressing' instead of 'making progress'
  This is because in my students’ L1 it is more common to choose the verb progress than make the collocation choice. 'Progress' has the meaning here, as stated before the delexicalised verb has little. Students choose words based on their meaning and as progress has the whole meaning then the natural choice for them seems to be different from a native speaker choice of 'make progress'.
  
  It is like 'wash the dishes' instead of 'do' the dishes. It can seem very subtle but seem somewhat strange when being heard by a native speaker.
• 'Visited' the cinema instead of 'went to' the cinema.
  This is similar to the next choice of arrive there instead of get there.
  'Chegar' meaning arrive, is a straight Portuguese translation. This is not the choice a native speaker would say, they would say 'get there' late. Again the meaning was correctly chosen by the learner but if we are to improve their performance we must offer them the alternative that sounds natural. 'Arrive' (as with visit) gives the speaker the clear understanding of the sequence of actions. The meaning is not clear to someone who would be used to hearing 'get there' and so some level of adjustment would need to be made by the native speaker listener.

We can see then that these meaning and translation problems are something teachers must be aware of. In order to make our learners‘ speech more authentic sounding, constant attention to the choices they make can help us do just that.

In the second part of this article I'll look more closely at a range of classroom activities that we can use to help our students with this area.

Further reading
'Grammar for English Language Teachers', Martin Parrot, CUP 2000
'Exploring Spoken English', Carter and McCarthy CUP 2000
'About Language', Scott Thornbury, CUP 1997
'Introducing Listening', Michael Rost, Penguin 1994
'Implementing the Lexical Approach', Michael Lewis LTP 1994
'Collocations Dictionary', OUP 2001