Application of sense relations to teaching English vocabulary

Vocabulary acquisition is central to language learning and of great importance to the English Language Learners. Many learners face difficulty in correctly selecting words to deliver their ideas due to their insufficient lexical knowledge. This work aims to analyze the significance of sense relations instruction in vocabulary teaching.

1 INTRODUCTION

Vocabulary acquisition is one of the most

fundamental parts which is vital for teaching and

learning a foreign language Without vocabulary,

there will be no development or progress made for

all the other skills such as reading comprehension,

listening comprehension, speaking, and writing

It also plays the key roles in learners’ attempt

to utilize English Simply, in frequently daily

activities like reading a text (in a book, newspaper,

magazine, or even manual books), listening to a

piece of music, watching English TV programs

and communicating with foreign friends via social

networks, learners will always operate with words

and widen their lexical resources

Talking about the importance of vocabulary,

Wilkins (1972, pp.111-112) states “… while

without grammar very little can be conveyed,

NGUYEN THI HA THUONG *

* People’s Police Academy,  hathuong291288@gmail.com

Received:18/4/2019; Revised: 15/5/2019; Accepted: 17/5/2019

APPLICATION OF SENSE RELATIONS

TO TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY

ABSTRACT

Vocabulary acquisition is central to language learning and of great importance to the English Language Learners Many learners face difficulty in correctly selecting words to deliver their

ideas due to their insufficient lexical knowledge This work aims to analyze the significance

of sense relations instruction in vocabulary teaching The author hopes to discuss a new path in constructing and designing a variety of exercises and activities in sense relations in attempt to promote learner’s English proficiency, especially vocabulary learning

Keywords: sense relations, vocabulary teaching

without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.”

To reach the goal of expressing ideas and forming utterance, people need to use words Years ago, people discovered the tremendous importance of helping learners to develop an extensive vocabulary By the beginning of 1970s, there was a major change in teaching English The focus turned from the Direct Method and Audiolingualism to the Communicative Approach which emphasized the importance of teaching vocabulary Language learners were exposed

to diverse vocabulary and speaking activities Many words began being introduced during such courses and learners were encouraged

to express themselves as much as possible Words do not exist in isolation, as Taylor (1995, p.83) explains, word meaning acquires its full significance with reference to other related terms According to semantic theory, words are related to

each other and form the massive vocabulary bank

of language Vocabulary is an integrated system

of lexemes interrelated in sense The meaning of

a word does not exist inside the word itself but

spreads over the neighboring words and they have

mutual affection when being combined Then, the

meaning of a certain word can only be precisely

described through its semantic relations with other

words In real teaching and learning experience,

remembering words from lists that are semantically

related is more effective than from lists of words

with no lexical relations So, it is natural to state

that a teaching method which takes account of

the psychological process underlying semantic

relatedness can be more pedagogically successful

2 REVIEW OF THEORY AND RELATED

LITERATURE

2.1 Vocabulary learning and teaching

There were many different definitions of a ‘word’,

but Nation (2001, p.27) proposes three significant

aspects which include form, meaning and use

More specifically, form can be spoken form,

written form and word parts Meaning of a word

is the literal meaning, its concepts or referents,

and it associations And, the use of a word refers

to the grammatical functions, collocations, and

constraints According to Jackson & Amvela

(2000), the vocabulary of a language is essentially

a dynamic and well-integrated system of

lexemes structured by relationships of meaning

Arranging vocabulary into semantic cluster of

seven to ten related items rather than presenting

a list of unrelated words in isolation will enhance

retention Normally, if a word is separated from its

environment and context, it will take the learners

a longer time to remember Once the learners

associate the words with their topic or context, it

becomes more effective to enlarge their vocabulary

bank Then, grouping words do helps acquire new

vocabularies

As Sadoski (2005) proposes there are two main sources of meaningful vocabulary learning: incidental learning from context and direct vocabulary instruction Generally, incidental learning refers to “learning without intent to learn” (Lyster, 2007, p.27) Direct vocabulary instruction refers to systematic demonstration

of ways to determine the meanings of unknown words Semantic maps that connect a key concept with related events and ideas are excellent ways to determine the background knowledge of learners and to organize this knowledge in a way that connects what they know to the new concepts and vocabulary they will be learning Effective learning will occur when a deeper level of semantic processing is required on the part of the learners Schmitt (2008) agrees that learners have higher chances for long-term retention when they have more opportunities to engage with new unknown word The learners’ lexical resources do have a direct effect on their development of linguistic competence Therefore, a great importance is put on vocabulary teaching in language teaching procedure so that the language learners are provided with sufficient knowledge about words

In a language class, vocabulary is an extremely complex process which covers many aspects listing

as semantic, lexcial, syntactic, and phonology Once the learners master vocabulary, they will utilize language in their work and study Then, the in-depth comprehension of semantics theory can enable them to master words, gain an insight into the implication lexcial and collocation relations

of the words systems, enhance their ability of forming their own language structure and promote their competence of communication

2.2 Sense relations

According to Mathews (1997), sense relations refer to any relation between lexical units within the semantic system of a language The lexical structure of a language can be seen

as a network of sense relations, affected by the

members of the lexicon Then, there does exist

a relation in meaning between lexical units of

a language And, it is clearly that words cannot

be defined independently of other words that are

semantically related to them and delimit their

sense As Kreidler (1998) explains, meaning of a

word depends on its associations with other and

it is relational aspect that is taken in to account

Sense relation is a paradigmatic relation between

words or predicates, it refers to “the knowledge

of how lexemes are associated with other

lexemes” Kreidler (1998, p.48) There are two

big groups of sense relations: synonymic groups

and antonymic groups While the first type deals

with sameness, the second type is contrastive And

Cruse (2004) classifies sense relations into two

classes: the first entails exclusion and opposition,

the second entails inclusion and identity

2.2.1 Sense Relations of Inclusion and Identity

The discussion in this part includes the notions of

synonymy, homonymy, polysemy, and hyponymy

Synonymy

Nguyễn Hoà (2004, p.72) defines synonyms

as “words of the same parts of speech which have

similar meaning, but not identical meanings.”

Synonyms are phonetically and morphologically

different words belonging to same part of speech,

possessing similar denotation but differing in

connotation, combinability Home and house can

sometimes replace each other but they differ in terms

of connotation On the other hand, misfortune and

accident are synonyms and different in denotation

Take a look at these following sentences:

- My house is very big/large.

- He presented firm/strong ideas in the meeting.

In these examples, the two pairs are partial

synonyms because all their meanings are not

identical In the first sentence big and large are

semantically equivalent and they can be used interchangeably Similarly, the second pair firm and strong share the same feature However,

there are clearly not synonymous in all of their meanings, as in the following pairs of sentences: Pair (1):

- Pollution is a big environmental problem in

Vietnam

- Pollution is a large environmental problem

in Vietnam

Pair (2):

- There was a strong wind last night.

- There was a firm wind last night.

Big and large, strong and firm are similar

in meaning only under specific distributional and although all four sentences above are grammatically well-formed, the second ones are collocationally unacceptable

Homonymy

Kreidler (1998, p.58) states “two ore more forms that are identical in speech but have different meanings are homonyms” A homonym is a word that is written and/or pronounced the same way

as another, but has a different meaning such as:

tail/tale or two/too/to Homonyms can create

ambiguity, as Nguyễn Hoà (2004, p.68) points,

“homonym refers to a situation where different words happens accidentally to have the same forms” A word or sentence is ambiguous if it can

be understood or interpreted in more than one way Take the following sentence as an example: “She used to bawl every night.” – it can be paraphrased

in two different ways:

- She used to shout angrily every night

- She used to weep noisily every night

Then, actually there are 2 different “bawl”:

bawl in the first sentence and bawl in the second

sentence are homonyms They are written in the

same way and share the same way of pronunciation,

but they denote two different actions Another

example of homonyms is found in the following

pair of sentences:

- John Beauchamp de Holt was the first British

baron in 1378

- Rupert Murdoch is an old-fashioned press

baron.

The first and second baron are homonyms They

are spelled and pronounced in the same way but

convey different meanings The first baron refers

“a member of the lowest order of British nobility,

minor royalty”, whereas the second baron refers to

“a powerful person in business or industry” It is

sometimes confusing to differentiate homonymy

from polysemy because the later also deals with a

pair of words which share the same way of spelling

and pronouncing

Polysemy

Richards and Schmidt (2002, p.406) introduces

the definition of polysemy as “word having two

or more closely related meanings.” Sometimes it

is confusing to differentiate between homonymy

and polysemy A polysemy is a word that has many

different but related meanings while homonyms

(homonyms proper) are words that have completely

different meanings Take the following sentences

as example:

- Charles is a good actor Many people love

him and his films

- Mr Brown is a very good man He donated a

lot of money to the charity

The word good in the two sentences above

is a polysemy with the meaning “skillful” in the

first sentence and “kind” in the second sentence

The meanings of good in the above examples

are related to each other Another example of

polysemy can be found in:

- Vietnam is rich in natural resources.

- Qatar is a rich country with a per capita

income of $123,930

Then, the distinction between homonymy and polysemy deals with the closeness or relatedness

of the senses between words; in other words, they are different from each other regarding semantic relatedness While homonymy deals with different meanings, polysemy deals with related meanings

Hyponymy

According to Nguyễn Hoà (2004, p.122) hyponym is “the member whose intentional meaning is specific enough to cover the meaning

of the superordinate whereas the superordinate member is the one whose extensional meaning

is broad enough to cover the hyponym.” For example, a “rose” is a flower, but not every flower

is a rose The meaning of “flower” is included in the meaning of “rose” Simply, hyponymy can be understood as a relationship between two words,

in which the meaning of one of the words includes the meaning of the other word There are many

other cases such as: cat and animal, pigeon and

bird, orchid and flower Cat is said to be a hyponym

of animal, pigeon a hyponym of bird, and orchid

a hyponym of flower On the other hand, animal is

said to be the superordinate (also called hypernym)

of cat, bird the superordinate of pigeon, and flower the superordinate of orchid Such relation is often

described as one of inclusion

2.2.2 Sense Relations of Exclusion and Opposition

The relations of senses between words can be seen from their oppositeness or that the sense of

a word is excluded from the sense of another The discussion includes antonymy

Antonymy

Kreidler (1998, p.10) defines “two words that make opposite statements about the same

subject are antonyms” Basically, antonymy is the

phenomenon in which the words have the sense

relation which involves the oppositeness Kreidler

(1998, p.100) clarifies that “Antonyms may be

nouns like Communist and non-Communist or

verbs such as advance and retreat, but antonymous

pairs of adjectives are especially numerous.”

Many words, especially those denoting

concrete objects have no antonyms Usually,

adjectives denoting quality, verbs denoting actions

or states and abstract nouns have antonyms; take

these following pairs as examples:

ugly - pretty give - take

mean - generous joy - sorrow

tidy - messy old - young

If a pair of words is antonyms, they belong

to the same semantic field, nearly identical in

distribution, such as “big – small” – both these two

words are adjective and they are about size

In many pairs of antonyms, one is marked and

the other is unmarked For example, when asking

some one’s height, the question to be formed is

“How tall is he?” and it is incorrect to say “How

short is he?” There are several pairs listing as:

heavy - light thick - thin

deep - shallow wide - narrow

There are four types of antonyms according to

John Lyon’s classification

Antonyms proper: Antonyms proper are easily

gradable, based on the operation of gradation

They are opposite ends of a continuous scale of

values like: hot - warm - cool – cold.

Complementary antonyms: This type of

antonym involves two items: the assertion of one

is the negation of the other Binary antonyms come

in pairs and between them exhaust all relevant

possibilities If one is applicable, then the other

can’t be, and vice versa These pairs: alive – dead

and awake – asleep are typical examples.

Conversives: Conversives denote the same

situation but from different points of view, with

a reversal of the order of participants and their

roles; for examples: borrow – lend, sell – buy,

employer – employee, interviewer – interviewee

and examiner – examinee

Directional: This type of antonyms present opposite directions of motion such as come – go and arrive – depart.

2.3 Sense relations awareness

Sense relations are one of important elements with regard to learning semantics, the study of language meaning The sense of a word can be understood from its similarity with other words, on the other hand, it can also be learned from its oppositeness with other words

Sense relations show the relationship between words and their meanings According to the meaning

we can differentiate between two distinctions: the first is the “reference” which shows the external meaning of a word (what the word refers to in the physical world), while the other is the “sense” that indicates the internal meaning of a word (its content) Sense relations can indicate many kinds

of relations such as sameness or oppositeness (as discussed in the previous part)

Lexical relations can be discussed from paradigmatic and syntagmatic point of view which deals with meaning in different directions, these relations are being used to describe words or collocations; the mutual expectancy of words or the ability of word to predict the likelihood of another word occurring These relations are relevant to each other They overlap with each other in terms

of the relationship between the meaning of the word in the physical world and the experience of the way it can co-occur with other words

From the previous point of view it can be confirmed that sense relations study the association

between words and their relevant to each other

Absolutely, it is never a correct concept when

stating that the idea of each word separately has

one meaning The awareness of these relations

should be taken in consideration by the learners

because it plays an important role in the nature of

the vocabulary and shows the way of its learning

2.4 The importance of using sense relations

in vocabulary teaching and learning

As discussed above, words cannot be defined

independently and the structure of a language can

be seen as a network of sense relations, affected

by the members of the lexicon Lyons (1995)

proposes an analogy, a structure is like a web in

which each strand is one such relation and each

knot in the web is a different word or expression

Then, learning a language means the leaners study

a ‘network’ or a ‘linguistic web’ Nguyễn Hoà

(2004, p.120) emphasizes, “there is no way we can

speak about structure without relation” And there

is no way we can learn a language without forming

our own set of vocabulary with the ‘links’ among

the words

Firstly, sense relations help learners build

a mental network of related words which helps

memorization and retrieval of lexical items, which

can improve fluency They also represent a logical

way of organizing new vocabulary for learners,

which again in turn helps memorization When the

process of vocabulary development is carefully

prepared, the learners become more fluent when

speaking about a specific subject If for instance

they have studied hyponyms of ‘food’, it will be

easier for them to talk about this topic as they

will have all (or most) of the lexis they need This

helps learners feel more confident and relaxed

when discussing about a given topic, as they know

they have studied and memorized the relevant

vocabulary They make it possible for learners

to develop their own networks of vocabulary

relate to different fields If learners face some

loss of words, there would possibly be a better

long-term retention under the guidance of sense relation strategy In short, applying sense relations theory produces greater contribution to promote vocabulary acquisition and retention than the traditional methods

Secondly, knowledge about sense relations enhance learners’ understanding of words which results in better word choices in communicating According to Saussure theory, a word consist of form (written and spoken) and meaning Knowing

a word not only means to know the from and the meaning, but more importantly, to be able to connect the two Besides, when dealing with homonyms and polysemous items, it is vital for language users to know the concepts behind the words, to acquire the word meanings in different situations and to be able to produce the words in a wide range

of contexts In other words, misinterpretation

or misuse of lexical items can be avoided Moreover, knowing a word also means knowing the associations of a word which is the semantic relationships between words listing as synonymy, antonymy, and hyponymy It was emphasized by Nation (1990, p.52) that “understanding these relations is useful for explaining the meanings of words and for creating activities to enrich learners’ understanding of words.”

Last but not least, having a rich lexical resource and acquiring knowledge about word meaning bring learners a source of power and make them become a better reader, writer and speaker; which generally helps open a wider path to success in school and their future work The most handy tool,

as Pikulski and Templeton (2004) suggest, is a rich lexical resource and skills for using the words that language teachers can equip their learners

There are a wide range of teaching techniques and activities that teachers can design for vocabulary teaching but the key point is how to choose and employ the most suitable ones in the teaching and learning environment If they do not utilize knowledge sense relations, they may fail

to give coherence to their lesson, as Gairns and

Redman (1986, p.32) point out Then, aspects of

lexis such as polysemy, homonymy, synonymy,

antonyms and so on should be taken in to account

2.5 Challenges of learning sense relations

As Lehrer (1974) mentions, languages are

setting up their semantic fields in certain ways;

this fact causes obstacles and misinterpretations

in language teaching and learning Innovative

teaching approaches are required so that language

learners can comprehend the real meanings behind

the words and being able to communicate as

fluently as possible

The first difficulty lies in the learners’ low

motivational state in the learning process because

of the high cognitive demands in understanding

knowledge about sense relations As Higa (1963)

finds that pairs of synonyms take longer to learn

than pairs of unrelated words; this is understandable

since learners are more likely to confuse words that

convey similar meaning than words without close

semantic relations Later, Higa (1965) points that

the closer the semantic link between words, the

more difficult it is to learn the words in set Another

reason causing this matter roots from the truth that

synonyms with similar meanings do not always

have the same collocates Language learners are

likely to be confused when using pairs as

strong-powerful, firm-strong, big-large as analyzed in

the previous part From my observation of several

years working with multiple-level of language

learners, it seems to be impossible to teach young

learners (who are at primary level) about sense

relations when their knowledge of mother tongue

is even limited It is a truth that teaching

low-level learners to identify the types of antonyms or

recognize polysemy is uneasy because it requires a

deep understanding of semantic features

The second problem is found in the learners’

needs in learning vocabulary as Higa (1965)

suggests that learners may lack motivation to learn

two words that have similar meaning or denote similar information, which leads to difficulty in learning synonyms This fact is also indicated in studies by Tinkham (1993) and Waring (1997) Furthermore, as Laufer (1990) states, the less advanced learners are unlikely to learn new words with similar meanings because they have a greater need to learn unknown second language meanings Furthermore, in English For Specific or Content and Language Integrated Learning courses, although it is important to introduce technical terms, there remain challenges for both teachers and learners because it is impossible to pair the vocabularies into antonyms or synonyms For example, the author has been working in a police’s academy and English lessons may focus

on topics like: the penal code of Vietnam, mutual legal assistance, extradition, crime investigation and so on It appears that grouping words or mind mapping are the two most frequent and favorable choices in designing activities in class

3 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING VOCABULARY

In the light of obtained result it might

be appropriate to make the following recommendations for language teachers in their teaching techniques and methods:

Playing the role as a facilitator, a guider and

a supporter, teachers should always keep in mind that their teaching targets should be directed to increase the learners’ collocational competence with the vocabulary they have already got Then, they should raise learners’ awareness of sense relations in vocabulary acquisition, knowledge about words families should be taught in language classes Second languages learners should be guided to learn vocabulary by grouping words in different types of semantic field (lexical sets) such as: similar meaning, opposites, derivatives, idioms

or multi words, verbs, inclusion and so on

Because learners should realize that the

meaning they first learnt for a word may not

be the one that it has in a new context, they

need encouragement in guessing the meaning

through the context For example, when dealing

with a reading text with a variety of unknown

words, teachers should increase learners’ stock

of vocabulary by using the word relations like

antonyms and synonyms The teachers should

guide them to guess the meaning of new words

from the context Besides, it is important for

teachers to remind the learners not to use source

like dictionary as the first tool to look up for any

word Enough exercises should be provided in the

section of “antonymy” and “relational opposites”

for the learners to make the correct use of them as

well as to differentiate between them Knowledge

about part or speech should also be highlighted so

that the learners are directed to generate different

words Furthermore, materials found in authentic

dialogues or daily conversations, TV programs

should be taken into use not only to enhance

listening skill but also promote the learners’ ability

in guessing the words through spoken text

When working with learners at low levels,

teachers can use visual aids to teach vocabulary

to make the process easier For instance, when

teaching adjectives, teachers should generally

give learners a set of adjectives with pictures to

represent them Once they have matched the

adjectives to the pictures, teachers give them

the antonyms and ask them to match them with

their opposites; this also helps build a long-term

memory Besides, it is also possible to teach lexical

sets or hyponyms together In particularly, labeling

exercise can be adopted; for instance, teachers

illustrate by giving a picture (e.g of a house) with

blank labels and a set of words (e.g rooms and

parts of a house) and ask them to label the items

This is generally very effective and helps learners

memorize words more easily with visual images

At more advanced levels, teachers can draw

learners’ attention to homonyms and polysemy

when encountering them in exercises or texts If

possible, we can represent the different meanings with pictures or drawings If that is not possible,

we can try giving at least 2-3 examples for each item, to help learners grasp the differences in nuance (for polysemous words) or in meaning (for homonyms) A more likely way to get words lists that match learners’ desires and needs is to have the learners make their own lists from materials they use It is certain that learners will learn the vocabulary of fields that interest them

4 CONCLUSION

Basically, knowing a word involves being able to recognize its sound, its spelling and to distinguish it from a word with a similar form Knowing a word is also about the ability to produce it, to use it in grammatical pattern along with the word it usually collocates with and to use it in a suitable situation using the word to stand for the meaning it represents Clearly, sense relations are good descriptive devices helping with the compilation of dictionaries and thesauri, as source for the development of vocabulary learning and of large-scale databases of words for use in various applications Therefore, understanding and applying knowledge of sense relations in enhancing lexical resources can benefit both teachers and learners in teaching and learning English In order to improve learner’s language proficiency, it is advised to equip them an adequate bank of vocabularies and create chances

to promote suitable responds in communication Grasping well lexical resources can enable people

to successfully deliver their messages without causing any ambiguity or misunderstanding./

References:

Kreidler, C W (1998) Introducing English Semantics London:

Routledge.

Cruse, D.A (1995) Lexical Semantics Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Gairns, R and Redman, S (1989) Working With Words: A

Guide to Teaching and Learning Vocabulary Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

ỨNG DỤNG LÝ THUYẾT VỀ MỐI QUAN HỆ NGỮ NGHĨA TRONG GIẢNG DẠY TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANH

NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ THƯƠNG Tóm tắt: Việc học từ vựng là vô cùng quan trọng trong quá trình học ngôn ngữ đặc biệt là với

người học tiếng Anh Nhiều sinh viên gặp khó khăn trong việc chọn đúng từ ngữ để diễn đạt ý

tưởng của mình do kiến thức từ vựng chưa đầy đủ Bài viết này nhằm phân tích tầm quan trọng

của việc ứng dụng lý thuyết về mối quan hệ ngữ nghĩa trong giảng dạy từ vựng Tác giả hy vọng

đề xuất một số giải pháp mới trong xây dựng và thiết kế nhiều bài tập và hoạt động trong ứng

dụng lý thuyết về quan hệ ngữ nghĩa nhằm nâng cao năng lực tiếng Anh của người học, đặc biệt

là học từ vựng

Từ khoá: quan hệ ngữ nghĩa, giảng dạy từ vựng

Ngày nhận bài: 18/4/2019; ngày sửa chữa: 15/5/2019; ngày duyệt đăng: 17/5/2019

Higa, M (1963) Interference effects of intralist words

relationship in verbal learning Journal of Verbal learning

and Verbal Behavior, 2, 170-175.

Higa, M (1965) The psycholinguistic concept of “difficulty” and

the teaching of foreign language vocabulary Language

learning, 15, 167-179.

Nguyễn Hoà (2004) Understanding English Semantics NXB

Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội.

Jackson, H., & Amvela, E (2000) Words, Meaning and

Vocabulary Trowbridge: The Cromwell Press.

Kearns, K (2001) Modern linguistics series-semantics, United

States of America: Macmillan.

Laufer, B (1990) Words you know: How they affect the words

you learn, In J.Fisiak (Ed.) Further insights into contrastive

linguistics Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Lehrer, A (1974) Semantic Fields and Lexical Structure

North-Holland linguistic series, 11 Amsterdam:North-North-Holland;

New York: American Elsevier.

Lyons, J (1995) Linguistic Semantics: An introduction London:

CUP.

Lyster, R (2007) Learning and teaching languages through

content: A counterbalanced approach Amsterdam/

Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Mathews, N (1997) A introduction USA: Texas: Honston

Headache Clinic.

Nation, I S P (1990) Teaching and learning vocabulary Boston, Mass: Newbury House

Nation, P (2001) Learning vocabulary in another language

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Pikulski, J.J and Templeton, S (2004) Teaching and

Developing Vocabulary Litho in U.S.A: Houghton Mifflin

Company.

Richards, J.C & R Schmidt (2002) Longman Dictionary of

Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics 3rd ed

London: Pearson Education Limited.

Sadoski, M (2005) A dual coding view of vocabulary

learning Reading & Writing Quarterly, 21 (3), 221-238 Saussure, F.de (1996) Course in General Linguistics New

York: McGraw- Hill Book Company.

Schmitt, N (2008) Instructed second language vocabulary

learning Language Teaching Research, 12 (3), 329-363 Taylor, J R (1995) Linguistic Categorization Oxford:

Clarendon Press.

Tinkham, T (1993) The effect of semantic clustering on the

learning of second language vocabulary System, 21,

371-380.

Waring, R (1997) The negative effects of learning words in

semantics sets: A replication, System, 25, 261-274 Wilkins, D (1972) Linguistics in language teaching London:

Arnold