Three-cline characterization of procedural versus lexical words¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

Robinson arranges words on three clines separating procedural from lexical words: indexicality (high, non-monotonic, schema-free versus low, monotonic, schema-specific), lexical content (few versus many fixed features), and distribution (wide, with no clear collocations, versus narrow, with clear collocations). Procedural words like 'do' sit at one pole and specific words like 'anaesthatize' at the other. The clines also distinguish grammatical from content words and correspond to semiotic, semantic and syntactic planes.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Distinguishing the word classes relies on criteria of range and coverage across subject areas, since frequency counts of specific fields fail to separate general from specific words

Constraints¶

• The characterization is an analytical description of word properties, not an experimentally tested model

Target Learners¶

• second language learners encountering general and technical vocabulary

Target Learning Objectives¶

• understanding how general words carry and negotiate the meanings of specific technical words

Claims¶

Related Theories¶

• Procedural-declarative distinction in lexical knowledge

Examples¶

• Paraphrase exercises using general basic words to assimilate meaning
• Word-net exercises linking lexical knowledge to grammatical awareness
• Word-set exercises for contextualising vocabulary via imagined possible worlds

Key Sources¶

• Robinson, Peter J. (1988). Procedural and Declarative Knowledge in Vocabulary Learning: Communication and the Language Learner's Lexicon. Paper presented at the 22nd Annual TESOL Convention, Chicago. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED296585