In previous work, we have examined some syntagmatic aspects of the lexicon in language production and comprehension, and have found it useful to analyze in terms of lexical phrases (Nattinger 1980, 1986, 1988; DeCarrico and Nattinger 1988). Lexical phrases are multi-word lexical phenomena that exist somewhere between the traditional poles of lexicon and syntax. They are similar to lexicon in being treated as units, yet most of them consist of more than one word, and many of them can at the same time be derived from the regular rules of syntax, just like other sentences. These phrases are patterned sequences, usually consisting of a syntactic frame that contains slots for various fillers, and run the gamut from completely fixed, unvarying phrases to phrases that are highly variable. We established six basic categories of lexical phrases according to their functional and structural characteristics (Nattinger 1980):
(a) Polywords: short, fixed lexical phrases, whose meaning is not often an-alyzable by the regular rules of syntax. They can substitute for single words, so are often treated like regular vocabulary in language lessons: idioms ('kick the bucket'), euphemisms ('powder room'), slang ('better half), phrasal verbs, i.e., two- and three-part verbs ('put up,' 'put up with').
(b) Phrasal constraints: short, relatively fixed lexical phrases with slots that permit some variation, many being non-canonical forms ('a year ago,' 'by pure coincidence,' 'down with the king'), greetings ('how do you do'), partings ('see you later'), exclamations ('you can't be serious!'), insults ('you creep').
(c) Deictic locutions: short to medium length lexical phrases of low variability, consisting of phrases, clauses or entire utterances. They are essentially monitoring devices, whose purpose is (1) to direct the flow of conversation by marking attitudes, expectations, concessions, challenges, defenses, supports, retreats ('as far as I know,' 'don't you think,' 'if I were
you,' 'for that matter,' 'frankly,' 'I mean to say,' 'further to my letter of) or (2) to exercise social control ('hey, wait a minute,' 'now look,' 'see here,' 'shut up,' 'and then what?').
(d) Sentence builders: lexical phrases up to sentence length, highly variable, containing slots for parameters or arguments. These provide a skeleton for the expression of the entire idea. They are often non-canonical and discontinuous, and are used in a wide variety of social contexts ('not only X but also Y,' 'if I X, then I Y,' 'the __er X, the __er Y').
(e) Situational utterances: lexical phrases which are usually complete sentences, amenable to the regular rules of syntax and highly dependent on the social context. They provide the framework for particular social interactions·greetings ('how are you today'), partings ('I'll see you next week'), politeness routines ('thanks very much for X'), questions ('could you tell me X')·and much of the language of social maintenance ('what's new,' 'cold enough for you,' 'I won't tell another living soul,' 'how have you been getting along with X').
(f) Verbatim texts: lexical phrases that may consist of entire texts of different length with extremely low variability. Used for quotation, allusion, or frequently, as in the case of institutionalized chunks, direct use. These are memorized sequences (numbers, the alphabet, the days of the week), aphorisms ('the public seldom forgives twice'), proverbs ('a rolling stone gathers no moss'), and all of those chunks that a speaker has found efficient to store as units. Some of these may be general units, used by everyone in the speech community, while others may be more idiosyncratic, phrases that an individual has stored because they have been found an efficient and pleasing way of getting an idea across.
As is apparent, all of these amount to much more than picturesque phrases of infrequent occurrence, and much more than isolated curiosities of phatic and 'incidental' language. Lexical phrases are in fact basic to language performance; they are pervasive because they seem to be characteristic of the 'chunking' processes we use to comprehend and to speak.
This sort of 'chunking' also characterizes speech production to a surprising degree. Becker, from his work in artificial intelligence on spoken language, feels that the frequency of lexical phrases in performed speech implies:
that the process of speaking is Compositional: We start with the information we wish to express or evoke, and we haul out of our phrasal lexicon some patterns that can provide the major elements of this expression. Then the problem is to stitch these phrases together into something roughly grammatical, to fill in the blanks with the particulars of the case at hand, to modify the phrases if need be, and if all else fails to generate phrases from scratch to smooth over the transitions and fill in any remaining conceptual holes (Becker 1975:72).
It is our ability to use lexical phrases, in other words, that helps us speak with fluency. If lexical phrases characterize language acquisition and language performance to such an extent, they would seem to be an ideal unit for language teaching and for further exploring categories of linguistic theory. In this paper, we describe the sorts of lexical phrases that characterize conversational language. We then examine in detail a particular category of conversational lexical phrases called 'indirect speech acts,' and show how a lexical phrase approach provides satisfying solutions to certain problemes in their analysis. Next we examine the organization of lexical phrases in conversation, and we discuss the advantages and methods of a lexical phrase approach in the teaching of conversation.