The place of multiword lexical units in English Learners’ Collocational Dictionaries

In this article I discuss two aspects of learners’ collocational dictionaries, both involving the role played by multiword lexical units (MLUs) in such dictionaries. One concerns the role of MLUs as first-level lexical entries (the ‘headwords’), while the second relates to the status of MLUs as target collocational phrases. I discuss these two aspects both in general and with reference to already published dictionaries. The main purpose of the paper is to make a contribution to discussion regarding the optimal requisites of pedagogical collocational dictionaries. I am not aware of any other studies which focus specifically on the role of multiword units in such works. A secondary, more general purpose is to draw attention to the fact that it is not only single words that can enter into collocational relationships – many multiword lexical units do as well. In the course of the article I report on a corpus-based pilot study of the collocational tendencies of MLUs.