Explore lexical roles in language
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Slide 1: What are lexical units?
Lexical units are the core elements that carry meaning in language. They include content words whose primary role is semantic content and message formation.
Nouns name people, places, things, or ideas. They function as subjects, objects, or complements, and can be concrete or abstract in meaning.
Verbs express actions, processes, or states. They show tense, aspect, mood, and voice, and help organize the sentence around action.
Adjectives describe or modify nouns. They provide qualities like color, size, age, or opinion, enriching the meaning of nouns.
Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They convey manner, time, place, degree, frequency, or certainty in a sentence.
Pronouns replace nouns to avoid repetition. They refer to people or things previously mentioned or understood from context.
Determiners introduce nouns and express definiteness, quantity, or ownership. Examples include articles, demonstratives, and possessives.
Prepositions show relationships between nouns and other elements, indicating location, direction, time, or manner.
Conjunctions connect words, phrases, or clauses. They create compound thoughts and indicate contrast, addition, or cause-and-effect.
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Slide 10: Lexical vs Function words
Lexical units carry core meaning; function words guide grammar and structure. Together, they build fluent, meaningful sentences.
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Slide 1: What are lexical units?
Lexical units are the content words that carry meaning: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. They form the core of sentences. 
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Slide 2: Nouns — the naming hubs
Nouns name people, places, things, or ideas. They often function as subjects or objects in sentences.
Example: The cat sleeps on the mat. 
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Slide 3: Verbs — actions and states
Verbs express actions or states. They are the action engine of clauses.
Example: run, exist, eat. 
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Slide 4: Adjectives — color and quality
Adjectives describe nouns, adding color, size, or quality. They help comparisons: small, bigger, beautiful. 
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Slide 5: Adverbs — how, when, where
Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They convey manner, time, place or degree. quickly, yesterday, here.
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Slide 6: Pronouns — stand-ins
Pronouns replace nouns to avoid repetition. He, she, it, they keep sentences smooth. 
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Slide 7: Collocations and phrases
Lexical units form fixed phrases and common pairings, like make a decision or take a shower. These sound natural in language. 
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Slide 8: Content vs function words
Lexical units are content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs). They contrast with function words like prepositions and conjunctions. 
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Slide 9: Fun fact about long words
Long words aren’t always practical lexical units. Some are technical or coined terms, not common in daily speech. Did you know pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis? 
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Slide 10: Quick practice
Identify the lexical units in: Bright students read quickly in the library.
Highlight nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Tip: label each word with its class.
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