Zwischen Fach-, Bildungs- und Gemeinsprache

The description of lexis in scientific texts traditionally distinguishes between basic and specialized vocabulary as well as general academic lexis. Since these areas of vocabulary pose different learning demands for L2 learners, it is important, e.g. for curricular decisions, not only to consider the usage profiles of individual lexical units, but also to be able to assess the relative relevance of the vocabulary areas across disciplinary registers. The article presents a corpus-based descriptive approach for this purpose that distinguishes between lexemes corresponding to 1) basic vocabulary, 2) polyvalent basic vocabulary that is part of general academic lexis, 3) items of general academic lexis that go beyond basic vocabulary, and 4) (subject-)specific vocabulary that is further subdivided with respect to frequency of occurrence in general language. Exploratory corpus analyses show that there are register differences in terms of the extent to which these vocabulary areas are drawn on as well as in terms of their frequency markedness relative to a general language reference

Discipline · Lexical item · Lexis · Presupposition · Vocabulary · Lexicography and Language Studies · Linguistic Education and Pedagogy · Linguistic research and analysis