ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on multi-word units and metaphor in vocabulary research in ESP. There are many types of formulaic language and many names for it. Multi-word units might include common col-locations as well as bundles of three or four words. The relationship between these words is not a matter of chance, and much research has focused on the statistical relationships between words. Multi-word units can make up a fairly large proportion of texts, but estimates of the amount of formulaic language in English vary. Identifying multi-word units in context is an important step in finding out more about their frequency and specialised nature. Lexical bundles are strings of three or more words that occur frequently. Biber notes that lexical bundles tend not to be idiomatic. Bundles can be complete grammatically or not. Lexical bundles in textbooks have been the subject of further research to find out more about the frequency and function of bundles in texts.
