ABSTRACT
Vocabulary is a core element of language use, and research exploring its relationships with other components of linguistic competence constitutes an important subfield of applied linguistics. This chapter highlights the importance of vocabulary as a factor that influences general proficiency and constitutes a key element of becoming a mature language user. Relations between words constitute another aspect of vocabulary studies where corpora can provide valuable insights. Words do not exist in isolation and therefore their meanings can be studied by exploring the different lexical relations they have with one another. One example of a lexical relation is synonymy. Metaphoricity is another feature of vocabulary that can be studied through corpus-based analyses. A special kind of non-literal language that attracts the attention of many researchers are idioms. Another aspect of vocabulary studies where corpora can afford useful insights is the analysis of lexical variation that stems from the use of language in different contexts and social settings.
