A word may have many potential meanings, but its actual meaning in any authentic written or spoken text is determined by its context: its collocations, structural patterns, and pragmatic functions.

Some people talk more accurately about words having potential meanings. Their actual meaning in any authentic written or spoken text is determined by their context: their collocations, structural patterns, and pragmatic functions

learners will need contexts in order to learn the language. Where can we get these contexts from? We can make them up (as most lexicographers, linguists and teachers did in the past) but, because our memories and intuitions are often inaccurate and incomplete, we usually make up contexts that are inaccurate and incomplete.

To get an idea of how metaphorical expressions in everyday language icon give us insight into the metaphorical nature of the concepts that structure our everyday activities, let us consider the metaphorical concept TIME IS Money as it is reflected in contemporary English.

We are adopting the practice of using the most specific metaphorical concept, in this case TIME IS MONEY to characterize the entire system. Of the expressions listed under the TIME IS MONEY metaphor, some refer specifically to money (spend, invest, budget, probably cost), others to limited resources (use, use up, have enough of, run out of), and still others to valuable commodities (have, give, lose, thank you for). This is an example of the way in which metaphorical entailments can characterize a coherent system of metaphorical concepts and a corresponding coherent system of metaphorical expressions for those concepts.

Swan writes that the tense does not need to be changed when the present, future, and present perfect reporting verbs are used (because there is normally no important change in time). (7) In addition to this, the past simple and continuous tenses in spoken English are often left unchanged, provided there is no confusion relating to the relevant times and actions. (8) Finally, in regard to modals, must changes to had to; past modals remain unchanged: would in the above example remains as would in reported speech.

There is *one* way to create a shortened link to a non-existent tweet, though… Use Bit.ly’s named links. Create your tweet with a link to a nonexistent Bit.ly URL like “http://bit.ly/lvshft79.” Once all your tweets are written, create the shortened links with the custom names you predefined.