The beginnings of this book can be traced back to some remarks made by Paul Meara while he was external examiner for the M. Phil, course in Applied Linguistics run by the Centre for Language and Communication Studies, Trinity College, Dublin. He suggested that what the Centre needed in the area of applied linguistics was a research project to which both staff and students could contribute and which would generate a data-bank on which both staff and students could draw. It was our acting on this suggestion that gave rise to the Trinity College Dublin Modern Languages Research Project (TCD MLRP), out of which came first a renewal of my interest in lexis, and then, in the fullness of time, the idea for the present volume. It so happens that the project data have led me to criticize some of Paul's early conclusions concerning the L2 mental lexicon, and he may now wish that he had kept his counsel when he was in Dublin! However, for myself, I have every reason to be grateful to him for what he prompted me to undertake. This particular and personal debt of gratitude is, of course, additional to that owed to Paul by all of us who work in the area of L2 lexical acquisition and processing for the way in which he kept discussion of L2 lexical issues alive during a period when the L2 lexical harvest was being attended to by very few labourers indeed.