Review and Lecture Notes in Philippine History: 2010-07-18

English vocabulary has a remarkable range, flexibility and adaptability. Thanks to the periods of contact with foreign languages and its readiness to coin new words out of old elements, English seems to have far more words in its core vocabulary than other languages. For example, alongside kingly (from Anglo-Saxon) we find royal (from French) and regal (from Latin). There are many such sets of words which add greatly to our opportunities to express subtle shades of meaning at various levels of style.

For purposes of discussion, let me present the following strategies to widen your knowledge on vocabulary learning.

1. Semantic map (can also be referred to as word web or word tree) are sub-categories of word or words that belong to the same class. They are lexically related to each other.

For example: Internet
- Surfing, blogging, e-mail, website, download, upload, torrent, e-commerce, video streaming, file sharing, virus, spyware, information super highway, etc.
-
2. Clipping is a common word formation. To clip means to cut off the beginning or the end of the word.

For example: Phone is the clipped form for telephone. In the word photograph, cutting the end leaves the clipped word “photo”.

3. Blending is a style in word formation wherein two words are put together to signify a combination of such words.

For example:

1. Smog – heavy smoke + fog
2. Telecast – television + broadcast (broadcast through tv)
3. Brunch – late breakfast + early lunch
4. Blogs – web + logs
5. Motorcade – motor (vehicle) + parade

4. Compounding, as used in vocabulary building, two or three words are put together to signify another term. It usually contains two roots. (For example: Chairman)

Please take note the difference between a compound and a phrase.

COMPOUND PHRASE
Hotdog hot dog
Blackboard black board
Shortstop short stop
bull’s-eye bull’s eye
Butterfly butter fly

The original meaning of the roots may be lost in a compound. A hotdog is not a dog and can be hot or even frozen. A blackboard may be green, blue, etc. But in a phrase, each word retains its original meaning. So a hot dog must be both hot and a dog.

Other examples of compound words:

TEASPOON – a spoon used for putting sugar
BOTTLE-OPENER/CORKSCREW – a metal device for opening bottles
TEAPOT – a pot in which a tea is made

Hyphens are used to join compound words so that they become one word.

My son in law = My son-in-law
a twenty peso bill = a twenty-peso bill
her happy go lucky smile = her happy-go-lucky smile

As to form:

SINGULAR FORM = PLURAL FORM
Mother-in-law = Mothers-in-law
Passerby = Passersby
Daughter-in-law = Daughters-in-law
Editor-in-chief = Editors-in-chief

Exception:

1. To noun in the compound word, add “s” to the end of the word:

SINGULAR = PLURAL
mix-up = mix-ups
Takeoff = takeoffs

2. Compound word ends in –ful add s to the end of the word

SINGULAR = PLURAL
cupful = Cupfuls

Other example of compound words:

dugouts
nonetheless
chambermaid
someone/anyone
somebody/anybody

5. Popular etymology – the history of a linguistic form (as a word) shown by tracing its development since its earliest recorded occurrence in the language where it is found, by tracing its transmission from one language to another, by analyzing it into its component parts, by identifying its cognates in other languages, or by tracing it and its cognates to a common ancestral form in an ancestral language

a. The word _________ came from the word isle which means “water or meadow”. Later it came to mean a piece of land completely surrounded by water.

b. To deliver by ____________section is to give birth through a surgical incision made in abdominal wall. Some sources say the term is derived from the name of Julius Caesar, a great Roman Emperor believed to have been delivered in this manner.

c. Language - Date:14th century. Middle English, from Anglo-French langage, from lange, langue tongue, language, from Latin lingua — more at TONGUE

CATEGORIES OF WORD ANALYSIS WHICH YOU CAN USE IN READING A TEXT

a. Configuration clues – give the over-all characteristics of how a word looks.
b. Contextual clues – context is the surrounding text in which a word is used. Most people automatically use context to help them determine the meaning of an unknown word. When you encounter a word in its surroundings, it is much easier to figure out its meaning, or at least its connotation. The best way to take the meaning from context is to search the surrounding text for key words in sentences or paragraphs that convey the meaning of the unfamiliar word.

For example:
She was exempt from the class that day. She was excused because she had been hospitalized.

In this sentence, the meaning of exempt is restated.

Denotation vs. Connotation

You already know that some words have more than one meaning. A quack, for example, is the sound for duck makes but a quack is also an untrained or unqualified person who pretends to be a doctor. But words also have another meaning beyond their DENOTATION or the dictionary definition. Each word also has a CONNOTATION – an implied meaning or emotional impact.

For example, if you were to look up the word playful in the dictionary:

-synonyms:
Spirited = positive connotation
Mischievous = negative connotation
Playful = neutral tone

Again, Denotation is a word’s exact meaning or dictionary definition. Connotation is the word’s implied meaning or emotional impact.

c. PHONETIC ANALYSIS – also called phonics, is the study of sounds, symbols or phonemes.
d. STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS – usually refers to the analysis of larger meaning – bearing parts of words, such as root words, suffixes, word ending, apostrophe (for possession). Structural analysis is often referred to as morphology, a study of morphemes or the meaning – bearing units of language.

What does knowing a new word mean?

1. It is not enough just to know the meaning of a word. You also need to know:
a) what words it is usually associated with
b) whether it has any particular grammatical characteristics
c) how it is pronounced

2. Try to learn new words not in isolation but in phrases.
3. Write down adjectives together with nouns they are often associated with and vice versa, e.g. royal family; rich vocabulary.
4. Write down verbs with the structure and nouns associated with them, e.g. to add to our knowledge of the subject; to express an opinion.
5. Write down nouns in phrases, e.g. in contact with; a train set; shades of opinion.
6. Write down words with their prepositions, e.g. at a high level; thanks to your help.
7. Note any grammatical characteristics of the words you are studying. For example, note when a verb is irregular and when a noun is uncountable or is only used in the plural.
8. Make a note of any special pronunciation problems with the words you're learning.

What should you do when you come across new words?
When you are reading something in English, don't look up every new word or expression or you will soon get fed up. Only look up something that is really important for understanding the text. When you have finished reading, look back at what you have read and then perhaps look up some extra words and write down new expressions that interest you.

Similarly when you listen to English don't panic when you hear some words or expressions that you don't know. Keep listening and the overall meaning will often become clear.

When you read or listen to English it is sometimes possible to guess the meaning of a word you don't know before you look up or ask its meaning. Decide first what part of speech the word is and then look for clues in its context or form.

How are you going to plan your vocabulary learning?

Planning is an important part in learning vocabulary. For a start, you can answer the following guide questions below:
1 How many words and expressions do you intend to learn each week?
2 Where and when are you going to learn them?
a) on your way to school or work
b) before dinner
c) in bed
d) other

3 How often are you going to revise your work?
What can you find in a dictionary?
1. Pronunciation
2. Parts of speech
3. Grammatical feature
4. Definition
5. Examples
6. Collocations
7. Etymology

Vowels and consonants
The terms are used both for writing and speech. You will usually find a term such as vowel sound or written vowel when you need to know the difference.

Phonemes and phonemic script
Individual vowel or consonant sounds are called phonemes. In phonemic script (often called phonemic symbols or notation), each symbol stands for a single phoneme.

Word stress
Spoken words consist of one or more syllables. In two-syllable words one syllable is stressed, the other weak. Longer words such as 'economic' may have three degrees of stress: in this case, primary stress on the third syllable; secondary stress on the first; and weak stress on the others.

Schwa /ə/
Most very weak syllables contain schwa, which is the name of the shortest (and most common) spoken vowel found in English. The word 'economic' contains two written vowels; but when written in phonemic script, /,ekə'nomik/, we see that the first very weak is schwa, but in the stressed syllable contains the longer sound found in 'top' and 'dog'. Schwa is also found in weak forms of most grammatical words such as 'to' and 'her'.

Pitch, tone groups and tonic syllables
Stressed syllables may change pitch. This means that the voice may move up or down. This change of pitch takes place on the most important syllable in a tone group, the tonic syllable. A sentence in terms of grammar/writing may consist of one or more tone groups.

Intonation
Changes of pitch are what make up the intonation of a language. We concentrate on the two most important possible directions for the change of pitch: a fall or a fall-rise.

Review and Lecture Notes in Philippine History

Search This Blog

Saturday, July 24, 2010

(Eng. 1)Prelim Exam Coverage

(Eng. 1) STRATEGIES IN LEARNING NEW ENGLISH VOCABULARY

Monday, July 19, 2010

(Eng. 3) Explanation of Basic Terms of the Pronunciation areas

(Eng. 3) Symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet