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HIDDEN FEATURES OF WORDS Learning a word needs time because there are a surprising number of things to discover and remember. These can be divided into features of MEANING and of FORM. MEANING FEATURES 1. Multiple Meanings The same spelling often stands for more than one meaning. If these meanings are unrelated, their spelling is said to represent more than one word, called HOMONYMS. If the meanings are related, their spelling is only one word but the meanings are called POLYSEMY. Homonyms may be illustrated by the word bank, which is either a place for storing money or the side of a river. Words like this are a common cause of misunderstanding in reading. Consider the use of state in this sentence: While concern in that first environmental crisis was with global collapse, the appropriate focus for social action and political pressure was nonetheless seen to be the individual state. Does state here mean COUNTRY or CONDITION? More about the reading problems caused by homonyms can be found at www.guinlist.wordpress.com (Post No. 11). TASK 1: IDENTIFY AT LEAST TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT MEANINGS IN EACH OF THESE HOMONYMS. bore leaves file host flatter spoke duck tender colon mass The most common kind of polysemy involves FIGURATIVE MEANING. A figurative meaning is a second meaning which has developed from a more basic (“literal”) meaning. For example, root basically means “the part of a plant that grows underground”; while the connected figurative meaning is “a cause of something”. The connection is that roots cause a plant to grow and be seen. TASK 2: IDENTIFY THE LITERAL AND FIGURATIVE MEANINGS OF THE FOLLOWING POLYSEMOUS WORDS. black a branch to soar deeply a mess to flower rubbish to underline to depress brilliant religiously haunted 2. Connotation Connotation is a suggestion of GOOD or BAD in a meaning. For example, reward has a good connotation, while sin has a bad one. Sometimes we can choose between good and bad connotations of the same meaning. This is because some meanings can be expressed by more than one word (synonyms), each of which has an opposite connotation. For example break and interruption both mean a temporary pause of an activity, but the former suggests that this pause is good, whereas the latter makes it sound bad. Word connotation is a powerful means for writers to persuade their reader. For example, if a text says that a politician “went around saying” something, and not just “said” it, it is implicitly criticising what the politician said. TASK 3: IDENTIFY THE NEGATIVE HALF OF EACH PAIR BELOW. provoke/stimulate shrewd/crafty revenge/retribution mislay/lose 3. domestic workers/servants fat/well-built reckless/daring shrill/high-pitched cheap/inexpensive reproduce/breed glaring/brilliant obstinate/persistent Collocation A collocation is a combination of words, one of which can be predicted from the presence of the other nearby. For example, from the word photograph, we can expect to find the verb take or develop, and not make or evolve. Most words belong to at least one collocation, and knowing what these collocations are is an important part of “knowing” a word. TASK 4: WRITE THE MISSING WORD IN EACH EXPRESSION BELOW. THE WORD(S) THAT MAKE A PARTNERSHIP WITH THE ANSWER ARE UNDERLINED 1. ........ and pepper. 2. When all is said and ......, people have to work harder. 3. ....... your bed as soon as you get up. 4. Your argument ......... no ice with me. 5. There is a world of .......... between The Congo and Kenya. 6. The government have ......... an ultimatum to the kidnappers. 7. Smoking is very harmful. I am ......... opposed to it. 8. There is a surplus of food because of a bumper .......... . 9. The authorities are ........ steps to solve the problem. 4. Register Register is the language typical of a particular topic or situation, for example science, law, history, religion, poetry, oratory, journalism or conversation. Some words belong to all registers, and some to only one or a few. Sometimes the difference between two similar words is the different registers to which they belong. This explains the difference, for example, between a lot of (spoken English) and numerous (formal written English). TASK 5: DISCUSS THE LIKELY REGISTER (TYPE OF ENGLISH) OF THE UNDERLINED WORD IN EACH PAIR BELOW 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. pay/remuneration respiration/breathing have a go/make an attempt the people/citizens training/formation the car/the vehicle (used to describe a car) 5. Strength of Meaning 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. a person/a mortal liquidity/cash a language/a tongue matter/stuff flock/followers cut/reduce Sometimes two words are similar in meaning except that one is stronger than the other. For example, huge is stronger than big or large. We can say that huge means very big. Because of this, it is not usual to use huge with very before it – the meaning of very is already in the word. TASK 6: SORT THE FOLLOWING WORDS INTO STRONG/WEAK PAIRS LIKE HUGE/BIG. essential, frightened, impoverished, tiny, brilliant, terrified, wicked, important, disastrous, destitute, small, bright, immoral, harmful. FORM FEATURES 6. Irregular Inflections English inflections are endings that express different grammatical meanings. For example, -s on nouns shows plural meaning, and –er on adjectives shows comparative. In learning new words, you have to look out for irregular inflections. TASK 7: TRY TO GIVE AS MANY OF THE FOLLOWING PROBLEMATIC INFLECTIONS AS YOU CAN. NOTE THE MORE GENERAL CATEGORIES THAT THEY EXEMPLIFY. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. The plurals of crisis, phenomenon and larva The plurals of tomato and scenario The past tenses of choose and lead The comparatives of happy, common and careful The present tense of lost The plurals of fish, sheep and offspring The singulars of mice, oxen and teeth The past tenses of travel and occur The comparative of badly The singulars of police, clothes, scissors and surroundings The singulars of species and means. The plurals of roof, loaf, knife and belief 7. Tricky Spellings English spelling is mostly governed by rules, but these rules are obscure, and there are many exceptions, so that confusion regularly occurs. TASK 8: CHOOSE THE CORRECT SPELLING FROM EACH LIST BELOW 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. (a) (a) (a) (a) (a) (a) (a) (a) (a) (a) (a) (a) (a) (a) (a) accommodate posseses benfitting resurect crucifixion gramar choising critism achieve beging defintion stubborn continuos refference environment (b) (b) (b) (b) (b) (b) (b) (b) (b) (b) (b) (b) (b) (b) (b) 8/9. Word Class & Subclass acommodate posesses benefiting ressurrect crucification gramer chosing critcism acheive begining definition sturbbon continous referrence enviroment (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) accomodate possesses benfiting resurrect crucifiction grammer chossing criticism achive beggining difenation sturbbon continuous refferrence enviromment (d) acomodate (d) poseses (d) benefitting (d) ressurect (d) crucifixation (d) grammar (d) choosing (d) critisism (d) acheve (d) beginning (d) difenition (d) stuborn (d) continoues (d) reference (d) enviorment Knowing whether a word is a noun, verb etc is not usually enough for knowing how to use that word grammatically. The following subtypes of word classes are important: NOUNS: VERBS: ADJECTIVES: ADVERBS: CONJUNCTIONS: TASK 9: TICK THE VERBS IN THIS LIST THAT CAN ONLY BE USED INTRANSITIVELY enjoy raise occur fall smoke TASK 10: Countable or Uncountable Transitive or Intransitive Pre-Noun, Post-Noun, or Both Pre-Verb or Not Pre-Verb Coordinating or Subordinating change drop break destroy appear flow come applaud emerge put up grow arise become remain end CORRECT THE ERROR IN EACH SENTENCE BELOW THAT IS CAUSED BY WRONG USE OF ONE OF THE ABOVE WORD SUBCLASSES. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Most people cheaply travel to Kampala by taxi. When the exams are over it is time to go and enjoy. If the computer is no longer in use, should be shut down. Anyone in trouble may seek an advice from their supervisor. Taxes have to be risen when governments need more money. The danger on the roads creates many afraid drivers. Governments should do more to minimise the prostitution. The floor where the computers are kept is upper. 10. Pronunciation (Sounds) Many words sound differently from the way their spelling suggests. Some of these differences have a good reason (e.g. when a syllable is unstressed, most short vowels are pronounced /ə/), but many others follow no rule. TASK 11: MATCH EACH LINE OF WORDS ON THE RIGHT BELOW WITH THE CORRECT CATEGORY NAME ON THE LEFT. ambiguous vowel women, bury, quantity, vein, village, choir, leopard, biscuit illogical vowel often, bombing, knee, iron, aisle, honest, hasten, reign silent consonant vegetable, temperature, February, comfortable, parliament silent syllable though, thought, cow, low, put, cut, donkey, monkey, form, worm 11. Pronunciation (Stress) Words are divided into syllables. For example wonderful is won-der-ful (3 syllables) and hello is hel-lo (two syllables). One of the syllables in a word must be said more strongly than the others – in the above examples the strong syllables are won- and hel-. The stress pattern of a word is its division into strong and weak syllables. The pattern of wonderful is STRONG-WEAK-WEAK (SWW). TASK 12: WRITE THE STRESS PATTERN OF EACH OF THE FOLLOWING. 1. 2. 3. 4. response developed agreement management 12. Partner Grammar 5. 6. 7. 8. resit surprise detailed committee 9. 10. 11. 12. industry negotiate occurring organised Many words have to be used next to a particular grammar structure. For example, it is important to know whether a verb can go before to or –ing or either of them (cp. I like to dance and I enjoy dancing), or what preposition a word usually goes with. TASK 13: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. CHOOSE THE CORRECT GRAMMAR STRUCTURE EACH TIME BELOW. Success depends ON/OF hard work. (FOLLOWING PREPOSITION) Biology is divided IN/INTO Zoology and Botany (FOLLOWING PREPOSITION) Carelessness results IN/INTO accidents. (FOLLOWING PREPOSITION) There has been an increase IN/OF prices. (FOLLOWING PREPOSITION) Write your name IN/WITH capitals (PRECEDING PREPOSITION) Read all the questions IN/AT the beginning of an exam. (PRECEDING PREPOSITION) It is worth TO GIVE/GIVING your mobile number to relatives (FOLLOWING VERB) Drivers face the possibility OF HAVING/TO HAVE an accident. (FOLLOWING VERB) Transport problems make the price of petrol TO RISE/RISE . (FOLLOWING VERB) Ugandans call potatoes IRISH/AS IRISH. (FOLLOWING NOUN)