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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)