Friday, July 10, 2009

Study Guide

Answer these questions in four or five sentences. Give examples.

1. What is Lexis?
2. What is Grammar?
3. What is Morphology?
4. What is Affixation?
5. What is Conversion?
6. What is Polysemy?
7. What is the difference between Polysemy and Homonymy?
8. How do you distinguish Metaphor from Metonymy?

Give at least 7 examples of Homophones, Homographs and Homonyms.

If you please, comment your answers in this entry so that we can work with them.

Again, good luck!

EXERCISE ANSWER KEY

Each of these book titles contains a pun ( a joke based on words). Explain why these words are humorous.
e. g What a Pane !, a glassmaker´s memoirs What a pain ! Meaning what a nuisance is a normal expression. Pane = a large piece of glass.

1. Tee Time, autobiography of a golf instructor. Because tee is the small object you put under the golf ball in order to hit it.
2. Love At First Site, romance on an archaeological dig. Because of site in which digging takes place.
3. Heaven Scent, biography of a creator of perfumes. Because the scent is the smell of a perfume.
4. This Place has a Soul, account of life in a fishmonger´s.
5. Sail of the Century, account of a memorable voyage. Because of the word Sail.

Are the nouns normally countable or uncountable ?
Passport (C)
currency (C/U)
luggage (U)
reservation (C)
accomodation (U)Accomodations AmE
flight (C)
information (U)
travel (U)
visa (C)
journey (C)

Spelling changes. Rewrite each sentence by changing the underlined words, using a suffix. Make any spelling changes needed.

1. Most of his crimes can be forgiven
Most of his crimes are FORGETTABLE
2. The Club refuses to admit anyone not wearing a tie.
The club refuses ..........................
3. Her only fault is that she is lazy.
Her only fault is HER LAZINESS
4. This firm has produced a lot in recent years.
This firm has been very PRODUCTIVE in recent years.
5. I found the book very easy and pleasant to read.
I found the book very......................

Can you think of anything in our country which should be standardized, modernized, computerized, or centralized?

Which word is the odd one out in each group and why?


Brotherhood neighbourhood manhood priesthood

Hair-restorer plant-holder step-ladder oven-cleaner

Appointment involvement compliment arrangement

Practise using words with negative prefixes. Contradict the following statements in the same way as the example. e. g He´s a very honest man. I don´t agree. I think he´s dishonest.

I´m sure she´s discreet.INDISCREET
I always find him very sensitive. INSENSITIVE
It´s a convincing argument. UNCONVINCING
That´s a very relevant point. IRRELEVANT
She´s always obedient. DISOBEDIENT
He´s very efficient. INEFFICIENT
I always find her responsible. IRRESPONSIBLE
He seems grateful for our help. UNGRATEFUL
I´m sure she´s loyal to the firm. DISLOYAL
He's a tolerant person. INTOLERANT
It’s legal to drink and drive. ILLEGAL
It`s moral to cheat in tests. IMMORAL

Which negative adjective fits each of the following definitions?

SINGLE/UNMARRIED means not having a husband or wife.
UNEATABLE means impossible to eat.
ILLEGIBLE means unable to read or write.
UNEMPLYED means not having a job.
IMPARTIAL means fair in giving judgment, not favouring one side.
IRREPLACEABLE means unable to be replaced.

Collocations:
Put the expressions below into the correct category

Making others experience pain


to cause pain
to inflict pain


the experience of being in pain

to be racked with pain
to suffer pain
to feel pain
to complain of pain
to experience pain

making pain go away

to alleviate pain
to ease pain
to lessen pain
to relieve pain
to soothe pain
pain subsides


Prefix meaning examples

anti against anti-war, antisocial ,antibiotic
auto of or by oneself autograph, auto-pilot, autobiography
bi two, twice bicycle, bi-monthly, biannual, bilingual
ex former ex-wife, ex-student, ex-president
ex out of extract, exhale, excommunicate
micro small micro- computer, microwave, microscopic
mis badly/ wrongly misunderstand, mistranslate, misinform
mono one / single monotonous , monologue, monogamous
muti many multi-national, multi-purpose, multi-racial
over too much overdo, overtired, oversleep , overeat
post after postwar, postgraduate, post-revolutionary
pro in favour of pro-government , pro-revolutionary
pseudo false pseudo-scientific, pseudo-intellectual
re again or back retype, reread, replace, rewind, restate
semi half semicircular, semi-final, semi-detached
sub under subway, submarine, subdivision
under not enough underworked, underused, undercooked

Answer the following questions. The answers are all in the table above

What kind of oven cooks things particularly fast? MICROWAVE
What kind of drug can help somebody with an infection? ANTIBIOTIC
What kind of company has branches in many countries? MULTI-NATIONAL
How does a passenger aeroplane normally fly? AUTO-PILOT
What is a student who is studying for a second degree? POSTGRADUATE
What means “ underground railway” in the US and “ underground passage” in the UK? SUBWAY


Using the table above construct words or phrases to replace the underlined words


The BBC tries to avoid pronouncing foreign words incorrectly. MISPRONOUNCING
Most people say they have to work too hard but are paid too little. UNDERPAID OVERWORK
He dated his cheque with a date that was later than the real date. OVERDUE
She´s still on good terms with the man who used to be her husband. EX-HUSBAND
He made so many mistakes in the letter that he had to write it again. REWRITE