Monday, June 15, 2009

LEXICO GRAMMAR

WHAT IS VOCABULARY?

Words, chunks, collocations


What is a word?

What does it mean to know a word?

How many words do native speakers know?

How many of these words do I know?

WHAT IS A WORD?

  • The smallest independent unit of language.
  • Composed of one or more morphemes
  • Perceived as a single concept
  • Written with a white space or punctuation either side
  • Divided into lexical words and grammatical words.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO KNOW A WORD?

  • The meaning(s) of the word
  • The written form of the word
  • The spoken form of the word
  • The grammatical behaviour of the word
  • The collocations of the word
  • The register of the word
  • The associations of the word
  • The frequency of the word
Nation (1990)

Receptive and Productive distinction

Knowing a word involves form, meaning and use.

UNDERDEVELOPED: RECEPTIVE

a. being able to recognise the word when it is heard

b. being familiar with its written form

C. recognising that it is made up of the parts under-,develop-and –ed and being able to relate these parts to its meaning.

d. knowing what the word means in the particular context in which it has ocurred

e. knowing the concept behind the word which will allow understanding in a variety of contexts

f. knowing that there are related words like “overdeveloped”, backward and challenged

G. being able to recognise that “underdeveloped” has been used correctly in the sentence in which it occurs.

H. being able to recognise that words such as “ territories” and “ areas” are typical collocations.

i. knowing that “underdeveloped “ is not an uncommon word and is not a pejorative word.


UNDERDEVELOPED : PRODUCTIVE

a. being able to say it with correct pronunciation including stress

b being able to write it with correct spelling

c. being able to construct it using the right word parts in their appropriate forms

d. being able to produce the word in different contexts to express the range of meanings of “underdeveloped”

e. being able to produce synonyms and opposites for “underdeveloped”

f. being able to use the word correctly in an original sentence.

g. being able to produce words that commonly occur with it

h. being able to decide to use or not use the word to suit the degree of formality of the situation ( at present “ developing “is more acceptable than “ underdeveloped” which carries a slightly negative meaning)


A Chunk

A group of two or more words which

A. represent a single lexical concept

B. are retrieved as a whole from memory.

Types of chunks

Fixed expressions:
  • hyphenated (swimming-pool, English-speaking)
  • not hyphenated (so far so good, strictly speaking, in any case, by and large, by hook or by crook)
  • may be of sentence or clause length: How are you? That’s beside the point. What’s the matter? That’s easier said than done. As I was saying...
  • Include proverbs: All’s well that ends well
Types of Chunks 2

Semi-fixed expressions:
  • as far as (I) (know); It’s none of (your) business; (I) (don’t) know; (…) tell the truth; (not) think much of …,
  • phrasal verbs (look …up, give… away, run…over)
  • Idioms may be either fixed call it a day, a pain in the neck, or semi-fixed , (put … foot in it, [make] a mountain out of a molehill)

Grammar

Grammar is concerned with how sentences and utterances are formed .In a typical English sentence, we can see the two basic principles of grammar, the arrangement of items ( syntax) and the structure of items ( morphology)

Syntax

IF we concentrate on the structure and ordering of components within a sentence , we are studying what is technically known as the syntax of a language.The word syntax came originally from Greek and literally meant “a setting out together” or arrangement.

Morphology

The study of form .This was originally used in biology, but , since the middle of the nineteenth century , has also been used to describe that type of of investigation which analyzes all those basic “elements “ which are used in a language.

elements: Morphemes

Morphemes


talks
talker
talked TALK s
talking er
ed
ing


Morphemes
“ a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical functions”

How many morphemes:
1. reopened
The police reopened the investigation

2. tourists

free and bound morphemes

Exercises:

1. Find out if your dictionary helps you to answer these questions?

- Choose is a verb, but what is the noun with the same meaning?
- Advice is a noun, but what is the verb with the same meaning?
-Can you complete this sentence: “ He gave me a very useful………..of advice.
-What is the difference between homework and housework?

- Do you usually email or snail mail?

-Can you name three ISP`s in our country ?

-Can you name five words that go with “ issue”?

-Can you name ten words that go with “Improvement”?

-When do you use “ listen “ / “ Hear”?

-What is the common error when using the word “ far”?

-Can you write the phrasal verbs with “ close”?

  • Find other ways of saying decide.
  • Find words that go with “ fear”
  • What noun is formed from the verb “ choose” ?
  • Find other ways of saying honest

Right or Wrong???

  • Advice is a countable noun
  • You don´t make homework , you do homework
  • Carry on means the same as continue
  • The opposite of polite is unpolite
  • Hooch is an adjective
  • [ U] means University
  • [ C] means countable
  • Casualty room is the same as emergency room

Match the adjectives and nouns which fit best together:

  • a fatal defeat
  • a heated escape
  • a narrow description
  • a close idea
  • a detailed accident
  • a lucky quantity
  • a bright argument
  • a vast relationship
Use your dictionary to find which word in each pair is spelled correctly

1. A patience B patiense
2. A recieve B receive
3. A measurd B measured
4. A simpliphy B simplify
5. A recycel B recycle
6. A ordinary B ordinery

What´s the american word for:

1. plait
2. fringe
3. stetson
4. rubber
5. sellotape
6. boarding card
7. tyre
8. terraced houses


Names and Nations

Country Adjective

Andorra
Argentina
Bangladesh
Denmark
Finland
Holland
Ireland

The following prefixes mean:

  • pro
  • re
  • sub
  • de
  • hyper
  • super
  • un
  • inter

The main prefixes in English

A half
Anti hyper
Ante hypo
Auto il-,im.-in,-ir
De inter
Dis intra
Down intro
Dys mega
Extra mid
Mis trans
Non ultra
Over un
out up
Para under
Port vice
Pre Re
Semi Sub
Super tele

Noun Verb Adjective Adverb

Authority

Break

Belief

Description


  • Morphology Free Bound roots/ base/ stem
  • Affixes: prefixes/ suffixes
  • monomorphic- polymorphic
  • inflectional derivational allomorphs
  • compounds conversion compounding



Morphemes

Talk

Talker
Talked
talking

Example
The word reopened in the sentence:

The police reopened the investigation consists of:
One
Two morphemes ?
Three
Four


1. open

2. re : again

3. ed: past tense

Tourists : 3
1. tour

2. ist : person who does sth.

3. s : indicates plural


All affixes in English are bound morphemes

Examples : free / bound

undressed
un dress ed
prefix stem suffix
bound free bound

carelessness
care less ness
stem suffix suffix
free bound bound

Stems and Affixes:

word stem prefixes/ suffixes
Snowy snow -y
untraceable trace un- able
deduce, reduce duce de re
capture, captive capt ure- ive
recapture capt re - ure

Notice: duce and capt : bound stems

Derivational Inflectional morphemes

An inflectional morpheme never changes the grammatical category of a word:

old : adjective
older : adjective

A derivational morpheme can change the grammatical category of a word.

teach : verb
teacher: noun

Inflections in English

suffix examples

Noun plurals cars ,bushes,oxen
3rd person singular he works, it rises
past tense - ed we walked;I smoked
-ing form as progressive aspect she´s running
-ed form as –ed participle they are landed
comparative forms –er,-est he´s smaller,I´m smallest.
negative verb inflection –n´t I can´t; they won´t

Inflection through internal vowel or consonant change

goose geese plural
hang hung past tense
far further comparative
advise advice verb to noun


Conversion
Conversion involves the change of a word from one word class to another.

Examples:
verb to screen and to fax are formed from nouns screen and fax.
noun: love from the verb to love.
verb to narrow from the adjective narrow

The film is an absolute must for all lovers of Westerns.
Can we microwave it?

Compounding
Compounding involves linking together two or more bases to create a new word.

Head ache headache
Award- winning
Helpline
Input
Long-running
postcard

Exercises:
Circle all the inflectional morphemes in the following composition written by an international student.What proportion are correct?

Since computer invented , science and technology have made amaziny progress.At the beginning, people only used computer to do complicate scientifical calculation that might take human years of work .Now, not only in science and industry fields that use computer robit to replace the man power, but in supermarket they use computer detective device to fast the check out process.

What´s the opposite of these words?
  1. happy
  2. employed
  3. correct
  4. honest
  5. legible
  6. lock
  7. possible
  8. pack
  9. patient
  10. agree
  11. regular
  12. like
  13. friendly
  14. formal
  15. polite
  16. visible
Agree with these sentences , using a synonym .

It´s against the law, isn´t it ?
Oh yes, it´s illegal
1. His room is always in a mess, isn´t it ?
Yes, it´s very……………………..
2. He took off his clothes!
yes, he got………………………..
3. This handwriting is impossible to read.
Yes, I know , it´s completely.........................................................
4. She can never wait for five minutes, can she ?
No, she´s very……………………………………….

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