Effective Communication and Language Skills: (Vocabulary development)
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Introduction
Greetings and welcome to my blog! Are you ready to learn? Lets go.
As stated in last lesson, this content is designed to help steemians who in one way or the other have challenges in grammar, effective use of English and communication skills, spellings and vocabularies. Reading this with undivided attention will be of great benefit to us all.
It will help us improve our writing and communication skills as bloggers.
Meaning
The vocabulary of a language refers to the words available for the user language. Convincing as the clarification may seem, we will need to agree that "it is difficult, if not impossible, to accurately establish the number of words that exists in a particular language in a particular time". English Language is dynamic and productive and so the reservoir of words available keeps changing every now and then. However, for the purposes of this lesson, this definition will be adopted.
Vocabulary development is the means or guide for the user of a language such as English, to improve his word power, and ultimately, the depth or efficiency of his communication...
This lesson looks at such issues as formations through affixation of antonyms, synonyms, homonyms, homophones, compounding, blending, acronym, clipping, polysemy, etc.
Stages of Vocabulary Development
(a) Affixation:
This is the process of developing a word through the use of prefixes and suffixes and, in the process, acquires new words. The morphemes appear at the beginning of root words as prefixes or at the end as suffixes. A
Morpheme is the least component in the grammatical rankscale.
1. Prefixation
Prefixes occur before the base or root words. They are so many in English that this lesson can not exhaust them, and so you are urged to dictionaries and other authorities on the subject.
| Prefix | Words formed |
|---|---|
| Ante | antecedent |
| Auto | autobiography |
| Co | cotenant |
| Fore | forefather |
| Un | untie |
| Pro | prodemocracy |
| Post | post-election |
| Dis | disability |
| Un | unusually |
| Non | nonchalant |
| In | inescapable |
2. Suffixation
Suffixes occur after the base or root words. They are of two classes, inflectional and derivational.
(i) Inflectional Suffixes: This involves adding a suffix after the root word. This would not lead to a changing in word class or it meaning but would only intend a grammatical change.
| Root | Suffix | |
|---|---|---|
| Boy | +s | boys |
| Church | +es | churches |
| Child | +ren | children |
| Play | +ed | played |
| Play | +ing | playing |
| Tall | +er | taller |
| Short | +est | shortest |
(ii) Derivational Suffixes: This class of suffix will change to
grammatical category. Note the examples below
| Noun | Verb | Adjective | Adverb |
|---|---|---|---|
| energy | energize | energetic | energetically |
| Danger | endanger | dangerous | dangerously |
| Power | empower | powerful | powerfully |
| Electricity | electricity | electrical | electrically |
| Drama | dramatize | dramatic | dramatically |
| Glory | glorify | glorious | gloriously |
Other common suffixes include:
hood - manhood
ty - capacity
ness - frankness
ist - cyclist
age - bondage
able - fashionable
ible - sensible
ate - passionate
ent - excellent
ance - clearance
ic - economic
ish - boyish
some - troublesome
ship - friendship
ment - government
ism - patriotism
dom - boredom
ward - forward
like - childlike
ive - productive
(b) Acronyms:
These are words formed from the initial of phrase. Sometimes, they are marked off by full stop, but this is not mandatory.
Examples
◆ ASUP - Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics
◆ AIDS - Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrom
◆ UNESCO - United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization
◆ PAP - Poverty Alleviation Programme
(c) Clipping:
This is slightly different from the acronym because, in this case, the words are abbreviated to take the place of longer ones.
Examples
- Microphone - Mic
- Omnibus - bus
- Zoological garden - Zoo
- Mobile - mob
- Television - Tele
- Brassiere - bra
- Automobile - car
- Aeroplane - plane
- Moving picture - movie
- Handkerchief - hankey
- Refrigerator - fridge
- Advertisement - advert
- Spectacles - specs
- Prefabricated structure - prefab
(d) Compounding
When two words are brought together to form a new word, we say it is compounding. Examples
- Air + space = airspace
- Grass + root = grassroot
- Read + worthy = Read-worthy
- Black + smith = blacksmith
- Road + worthy = roadworthy
- Play + mate = playmate
- Talk + back = talkback
- Under + develop = underdevelop
- deep + freezer = Deepfreezer
- Hand + picked = handpicked
- Break + through = breakthrough
- Stair + case = staircase
- Bottle + neck = bottleneck
- Head + on = headon
- Paper + clip = paperclip
- God + father = godfather
- Girl + friend = girlfriend
(e) Blending:
This occurs when two already existing words are restructured to form a new word. Note that this is not the same process as in suffixation because
the parts joined are not known to be affixes.
Examples:
- Economic + metrics = econometrics
- Mobile + police = mopol
- High + technology = hitech
- Television + broadcast = telecast
- Flutter + hurry = flurry
- Twits + whirl = twirl
- Flash + gush = flush
- Dumb + confound = dumbfound
- Breakfast + lunch = brunch
- Medical + care = medicare
- Urine + analysis = urinalysis
Conclusion
That is the end of the lesson presented in this article. I believe you have learned something in this lesson as usual. Please drop your questions and suggestions at the commentsection. I will be glad to hear from you and don't forget to read lesson 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 below.
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