Kendall Hunt Publishing Copyright Information

Preface

• A large vocabulary is an asset, and it is a key indicator of potential academic and professional success.
• Many books have been written on vocabulary enrichment, but most rely heavily on memorization.
• There are approximately 600,000 English words, making it difficult to memorize just the right set of words.

Vocabulary Building

• Learning word elements rather than whole words is a more efficient and practical way to enlarge your vocabulary.
• Many words are composed of meaningful elements that occur again and again in English.

Organization of the Book

• The book is divided into 13 chapters, including chapters on English vocabulary, word structure, prefixes and suffixes, morphological rules, and more.
• Each chapter covers a specific topic related to vocabulary building and language structure.

Content of the Book

• The book includes chapters on:
  • English vocabulary, including native and borrowed vocabulary, and learning new vocabulary
  • Word structure, including morphemes, the stem, and base form sets
  • Prefixes and suffixes, including English prefixes, relational prefixes, and negative prefixes
  • Morphological rules, including variant forms of morphemes and deletion rules
  • Word analysis, including word analysis methods and tips
  • Change rules, including assimilation, weakening, and derivation
  • Other rules, including addition rules, spelling rules, and unpredictable processes
  • Meaning shift, including narrowing, widening, and degeneration
  • Word formation processes, including derivation, compounding, and functional shift
  • Summary of rules and glossary of terms
  • Glossary of base forms and reverse glossary of roots
  • Bibliography### Vocabulary-Building Programs
• Many vocabulary-building programs treat word elements as separate entities, but these forms are related to each other in orderly and predictable ways.
• Learning rules and basic elements can enlarge one's vocabulary with less effort than memorizing individual words.
• This method increases awareness of the internal structure of words and their relationships.

The Book's Approach

• The book is divided into two main sections: the text and the glossary.
• The text discusses rules for relating different forms of word elements and covers other relevant topics such as word structure and sound changes over time.
• Each chapter has exercises to test understanding and increase word analysis skills.
• A summary of rules and a glossary of terms are provided at the end of the first section.

Glossary

• The glossary contains major Latin and Greek word roots and affixes that occur in English.
• It includes only the basic forms of roots and affixes that cannot be related to another form by the rules given in the text.
• A reverse glossary is also provided to find a root by looking up its meaning.

Authors and Contributors

• Clarence Sloat, co-author, received his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Washington in 1966.
• Sharon Taylor, co-author, received her Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Oregon in 1980.
• Karen Duchaj, contributor, received her Ph.D. in Linguistics from Northwestern University in 1999.
• Nancy Sreenan, contributor, received her M.A. in Linguistics from Northeastern Illinois University in 1998.

English Vocabulary

• The English vocabulary consists of two kinds of words: native and borrowed.
• Native words were brought to England by the Angles and Saxons and make up about one-fifth of the vocabulary.
• Borrowed words come from other languages, primarily Latin and Greek, and make up about four-fifths of the vocabulary.

Native Vocabulary

• Native words are short, familiar words with simple meanings, such as "the", "and", "for", and "go".
• They include words for body parts, family relationships, everyday objects, physical acts, and physical characteristics.

Borrowed Vocabulary

• English speakers have borrowed words from other languages, including Latin, Greek, French, Arabic, Chinese, and Italian.
• Borrowed words can be classified into three sources: classical languages (Latin and Greek), French, and other languages.
• Examples of borrowed words include "dish" (Latin), "beef" (French), and "ketchup" (Chinese).

Learning New Vocabulary

• There are three ways to learn new words: absorption, memorization, and analysis.
• Absorption occurs through repeated exposure to a word, while memorization involves consciously committing a word to memory.
• Analysis involves memorizing frequently recurring word parts and learning how they combine to form words.

Applying Learning Methods to English Vocabulary

• Native words are easily absorbed and usually short with concrete meanings.
• Borrowed words often require memorization, but can also be analyzed into familiar parts.
• Knowing how to analyze words can help learners understand unfamiliar words by breaking them down into recognizable components.### Vocabulary Acquisition
• Unfamiliar words can be categorized into three types: technical, archaic, and new words.
• Technical words are used by specific groups to discuss their specialty, e.g., pediment, appellate, or myotomy.
• Archaic words were once common but are now rare, e.g., nocument, disloign, or profanate.
• New words are added to English every year, making it essential to learn them, e.g., multimedia and hypertext.

Base Forms

• Base forms are recurring parts of words borrowed from Latin and Greek.
• Memorizing base forms can enrich your vocabulary dramatically.
• Base forms are typically listed at the end of each chapter, and it's essential to learn them exactly as they are given.

Morphemes

• Morphemes are the smallest units of language that carry meaning.
• They have four defining characteristics:
  • Cannot be broken down into smaller meaningful pieces.
  • Typically add meaning to the overall meaning of the word.
  • Often appear in many different words (particularly true of classical morphemes).
  • Can occupy any number of syllables.
• The study of morphemes and how they combine to form words is called morphology.

Classes of Morphemes

• There are two major classes of morphemes: roots and affixes.
• Roots are morphemes that form the basis of words, and every word must have at least one root.
• Roots can be free or bound, and words can be composed of single roots or multiple roots.
• Affixes are morphemes that must be attached to a root or combination of roots and other affixes.
• Affixes can be prefixes (attached to the left of the root), suffixes (attached to the right of the root), or infixes (inserted into the root).

Affixes

• Prefixes usually add information to or modify the meaning of the root in some way.
• Suffixes often change a word from one part of speech to another.
• Derivational affixes change the part of speech of the root or root-plus-affix construction they are attached to.
• Infixes are affixes that appear inside a root.