General English - Part 1: Using Dictionary PDF

General English - Part 1 What is a dictionary? A reference source in print or electronic form containing the words of a language along with the necessary information about them. ►Types of Dictionaries: 1. Monolingual: those with only one language like Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of English...

General English - Part 1 What is a dictionary? A reference source in print or electronic form containing the words of a language along with the necessary information about them. ►Types of Dictionaries: 1. Monolingual: those with only one language like Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of English. 2. Bilingual: those with two languages like ‫ ﻓﺎﺭﺳﻲ ﺁﺭﻳﺎﻧﭙﻮﺭ‬-‫ﻓﺮﻫﻨﮓ ﻟﻐﺖ ﺍﻧﮕﻠﻴﺴﻲ‬ 3. Multilingual: those with more than two languages. ►What will a dictionary tell you? 1. Location of a word: since all entries in a dictionary are arranged in alphabetical order, most dictionaries in print have two guide words namely left guide word and right guide word in heavy black type at the top of any page. They guide you to the word you are looking for. a. Left guide word is the same as the first word on the page. b. Right guide word is the same as the last word on the page. 2. Syllable Division: your dictionary indicates separate syllables, usually by heavy black dots after each syllable. For example: dic.tion.ar.y ( a four syllable word) syl.lab.i.fi.ca.tion (a six syllable word) ►Notice this division carefully so that you will know where it is possible to divide words when you want to divide them. ►Notice that words in English can be divided only at pronounceable syllable division. 3. Spelling: the forming of words from letters according to accepted usage; a sequence of letters composing a word. ► Some words are spelled differently in British English and American English. For example: 1 British (Br): colour, programme, catalogue American (US/Ame): color, program, catalog 4. Pronunciation: the way a word is pronounced correctly. ►Notice that in pronunciation, unlike spelling, we are dealing mainly with the sounds rather than the letters; therefore, we have to know the sounds and their respective symbols. A. Sounds: B. 1. Vowels: speech sounds produced without significant constriction of the air flowing through the mouth. ►Vowel sounds may be either long like ‘leave’ /li:v/or short like ‘live’ /lIv/. 2. Diphthongs: vowels in which there is a change in quality during a single syllable, as in boy, buy, and now. Diphthongs can be analyzed as a sequence of two vowels or as vowel + glide. (glides like /j/and /w/) 3. Consonants: speech sounds where the airstream from the lungs is completely blocked (stop), partially blocked (lateral), or where the opening is so narrow that the air escapes with audible friction (fricative). With some consonants (nasals) the airstream is blocked in the mouth but allowed to escape through the nose. ►International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) 1. Vowels: a. Long vowels: IPA Symbol Word examples /i: / Need, beat, seat, team /ɜ:/ Nurse, heard, third, turn /ɔ:/ Law, bored, yawn, jaw /u:/ Boot, lose, gloomy, chew /ɑ:/ Arm, car, hard, father, market 2  b. Short vowels: IPA Symbol Word examples / I/ Live, sit, kick, begin /e/ Went, intend, send, letter /æ/ Cat, flat, hand, nap, grasp /ʌ/ Fun, money, come, rough /ʊ/ Put, book, cook, would /ɒ/ Rob, top, sausage, watch /ə/ Alive, mother, circus, again 2. Diphthongs: IPA Symbol Word examples /ɪə/ Near, clear, tear, fear /eə/ Hair, stairs, there, air /eɪ / Rain, cage, space, steak /ɔɪ/ Join, toy, oyster, employ /aɪ / Right, pride, flight, sky /əʊ/ Home, stone, hole, toe /aʊ / About, mouth, house, cow 3 3. Consonants: IPA Symbol Word examples /p/ Paper, napkin, drop, depend /b/ Big, absent, cab, amber /t/ Tiger, matter, smart, attend /d/ Dark, edible, dead, around /k / Kick, cake, awkward, sky /g/ Gray, tiger, crag, dragon /f / Fly, thief, rifle, cuff, rough /v/ Very, novel, move, novice /s/ Sad, case, master, nice /z/ Zebra, puzzle, example, xerox /h/ Herb, abhor, herd, Abraham /l / Lord, middle, barrel, lullaby /m / Moon, time, comb, amaze /n/ Nail, candy, crane, manner /r/ Rod, brave, rare, crude /w/ Watch, towards, wage, walnut /θ/ Think, bath, breath, thatch /ð/ There, breathe, bathe, these /ʃ / Shirt, patient, cash, ancient /tʃ/ Church, catch, picture, check /ʒ/ Vision, measure, pleasure /dʒ/ Page, ginger, jealous, jelly /j/ Yard, yellow, pure, peculiar /ŋ/ Thing, morning, young, English /x/ /KH/ loch B. Stress: the pronunciation of a syllable with more respiratory energy or muscular force than other syllables in the same utterance. A listener often hears a stressed syllable as being louder, higher in pitch, and longer than the surrounding syllables. Word stress refers to the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a word. ► Notice that stress is always on the syllable not on the letter. 1. Primary/ Strong / High: it is shown as / ‫׳‬/. 2. Secondary/ Weak / Low: it is shown as /ֽ/. ►These stress marks are inserted at the beginning of the stressed syllables. For example: independence /ֽIndI′pendəns/ 4  ►It should be noted that the strong stress in some words shift from one syllable to another when their grammatical functions change. For example: de.crease /dI′kri:s/as a verb and /′dIkri:s/ /′di:kri:s/ as a noun 5. Inflection Inflection/inflexion n inflect v :(in morphology) the process of adding an affix to a word or changing it in some other way according to the rules of the grammar of a language. For example, in English, verbs are inflected for 3rd- person singular: I work, he/she works and for past tense: I worked. Most nouns may be inflected for plural: horse – horses, ox – oxen, man – men. A. Verb: past tense(pt), past participle (pp), present participle (pres p) For example: deny: pt and pp denied, pres p denying lie¹: pt lay, pp lain, pres p lying lie²: pt and pp lied, pres p lying strike: pt and pp struck, pres p striking traffic: pt and pp trafficked, pres p trafficking B. Countable Noun [N,C]: singular (sg), plural (pl) For example: page (pl) pages, box (pl) boxes, woman (pl) women /′wImIn/, crisis (pl) crises /′kraIsi:z), index (pl) indexes / indices/′Ind əsi:z/, stimulus (pl) stimuli /′stImjʊlaI/, bacteria (sg) bacterium, antenna(pl) antennae /æn′teni:/ C. Adjective & Adverb: Comparative[compar], Superlative[superl] big [compar] bigger, [superl] biggest bad [compar] worse, [superl] worst busy [compar] busier, [superl] busiest well [compar] better, [superl] best 6. Etymology: the study of the origin of words, and of their history and changes in their meaning(s). For Example: magazine /mægə′zi:n/ It magaccino›Fr magacin› from Arabic makhazin, plural of makhzan storehouse First use:1583 7. Parts of Speech: a traditional term to describe the different types of word which are used to form sentences. There are thousands of words in any language, but not all words have the same job. They are the "building blocks" of the language and have their own form and function. English words are categorized into nine basic types or classes. These classes are called "parts of speech". Parts of speech may be identified by: a. their meaning b. their form c. their function. 5  Traditional grammar classifies words based on nine parts of speech: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, article, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. It's quite important to recognize parts of speech. This helps us to analyze sentences and understand them. It also helps us to construct good sentences. Each part of speech explains both what the word is and how it is used. A. Noun (n): a. Countable [C]: those nouns which can be used in singular form or plural one. For example: teacher (sg), teachers (pl) b. Uncountable [U]: those nouns which cannot be used in plural form. For example: furniture (sg) c. Both countable and uncountable [C,U]: those nouns which can be used both in singular form or plural one, mostly with a different meaning. Which sentence is wrong? 1. Police is still searching for the murder weapon. 2. All the bureaux of the Washington Post in France were closed. 3. There is enough fungi here to feed the ants. 4. Winter is the season of oranges and other citrus fruits. B. Verb (v): a. Transitive (vt): a verb which takes an object. ► Transitive verbs can be used either in active voice or in passive voice. b. Intransitive (vi): a verb which does not take an object. ► Intransitive verbs are used only in active voice. c. Both transitive and intransitive B. Verb (v): a. Main: to swim, to drive, to identify b. Auxiliary: 1. Only Auxiliary: do, is, has 2. Modal / Modal Auxiliary: can, must, would B. Verb (v): a. Linking: seem, appear, find 1. Intransitive linking: links an adjective or a subject complement to the subject. For example: That man seems anxious. He seems a vicious man. 2. Transitive linking: links an adjective or an object complement to the object. 6 For example: I found your father really generous. I found Tabriz a large city. b. Non-linking C. Adjective (adj): happy, clever, curious a. Attributive [attrib]: only before noun For example: I met you outside the main entrance. b. Predicative [pred]: only after linking verb not before noun For example: We stayed alive by eating berries. Nobody thought we would find him alive. ►Adjectives can be used in comparative and superlative forms but only attributive or only predicative do not. D. Adverb (adv): often, quickly, well E. Pronoun (pron): I, they, her, who, F. Article (art): a, an, the G. Preposition (prep): for, of, about H. Conjunction (conj): and, but, however I. Interjection (interj): wow, oops, gosh 8. Pattern: the way a word is used in a sentence or sentences For example: seem (v): 1. v + adj He seems happy. 2. v + n He seems a gentleman. 3. v + to He seems to have failed the course. 4. v + that… It seems that you are bored. galore (adj) : used postpositively / only after noun (n + adj) With shops galore, the city looks like a very large shopping center. 9. Label: A. archaic/ dated/ obsolete B. colloquial C. derogatory/ insulting D. euphemistic 7 E. figurative F. formal G. informal H. rhetoric I. slang J. taboo 10. Definition / Meaning: A. General B. Specific/ Technical C. Idiomatic 11. Example 12. Illustration 13. Derivatives 14. Cross reference 8