Saturday 24 June 2017

Vocabulary Building --- Meaning & Explanation

VOCABULARY BUILDING

Meaning --

Use of appropriate words in the text while writing or speaking a language is as essential as the text or subject matter. It not only communicates the matter properly but also makes it befitting and look elegant.

Explanation --

Vocabulary building is not a one time exercise but it is a constant process. One has to find new words and find out what they mean. It does not end here but finding out their appropriate use is also essential. Further the problem is to remember these words and to fix them in one's mind

It is a common experience that a person forgets the words to which he is introduced as quickly as he forgets the names of people he is casually introduced to at a crowded party unless he meets them again and again or unless he spends some time with them.

One of the effective ways fixing the meaning of words is getting at the roots of words -- taking words apart. Thus an attempt is made to know about -- left flank (prefixes) , right flank (suffixes) and the most important the centre (roots). In this way one can find out what makes a word tick and how to make it stick.

Here a warning is required to be sounded that reliability of roots of words is limited. In some cases roots may be misleading too.

Examples --

Here are some words to illustrate explained in previous paragraphs.

Take example of the  prefix 'in' meaning 'to go inside' or 'to enter'.

'Inject'  means to put in or into.
'Inscribe' means to write in or on.
'Invade' means enemy going in or into.
'Intrude' means to enter uninvited.

'Pre' means prior to, before or in front of.  Prepone, Prediction, Prepaid etc.
'Re' means back or backward. Recede, Retrograde etc.
'Re' means again. Readjust, Reactivate, Repay, Rejoin etc.

In a number of cases the prefix 'in' undergoes changes while adding before a word i.e. in case of 'illogical' it changes into 'il' and in case of 'imbibe' and 'implant' it changes into 'im'  and in case of 'irradiate' it changes into 'ir'. This change is called assimilation. Similarly the prefix 'ad' also undergoes a change while it is added before a word as in 'assume' , 'appeal' , 'arrogant' and  'accord' etc. The prefix 'sub' meaning 'under'also assimilates as in case of words support, surrogate,suffer and suggest etc.






No comments:

Post a Comment