- •Guessing and explaining meaning of words.
- •Inferring meaning from context
- •Structure
- •Explaining unknown words
- •Exercises
- •1) Look at the following text. Before you read it, see if you know what the underlined words
- •Borrowings and international words
- •Exercises
- •Which of the words listed above are also used in your language?
- •3) Match the adjectives on the left with the noun they arc most likely to be associated with, on the right.
- •8) Read the following text. Copy out the international words. State to what sphere of human activity they belong.
- •Affixation. Prefixes.
- •Exercises
- •3. Use the word in brackets to complete the sentences. Add the necessary prefix and put the word in the correct form.
- •4. Using the table at the previous page construct words or phrases to replace the underlined words.
- •IV) Affixation. Suffixes.
- •Exercises
- •Each picture is of an object ending in -er. Can you name them?
- •List six jobs you would like to have in order of preference. How many different suffixes are there in your list? Do any of the job names not have a suffix? (e.G. Pilot, film star)
- •Which word is the odd one out in each group and why?
- •V) Conversion
- •VI) Compounding
- •Exercises
- •4. List as many compound adjectives beginning with self, as you can. Mark them p or n for positive or negative characteristics, or write neutral.
- •7. Which of the adjectives from this unit could you use to describe yourself or your friends members of your family?
- •1. The sentences given below contain synonyms. Write them out in groups and explain the difference where the words are familiar.
- •2. Give as many synonyms for the italicized words in the following jokes as you can. If you do not know any of them consult the dictionaries.
- •X) Homonymy
- •1. Each underlined word rhymes with, or sounds similar to, one of the words in brackets; choose the matching word.
- •4. Find the homonyms in the following extracts. Classify them into homonyms proper, homographs and homophones.
- •XI) Types of idioms. Proverbs.
- •2. Complete these idioms using the following prepositions: in, under, on, out, in, from, at. Use a dictionary if necessary.
- •3. Rewrite each of these sentences using one of the idioms from exercise 2.
- •4. Read the following text. Compile a list of the phraseological units used in it. Classify them according to Academician Vinogradov's classification system for phraseological units.
- •1. Point out two-member sentences (say whether they are complete or elliptical) and one member sentences.
- •1. Point out the subject and say by what it is expressed. Translate into Russian.
- •State the nature of it. Translate into Russian.
- •1. Point out the kind of object and say by what it is expressed. Translate into Russian.
- •2. Point out the Complex Object and say by what it is expressed. Translate into Russian.
- •1. Point out the kind of adverbial modifier, and state by what it is expressed. Translate into Russian
- •2. Define the kinds of subordinate clauses (subject, object and predicative clauses). Translate into Russian.
- •3. Define the function of the following individual neologisms.
- •3. Differentiate professional and social jargonisms; classify them according to the narrow sphere of usage, suggest a terminological equivalent where possible.
- •1. State the type of relations existing between the object named and the object implied in the following examples of metonymy.
- •Repetition
- •1. Classify the following cases of repetition according to the position occupied by the repeated unit. State their functions.
- •1. Indicate the causes and effects of the following cases of alliteration.
- •2. State the part of speech, through which onomatopoeia is expressed, and its function.
Borrowings and international words
Additional material.
English has borrowed words from most of the other languages with which it has had contact. It has taken many expressions from the ancient languages, Latin and Greek, and these borrowings often have academic or literary associations. From French, English has taken lots of words to do with cooking, the arts, and a more sophisticated lifestyle in general. From Italian come words connected with music and the plastic arts. German expressions in English have been coined either by tourists bringing back words for new things they saw or by philosophers or historians describing German concepts or experiences. Words borrowed from other languages often relate to things which English speakers experienced from the first rime abroad.
There are borrowings from a wide range of languages. For example, from Japanese, tycoon, karate, origami, judo, futon and bonsai. From Arabic, mattress, cipher, alcove, carafe, algebra, harem and yashmak. From Turkish, yoghurt, jackal, kiosk, tulip and caftan; from Farsi, caravan, shawl, bazaar and sherbet, and from Eskimo, kayak, igloo and anorak.
Here are some words borrowed from some other European languages. Use the dictionary to check the meanings of any words you are not sure about.
Norway: fjord, lemming, ski
Holland: cruise, easel, tattoo, yacht
Spain: bonanza, embargo, guerilla, junta, lasso, macho, mosquito, patio, siesta
Portugal: cobra, dodo, marmalade
Finland: sauna
Germany: blitz, dachshund, delicatessen, frankfurter, hamburger, kindergarten, poodle, rottweller, seminar, snorkel, waltz
Italy: ballerina, bandit, casino, confetti, fiasco, ghetto, piano, soprano, spaghetti, vendetta
Russia: bistro, cosmonaut, mammoth, sputnik, steppe, tsar, tundra
France: aubergine, avant garde, boutique, chauffeur, coup, creche, cuisine, cul de sac, duvet, elite, gateau, saute
Greece: dogma, drama, hippopotamus, pseudonym, psycology, synonym, theory
Exercises
Which of the words listed above are also used in your language?
Is your own language represented above? If so, can you add any words to the lists opposite? If not, do you know of any words English has borrowed from your language? (There are almost sure to be some.) Do the words mean exactly the same in English as in your language? Are they pronounced in the same way?
3) Match the adjectives on the left with the noun they arc most likely to be associated with, on the right.
1 military a) kindergarten
2 strawberry b) casino
3 pop c) vendetta
4 Chinese d) embargo
5 ankle e) cuisine
6 total f) psycology
7 long-standing g) yougurt
8 noisy h) coup
9 double I) tattoo
10 all-night j) duvet
4) What verbs collocate, in other words, are frequently used with the following nouns? For example: study algebra
karate 3) futon 5) guerilla 7) coup 9) siesta
kayak 4) embargo 6) cul de sac 8) confetti 10) seminar
5) Have some words or expressions been borrowed from English into your own language? Give some examples. Have they kept exactly the same meaning as they have in English?
6) Write these words out in three columns: a) fully assimilated words; b) partially assimilated words; c) unassimilated words.
Pen, hors d’oevres, ballet, beet, butter, skin, take, cup, police, distance, monk, garage, phenomenon, wine, large, justice, lesson, criterion, nice, sequence, coup d’etat, river, loose, autumn, uncle, law, lunar, skirt, bishop, regime, eau-de-Cologne.
7) Classify the following borrowings according to the sphere of human activity they represent. What type of borrowings are these?
Television, progress, football, grapefruit, drama, philosophy, sputnik, coca-cola, medicine, atom, primadonna, ballet, chocolate, democracy.