Vocabulary 1

Words, words, words! Expanding your formal vocabulary.

It is a fact that to succeed in higher education, you need to familiarise yourself with a
greater range of words. Your years at university are a process of socialisation into a
bigger, wider world of concepts that need definition, description and analysis. Welcome to
word-power and the process of becoming a professional! Here are some tips for building a
wider vocabulary.

What kind of words do you need to learn?

The words connected with your subject (see glossaries at the back of textbooks).
General academic words that will crop up in your textbooks continually. Some words
are low frequency that is, you may not read, hear or use them very often.

Get into the reading habit.

Reading is the most effective way of developing vocabulary. You need to read more,
whether novels for pleasure, or more serious reading around your subject. You need to
read daily, with good newspapers and magazines. It is important to note that tabloid
newspaper writers are highly trained in using a restricted vocabulary. The Sun and the
Daily Mirror, for example, are family newspapers designed for a reading age as low as
eight years old. The implication of this is that we can never extend our range of
vocabulary with such daily fare. You need to get into the habit of reading a quality
newspaper every day. This may be difficult at first, as tabloid papers only demand we read
short, easily-digestible chunks, not the kind of solid columns that professionals routinely
consume. This is where a range of reading skills (and different reading speeds) comes
into play.

Words, words, words. What do you need to know about them?

Meaning many words have more than one meaning.

Word class whether a new word is an adjective (adj) or a noun (n); a verb (vb)?
Consider biased, and bias; the difference between advertising and advertisement, and so
on. A good dictionary will tell you what part of speech a word is, how it behaves and how it
is used.

Register some words are only used in a specific context, e.g., legal or medical English,
biology, or science. Some words are colloquial (spoken, not written) or may be jargon.

Connotation or usage consider thin, skinny, slim, scrawny, underfed, lean, emaciated. A
good dictionary will tell you whether a word is informal, slang, or derogatory (derog). Some
words may be archaic (arch.), that is, old fashioned. Consider betwixt, forthwith, heretofor,
therewithal, whereof, etc!

How a word is pronounced, e.g. present: I received a PREsent vs you preSENT your
work.

Collocation: what goes in front of a word and what typically follows it? Collocation refers
to fixed phrasing. For example, we talk about black and white pictures, not white and
black. This is a fixed phrase. A model is suitable for adoption, not to adopt; we comply
with regulations, not at, in or on.

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Grammatical behaviour: e.g., some nouns cannot be used in the plural with an s such
as, research, advice, evidence, legislation (researches, legislations etc do not exist).
Verbs are either transitive (tr) which means they must be followed by an object, e.g. you
carry something, discuss something; or intransitive (intr). We cannot say, e.g. This essay
discusses that drugs are a social problem. Discuss must be followed by something, e.g.
This essay discusses drugs as a social problem.

An understanding of stems and affixes. From stem words, person, for example, we get
impersonate, personal, personality, personify, personification, etc. Prefixes go at the front
of a word to modify the stem: anti-, bi-, dis-, ex-, in-, im-, ir-, micro-, mis-, multi-, pro- ,re-,
sub-, un-, etc. Suffixes include ise, -ly, -ism, -ity, -ment ship, (there are lots more!)

It isnt necessary to know the origin of words, but it is enlightening. Half of our vocabulary
comes from Latin or Greek, the other half from Anglo-Saxon. Graph, for example, comes
from Greek, and means to write. From this, we get graphic, photography, geographer,
etc. It helps to know that words of Greek origin behave differently when it comes to
singular and plural forms, so: criterion, criteria; datum, data; phenomenon, phenomena,
and so on. Words of Anglo-Saxon origin tend to be short, one-syllable words: go, put,
have, do, can, help, etc.

Strategies for improving your range

Use all the context clues to figure out the meaning of a word. Is it positive, negative?
What part of speech is it?

Use a good dictionary when necessary, or keep an online dictionary page open as you
work on screen. http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
or: http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/scrawny?view=uk

Keep a notebook a blank address book is ideal for this. Carry it around with you for
spare moments. Note down new words you find in your reading; note the context so that
you learn the words associated with it, how a word behaves and is pronounced.

Sort vocabulary into subject areas, or synonyms (words with a similar meaning) or
antonyms (with the opposite meaning).

Practice: try out new words in sentences of your own.

Play with words: Scrabble, crosswords, online quizzes and games.

Devise an action plan for learning vocabulary: How are you going to organise your
notes on new words? How many new words will you aim to learn each day/week? Where
and when are you going to learn them? Do you already have a good dictionary and
thesaurus to reach for?

Journalese and slang: the last word here is a quotation from the Economist Style Guide,
at: http://www.economist.com/research/styleGuide/index.cfm?page=673929

Do not be too free with slang (eg, He really hit the big time in 1994). Slang, like metaphors, should be
used only occasionally if it is to have effect. Avoid expressions used only by journalists, such as giving
people the thumbs up, the thumbs down or the green light. Stay clear of gravy trains. Do not use the

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likes of. And avoid words and expressions that are ugly or overused, such as the bottom line, high profile,
massive (as in massive inflation).

Follow up
TV411 is produced by the Adult Literacy Media Alliance (ALMA), and offers some excellent exercises
http://www.tv411.org/vocabulary/

The Longman Vocabulary Website offers quizzes from medicine/health sciences, business, law, politics,
psychology/sociology and technology:
http://wps.ablongman.com/long_licklider_vocabulary_2/0,6658,418005-,00.html

A variety of vocabulary games and quizzes can be found at this site:

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/GRAMMAR/vocabulary.htm

Andy Gilletts site offers help with vocabulary building at:

http://www.uefap.com/vocab/build/building.htm

The University of Nottingham has useful exercises from the Academic Word List:
vocabularyhttp://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/links.htm

Vocabulary worksheet.

1. a) Consider the following synonyms.

children, kids, offspring, sprogs, ankle-biters, brats, infants, dependants.
Is the usage neutral, informal, pejorative, humorous/ironic, or technical?

b) go, depart, exit, proceed, leg it.

c) state, claim, mention, assert.

d) These phrases are euphemisms. What do they mean?

The birds and the bees; informal housing; collateral damage; tired and emotional.

2. Word building: complete the chart with these terms commonly used in academic
writing. The first one is done for you. There may be more than one form.

Word class Noun Verb Adjective Adverb

achieve verb achievement to achieve (un) achievable -
ambiguity - -
analyse
criticism
economy
emphasise
implication
necessary
relationship
success
systematic -

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3. Formal/informal vocabulary: complete the table below. You may have more than one
word, depending on meaning.

Formal Informal Formal Informal Formal Informal

help in the end amiable
cease at once whole
commence initially fortunate
decrease intermittently childish
demonstrate mostly wrong
enquire repeatedly right
end therefore inferior
tell just economical
reject responsible
free Formal Informal amazing
mend opportunity better
require perspiration horrible
change looks terrible
regulate way stupid
This is adapted from an exercise on Andy Gilletts site at www.uefap.co.uk

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Answers

1. a) Synonyms: although words may be similar in meaning, their use will differ
according to the situation. This we call appropriacy.
Children = neutral; kids= informal; offspring= can also refer to animals; sprogs = slang,
derogatory, humorous/ironic; ankle-biters= slang, humorous/ironic; not listed in
dictionary! brats= informal, derogatory; infants=formal, used for e.g., infant school;
dependants= formal/administrative in use. Additional information: offspring is both
singular and plural (offsprings does not exist). Dependant has a variant spelling;
dependent is the adjective form, e.g. I have two dependants, they are dependent on
me.

b) go= neutral, Anglo Saxon in origin; depart= formal, French/Latin in origin. Consider
departures, exit= formal, Latin origin, both a noun and a verb; proceed= formal, one
meaning legal (proceedings) Latin origin; leg it= informal, humorous, not listed in
dictionary!

c) state, claim, mention, assert = all formal, but different in meaning As reporting verbs
- state = neutral; claim=state, but without proof (also noun), mention= refer to briefly,
casually, in passing; assert =state something forcefully.

d) Euphemisms are likely to be used to avoid causing offence or embarrassment or to

make light of something serious. The birds and the bees refers to sexual activity,
reproduction, usually ironic/humorous; informal housing= slums, a shanty town;
collateral damage= accidental deaths of civilians caused by military operations, USA
origin; tired and emotional= drunk, of parliamentary/journalistic origin.

Word Noun Verb Adjective Adverb

class
achieve verb achievement to achieve (un) achievable -
ambiguity noun ambiguity - ambiguous -
analyse verb analysis to analyse analytical analytically
criticism noun criticism or to criticise critical critically
critique
economy noun economy to economise economic(al) economically
emphasise verb emphasis emphasise emphatic emphatically
implication noun implication to imply implicit implicitly
necessary adjective necessity to necessitate necessary necessarily
relationship noun relationship to relate (un)related relatively
relative
success noun success to succeed (un)successful (un)successfully
systematic adjective system - systematic systematically

Formal/informal vocabulary: complete the table below.

Formal Informal Formal Informal Formal Informal

assist help eventually in the end amiable
cease stop suddenly at once whole
commence start/begin initially at the fortunate lucky
beginning

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decrease go down intermittentlynow and infantile/immature childish
then
demonstrate show predominantly mostly incorrect wrong
enquire ask repeatedly again and correct/appropriate right
again
conclude/terminate/finis end therefore so inferior worse/second
h
rate
inform tell only/merely just economical cheap
reject drop/get rid responsible in charge
of/ throw out
release/liberate free Formal Informal surprising amazing
mend opportunity chance superior better
require want/need perspiration sweat unpleasant horrible
modify/alter change appearance looks unacceptable terrible
regulate order/look method way unwise/unintelligen stupid
over t