Transcript Welcome! [www.etai.org.il]

It’s Not in the Dictionary
Susan Holzman
ETAI
2011
7/16/2015
THE POWER OF WORDS
• Our goal when teaching reading
comprehension is to give our
students the knowledge and skills
they need.
• However authentic texts contain
vocabulary that has not been
taught and is not yet in the
dictionary.
• The problem will be presented and
some solutions will be offered.
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Vocabulary just ain’t what it used to be
Some ancient fairy
tales..
Once upon a time …..
Michael West produced
A General Service List of English Words
With Semantic Frequencies And
Supplementary Word-list For The
Writing Of Popular Science And
Technology
Longmans, 1936.
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2000 General Service words..
“..
considered suitable
as the basis for
learning English as
a foreign language“
(vii)
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Once upon a time
Our English Curriculum
listed 2,500 lexemes
(i.e. word families) as
the “recommended
minimum core for
vocabulary acquisition
in Israel schools”
(1988 p. 15)
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Today…
We no longer fool ourselves that
vocabulary can be confined to a list
or a lexicon..we have lost our
innocence and come of age ….
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The new curriculum
“Most
pupils, at whatever age
they start learning English in
school, have already learned
words and phrases of the
language. Any simple listing of
items to be taught will
therefore be arbitrary and
over-rigid.”
From: The rationale
http://www.education.gov.il/tochniyot_limudim/eng1.htm#2_1
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A recent mailing I got from Macmillan
Dictionary listed “frequent buzzwords
relating to the environment”
• Cookprint-the environmental
impact of using energy and other
resources to prepare food.
• E-waste- used electronic devices
that have been thrown away
• Eco-bling- ecological gadgets and
technology which do not save or
produce very much energy relative
to their cost
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There was recycle….and then there
was…
• Upcycle- to reuse an object or
materials to create a product of
higher value or quality than the
original product or materials
• Downcycle- the process of taking
rubbish and reducing it to a
material ready for re-use (recycle)
• Precycle- to buy particular
products based on how recycable
or environmentally-friendly they
are
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We know that …
• Carnivores are meat eaters
• The proper diet for a herbivore
consists of plants, algae, and
fruits.
Omnivores eat a variety of meat
and vegetable matter.
BUT
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What do
Locavores and ecovores eat?
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Locavores
Are people who only
eats food which is
grown or produced
locally.
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Ecovores are
People who eat in
an
environmentallyconscious way
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The previous buzzwords
were created with prefixes or
through compounding….and
then you have blending
Trashion
Fashion items and objects which are created from, used, thrown out and recycled elements
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Word formation
The process of creation of new lexical
units
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First some terms
• “The field of grammar is often
divided into two domains:
Morphology & Syntax”
Morphology focuses on the
structure of words
Syntax focuses on the structure
of sentences.
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Morphology
• Deals with the way words can be
built up from smaller units
• Affixes: Prefixes and suffixes
Prefixes: have a lexical role (un-, de-,
anti-, super-)
Suffixes: two kinds
lexical (-ness, -ship, -able, -less)
grammatical (plural s, past tense ed,
comparative er)
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Compounding
• The process in which two different
words are joined together to
denote one thing
• Full-time worker, ever-lasting love
(hyphenated)
• A raincoat, a teaspoon, (one word)
• A bank account (two words)
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Word formation processes
• Compounding
• Silverware
• Pewter ware
• Tupperware
(Mr. Tupper)
• Hardware
• Software
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• Compounding
•
•
•
•
•
Waterproof
Bulletproof
Dustproof
Childproof
Tiger-proof
Tiger-proof
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The White House or the white house?
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A paperboy or a paper boy?
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A blackbird or a black bird ?
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Blending
• Taking only parts of words and
joining them
• Blogs (web log)
• BAGGRAVATION, n. A feeling of
annoyance and anger one endures
at the airport when one’s bags
have not arrived at the baggage
carousel but everyone else's bags
have [blend formed from words
bag and aggravation].
Context and source: "Nancy
couldn't help but feel baggravation
as she watched other passengers
get their luggage and leave the
airport." (Internet)
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Clipping
• Shortening or reducing long words
• DETOX, n. A clinic or treatment
facility at which substance abusers
attempt to rid themselves of
dependency on a particular drug.
Part of this process entails the
actual physical removal of toxins
present in the body due to the
abuse of a substance [clip of
detoxification ].
Context and source: "Mrs. Herrod
checked herself into detox..."
(Conversation)
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Coinage
• Creation of a totally new word
(often eponyms) (and not very
common)
•
•
•
•
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Do you have an acamol?
Please xerox this document
I googled it .
I need a kleenex.
Borrowing
• Taking a word from one language
and incorporating it into another
• Tsunami (tidal wave) from
Japanese
http://www.krysstal.com/borrow.html
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Borrowing
Last year I said this sentence during
my mom’s visit here:
“Remind me on the way home
from the country to buy
cottage.”
(Of course, she had no idea what I
was talking about)
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Borrowing and clipping
“Remind me on the way home
from the country to buy
cottage.”
Country club and cottage cheese
• borrowed from English into
Hebrew.
• Clipped - the adjective is now
used to represent the the noun
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Acronym
• A word formed from the initial letters
of a few words in a phrase or name
• BFE , adj. Very far away: Beyond
Fu**ing Egypt. also B.F.E., b.f.e.
[Acronym. Egypt was chosen
somewhat arbitrarily as a country on
the opposite side of the world. Variant:
Bomfoq Egypt]
Context and source: "My car is parked
BFE!" (Conversation)
Contrast: NATO (pronounced as a word)
NAACP & UN (pronounce the letters)
(NATBAG & LUZ in Hebrew)
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Backformation
• A process in which a word
changes its form and function
• back-form from "back-formation"
— oddly enough
• bushwhack from "bushwhacker"
• greed from "greedy" (the noun was
originally "greediness")
• lase (v.) from "laser"
• liaise from "liaison"
• resurrect from "resurrection"
• televise from "television"
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Conversion
• A change in a function of a verb
without changing it form
• (nouns as verbs and verbs as
nouns—and maybe an adjective as
a noun?)
If not, then this is
my bad.
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Derivation
• Adding affixes (prefixes, suffixes,
infixes)
• The de-pigging of Israeli kitchens
• The expellees were found and
deported
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Word formation
• An exciting on-going development
in language, offering opportunities
for creativity and invention.
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Down as a verb
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Compound: arrest-free
Suffix: -less (= without)
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Cruelty-free world
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De-conversion
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Medicide (suicide, genocide, infanticide,
feticide, fratricide, matricide, etc.)
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Free Mayonnaise
& Salad dressing (that cost $3.05 & $1.43?)
(compounding and clipping)
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Compound adjectives
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Compound adjectives
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Compound adjectives
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Diet free (now what does that mean?)
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Our text books today do not prepare
them for this. The texts are:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Not authentic
Adapted
Simplified
Cleaned up
Purified
Sanitized
Dummied down
Have a lesson ready for that
dreaded day when you have to fill
in for another teacher at the last
moment
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Teach English acronyms
used in texting (and
since when was there a
verb “to text???) as an
opener
(google them—I don’t
know them either!)
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Take the newspaper any day and
you will find current examples:
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Check sites in the internet
• http://www.learn-englishtoday.com/New-words/new-wordsin-english.html
• http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12
/19/weekinreview/19sifton.html
• http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.co
m/2010/11/2010s-newwords.html
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The opportunities are endless
Writing task:
Write an ad for a neighborhood
Staycation –
(a money-saving holiday at home )
Suggesting all the activities and
cultural possibilities in your area.
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Role play the conversation
between two teenagers, one of
whom has just been defriended
(or unfriended) on facebook.
‘Unfriend’ coming from the practice of dropping a
contact from a Facebook site. Although voted the word
of the year by the New Oxford American Dictionary,
the UK uses the alternative ‘Defriend’.
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Do not downcycle authentic texts!
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UPCYCLE THEM
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Thanks !
Susan Holzman
[email protected]
7/16/2015