Vocabulary

Vocabulary is all about words—the words in a language or a special set

of words you are trying to learn.
“Why do you think improving your vocabulary is important?”
Linguist David Wilkins famously stated: “Without grammar little can be
conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.”
American author Mark Twain said: “The difference between the right
word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a
lightning bug.”
Research consistently demonstrates that vocabulary knowledge is a
prerequisite for effective performance in all language skills. Vocabulary
functions as a “communication toolbox,” where each word is a tool ready
to be used in the right context. The more tools a person masters, the better
equipped they are to communicate effectively. By comparing new words
to familiar ones, one can develop a deeper understanding to use
vocabulary more thoughtfully and accurately.
A limited vocabulary restricts one’s ability to generate new ideas or
challenge existing patterns of thought. Conversely, learning new words
expands a person’s capacity for thinking and acting in ways previously
unattainable. As Philip K. Dick aptly observed: “The basic tool for the
manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control
the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the
words.”
The researcher Johnson O’Connor, known for his extensive studies on the
impact of vocabulary, concluded after more than 20 years of research that
“a person’s vocabulary level is the best single predictor of occupational
success.” O’Connor’s findings further emphasize that vocabulary size
reflects how educated, intelligent, or well-read a person is.

How Can You Improve Your Vocabulary

English has a vast number of words, but knowing a single word is not very
useful if you cannot use it in communication. When you encounter/find a
new word, try to learn both its meaning and its usage. Keep in mind that
a word can have different meanings depending on the context. For
example, the simple word book means entirely different things in these
sentences: I shall book a ticket and I shall buy a book.
Understanding the grammatical features of a word is also crucial. For
instance, if it’s a noun, you need to know whether it is singular or plural,
and what type of noun it is—proper, common, material, or abstract. Words
like nouns, adjectives, and adverbs are called content words because they
carry meaning/information. On the other hand, function words like
determiners and prepositions are essential for grammatical structure.
Strategies to Develop Vocabulary:
1. Reading Regularly
Reading diverse texts such as novels, newspapers, academic
journals, blogs, and magazines exposes you to various styles of
writing and a broader range of vocabulary. Avoid reading
passively; instead, look up unfamiliar words and try to understand
them in context.
2. Using a Dictionary and Thesaurus
Use a dictionary to find a word’s meaning, pronunciation, and
usage. A thesaurus helps you discover synonyms and antonyms,
expanding your vocabulary choices.
3. Practicing Writing
Keep a journal or notebook to write about your day, thoughts, or
topics of interest. Incorporate new words into your entries. Writing
essays on various topics also helps structure thoughts and use
vocabulary in context.
4. Engaging in Conversations
Practice speaking with a language partner or in a group. Engaging
in real conversations helps you pick up new words and reinforce
their usage.
5. Active Listening
Pay attention to how native speakers use words in conversations,
movies, podcasts, and TV shows. This helps expand your
vocabulary naturally.
6. Flashcards and Apps
Create flashcards with new words on one side and their meanings,
usage, or examples on the other. Apps like Anki, Quizlet, and
Memrise are excellent tools for vocabulary building.
7. Playing Word Games
Word games such as Scrabble, crosswords, and word association
games make vocabulary learning fun and engaging.
8. Studying Etymology
Learn the roots, prefixes, and suffixes of words. Understanding
these components makes it easier to infer the meaning of
unfamiliar words.
9. Themed Vocabulary Lists
Group words by theme, such as weather, emotions, or technology.
Studying related words enhances understanding and recall.
10. Regular Review and Practice
Regularly review learned words to transfer them from short-term
to long-term memory. Take quizzes to track your progress.
 11. Creating Sentences and Stories
Write sentences or short stories using new words. This practice
solidifies understanding and improves retention.
12. Using Mnemonics
Use memory aids to associate new words with familiar concepts.
For example, to remember "ameliorate" (to improve), think of a
helpful friend who always makes things better.
13. Chunking
Break words into smaller groups based on themes, prefixes, or
functions.
• Example:
o Theme: Travel—itinerary, baggage, customs.
o Prefix: auto-—automobile, automatic, autobiography.

o Function: Verbs of movement—run, jump, climb.

Word/Vocabulary/Morphology Related

A word 
A word is the smallest independent unit of a language.
Difficulty of defining a word––
Problem of word counting in English––
Orthographical (written) form of words and nature of spoken forms
(informal/formal).
Many languages have no written form.
“Ben’s Biology teacher is a do-it-yourself kind of man, isn’t he?”
[How many words? ‘biology teacher’ can be counted single word as a
compound/complex word, ‘do-it-yourself’ can be counted as a single
compound word, ‘isn’t’ should be counted as a single word or not.]
Besides, article ‘a’ ‘an’ ‘the’ and the prepositions ‘of’, ‘in’, ‘to’ etc. should
be or shouldn’t be counted as words.
So the definition of a word and the identification of words in a sentence
is not always easy, and fixed.

Morphology – origin of the word

Morphology  Morph + ology

Morph  shape/form
ology  study of something
The word ‘morphology’ first began to be used in
the field of science. In science, the term has
come to be used to refer to the branch of biology
which studies the form and structure of plants
and animals. Its first recorded use is in writings
by the German poet and writer Goethe in 1796. It
was first used for linguistic purposes in 1859 by
the German linguist August Schleicher.
Schleicher used the term for the study of the
form of words.
Linguistically, morphology deals with
morphemes and how they operate in the
structure of words. It is the study of morpheme
which is the smallest meaningful unit of a
word. In other words morphology is the study of
the grammar of words.

Morpheme  smallest meaningful unit of a word; Or,  smallest unit

of language that has its own meaning. All morphemes bear a meaning. A
word may consist of one morpheme such as cat, fat, dog, toy, boy, pen etc.
Words can be divided into morphemes, eg- assignment = assign+ment;
uncommon= un + common; teacher= teach+er

Free morpheme  A morpheme that can stand alone as a word.

Bound morpheme  A morpheme that cannot stand alone as a word.
Example of free morpheme and bound morpheme:
cats: {cat}+{s}.
Here cat → free morpheme ; -s → bound morpheme.
undesirable: {un}+{desire}+{able}.
Here, desire → free morpheme ; -un, -able → bound morphemes.
buyers: {buy}+{er}+{s}
Here, buy → free morpheme ; er → bound morphemes. -s → bound
morpheme

Affix: Affixes are morphemes that form words by being attached before
a base (any meaningful part of a word with which an affix has been that
can )/root/stem, or after a base/root/stem or in-between morphemes.
Affixes that occur before a base/root/stem are called prefixes; Affixes that
occur after a base/root/stem are called suffixes. Word formation by Infixes
are very rare in English language.

Word formation by Prefix:

(a)Negative prefixes
Prefix Base word New word
im- possible/mortal impossible/immortal
in- evitable inevitable
sensitive insensitive
un- stable unstable
like unlike
a- theist atheist
moral amoral
non- entity non-entity
violence non-violence
dis- passionate dispassionate
service disservice
il- logical illogical
limitable illimitable
ir- rational irrational
relevant irrelevant
de- frost defrost
forestation deforestation
mis- interpret misinterpret
represent misrepresent
pseudo- secular pseudosecular
religious pseudosecular

(b) Prefixes of Number

mono- syllabic monosyllabic
logue monologue
uni- lateral unilateral
cellular unicellular
bi- lingual bilingual
lateral bilateral
di- pole dipole
ode (electrode) diode
urnal diurnal
tri- weekly triweekly
angle triangle
tetra- cyclic tetracyclic
multi/poly- syllabic polysyllabic
racial multiracial
pronged multipronged
lingual multilingual
(c) Prefixes of Time and Order
re- evaluate re-evaluate
examine re-examine
ante- chamber antechamber
fore- knowledge fore-knowledge
tell foretell
pre- natal prenatal
mature premature
post- war post-war
dated post-dated
ex- M.N.A. ex-M.N.A.
principal ex-principal
super- structure superstructure
fine superfine
(d) Prefixes of Location
sub- way subway
terranean subterranean
Inter-/intra- national international
class interclass
group intragroup
departmental intra-departmental
trans- plant transplant
migration transmigration
(e) Prefixes of Degree or Size
super- man superman
natural supernatural
out- run outran
live outlive
under- state understate
cooked undercooked
hyper- active hyperactive
critical hypercritical
ultra- modern ultramodern
simple ultrasimple
mini- bus minibus
(midi-/maxi-)
 skirt miniskirt
over- active overactive
smart oversmart
sub- human subhuman
zero subzero
standard substandard
arch- bishop archbishop
angel archangel
(f) Prefixes of Attitude
pro- congress pro-congress
democracy pro-democracy
anti- hindu anti-hindu
social anti-social
co- operate cooperate
sponsor cosponsor
counter- act counteract
proposal counterproposal
(g) Other Prefixes
auto- biography autobiography
start autostart
neo- rich neorich
classical neoclassical
semi- circle semicircle
nude seminude
pan- Indian pan-Indian

(h) Class-changing Prefixes

Here are examples of some prefixes that change the class (part of
speech) to which a word belongs:

Prefix
Change the class of words
head (n)- behead (v) friend (n)- befriend (v)
able (adj) – enable (v) float (v)-afloat (adj)
trust (v)- entrust head (n)- ahead (adj)

Word formation by Suffixes:

The suffixes may be broadly divided into two categories: class
maintaining and class-changing. Here are a few examples:
(a) Class-maintaining Suffixes
friend (n)- friendship (n) king (n) – kingdom
boy (n) –boyhood (n) machine (n)– machinery

(b) Class-changing Suffixes

(i) Noun to adjective:
beauty+ful= beautiful; China+ese= Chinese; harm+less= harmless

noun to adjective
friend- friendly (-ly)
child- childlike (-like)
child- childish (-ish)
accident- accidental (-al)
virtue- virtuous (-ous)

Practice more
Word formation by Infixes
Infixes are relatively rare in English, but we can find them in the plural
forms of some words. For example, cupful, spoonful, and passerby can
be pluralized as cupsful, spoonsful, and passersby, using "s" as an
infix. Similarly, bother-in-law→ brothers-in-law; mother-in-law →
mothers-in-law.
man→ men; woman→women are also examples of the word formation
by infix.

More about Word Formation Process

Prefixation, suffixation, infixation have already been discussed. Here

are some other ways of word formation:

Word formation through Compounding:

A compound word is a word which combines two or sometimes more
different words that function as a unit and expresses a single thought.
Often, the meaning of the compound cannot be discovered by knowing
the meaning of different words which form it. In compounding the
words may be joined, hyphenated, or sit side by side.

Compounding:

noun-noun compound: note + book → notebook

adjective-noun compound: blue + berry → blueberry
verb-noun compound: work + room → workroom
noun-verb compound: breast + feed → breastfeed
adjective-verb compound: high + light → highlight
verb-preposition compound: break + up → breakup
preposition-verb compound: out + run → outrun
adjective-adjective compound: bitter + sweet → bittersweet
preposition-preposition compound: in + to → into

In fact, Compound nouns follow no regular pattern. Some are written

solid some are spaced, and some are hyphenated. Style and context may
also be important to decide whether it should be one word, hyphenated,
or as separate words). Study the following:

brush-up paste-up cover-up shake-up

buildup pileup flare-up sigh-up
checkup roundup follow-up start-up
cleanup setup frame-up summing-up
cutup slipup grown-ups tie-up
getup smashup hand-up toss-up
holdup speedup higher-ups touch-up
hookup windup jam-up tune-up
letup lead-up wrap-up
lineup workup mix-up write-up

breakdown lowdown shakedown dressing-down

closedown markdown showdown put-down
comedown meltdown shutdown sit-down
 countdown meltdown shutdown step-down
crackdown rubdown sundown thumbs-down

the also-rans know-it-alls a set-to

a big to -do hand-me-downs a lean-to
a cure-all the well-to-do a talking-to
a go-ahead a shoot-em-up give-and-take
a go-getter do-it-yourself a five and ten
a has -been a good-for-nothing half-and-half
the have-nots a ne'er-do-well my one-and-only
know-how a merry-go-roun on the up-and-up
a look-alike a free-for-all show-and-tell
make-believe the be-all and end-all the old so-and -so
say-so hide-and-seek ups and downd
two-by-fours no get-up-and-go wear and tear
the old one-two a sing-along wannabes

Clipping
Clipping is the word formation process in which a word is reduced or
shortened without changing the meaning of the word. Clipping differs
from back-formation in that the new word retains the meaning of the
original word. For example:
advertisement – ad
alligator – gator
examination – exam
gasoline – gas
gymnasium – gym
influenza – flu
laboratory – lab
mathematics – math
memorandum – memo
photograph – photo
public house – pub
raccoon – coon
situation comedy – sitcom
telephone – phone
The four types of clipping are back clipping, fore-clipping, middle
clipping, and complex clipping. Back clipping is removing the end of a
word as in gas from gasoline. Fore-clipping is removing the beginning of
a word as in gator from alligator. Middle clipping is retaining only the
middle of a word as in flu from influenza. Complex clipping is removing
multiple parts from multiple words as in sitcom from situation comedy.
Blending
Blending is the word formation process in which parts of two or more
words combine to create a new word whose meaning is often a
combination of the original words. For example:
advertisement + entertainment → advertainment
biographical + picture → biopic
breakfast + lunch → brunch
chuckle + snort → chortle
cybernetic + organism → cyborg
guess + estimate → guesstimate
hazardous + material → hazmat
motor + hotel → motel
prim + sissy → prissy
simultaneous + broadcast → simulcast
smoke + fog → smog
Spanish + English → Spanglish
spoon + fork → spork
telephone + marathon → telethon
web + seminar → webinar
Blended words are also referred to as portmanteaus.

Acronym
An acronym is a pronounceable word formed from the first letter or first
few letters of each word in a phrase or title. Sometimes the newly-
combined letters create a new word that takes the place in everyday
language. Using this shortened form of a word or phrase can speed up
communication. Here is a list of common acronyms, listed by category.

Popular Acronyms
These acronyms are very widely used, making them some of the most
popular to appear in the English language.
RADAR - Radio detecting and ranging
LASER - Light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation.
NATO - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
UNICEF - The United Nations International Children's Emergency
Fund.
SCUBA - Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus.
WASP - White anglo saxon protestant.
These examples of acronyms show how a few, well-chosen letters can
be a quick way to communicate.
Mental Lexicon
By ‘mental lexicon’ we mean the sum total of everything an individual
speaker knows about the words of his/her language. This knowledge
includes information about pronunciation, category (part of speech), and
meaning, of course, but also information about syntactic properties (for
example, whether a verb is transitive or intransitive), level of formality,
and what lexicographers call ‘range of application’, that is, the specific
conditions under which we might use the word.