Lesson 1: Saint Joseph College of Sindangan Incorporated Sindangan, Zamboanga Del Norte
Lesson 1: Saint Joseph College of Sindangan Incorporated Sindangan, Zamboanga Del Norte
https://www.lexico.com/grammar/prefixes-and-suffixes
http://www.uefap.com/vocab/build/building.htm
https://www.grammarbank.com/noun-verb-adjective-adverb.html
Motivation:
List as many words as you can in five minutes (in a piece of paper) See to
it you are not looking at the dictionary nor a book as reference (please be
honest). After listing words, divide the number of words with 5. So, for
example, 200/5 = 40. So, you have 40 words per minute. Though this is not a
measurement of how many words you know but an exercise on how far are you
with your vocabulary.
LESSON 1
LESSON PROPER/DISCUSSION:
Someone who doesn’t know English would not know where one word
begins and ends in an utterance like Thecatsatonthemat. We separate written
words by spaces, but in the spoken language there are no pauses between
most words. Without knowledge of the language, one can’t tell how many
words are in an utterance. Knowing a word means knowing that a particular
sequence of sounds is associated with a particular meaning.
A speaker of English has no difficulty in segmenting the stream of sounds
into six individual words – the cat sat on the mat – because each of these words
is listed in his or her mental lexicon or dictionary, that is part of a speaker’s
linguistic knowledge. Similarly, a speaker knows that uncharacteristically, which
has more letters than Thecatsatonthemat, is nevertheless a single word.
When you know a word, you know its sounds (pronunciation) and its
meaning. Because the sound meaning relation is random, it is possible to
have word with the same sound and different meanings (bear and bare)
and words with the same meaning and different sounds (sofa and couch).
Each word is a sound-meaning unit, each word stored in or mental lexicon
must be listed with its unique phonological representation, which
determines its pronunciation, and with a meaning. For literate speakers,
the spelling, or orthography, of most of the words we know is included.
Each word in your mental lexicon includes other information as well, such
as whether it is a noun, pronoun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb, a
preposition, or a conjunction. That is the mental lexicon also specifies the
grammatical category or syntactic class of the word.
Example: I love you and You are the love of my life. – if the information
above were not in the mental lexicon, we would not know how to form
grammatical sentences, nor would we able to distinguished grammatical
from ungrammatical sentences.
LESSON 2
Content Words and Function Words
content words
Function words
The small set of person pronouns such as I, me, mine, he, she,
and so on are part of this class.
LESSON 3
MORPHEMES: THE MINIMAL UNITS OF MEANING
Analysis:
2. What is it?
Desirable undesirable
Likely unlikely
Inspired uninspired
Happy unhappy
Developed undeveloped
Sophisticated unsophisticated
Example 2:
Two morphemes—boy+ish
Desire+able
Three morphemes—boy+ish+ness
Desire+able +ity
Four morphemes---gentle+man+li+ness
Un+desire+able+ity
Monomorphemic word
EXAMPLE: finger --- one morpheme only
Fing “ is not something that fings “
er--- not means a person
The meaning of morpheme must be constant. The agentive
morpheme -er means “one who does” like singer, painter, lover, but
the same sound represents the comparative morpheme, meaning
more” nicer, taller, prettier. Thus, two morphemes may be pronounced
identically. The identical form represents two morphemes because of
the different meanings. The same sound may occur in other word and
not represent a separate morpheme at all, as in finger.
1. boy - ish
2. desire -ness
3. gentle pre
Suffixes are a letter or group of letters added to the ending of words to change their
meaning or function. These useful, shapeshifting tools can be as small as -s, and -
ed, or can be larger additions such as -ation, and -ious.
For example, by adding the suffixes -er and -est to the adjective fond,
you create the comparative fonder and the superlative, fondest.
Take the suffix -ist, by adding this to a word you have changed the
word to describe a person who performs or practices something.
So, art becomes artist, a person skilled in a particular art.
Let's look at the verb read. This verb can be turned into a noun by adding the
suffix -er, and so read becomes reader. Likewise, by adding the suffix -able the
verb read now becomes the adjective readable.
Examples of Suffixes
Some of the most common suffixes and their meanings are as follows:
Noun Suffixes
-eer
Meaning: engaged in something, associated with something
Examples: auctioneer, volunteer, engineer, profiteer
-er
Meaning: someone who performs an action
Examples: helper, teacher, preacher, dancer
-ion
Meaning: the action or process of
Examples: celebration, opinion, decision, revision
-ity
Meaning: the state or condition of
Examples: probability, equality, abnormality, civility
-ment
Meaning: the action or result of
Examples: movement, retirement, abandonment, establishment
-ness
Meaning: a state or quality
Examples: fondness, awareness, kindness, darkness
-or
Meaning: a person who is something
Examples: distributor, investigator, translator, conductor
-sion
Meaning: state or being
Examples: depression, confusion, tension, compulsion
-ship
Meaning: position held
Examples: worship, ownership, courtship, internship
-th
Meaning: state or quality
Examples: strength, labyrinth, depth, warmth
Adjective Suffixes
-able, -ible
Meaning: capable of being
Examples: preventable, adaptable, predictable, credible
-al
Meaning: pertaining to
Examples: theatrical, natural, criminal, seasonal
-ant
Meaning: inclined to or tending to
Examples: vigilant, defiant, brilliant, reliant
ary
-
Meaning: of or relating to
Examples: budgetary, planetary, military, honorary
-ful
Meaning: full of or notable of
Examples: grateful, beautiful, wonderful, fanciful
-ic
Meaning: relating to
Examples: iconic, organic, heroic, poetic
-ious, -ous
Meaning: having qualities of
Examples: gracious, cautious, humorous, fabulous
-ive
Meaning: quality or nature of
Examples: creative, expensive, expressive, pensive
-less
Meaning: without something
Examples: hopeless, faultless, fearless, restless
-y
Meaning: made up of or characterized by
Examples: brainy, fruity, tasty, grouchy
Verb Suffixes
-ed
Meaning: past-tense version of a verb
Examples: laughed, climbed, called, missed
-en
Meaning: become
Examples: soften, fasten, lengthen, strengthen
-er
Meaning: action or process, making an adjective comparative
Examples: faster, bigger, fuller, longer
-ing
Meaning: verb form/present participle of an action
Examples: laughing, swimming, driving, writing
-ize, -ise
Meaning: to cause or to become
Examples: memorialize, authorize, commercialize, advertise
Adverb Suffixes
-ly
Meaning: in what manner something is being done
Examples: bravely, simply, honestly, gladly
-ward
Meaning: in a certain direction
Examples: backward, wayward, awkward, afterward
-wise
Meaning: in relation to
Examples: clockwise, edgewise, lengthwise, otherwise
Using Suffixes
Suffixes create variety in the English language. They provide endless ways to express our
thoughts, feelings, findings, and emotions. They morph nouns into adjectives and verbs into
nouns. They express deeper qualities, providing layers of color and intrigue required by writers.
Be aware that sometimes adding a suffix to a base word changes the spelling of the new word, as
in create/creative. To help you learn why and when this happens read Suffix Spelling Rules.
Suffixes
Suffixes are added to the end of an existing word. For example:
wor
suffix new word
d
child -ish childish
work -er worker
taste -less tasteless
idol -ize/-ise idolize/idolise
like -able likeable
The addition of a suffix often changes a word from one word class to another. In the
table above, the verb like becomes the adjective likeable, the noun idol becomes the
verb idolize, and the noun child becomes the adjective childish.
prefix or
word new word
suffix
securit
bio- biosecurity
y
clutter de- declutter
media multi- multimedia
email -er emailer
Email is an example of a word that was itself formed from a new prefix, e-, which stands
for electronic. This modern prefix has formed an ever-growing number of other Internet-
related words, including e-book, e-cash, e-commerce, and e-tailer.
Vocabulary building
Affixes and roots
Adding affixes to existing words (the base or root) to form new words is
common in academic English. Prefixes are added to the front of the base
(like dislike), whereas suffixes are added to the end of the base (active
activate). Prefixes usually do not change the class of the base word, but
suffixes usually do change the class of the word.
The most common prefixes used to form new verbs in academic English
are: re-, dis-, over-, un-, mis-, out-. The most common suffixes are: -ise, -en, -ate, -
(i)fy. By far the most common affix in academic English is -ise.
Verbs
e.g. Suffix used to form verbs with the meaning "cause to be".
Suffix Example
-ise stabilise, characterise, symbolise, visualise, specialise
-ate differentiate, liquidate, pollinate, duplicate, fabricate
-fy classify, exemplify, simplify, justify
-en awaken, fasten, shorten, moisten
Nouns
The most common prefixes used to form new nouns in academic English
are: co- and sub-. The most common suffixes are: -tion, -ity, -er, -ness, -ism, -ment,
-ant, -ship, -age, -ery. By far the most common noun affix in academic English
is -tion.
e.g. Suffix added to a verb (V), noun (N) or adjective (A) noun
Adjectives
Many adjectives are formed from a base of a different class with a suffix
(e.g. -less, -ous). Adjectives can also be formed from other adjectives,
especially by the negative prefixes (un-, in- and non-).
The most common suffixes are -al, -ent, -ive, -ous, -ful, -less.
Suffix Example
-al central, political, national, optional, professional
-ent different, dependent, excellent
-ive attractive, effective, imaginative, repetitive
-ous continuous, dangerous, famous
-ful beautiful, peaceful, careful
-less endless, homeless, careless, thoughtless
-able drinkable, countable, avoidable,
Prefix Examples
un- unfortunate, uncomfortable, unjust
im-/in-/ir-/il- immature, impatient, improbable, inconvenient, irreplaceable, illegal
non- non-fiction, non-political, non-neutral
dis- disloyal, dissimilar, dishonest
Mixed
Word formation
There are four main kinds of word formation: prefixes, suffixes, conversion and
compounds.
Prefixes
We add prefixes before the base or stem of a word.
Examples prefixes
multipurpose, multicultura
multi- means ‘many’
l
See also:
Prefixes
Suffixes
We add suffixes after the base or stem of a word. The main purpose of a suffix is to
show what class of word it is (e.g. noun or adjective).
examples suffixes
reasonable,
-able is used to form adjectives
unprofitable
See also:
Suffixes
Word classes and phrase classes
Conversion
Conversion involves the change of a word from one word class to another. For
example, the verbs to email and to microwave are formed from the
nouns email and microwave:
Can you text her? (verb from noun text, meaning to send a text-message)
They are always jetting somewhere. (verb from noun jet)
If you’re not careful, some downloads can damage your computer. (noun from
verb download)
OK, so the meeting’s on Tuesday. That’s a definite. (noun from adjective)
It’s a very big if and I’m not at all sure we can afford it. (noun from conjunction,
meaning ‘it’s not at all certain’)
All companies have their ups and downs. (nouns from prepositions)
We also use conversion when we change a proper noun into a common noun:
Has anybody seen my Dickens? (copy of a book by Dickens)
Compounding
When we use compounding, we link together two or more bases to create a new
word. Normally, the first item identifies a key feature of the second word. For
example, the two bases back and ache can combine to form the compound
noun backache, and the two bases post and card combine to form the compound
noun postcard.
Compounds are found in all word classes. The most common types of compounds
are: Nouns: car park, rock band
Adjectives: heartbreaking, sugar-free, airsick
Verbs: oven-bake, baby-sit, chain-smoke
Adverbs: good-naturedly, nevertheless
It is sometimes difficult to know where to put hyphens in words that are compound
ed. It is also difficult to know whether to separate words (e.g. post box) or to join
the words (e.g. postbox). In such cases, it is best to check in a good learner’s
dictionary.
Abbreviation
Back-formation
We form words with back-formation when we remove part of a word, usually
something which we think is a suffix (or occasionally a prefix). We do this
commonly when we form verbs from nouns.
For example: to liaise (back-formed from the noun liaison); to intuit (back-formed
from the noun intuition), to enthuse (back-formed from the noun enthusiasm):
Can you liaise with Tim and agree a time for the meeting, please?
She’s always enthusing about her new teacher.
New words
Some prefixes are commonly used to create new words. In modern English the
prefix e- is used to create new words that are connected with the Internet and the
use of the Internet:
e-bank, e-cards, e-commerce, e-learning
Almost any noun may potentially combine with any other noun to form new noun
compounds (e.g. computer virus, carbon footprint, quality time).
EXERCISES
Complete the word forms chart below:( you may copy or answer immediately in a
piece of paper)
6. acquire acquisitive -
7. resource - resourcefully
8. tradition - traditional
9 participation participation -
18. ethics -
24. pursuit
Fill in the blanks with the appropriate form of the words given in the brackets.
1. Mr. Parks' lessons are really ---- . I hate his lessons. (bore)
boring
5. His job is to paint houses and put paper on the walls. He is a/an ---- . (decorate)
6. want to see the National Theater's ---- of Arthur Miller's 'The Last Yankee'. (present)
11. I don't like this team at all. They play ---- . (awful)
13. Do you always behave ---- when your naughty nieces come to visit? (tolerance)
Activity
Part 1 . Noun suffixes create nouns when they are added to other words. (verbs,
adjectives...) Answer the questions below and show the noun suffixes in your
answers.
Part 2: Roots have meanings before any suffixes or prefixes added to them.
Match the roots with their meanings.
9. bio
10. dict
11. mort
12. port
13. psych
Part 3: Prefixes add certain meanings to the words they are added. Match the
prefixes with their meanings.
14. de-
15. auto-
16. co-
17. tele-
18. mal-
19. anti-
20. ex-
21. trans-
22. dis-
23. re-
ACTIVITY 3
Make an essay. Choose two (2) from the topic below. Underlined all the words that
contains prefixes and suffixes. Each topic should have at least 4 paragraphs (1-
introduction, 2-3 body,4-finality/ending). Use as many affixes as possible.