This book is intended to help students bridge the gap between elementary materials, with their carefully controlled and limited vocabularies, and intermediate to advanced materials. It has been found that vocabulary presents a major problem at that particular moment in a student's progress. He has presumably become familiar with most of the grammatical patterns of the language. With the exception of unusual idioms, his main problem henceforth will be the enlargement of his word stock, both oral and written, active as well as passive. The book can be used for private study or as part of the curriculum in an organized course. The material is divided into lessons, most of which are rather short, and all of which include exercises so that the learner can practice using what he knows and test his knowledge. Answers to the exercises are provided at the end of the book, but the learner is urged not to consult them before he has done his best to answer the problems out of his own knowledge or by consulting his dictionary. A number of exercises are included to help the student get acquainted with his dictionary.
At the beginning of the book we suggest several ways that the learner can systematically enlarge his English vocabulary: by using the dictionary, keeping a vocabulary notebook, using flash cards or other mnemonic devices, studying words in related families (according to form, that is, derivation, as well as meaning), and, finally, "educated guessing."
After a review of the function words, occupying one rather long lesson, we go into a study of word-derivation, with emphasis on the most common suffixes and prefixes. Following this there is a discussion of English spelling and a lesson suggesting ways of using the word lists at the end of the book. A list of the symbols used in the book to represent English sounds, with illustrative words, is given on page 114.
The Word Lists
There are two word lists, one of function words and one containing a basic 2,000-word English vocabulary. In addition, there is a list of suffixes and prefixes to be used with the 2,000-word list.
The list of function words contains about 230 words of very high frequency. They were not chosen solely on the basis of frequency, however, but on the basis of grammatical function. The list consists of articles, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, noun-determiners, substitute nouns, intensifiers, and certain other specialized expressions. In general they are words whose meaning could not be very well learned by looking them up in a dictionary. They are the words that would be learned in any good elementary course in English, and it seems pointless to include them in a vocabulary list. Not all function words in English are included; archaic and unusual words are left out, and also prepositions of more than one word. The 2,000-word list is one that has been prepared by the authors for use in controlled-vocabulary reading materials, with learners of English as a second language specifically in mind. It is based ultimately on the work of Thorndike, Lorge, and West, as all word lists must be, but with considerable modification in the light of our experience and the needs of our students.
The principal modifications made are these:
(I) Function words were eliminated.
(II) Sets of common items have been filled out, whether or not all words satisfied statistical requirements.
(III) New items (such as atomic) have been added, and old-fashioned or inappropriate ones (bob) deleted.
(IV) It was assumed that the student would recognize and understand words regularly formed from base words on the list, and so many words in earlier lists could be eliminated as being automatically covered. (Example: If black is included, blackness and blacken are covered also.)
(V) Numerals, days of the week, and months of the year have been eliminated from the word list.
CONTENTS
LESSON Page
1 Introduction to Vocabulary Building 1
2 Function Words 7
3 Words Used in More than One Way 14
4 Words Used in More than One Way 19
5 Word Building 21
6 Noun-Forming Suffixes 25
7 Noun-Forming Suffixes 32
8 Agent Nouns 38
9 Suffixes That Form Verbs 43
10 Suffixes That Form Adjectives 48
11 More Suffixes That Form Adjectives 56
12 More Suffixes That Form Adjectives 61
13 Suffixes That Form Nouns 68
14 Suffixes That Form Adjectives and Verbs 73
15 Prefixes 78
16 Prefixes 84
17 English Spelling 87
18 Studying the Word Lists 93
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF FUNCTION WORDS 98
A 2,000-WORD VOCABULARY LIST 101
Sound Symbols Used in this Book 114
ANSWERS TO EXERCISES 116
