Viva Vocabulary
January 16, 2020
A Follow-Up to Becoming More Nym-ble:* Part Two of Two
In Part One, we looked again at the Big Three -nyms: Synonyms, Antonyms, and Homonyms. Now let’s check out other -nyms that today’s students are likely to encounter: Acronyms, Aptonyms, Contranyms, Demonyms, Eponyms, Hypernyms, Hyponyms, Metonyms, Pseudonyms, and Uninyms.
June 08, 2019
Word Formation Revisited: Part Two of Two
Many speakers and writers invent words when the need or inclination arises. As noted in the previous Viva Vocabulary! series, “New Words: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow” Parts One, Two, and Three, there are at least 12 ways to create words in English.
Learning about word formation can be fun for students and encourage their interest in vocabulary. New words (neologisms) and new meanings (senses/uses) for existing words are regularly added to the dictionary (www.merriam-webster.com/; apnews.com/).
April 16, 2019
Word Formation Revisited: Part One of Two
As our world continues to change, new words are constantly being formed. In the Viva Vocabulary! series, “New Words: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: Parts One, Two, and Three,” we looked at 12 processes by which words are created in English (Lems, Miller, and Soro, 2017).
This two-part follow-up article will further examine many of these processes and provide more ideas for teaching them. The focus of this first part will be Coining, Borrowing, Compounding, and Blending. In Part Two, we will look at Clipping, Acronyms and Abbreviations, Conversion, and Paired-Word Sound Play.