Online module Session – 1

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Agenda

• Importance of vocab building

• What is vocab building

• Methods

• Introduction to Etymology

Why was language invented?

Language was invented to help

human beings communicate

How is language invented ?

Sounds form the building block

of a language

How is language invented ?

These sound when put in

groups help create words

How is language invented ?

Words when put in a

particular order give us

sentences.

Hence sounds and therefore words form the foundation of any language

Word-based

Also it is believed :

There are many methods of learning words.

Here are a few of them :

- Word families

- Mnemonics

- Etymology

Many ways …….

Word Families

Grouping of similar meaning words under one head word is known as Word families.

Avert Check Forbid

Forestall Hamper Hinder Impede Inhibit Quest

Obviate Preclude Prohibit Restrain Repress Thwart

Intercept Interdict Obstruct

Head word : Prevent

Mnemonics

Word : Laudatory Mnemonic : Applaud a story

Word : Propriety Mnemonic : Proper in society

Remembering words through various associations

Etymology

all words with – ology spelling part have something to do with the study of

All words with the spelling part phobia in it have something to do with fear

Identifying meaning of words with the help of common spelling parts.

What is Etymology?

It is a scientific method of vocabulary building

Why does it work?

It works because language was invented and not discovered.

All inventions have logic ; hence language has logic

• It is believed by Etymologist; that if a word enters a language there has to be a reason for its existence.

• This reason for the same is studied under Etymology.

Premise of Etymology

• It helps in guessing the meanings of unknown words

• A person does not have to mug up words; but use logic to guess the meaning of the words.

How does it help?

Lets take an example

Suppose you have to guess the meaning of the word bibliopole (assuming you don’t know the meaning of the word)

As per Etymology you would do the following things :

Split the word into its component parts

Bibliopole can be broken into

Biblio pole

Think of words having the spelling part ‘biblio’ in it :

• Bible : the holy book of the Catholics

• Bibliography : a list of reference books used

• Bibliophile : one who loves books

If you notice in the above examples there are two common parts : the words have the ‘biblio’ part common; while the meanings have the book part common

Biblio = book

Hence it could be said that the spelling part biblio means book

This is the basic premise of Etymology : words with common spelling parts always have common meanings.

Spelling part : pole

The same could be done with the other spelling part – pole

Words with the spelling part pol :

Monopoly : single seller

Oligopoly : multiple seller

Hence can be said -- pol : sell

So now when the above is applied to guess the meaning of the word, things would be somewhat

on these lines:

Bibliography

Bibliopole can be broken into

so the root means

hence the head-word means

Biblio pole

Monopoly

Oligopoly

Bible

book

a person who sells books

to sell

In nutshell

Thus Etymology helps in guessing the meaning of any word give; provided one knows how to identify the common spelling parts and use some logic .

- More about these common spelling parts in the sessions to follow.

Disclaimer : The content in this presentation is the copyright of

Engquizzitive (brand under Bibliopolis) . This is the first session of the online

module on Etymology. For more details you can mail us on :

bibliopolisblog@gmail.com