Vocabulary From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.

Please improve this article if you can. The talk pagemay contain suggestions. (June 2009) A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool forcommunication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning a second language. Contents [hide]

1 Knowing and using a word o 1.1 Productive and receptive o 1.2 Degree of knowledge o 1.3 Depth of knowledge 2 Types of vocabulary o 2.1 Reading vocabulary o 2.2 Listening vocabulary o 2.3 Writing vocabulary o 2.4 Speaking vocabulary 3 Focal vocabulary 4 Vocabulary growth 5 The importance of a vocabulary 6 Native- and foreign-language vocabulary o 6.1 Native-language vocabulary o 6.2 Foreign-language vocabulary 6.2.1 The effects of vocabulary size on language comprehension 6.2.1.1 Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition

6.2.1.2 Memorization 6.2.1.3 The Keyword Method o 6.3 Basic English vocabulary o 6.4 Vocabulary differences between social classes in the U.S.A. 7 See also 8 Footnotes 9 References 10 External links

[edit]Knowing and using a word Vocabulary is commonly defined as "all the words known and used by a particular person".[1] Unfortunately, this definition does not take into account a range of issues involved inknowing a word. [edit]Productive and receptive The first major distinction that must be made when evaluating word knowledge is whether the knowledge is productive (also called active) or receptive (also called passive) and even within those opposing categories, there is oftentimes no clear distinction. Words that are generally understood when heard or read or seen constitute a person's receptive vocabulary. These words may range from well-known to barely known (see degree of knowledge below). In most cases, a person's receptive vocabulary is the larger of the two. For example, although a young child may not yet be able to speak, write, or sign, he or she may be able to follow simple commands and appear to understand a good portion of the language to which he or she is exposed. In this case, the child's receptive vocabulary is likely tens, if not hundreds of words but his or her active vocabulary is zero. When that child learns to speak or sign, however, the child's active vocabulary begins to increase. It is possible for the productive vocabulary to be larger than the receptive vocabulary, for example in a second-language learner who has learned words

through study rather than exposure, and can produce them, but has difficulty recognizing them in conversation. Productive vocabulary, therefore, generally refers to words which can be produced within an appropriate context and match the intended meaning of the speaker or signer. As with receptive vocabulary, however, there are many degrees at which a particular word may be considered part of an active vocabulary. Knowing how to pronounce, sign, or write a word does not necessarily mean that the word has been used correctly or accurately reflect the intended message of the utterance, but it does reflect a minimal amount of productive knowledge. [edit]Degree of knowledge Within the receptive / productive distinction lies a range of abilities which are often referred to as degree of knowledge. This simply indicates that a word gradually enters a person's vocabulary over a period of time as more aspects of word knowledge are learnt. Roughly, these stages could be described as: 1. Never encountered the word. 2. Heard the word, but cannot define it. 3. Recognize the word due to context or tone of voice. 4. Able to use the word but cannot clearly explain it. 5. Fluent with the word its use and definition. [edit]Depth of knowledge The differing degrees of word knowledge imply a greater depth of knowledge, but the process is more complex than that. There are many facets to knowing a word, some of which are not hierarchical so their acquisition does not necessarily follow a linear progression suggested by degree of knowledge. Several frameworks of work knowledge have been proposed to better operationalise this concept. One such framework includes nine facets: 1. orthography - written form

2. phonology - spoken form 3. reference - meaning 4. semantics - concept and reference 5. register - appropriacy of use 6. collocation - lexical neighbours 7. word associations 8. syntax - grammatical function 9. morphology - word parts [edit]Types of vocabulary Listed in order of most ample to most limited:[2][3] [edit]Reading vocabulary A literate person's reading vocabulary is all the words he or she can recognize when reading. This is generally the largest type of vocabulary simply because it includes the other three, though in some cases, notably Chinese characters, as in Chinese and Japanese, where the pronunciation is not transparent, some words may be part of the oral vocabulary but not the written. For example, a Japanese speaker may not recognize that is pronounced kirin. [edit]Listening vocabulary A person's listening vocabulary is all the words he or she can recognize when listening to speech. This vocabulary is aided in size by context and tone of voice. [edit]Writing vocabulary A person's writing vocabulary is all the words he or she can employ in writing. Contrary to the previous two vocabulary types, the writing vocabulary is stimulated by its user. [edit]Speaking vocabulary A person's speaking vocabulary is all the words he or she can use in speech. Due to the spontaneous nature of the speaking vocabulary, words are often misused. This misuse though slight

and unintentional may be compensated by facial expressions, tone of voice, or hand gestures. [edit]Focal vocabulary "Focal vocabulary" is a specialized set of terms and distinctions that is particularly important to a certain group; those with a particular focus of experience or activity. A lexicon, or vocabulary, is a language's dictionary, its set of names for things, events, and ideas. Some linguists believe that lexicon influences people's perception on things, the SapirWhorf hypothesis. For example, the Nuer of Sudan have an elaborate vocabulary to describe cattle. The Nuer have dozens of names for cattle because of the cattle's particular histories, economies, and environments. This kind of comparison has elicited some linguistic controversy, as with the number of "Eskimo words for snow". English speakers can also elaborate their snow and cattle vocabularies when the need arises.[4][5] [edit]Vocabulary growth During his/her infancy, a child builds a vocabulary by instinct, with zero effort. Infants imitate words that they hear and then associate those words with objects and actions. This is thelistening vocabulary. The speaking vocabulary follows, as a child's thoughts become more reliant on his/her ability to selfexpress in a gesture-free and babble-free manner. Once thereading and writing vocabularies are attained through questions and education the anomalies and irregularities of language can be discovered. In first grade, an advantaged student (i.e. a literate student) learns about twice as many words as a disadvantaged student. Generally, this gap does not tighten. This translates into a wide range of vocabulary size by age five or six, at which time an English-speaking child will have learned about 2,5005,000 words. An average student learns some 3,000 words per year, or approximately eight words per day.[6]

After leaving school, vocabulary growth reaches a plateau. People usually then expand their vocabularies by engaging in activities such as reading, playing word games, and by participating in vocabulary-related programs. [edit]The importance of a vocabulary An extensive vocabulary aids expressions and communication. Vocabulary size has been directly linked to reading comprehension.[7] [7] Linguistic vocabulary is synonymous with thinking vocabulary. A person may be judged by others based on his or her vocabulary. [edit]Native- and foreign-language vocabulary

[edit]Native-language vocabulary Native speakers' vocabularies vary widely within a language, and are especially dependent on the level of the speaker's education. A 1995 study estimated the vocabulary size of college-educated speakers at about 17,000 word families[clarification needed], and that of first-year college students (high-school educated) at about 12,000.[8] [edit]Foreign-language vocabulary [edit]The effects of vocabulary size on language comprehension Francis and Kucera[9] studied English texts totaling one million words and found that the learning of the most frequent words in an English text provides a comprehension of most of the words in that text: Vocabulary Size Written Text Coverage 1000 words 72.0%

2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 15,851

79.7 84.0 86.8 88.7 89.9 97.8

The knowledge of the 2000 most frequent English words provides a comprehension of 80% of English words. The figures look even better than this if we want to cover the words we come across in an informally spoken context. Then the 2000 most common words would cover 96% of the vocabulary.[10] These numbers should be encouraging to beginning language learners, especially because the numbers in the table are for word lemmas and knowing that many word families would give even higher coverage. However, the number of words needed may differ substantially between different languages. [edit]Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition Learning vocabulary is one of the first steps of learning a second language, yet a learner never finishes vocabulary acquisition. Whether in ones native language or a second language, the acquisition of new vocabulary is a continual process. Many methods can help one acquire new vocabulary. [edit]Memorization

Although memorization can be seen as tedious or boring, associating one word in the native language with the corresponding word in the second language until memorized is considered one of the best methods of vocabulary acquisition. By the time students reach adulthood, they generally have gathered a number of personalized memorization methods. Although many argue that memorization does not typically require the complex cognitive processing that increases retention (Sagarra & Alba, 2006),[11] it does typically require a large amount of repetition, and spaced repetition with flashcards, is an established method for memorization, particularly used for vocabulary acquisition in computer-assisted language learning. Other methods typically require more time and longer to recall. Some words cannot be easily linked through association or other methods. When a word in the second language is phonologically or visually similar to a word in the native language, one often assumes they also share similar meanings. Though this is frequently the case, it is not always true. When faced with a false cognate, memorization and repetition are the keys to mastery. If a second language learner relies solely on word associations to learn new vocabulary, that person will have a very difficult time mastering false cognates. When large amounts of vocabulary must be acquired in a limited amount of time, when the learner needs to recall information quickly, when words represent abstract concepts or are difficult to picture in a mental image, or when discriminating between false cognates, rote memorization is the method to use. A neural network model of novel word learning across orthographies, accounting for L1-specific memorization abilities of L2-learners has recently been introduced (Hadzibeganovic & Cannas, 2009).[12] [edit]The Keyword Method One useful method to build vocabulary in a second language is the keyword method. When additional time is available or one wants to emphasize a few key words, one can create mnemonic

devices or word associations. Although these strategies tend to take longer to implement and may take longer in recollection, they create new or unusual connections that can increase retention. The keyword method requires deeper cognitive processing, thus increasing the likelihood of retention (Sagarra & Alba, 2006).[11] This method uses fits within Paivios (1986)[13] dual coding theory because it uses both two verbal and image memory systems. However, this method should be used only with words that represent concrete and imageable things. Abstract concepts or words that do not bring a distinct image to mind are difficult to associate. In addition, studies have shown that associative vocabulary learning is more successful with younger aged students (Sagarra & Alba, 2006).[11] As students advance and age, they tend to rely less on creating word associations to remember vocabulary. [edit]Basic English vocabulary Several word lists have been developed to provide people with a limited vocabulary either quick language proficiency or an effective means of communication. In 1930, Charles Kay Ogden created Basic English (850 words). Other lists include Simplified English (1000 words) and Special English (1500 words). The General Service List,[14] 2000 high frequency words compiled by Michael West from a 5,000,000 word corpus, has been used to create a number of adapted reading texts for English language learners. The knowledge of 2,000 English words provides a comprehension of most of the English language, enough to render one literate. [edit]Vocabulary differences between social classes in the U.S.A. James Flynn reports the remarkable differences in vocabulary exposure of pre-schoolers between different classes in the U.S.A. Apparently, pre-schoolers of professional families are typically exposed to 2,150 different words, pre-schoolers from working

class families to 1,250 words, while those from households on welfare just 620.[15]

Grammar From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the rules of the English language, see English grammar. For the topic in mathematics, logic, and theoretical computer science, see Formal grammar. Linguistics

Theoretical linguistics Cognitive linguistics Generative linguistics Functional linguistics Quantitative linguistics Phonology Graphemics Morphology Syntax Lexis Semantics Pragmatics Descriptive linguistics Anthropological linguistics Comparative linguistics Historical linguistics Phonetics Graphetics Etymology Sociolinguistics Applied and experimental linguistics Computational linguistics Evolutionary linguistics

Forensic linguistics Internet linguistics Language acquisition Language assessment Language development Language education Linguistic anthropology Neurolinguistics Psycholinguistics Second language acquisition Related articles History of linguistics Linguistic prescription List of linguists List of unsolved problems in linguistics Portal vde In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics, andpragmatics. Linguists do not normally use the term to refer to orthographical rules, although usage books and style guides that call themselves grammars may also refer to spelling and punctuation.

Contents [hide]

1 Use of the term 2 Etymology 3 History 4 Development of grammars 5 Grammar frameworks 6 Education 7 See also 8 Notes and references 9 External links [edit]Use of the term The term "grammar" is often used by non-linguists with a very broad meaning indeed; as Jeremy Butterfield puts it: "grammar is often a generic way of referring to any aspect of English that people object to".[1] However, linguists use it in a much more specific sense. Every speaker of a language has, in his or her head, a set of rules[2] for using that language. This is a grammar, andat least in the case of one's native languagethe vast majority of the information in it is acquired not by conscious study or instruction, but by observing other speakers; much of this work is done during infancy. Language learning later in life, of course, may involve a greater degree of explicit instruction.[3] The term "grammar" can also be used to describe the rules that govern the linguistic behaviour of a group of speakers. The term "English grammar", therefore, may have several meanings. It may refer to the whole of English grammarthat is, to the grammars of all the speakers of the languagein which case, the term encompasses a great deal of variation.[4] Alternatively, it may refer only to what is common to the grammars of all, or of the vast majority of, English speakers (such as subject-verb-object word

order in simple declarative sentences). Or it may refer to the rules of a particular, relatively well-defined variety of English (such as Standard English). "An English grammar" is a specific description, study or analysis of such rules. A reference book describing the grammar of a language is called a "reference grammar" or simply "a grammar". A fully explicit grammar that exhaustively describes the grammatical constructions of a language is called a descriptive grammar. Linguistic description contrasts with linguistic prescription, which tries to enforce rules of how a language is to be used. Grammatical frameworks are approaches to constructing grammars. The most known among the approaches is the traditional grammar which is traditionally taught in schools. The standard framework of generative grammar is the transformational grammar model developed in various ways by Noam Chomsky and his associates from the 1950s onwards. [edit]Etymology Further information: grapheme The word grammar derives from Greek (grammatik techn), which means "art of letters", from (gramma), "letter", itself from (graphein), "to draw, to write".[5] [edit]History Further information: History of linguistics The first systematic grammars originated in Iron Age India, with Yaska (6th c. BC), Pini (4th c. BC) and his commentators Pingala (ca. 200 BC), Katyayana, and Patanjali (2nd c. BC). In the West, grammar emerged as a discipline in Hellenism from the 3rd c. BC forward with authors like Rhyanus and Aristarchus of Samothrace, the oldest extant

work being the Art of Grammar ( ), attributed to Dionysius Thrax (ca. 100 BC). Latin grammar developed by following Greek models from the 1st century BC, due to the work of authors such as Orbilius Pupillus, Remmius Palaemon, Marcus Valerius Probus, Verrius Flaccus, and Aemilius Asper. Tamil grammatical tradition also began around the 1st century BC with the Tolkppiyam. A grammar of Irish originated in the 7th century with the Auraicept na n-ces. Arabic grammar emerged from the 8th century with the work of Ibn Abi Ishaq and his students. The first treatises on Hebrew grammar appeared in the High Middle Ages, in the context of Mishnah (exegesis of the Hebrew Bible). The Karaite tradition originated in Abbasid Baghdad. The Diqduq (10th century) is one of the earliest grammatical commentaries on the Hebrew Bible.[6] Ibn Barun in the 12th century compares the Hebrew language with Arabic in theIslamic grammatical tradition.[7] Belonging to the trivium of the seven liberal arts, grammar was taught as a core discipline throughout the Middle Ages, following the influence of authors from Late Antiquity, such asPriscian. Treatment of vernaculars began gradually during the High Middle Ages, with isolated works such as the First Grammatical Treatise, but became influential only in theRenaissance and Baroque periods. In 1486, Antonio de Nebrija published Las introduciones Latinas contrapuesto el romance al Latin, and the first Spanish grammar, Gramtica de la lengua castellana, in 1492. During the 16th century Italian Renaissance, the Questione della lingua was the discussion on the status and ideal form of the Italian language, initiated byDante's de vulgari eloquentia (Pietro Bembo, Prose della volgar lingua Venice 1525). The first grammar of Slovene language was written in 1584 by Adam Bohori.

Grammars of non-European languages began to be compiled for the purposes of evangelization and Bible translation from the 16th century onward, such as Grammatica o Arte de la Lengua General de los Indios de los Reynos del Per (1560), and a Quechua grammar by Fray Domingo de Santo Toms. In 1643 there appeared Ivan Uzhevych's Grammatica sclavonica and, in 1762, the Short Introduction to English Grammar of Robert Lowth was also published. The GrammatischKritisches Wrterbuch der hochdeutschen Mundart, a High German grammar in five volumes by Johann Christoph Adelung, appeared as early as 1774. From the latter part of the 18th century, grammar came to be understood as a subfield of the emerging discipline of modern linguistics. The Serbian grammar by Vuk Stefanovi Karadiarrived in 1814, while the Deutsche Grammatik of the Brothers Grimm was first published in 1818. The Comparative Grammar of Franz Bopp, the starting point of modern comparative linguistics, came out in 1833. [edit]Development of grammars Main article: Historical linguistics Grammars evolve through usage and also due to separations of the human population. With the advent of written representations, formal rules about language usage tend to appear also. Formal grammars are codifications of usage that are developed by repeated documentation over time, and by observation as well. As the rules become established and developed, the prescriptive concept of grammatical correctness can arise. This often creates a discrepancy between contemporary usage and that which has been accepted, over time, as being correct. Linguists tend to view prescriptive grammars as having little justification beyond their authors' aesthetic tastes, although style guides may give useful advice about Standard English based on descriptions of usage in contemporary writing. Linguistic prescriptions also form part of the

explanation for variation in speech, particularly variation in the speech of an individual speaker (an explanation, for example, for why some people say, "I didn't do nothing"; some say, "I didn't do anything"; and some say one or the other depending on social context). The formal study of grammar is an important part of education for children from a young age through advanced learning, though the rules taught in schools are not a "grammar" in the sense most linguists use the term, particularly as they are often prescriptive rather than descriptive. Constructed languages (also called planned languages or conlangs) are more common in the modern day. Many have been designed to aid human communication (for example, naturalistic Interlingua, schematic Esperanto, and the highly logiccompatible artificial language Lojban). Each of these languages has its own grammar. Syntax refers to linguistic structure above the word level (e.g. how sentences are formed)though without taking into account intonation, which is the domain of phonology. Morphology, by contrast, refers to structure at and below the word level (e.g. how compound words are formed), but above the level of individual sounds, which, like intonation, are in the domain of phonology.[8] No clear line can be drawn, however, between syntax and morphology. Analytic languages use syntax to convey information that is encoded via inflection in synthetic languages. In other words, word order is not significant and morphology is highly significant in a purely synthetic language, whereas morphology is not significant and syntax is highly significant in an analytic language. Chinese and Afrikaans, for example, are highly analytic, and meaning is therefore very context-dependent. (Both do have some inflections, and have had more in the past; thus, they are becoming even less synthetic and more "purely" analytic over time.) Latin, which is highly synthetic, uses affixes and inflections to convey the same information that

Chinese does with syntax. Because Latin words are quite (though not completely) self-contained, an intelligible Latin sentence can be made from elements that are placed in a largely arbitrary order. Latin has a complex affixation and simple syntax, while Chinese has the opposite. [edit]Grammar frameworks Main article: Grammar framework Various "grammar frameworks" have been developed in theoretical linguistics since the mid 20th century, in particular under the influence of the idea of a "universal grammar" in the United States. Of these, the main divisions are: Transformational grammar (TG) Systemic functional grammar (SFG) Principles and Parameters Theory (P&P) Lexical-functional Grammar (LFG) Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar (GPSG) Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) Dependency grammars (DG) Role and reference grammar (RRG) [edit]Education

Further information: orthography and literacy

Worldwide literacy rates by country. Prescriptive grammar is taught in primary school (elementary school). The term "grammar school" historically refers to a school

teaching Latin grammar to future Roman citizens, orators, and, later, Catholic priests. In its earliest form, "grammar school" referred to a school that taught students to read, scan, interpret, and declaim Greek and Latin poets (including Homer, Virgil, Euripides, Ennius, and others). These should not be confused with the related, albeit distinct, modern British grammar schools. A standard language is a particular dialect of a language that is promoted above other dialects in writing, education, and broadly speaking in the public sphere; it contrasts with vernacular dialects, which may be the objects of study in descriptive grammar but which are rarely taught prescriptively. The standardized "first language" taught in primary education may be subject to politicalcontroversy, since it establishes a standard defining nationality or ethnicity. Recently, efforts have begun to update grammar instruction in primary and secondary education. The primary focus has been to prevent the use of outdated prescriptive rules in favor of more accurate descriptive ones and to change perceptions about relative "correctness" of standard forms in comparison to non standard dialects. The pre-eminence of Parisian French has reigned largely unchallenged throughout the history of modern French literature. Standard Italian is not based on the speech of the capital, Rome, but on the speech of Florence because of the influence Florentines had on early Italian literature. Similarly, standard Spanish is not based on the speech of Madrid, but on the one of educated speakers from more northerly areas like Castile and Len. In Argentina and Uruguay the Spanish standard is based on the local dialects of Buenos Aires and Montevideo(Rioplatense Spanish). Portuguese has for now two official written standards, respectively Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese, but in a short term it will have a unified orthography.[9]

Norwegian has two standards, Bokml and Nynorsk, the choice between which is subject to controversy: Each Norwegian municipality can declare one of the two its official language, or it can remain "language neutral". Nynorsk is endorsed by a minority of 27 percent of the municipalities. The main language used in primary schools normally follows the official language of its municipality, and is decided by referendum within the local school district. Standard German emerged out of the standardized chancellery use of High German in the 16th and 17th centuries. Until about 1800, it was almost entirely a written language, but now it is so widely spoken that most of the former German dialects are nearly extinct. Standard Chinese has official status as the standard spoken form of the Chinese language in the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of China (ROC) and the Republic of Singapore. Pronunciation of Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin Chinese, while grammar and syntax are based on modern vernacular written Chinese. Modern Standard Arabic is directly based on Classical Arabic, the language of the Qur'an. The Hindustani language has two standards, Hindi and Urdu. In the United States, the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar designated March 4 as National Grammar Day in 2008.[10] [edit]