Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
ESSENTIALS
OF
ENGLISH
MORPHOLOGY
EXPOSITION OF CONCEPTS AND
WORKBOOK APPLICA TION
CONTENTS
Foreword ....................................................................
i
3. Productivity.............................................................
23
Word formation. - Transfer of meaning. - Metaphor and
metonymy. - Lexical rules. - Types of lexical rules.
-Properties of lexical rules. - Limited productivity.
-Acceptability. - Diversity. - Semantic open-endedness.
-Recursiveness. - Bidirectionality. - Lexicalization. - Types
of lexicalization. - Phonological, morphological, syntactic,
and semantic lexicalization. - Productivity as a cline. Language creativity. - Lexical innovation. - Neologisms. Nonce-formations. - Obsolete and archaic words. - Stunt
words. -Nonsense. - Phonetic motivation. - Jargonization.
- Analogy in word-formation.
7.
Morphological
processes.
127
49
4. Origin of English words
Native words. - Loan words. - Source of borrowing. - Origin of
borrowing. - Etymology. - Doublets. - Cognates. - False cognates. Assimilation of loan words. - Fully assimilated loan words. - Partially
assimilated loan words. - Not completely assimilated semantically. Not completely assimilated grammatically. - Not completely assimilated
phonetically. - Unassimilated loan words. - Folk etymology. -Anglicisms.
- Pseudoanglicisms. - International words.
5. Lexical semantics....................................................... 65
Word meaning. - Referential approach to meaning. - Types of meaning.
- Conceptual meaning. - Associative meaning. -Connotative meaning. Collocative meaning. - Reflected meaning. - Thematic meaning. Social meaning. - Affective meaning. - Functional approach to
meaning. - Distributional meaning. - Grammatical meaning. Differential meaning. -Part-of-speech meaning. - Hyperbole. - Litotes. Change of meaning. - Nature of semantic change. - Metaphor.
-Metonymy. - Other types of semantic change. - Lexical meaning
relations. - Semantic equivalence and synonymy. -Criteria of
synonymy. - Interchangeability and substitution. -Euphemisms. Dysphemisms. - Pejorative / derogatory words. - Ethnic slurs. - Political
correctness. -Polysemy and homonymy. - Classification of homonyms.
- Graphic and sound-form of homonyms. - Homophony. - Puns. - Word
play. - Bloopers. - Hyponimic (hierarchical) structures. -Taxonomy. Meronymy. - Semantic contrasts and antonymy. - Compatibility. Incompatibility.
Selected bibliography..............
Selected dictionaries...............
Selected electronic dictionaries
Subject index ...........................
FOREWORD
Essentials of English Morphology: Exposition of Concepts and Workbook Application is meant to be complementary to my previous book:
Word and Words of English: English Morphology A - Z (Belgrade: Papirus, 2000) in the sense that it concentrates on the application side of
theoretical enunciations presented in the dictionary of English morphology terms: English Morphology A - Z. On the other hand, it as an offshoot of the previous book: it builds upon the intellectual capital and the theory presented in it, and it is equally crowded with facts, expertise,
and curiosities.
The book Essentials of English Morphology has two principal interests: firstly, to focus on a word per se, and its relation to other words in
syntagmatic context as well as in the paradigm, and secondly, to concentrate on workbook application coupled with theoretical exposition of
concepts. The book gathers around the following topics: 1. Basic concepts; 2. Morphological structure of English words; 3. Productivity; 4.
Origin of English words; 5. Lexical semantics; 6. Methods and procedures of morphological analysis; 7. Morphological processes; 8.
Phraseology; 9. Stylistic varieties of English vocabulary; 10. Regional varieties of English vocabulary. 11. Lexicography. It is based on over 130
selected references (books and articles published in: the English, Russian, French, German, and the Serbian language) presented in
Bibliography section. The examples come from different sources: from over 30 major English language dictionaries, from poetry and fiction
books in English, from British, American, Australian and Canadian newspapers, from the Inter Net, British radio and television, and, needless to
say, some of the examples I acquired
1. BASIC CONCEPTS
Take a close look at any six grammar books that you can
find in your Departmental library and say how much space
is devoted to inflectional morphology, and how much
space is given to word-formation. Comment on this.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
2. MORPHOLOGICAL
OF ENGLISH WORDS
STRUCTURE
1. Old people are always saying that the young are not what
they were.
2. Can anything be right with the rat-race?
3. Haven't the old lost touch with all that is important in life?
4. There's no doubt that the motor-car often brings out a
man's very worst qualities. People who are normally quiet
and pleasant may become unrecognizable when they are
5.
defined.
15. Charlie cut the pizza into tiny squares and put each
6.
16.
17.
21.
25.
27. blow your top, carry the torch, blow the whistle on
30. go, concentrate, drip-dry, mass-production, Ruth, glasshouse, if, and, or, beautifully, extravagantly, clergy
person, lest, pretty, the, a, there, their, he, up, down.
32. Elisabeth, tenth, wealth, inseparable, impolite, gobetween, sister-in-law, untreatable, Viking, refer,
recount, reconsider, rephrase, substitutability, troubleshooting, train-spotting, bird-watcher, blue-eyed, flatbottomed, cone-shaped, self-assertiveness, scissors,
microscopic, nanotechnology, fighter-bomber, plentiful,
beautiful, pocketful
34.
sham pane)
37.
38.
stairs.
46. p. 31 Maximum: a very fat mother
47. p. 37 Perverse: poetry by a very contented cat
48. p. 51 Zulu: bathroom at the London animal park
39.
42.
35.
41.
33.
14
50.
55.
56.
52.
60.
61.
66.
What is exponence?
74.
76.
69.
Which
78.
94. medicinal,
95.
96.
97.
98.
86.
99.
100.
92.
101.
102.
103.
104.
117.
unaccountable,
unbelieving,
unequaled,
unemotional, unearthly, unilateral, vaporizing,
verbalized, vice-chancellors, walkabouts, weariest.
105.
106.
What is a word family? Illustrate. Identify the rootmorphemes. What is a word cluster?
107.
108.
109.
110.
111.
112.
115.
118.
119.
120.
121.
116.
18
123.
124.
125.
126.
127.
19
128.
129.
20
3. PRODUCTIVITY
What is word-formation?
21
24
What is metonymy?
24
In what way are the rules which account for the creative
aspect of the lexicon referred to?
24
24
permit
permission
permissivene
ss
permissible
permissabilit
y
permissioner
permitment
permital
permitter
permittable
commit
commission
commissiven
ess
commissible
commissibilit
y
commissione
r
commitment
committal
committor
committable
transmit
transmission
transmissive
ness
transmissible
transmissibilit
y
transmission
er
transmitment
transmittal
transmitter
transmittable
24
paper
man,
top-drawer,
hit,
spring-board,
conservationist, egg-beater, killjoy, bottom-feeder,
cradle-snatcher, easy-chair, wheel-chair, push-chair,
jailbreak, heartbreak, daybreak, left-overs, turn-overs,
day-tripper, twigloo, telephone box, toy box, keepsakes,
White House, greenhouse, glasshouse
24
-er, -ist; quasi-, de-; re-, pre-; -ment, -ery; -ion, -hood;
-ness, -ity; -y, -ful.
34
What is language
creativity?
27
34
Obsolete words are the words that have dropped out of the
language (e.g. baldric). Old words may stay in the language
but they acquire a new stylistic meaning (e.g. damsel). When
a word is no longer in general use but it is still in the language
we call it an archaism. Here are some examples of obsolete
words (the first word in the pair): yeoman - farmer or farm
tenant; cordwainer -shoemaker, ostler - a person that looks
after horses. Here are some obsolete words and their modern
counterparts juggled. Match the words in column A with those
in column B.
ADO
AFFINITY
AFORE
AFRESH
AGUE
ABASE
ABHOR
ACQUIT
ERE
DAMSEL
FUSS
TO HOLD GUILTLESS
BEFORE
ANEW
A MARRIAGE
ALLIANCE
HUMBLE
FEVER
DESPISE
BEFORE
LADY
34
What is nonsense?
If I grow a
moustache for you
will you grow a
ffectionate
for me?
S. Turner
29
E. Lear
E. Lear
PELICAN CHORUS
II
E. Lear
30
I
ON the top of the Crumpetty Tree
The Quangle Wangle sat,
But his face you could not see.
On account of this Beaver Hat.
For his Hat was a hundred and two feet wide,
Ill
IV
31
40
"G
g
32
VI
"
The winter seems all gone for the present - though the
Equal-noxious gales will doubtless come in
disgustable
force..."
Its Coast scenery may truly be called pomskizillious
and gromphibberous, being as no words can describe
its magnificence."
"LI
. . . a wonderfully lovely view over the river Temms &
the surroundiant landskip." some examples of
analogical formations in English. Find out the word or
expression upon which they were modelled (e.g.
tab/escape is based on landscape; Monicagate is
based on Watergate, etc.):
40
33
wargasm,
catisfaction,
sunsational,
furrious,
guesstimate.
purrfect,
amberlievable,
eelionaire,
chatterday,
1.__________If someone
a cigarette or pipe, they
suck smoke into
their mouth and blow it out again.
40
but
you
only
13.___You
when your throat is irritated or
sometimes when
you are embarrassed or want to attract someone's
attention.
34
15.________If you___________________________________
a baby you pat it on the back and cause it__________________
after it has had a drink.
ground.
it
17.__________If you
, you draw in air through your
nose hard
enough to make a sound, especially when you have a
cold or are trying not to cry.
you
of
Before leaving,
you smiled me that you'd
return all of a mystery
moment and would
airletter me
This
ONE SUMMER
S. Turner
40
36
Text(1)
Text (2)
50
39
Key: < descended from; derived from, from; Sp Spanish; IT - Italian; Gmc - Germanic; ME - Middle
English; MF -Middle French; L - Latin; OF - Old French;
Ar - Arabic; Pers - Persian; Skt - Sanskrit; Gk - Greek
In the following text two words have been taken over
from Japanese. Which are they?
50
'This is, after all, the age of air bags, bicycle helmets,
and drunk-driving taboos, of warning labels, coroner
inquiries and consumer product testing'. (Leonard
Stern, How Safe is Safe Enough?, The Vancouver Sun,
Oct 8, 2001)
_________1.
yellow
40
show incomplete
simultaneously:
designs
used for curtains, covers, furniture.
3.___________A
shawl is the one made of the fine soft
wool
of Cashmere goats.
____________4. are overalls of coarse cotton material.
5. The name for loose-fitting jacket and trousers for sleeping is
__________________.
6. The name for riding breeches is__________.
7. Pants made of khaki are called
50
in
several
respects
assimilation
2. 'Ms. Falco and Mr. Tucci bring a more earthy, New York
agita to the roles. After growing up in the New York suburbs
- she on Long Island, he in Westchester County - the two
have made careers playing incomplete, angular characters'
41
the last few years to 'a really good party'. But he also listed
open questions that, he said, left him with an 'uneasy
feeling' - a kind of cosmic katzenjammer -about whether the
concordance will survive new and more precise tests'
(James Glanz, Cosmology: Does Science Know the Vital
Statistics of the Cosmos? Science (Washington, DC), Nov
13, 1998.
50
2. 'Ms. Falco and Mr. Tucci bring a more earthy, New York
agita to the roles. After growing up in the New York suburbs
42
the last few years to 'a really good party'. But he also listed
open questions that, he said, left him with an 'uneasy
feeling' - a kind of cosmic katzenjammer -about whether the
concordance will survive new and more precise tests'
(James Glanz, Cosmology: Does Science Know the Vital
Statistics of the Cosmos? Science (Washington, DC), Nov
13, 1998.
50
What is etymology?
50
50
50
50
47
48
5. LEXICAL SEMANTICS
49
66
2. Word
most.
4. They made him learn the commandments by heart. - He
was made to learn the commandments by heart.
66
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Assign word-class
meaning to the
words in the following poem.
(i.e.
part-of-speech)
54
2. After he has learnt the truth he will not long remain ignorant
of his feelings toward her.
3. Hitting that pole obviously did not do your head any good.
66
55
78
56
78
Formal
fatality
iniquito
us
posteri
or
veterin
ary surgeon
piles
pee
omnisci
ent
stupid
knowall
Inform
al
comfy
dense
Offen
sive
Nigger
politic
o
mercy
killing
Colloq
uial
death
78
58
78
Answers: 1. G; 2. I; 3. A; 4. J; 5. C; 6. E; 7. H; 8. D; 9. F; 10. B.
59
78
60
78
What is homonymy?
1. deal meaning 'to treat, to handle' and deal meaning 'to take
action';
2. deal meaning 'to distribute cards' and deal meaning 'to
treat, to handle';
3. deal meaning 'to trade or do business' and deal meaning 'to
behave in a specified manner';
4. deal meaning 'a business transaction' and deal meaning 'a
board or plank'.
between
total
and
partial
4. 'I won't tell a soul that you have a hole in the sole of your
5.
6.
7.
8.
places;
2. back, .: back, backs - back, v.: back, backs, backing,
backed - back, adv.;
3. table, n. (as in kitchen table): table, tables - table, n. (as in
tables and graphs): table, tables;
4. pupil, n. (as in a pupil of a painter): pupil, pupils - pupil, n.
(as in the pupil in your eye): pupil, pupils.
Homonyms can be subdivided into homographs and
homophones. Homographs are the words which have the
same spelling yet they have different meanings (e.g. desert,
n. meaning 'barren land' and desert, v. meaning 'to
abandon'). Homophones are the words pronounced in the
same way but with different meanings (e.g. flu and flew, its
and it's). Find more examples of homographs and
homophones in English.
shoe.'
'It was painM to her to learn that her son deliberately broke
a pane of glass in the neighbour's window.'
That son of his enjoys lying in the sun:
'You should wind the rope around the tree to secure it
against the wind:
'You are not allowed to say that aloud:
me, dew, come, tell, field, pat, pet, time, break, bread,
floor, win, pause, praise, sea, tide.
78
If I grow
a moustache for
you
will you
grow a
ffectionate
for me?
S. Turner
MURDER
They
called him
a
murderer but I
thought he was
simply breath
taking.
S. Turner
STAYING FAITHFULL
78
There was a man who sent ten puns to friends, with the
hope that at least one of the puns would make them
laugh. Unfortunately, no pun in ten did.
5. Then the Spanish gorrilas came down from the hills and
nipped at Napoleon's flanks. Napoleon became ill with
bladder problems and was very tense and unrestrained. He
wanted an heir to inherit his power, but since Josephine
was a baroness, she couldn't bear him any children.
6. The sun never set on the British Empire because the British
Empire is in the East and the sun sets in the West. Queen
Victoria was the longest queen. She sat on a thorn for 63
years. Her reclining years and finally the end of her life
were exemplatory of a great personality. Her death was the
final event which ended her reign.
Here are some more bloopers picked up from some
signs in Africa (the source is Inter Net). Provide linguistic
explanation (on the basis of what you know about
ambiguity, semantic clash, analogy, etc.) of the humour in
the examples given.
65
78
Fragile, frail
66
Solve the left side of the equation to create two fourletter words. Join them together to get the eight-letter word
clued on the right side of the equal sign, e.g. boyfriend +
neckware = seductive looking woman -BEAU + TIES =
BEAUTIES).
cap
78
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
A major type of branching lexical hierarchy is the partwhole type (e.g. arm, leg, and head are parts of the body
and: palm and finger are parts of the hand). The semantic
relation between a lexical item denoting a part and that
denoting the corresponding whole is termed meronymy.
Take the words: car, ship, school and house and pair them
with the words which indicate their parts.
1. He PUNCHED me.
78
68
78
69
70
708
LAWLES
SNESS
COFFEEGRINDER
709
LAWLESS
708
LAW
-LESS
N
ES
S
709
COFFEE-GRINDER
COFFEE
GRIND
708
-ER
GRINDER
709
TWO
TWO-SIDED
STARVE -ED
HALF-
Here are some more words for you to analyze: darkhaired, green-eyed, dog-eared, low-spirited, fainthearted, open-hearted, open-minded, good-natured,
hard-fisted, coldblooded, blue-blooded, one-sided, welladjusted, kidney-shaped, silver-plated, half-cooked,
double-glazed, full-blooded, full-throated, full-flavoured.
110
110
75
110
ill-designed, ill-educated,
informed, ill-suited, ill-timed
ill76
(a) frog - froglet; isle - islet; owl - owlet; pig - piglet; star-starlet
(b) economics - macroeconomics; objectives - macroobjectives; structure - macro-structure
(c) automatic - semiautomatic; conscious - semiconscious;
dark - semi-dark, divine - semi-divine; official - semiofficial;
skilled - semi-skilled
(d) confidence - self-confidence; assurance - self-assurance;
satisfaction - self-satisfaction
(e) carbon - carbon-rich; energy - energy-rich; mineral
-mineral-rich; sugar- sugar-rich; protein - protein-rich
(f) activate - deactivate; centralize - decentralize; colonize decolonize; materialize - dematerialize
(g) ceremony - post-ceremony; examination - postexamination; Freudian - post-Freudian; impressionism
-post-impressionism; medieval - post-medieval
(h) agent - sub-agent; branch - sub-branch; class - subclass; culture - subculture; editor - sub-editor; species sub-species; type - subtype
(i) cab - mini-cab; camera - mini-camera; city - mini-city;
expedition - mini-expedition; dress - mini-dress
G) judgement - misjudgement; calculation - miscalculation;
representation
misrepresentation;
management
-mismanagement
110
jewellery, machinery
extra-bright, extra-fine, extra-hard, extra-hot, extraEuropean, extra-marital, extra-small, extra-terrestrial
ever-available, ever-changing, ever-decreasing, everbriefer, ever-closer, ever-greater, ever-shorter
addressee, internee, absentee, cohabitee, devotee,
payee, retiree, returnee, trustee
acceptable, admirable, comfortable, pleasurable,
identifiable, profitable, enjoyable, valuable
ambassadorship,
authorship,
membership,
comradeship,
friendship,
kinship,
partnership,
relationship
under-capacity,
undergrowth,
undersea,
underproduction, underarm, underclothes, underground,
undersurface, understatement
110
10. nose is the part of your face which sticks out above
your mouth; it is used for smelling and breathing.
78
110
79
722
722
123
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
124
7. MORPHOLOGICAL PROCESSES
82
124
mis-, dis-, anti-, ante-, ultra-, be-, en-, ex-, extra-, un-,
ill-, bi-
83
124
oversee,
overlook,
Here are some words with off-. Say in which cases this
off- means (1) position (e.g. off-stage, offshore), and in
which cases it means (2) that something is not the case
(e.g. off-balance, off-guard).
84
124
part-of-speech
85
baker,
cooker,
diner,
Londoner,
West-Ender,
commander, counter, computer, high-jumper, triplejumper, potter, backhander, two-seater, all-rounder,
hard-liner, skateboarder, wind-surfer, wood-pecker,
highlander, islander,
New Yorker, go-getter, bottom-feeder, salad-spinner,
backbencher, right-winger
Add the correct suffix (-er, -or, -ar) to the following words:
sail, bake, make, liberate, sing, murder, govern, donate, lie,
law, orate, narrate.
Suffixes -ist and -an, -ian are also used to form nouns
associated with people (e.g. abortionist, European,
Algerian). Add the correct suffix to the following words
(make appropriate adjustments).
124
Here are two more suffixes used for people: -eer (e.g.
mountaineer), and - (e.g. divorcee). Add the ending -eer
or - to these words:
124
Thatcherism,
Marxism,
feminism,
alcoholism,
Catholicism, consumerism, extremism, heroism,
hooliganism,
patriotism,
nationalism,
realism,
symbolism, terrorism, vandalism
87
124
124
What is grammaticalization?
124
124
There are nouns with dual gender, e.g. artist, cook, writer.
Give some more examples.
Gender distinctions in English are also expressed by
pronouns and determiners. Personal, possessive,
reflexive and emphatic pronouns and possessive
State the rules which regulate the realization of the -sending in the third person singular indicative of the
present simple tense. State both writing and
pronunciation rules. Illustrate.
What are the changes that occur in writing when the stem
and the inflectional suffix -ing are joined? Provide
illustrations.
Some verbs in English do not allow the use of the
progressive. Pinpoint such verbs in the following group of
examples. To what class of verbs do they belong?
124
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
I talked to him.
I had a message from her.
He is a dear friend of mine.
It was a serious blunder of yours.
It was very considerate of you.
From whom did you get it?
Concord refers to the situation when two or more
lexemes are obligatorily marked for the same
morphological categories (e.g. compare: a boy has and the
boys have - the words in the first phrase are marked for
singular number whereas the words in the latter phrase are
marked for plural number). Of two forms showing concord
the use of one necessitates the use of the other. Having in
mind the definition of concord, analyze the following text
from the point of view of concord, identifying the
92
124
124
94
>
124
kinds
of
alteration
in
95
124
a girl with green eyes, a girl with gray eyes, a girl with
dark eyes, a gentleman with gray hair, a lady with
auburn hair, a lady with the blue blood, a commoner
with the red blood, shoes with high heels, shoes with
low heels, shoes with rubber soles, a girl with a round
face, a boy with an oval face, a man with an open heart
and open mind, a hat with a narrow brim, a man with
big shoulders, a fellow with the heart of a chicken,
murder committed in cold blood, a man with a quick wit,
a fellow with bad manners, a jacket with a colour of
coffee, a lady who is well dressed, a sofa which is
covered with leather.
124
boat life : life boat; boat deck : deck boat; deck lounge :
lounge deck; fruit market : market fruit; flower garden :
garden flower, child problem : problem child; cage bird :
bird cage; horse race : race horse; horse show: show
horse; pet shop : shop pet; finger ring : ring finger,
laboratory research: research laboratory.
97
124
124
bottle-washer, bottle-washer, kill-time, kill-joy, windowwasher, grave-digger, grave-digger, fly-catcher, flycatcher, bookbinder, cutpurse, mouthwash, air
freshener, feeding-bottle, bake-house, ironing-board,
drawbridge, answerphone, blotting-paper, catch-fly,
mocking-bird, weeping-elm, dancing-girl, freedomlover, sneeze-weed, stink-bird, grasshopper, humming99
bird, pearl-diver, ski-runner, sandwich maker, cavedweller, climbing-boot, night-worker, seed-feeder, treecreeper, water-breather, prize-fighter, sleeping-suit,
sleeping bag, wishing-well, honey-guide, living room,
suck-egg, woodpecker, boxing-glove, carrycot, knittingneedle, tracing paper, tuning-fork, wrapping-paper,
walking-shoe,
hair-splitter,
lady-killer,
leg-puller,
pleasure-seeker, turncoat, coal-digger, cotton-picker,
green-keeper, glass-blower, bartender, innkeeper
124
101
1. When you lose your purse or lose the game do not lose
2.
3.
4.
5.
766
your temper]
Have a look at the reverse side of the tailcoat.
The reverse side of the medal is that they will leave us in
the cold.
We left the beaten track in order to see some more
exciting sites.
The scientist left the beaten track and came up with a
new theory.
8. PHRASEOLOGY
767
5. ...the Rubicon
6. Judas' ...
Here are some commonplace comparisons. Insert the
word which is missing (e.g. as hungry as a ... - as hungry as
a hunter)
1.
2.
3.
4.
170
Here are some fixed similes with like: drink like a fish,
sleep like a log, etc. Rephrase the following sentences
which have the like construction so that you explain what
they mean.
170
1. Make ... your mind. You can't sit on the fence forever.
2. She was heavily made ...
3. He did ... with all his bad habits.
4. He broke ... the house and made ... with the safe.
5. He is capable of anything. I wonder what he is ... to now.
6. His car broke ... unexpectedly.
7. Please, do not smoke during take...
8. He was taken ... by her story.
9. I took ... him the moment I saw him.
10. We applied for the scholarship but they turned us ...
11. Put... the stove before leaving the kitchen.
12. He was beautifully brought and so were all his brothers and
sisters.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
4.
5.
6.
think, 'What happens when you take your face off, when
they see you in the morning?'
Each design is very different in style. Some are subtle,
some gloriously OTT.
Before I got involved in this I used to think that
mountaineers were a little bit round the bend.
These are, for the most part, ordinary middle-of-the-road
people who want the usual things out of life.
His political ideas are very much middle-of-the-road.
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7.
8.
9.
Here are some eye idioms for you to say what they mean
and to use them in context: before your eyes; can't take
your eyes off someone; feast your eyes on something; have
eyes in the back of your head; keep your eyes peeled; only
have eyes for someone (for something); open someone's
eyes; eye-opener; keep your eyes open; up to your eyes;
with your eyes closed; with your eyes glued to something.
6.
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salad days, trim your sails, the salt of the earth, red
herring, acid test, a fishing expedition, shoot yourself in
the foot, play gooseberry, grapevine, lose your marbles,
if you pay peanuts you get monkeys, learn the ropes,
lovebirds, bullish, pig-headed, sheepish, clockwork,
overcook, hothouse, glass-house, greenhouse, to have
green fingers, tempestuous, a smart cookie, Dutch
courage, French leave, push up the daisies
You can play the following game. Players write down the
meaning of a word or phrase. You earn your bonus by
the correct answer, by choosing the correct answer and
by creating the believable fake answer! The game may
include some other ways for players to have fun. A
player may be allowed a minute to describe a phrase to
another player without using any of the words in the
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170
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Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards
perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country
awake.
1. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You
are the bows from which your children, as living arrows, are
sent forth.
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170
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
netiquette
yahooligans
webpaedia
hactivist (hacker + activist)
BTW (by the way)
cyber, cyberish, cyberpunk, cyberspace, cybernaut,
cyberart, cyberartist, cyberculture, cybercafe, Cyberians,
cybercrime, cyberlawyer, cyberlaw, cyberphobia
7. e-cash, e-commerce, e-mail
8. emoticon
9. smiley
10. FWIW (for what it's worth)
11. FYI (for your information)
12. LOL (laughing out loud)
13. modem mantra
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10.
REGIONAL
ENGLISH
VOCABULARY
VARIETIES
OF
use words such as: bill, the first floor, pants, subway, wash
up.
5. If you say that someone takes the high road, you mean that
they follow the course of action that is the most
7. If you say that someone has roos in their top paddock, you
mean that they have peculiar ideas or are crazy. (Roos is
short for kangaroos) This is an informal expression which is
used mainly in_________________________English.
___________________________________________ m
oral or most correct. This expression is used in___________
English.
6. If you say that one thing or person knocks spots off another,
you mean that the first one is much better than the second.
This expression is used in___________________English.
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114
Comment on the word ghetto from the point of view of wordformation and meaning transfer in particular. Find out other
non-slang meanings of the word ghetto.
What is the meaning of: kul adj., kulirati v., trip ., and
tripovati v. in the Serbian language (these are slang words
used by the young). Are these anglicisms in any way
related to the English slang words cool and trip?
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115
116
gur
header
holliers
holy show
horse's hoof
hacks
kibosh
letting on
mot
scarlet
scratcher
slagging
sleeveen
stocious
staying away
He's been on
gur since Saturday from home, usually a
child
mentally
Keep away
unstable person
from the header
holidays,
Two weeks
vacation time
holliers for me
You made a
spectacle
holy show of
yourself
That's a bit
exaggerated
of a horse's hoofl
story
think
He's always
bed
in the scratcher
I'm only
making fun of
slagging you
someone, generally
good-naturedly
She's a bit of
sly
a sleeveen
person,
calculating
He was
drunk
stocious this
195
evening
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195
Compare the Irish eat the head off with the British English
bite someone's head off and snap someone's head off and
find out if they mean the same.
Jacks is an Irish slang word for 'toilet'. What are BritishEnglish slang words and expressions for 'lavatory'? How
about British John and Irish jacks?
118
English word
blackmail
skullduggery
heckle
slogan
flit
weird
golf
flat
gift of the gab
hunker down
Original Scots
black maill
sculduddery
hekill
slogorne
flit
weird
gowf
flat
gift of the gob
hunker doon
a) maill is Scots for rent. 'Black mailf was rent money taken from
a landowner as protection against possible damage to the
landowner's property;
197
b) slogan comes from the Scots word slogorne which meant 'a
Meaning
child
to cry, to weep
mud
large, big
a clumsy person
you don't want to know
119
a failure or someone
also ran
who achieves nothing
argy-bargy
to argue words
as sure as eggs
definitely
at the end of the day
in the end
Aussie
Australian
offsider
assistant
off your face
exceedingly intoxicated
a male who
Ocker
is very Australian
oldies
parents
Find out if some of the words or phrases listed above do
appear in British English with the same meaning (e.g.
argy-bargy).
197
4.
5.
6.
7.
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197
11.
LEXICOGRAPH
Y
206
rests upon the examples would you say that the dictionary is
ultimately little more than a commentary on the examples?
206
206
127