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Chapter 2 1 - It is assumed that the world has approximately 3, 000 (some put it 5, 000 ) languages, which can be grouped into roughly 300 language families on the basis of similarities in their basic word stock and grammar. 2 - The Indo-European is one of them. It is made up of most of the languages of Europe, the Near East, and India. 3 -They accordingly fall into eight principal groups, which can be grouped into an Eastern set: Balto-Slavic , Indo-Iranian , Armenian and Albanian ; a Western set: Celtic, Italic, Hellenic, Germanic. 4 - In the Eastern set, Armenian and Albanian are each the only modern language respectively. The Balto-Slavic comprises such modern languages as Prussian, Lithuanian, Polish, Czech, Bulgarian, Slovenian and Russian. 5 - In the Indo-Iranian we have Persian. Bengali, Hindi, Romany, the last three of which are derived from the dead language Sanskrit. 6 - In the Western set, Greek is the modern language derived from Hellenic. 7 - The Germanic family consists of the four Northern European Languages: Norwegian, Icelandic, Danish and Swedish, which are generally known as Scandinavian languages. Then there is German, Dutch, Flemish and English. languages. Then there is German, Dutch, Flemish and English. 8 - Old English (450-1150) Anglo-Saxon as Old English. Old English has a vocabulary of about 50, 000 to 60, 000 words. It was a highly inflected language just like moderm German. Anglo-Saxon as Old English. Old English has a vocabulary of about 50, 000 to 60, 000 words. It was a highly inflected language just like moderm German. 9 - Middle English (1150-1500) Although there were borrowings from Latin, the influence on English was mainly Germanic. Between 1250 and 1500 about 9000 words of French origin poured into English. Seventy-five percent of them are still in use today. If we say that Old English was a language of full endings. Middle English was one of leveled endings. 10 - Modern English (1500-up to now) Modern English began with the establishment of printing in England. Early (1500-1700) and Late (1700-up to the present) Modern English Modern English began with the establishment of printing in England. Early (1500-1700) and Late (1700-up to the present) Modern English In the early period of Modern English, Europe saw a new upsurge of learning ancient Greek and Roman classics. This is known in history as the Renaissance. Latin and Greek were recognized as the languages of the Western world’ ’s great literary heritage and of great scholarship In fact, more than twenty-five per cent of modern English words come almost directly from classical languages. It can be concluded that English has evolved from a synthetic language (Old English) to the present analytic language. 11 - Three main sources of new words: the rapid development of modern science and technology(45%); social, economic and political changes(24%); the influence of other cultures and languages(11%). the influence of other cultures and languages(11%). 12 - Modern English vocabulary develops through three channels: creation, semantic change, borrowing. Creation refers to the formation of new words by using the existing materials, namely roots, affixes and other elements. In modern times, this is the most important way of vocabulary expansion. Semantic change means an old form which takes on a new meaning to meet the new need. This does not increase the number of word forms but create many more new usages of the words, thus enriching the vocabulary. Borrowing has played a vital role in the development of vocabulary, particularly in earlier times. Borrowed words constitute merely six to seven percent of all new worlds. In earlier stages of English, frnch, greek and Scandinavian were the major contributiors. Reviving archaic or obsolete words(复活古词和废弃词) also contributes to the growth of English vocabulary though quite insignificant. |
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Chapter 3 1 - These different forms occur owing to different sound environment. These minimal meaningful units are known as morphemes. In other words, the morpheme is "the amallest functioning unit in the composition of words" In other words, the morpheme is "the amallest functioning unit in the composition of words" 2 - Morphemes are abstract units, which are realized in speech by discrete units known as morphs. They are actual spoken , minimal carriers of meaning. The morpheme is to the morph what a phoneme is to a phone. 3 - These morphemes coincide with words as they can stand by themselves and function freely in a sentence. Words of this kind are called monomorphemic words. 4 - Some morphemes, however, are realized by more than one morph according to their position in a word. Such alternative morphs are known as allomorphs. 5 - There are cases where the allomorphs of the plural morpheme are realized by the change of an internal vowel or by zero morph. 6 - Free Morphemes which are independent of other morphemes are considered to be free. These morphemes have complete meanings in themselves and can be used as free grammatical units in sentences. They are identical with root words, as each of them consists of a single free root, we might as well say that free morphemes are free roots. 7 - Bound Morphemes which cannot occur as separate words are bound. They are so named because they are bound to other morphemes to form words.Bound morphemes are chiefly found in derived words. 8 - Bound morphemes include two types: bound root and affix. Bound root is that part of the word that carries the fundamental meaning just like a free root. Unlike a tree root, it is a bound form and has to combine with other morphemes to make words. In English, bound roots are either Latin or Greek. Although they are limited in number, their productive power is amazing. Bound root is that part of the word that carries the fundamental meaning just like a free root. Unlike a tree root, it is a bound form and has to combine with other morphemes to make words. In English, bound roots are either Latin or Greek. Although they are limited in number, their productive power is amazing. Affixes are forms that are attached to words or word elements to modify meaning or function. According to the functions of affixes, we can put them into two groups; inflectional and derivational affixes. Affixes attached to the end of words to indicate grammatical relationships are inflectional, thus known as inflectional morphemes. The number of inflectional affixes is small and stable. Derivational affixes. As the term indicates, derivational affixes are affixes added to other morphemes to create new words. Derivational affixes can be further divided into prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes come before the ward and the suffixes after the word. 9 - A root is the basic form of a word which cannot be further analysed without total loss of identity. The root, whether free or bound, generally carries the main component of meaning in a word. Root is that part of a wordform that remains when all inflectional and derivational affixes have been removed. 10 - A stem may consist of a single root morpheme as in iron or of two root morphemes as in a compound like handcuff. It can be a root morpheme plus one or more affixational morphemes as in mouthful. A stem can be defined as a form to which affixes of any kind can be added |
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Chapter 4 Word Formation 2 1 - Word-formation: affixation(30%-40%), companding(28%-30%), conversion(26%), shortening(8%-10%), blending(1%) 2 - Affixation is generally defined as the formation of words by adding word-forming or derivational affixes to stems. This process is also known as derivation, for new words created in this way are derived from old forms. The words formed in this way are called derivatives. Prefixation is the formation of new words by adding prefixes to stems. Prefixes do not generally change the word-class of the stem but only modify its meaning. Nine groups: Negative prefixes, Reversative prefixes, Pejorative prefixes, Prefixes of degree or size, Prefixes of orientation and attitude, Locative prefixes, Prefixes of time and order, Number prefixes, Miscellaneous prefixes. Suffixation is the formation of new words by adding suffixes to stems. Suffixes have only a small semantic role, their primary function being to change the grammatical function of stems. In other words, they mainly change the word class. When the suffix under discussion is added to the stem, whatever class it belongs to, the result will be a noun or an adjective. Noun suffixes 1) Denominal nouns: a. Concrete, b. Abstract. 2) Deverbal nouns: a. The following suffixes combine with verb stems to create largely nouns denoting people, b. Suffixes of this group added to verb stems to produce largely abstract nouns, denoting action, result, process, state, etc 3) De-adjective nouns 4) Noun and adjective suffixes Adjective suffixes 1) Denominal suffixes 2) Deverbal suffixes Adverb suffixes Verb suffixes 3 - Compounding, also called composition, is the formation of new words by joining two or more stems. Words formed in this way are called compounds. So a compound is a lexical unit consisting of more than one stem and functioning both grammatically and semantically as a single word. 4 - Compounds differ from free phrases in the following three aspects: 1). Phonetic features In compounds the word stress usually occurs on the first element whereas in noun phrases the second element is generally stressed if there is only one stress. In cases of two stresses, the compound has the primary stress on the first element and the secondary stress, if any, on the second whereas the opposite is true of free phrases 2). Semantic features Compounds are different from free phrases in semantic unity. Every compound should express a single idea just as one word. 3). Grammatical features A compound tends to play a single grammatical role in a sentence, for example, a verb, a noun, or an adjective. In adjective-noun compounds, the adjective element cannot take inflectional suffixes. 5 - Conversion is the formation of new words by converting words of one class to another class. Since the words do not change in morphological structure but in function, this process is also known as functional shift. Conversion is generally considered to be a derivational process whereby an item is adapted or converted to a new word class, without the addition of an affix. Hence the name zero-derivation. 6 - Many simple nouns convened from verbs can be used with have, take, make, give etc. to form phrases to replace the verb or denote a brief action. Words like hand-out, stand-by, lay-by, teach-in, shut-down are all converted from phrasal verbs. 7 - Unlike verbs, not all adjectives which are converted can achieve a full noun status. Some are completely converted, thus known as full conversion, others are only partially converted, hence partial conversion. Words fully converted. A noun fully converted from an adjective has all the characteristics of nouns. It can take an indefinite article or - (e)s to indicate singular or plural number. Words partially converted. Nouns partially converted from adjectives do not possess all the qualities a noun does. They must be used together with definite articles. 8 - Blending is the formation of new words by combining parts of two words or a word plus a part of another word. Words formed in this way are called blends or pormanteau words. The overwhelming majority of blends are nouns; very few are verbs and adjectives are even fewer. Blends are mostly used in writing related to science and technology, and to newspapers and magazines. 9 - Another common way of making a word is to shorten a longer word by cutting a part off the original and using what remains instead. This is called clipping. 10 - Acronymy is the process of forming new words by joining the initial letters of names of social and political organizations or special noun phrases and technical terms. Words formed in this way are called initialisms or acronyms, depending on the pronunciation of the words. Initialisms are words pronounced letter by letter. Letters represent full words: VOA-Voice of America Letters represent constituents in a compound or just parts of a word: TV-television Acronyms are words formed from initial letters but pronounced as a normal word. Some acronyms are formed with the initial letter of the first word plus the whole of the second, N-bombnuclear bomb 11 - Back-formation is considered to be the opposite process of suffixation. Words created through back-formation are mostly verbs. 12 - Modern English has a large number of words which come from proper nouns. They include names of people, names of places, names of books and trade names. |
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Chapter 5 1 - Reference is the relationship between language and the world. 2 -Meaning and concept are closely connected but not identical. They are both related directly to referents and are notions of the words but belong to different categories. Concept, which is beyond language, is the result of human cognition, reflecting the objective world in the human mind. It is universal to all men alike regardless of culture, race, language and so on whereas meaning belongs to language, so is restricted to language use. Therefore, a concept can have as many referring expressions as there are languages in the world. Even in the same language, the same concept can be expressed in different words. 3 - Generally speaking, the meaning of ‘meaning’ is perhaps what is termed 'sense’. Unlike reference, 'sense’ denotes the relationships inside the language. Every word that-has meaning has sense (not every word has reference) 4 - Motivation accounts for the connection between the linguistic symbol and its meaning. Onomatopoeic Motivation:I n modern English one may find some words whose sounds suggest their meanings, for these words were created by imitating the natural sounds or noises.Knowing the sounds of the words means understanding the meaning. Morphological Motivation: Compounds and derived Words are multi-morphemic words and the meanings of many are the sum total of the morphemes combined. Quite often, if one knows the meaning of each morpheme, namely affix or stem, one can figure out the meaning of the word. Semantic Motivation: Semantic motivation refers to the mental associations suggested by the conceptual meaning of a word. It explains the connection between the literal sense and figurative sense of the word. Etymological Motivation: The meanings of many words often relate directly to their origins. In other words the history of the word explains the meaning of the word. 5 - Word-meaning is not monogeneous but a composite consisting of different parts. These are known in familiar terms as different types of meaning. 6 - Grammatical meaning refers to that part of the meaning of the word which indicates grammatical concept or relationships such as part of speech of words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs), singular and plural meaning of nouns, tense meaning of verbs and their inflectional forms. On the other hand,the same word may have different grammatical meanings. Lexical meaning itself has two components: conceptual meaning and associative meaning. 7 - Conceptual meaning (also known as denotative meaning) is the meaning given in the dictionary and forms the core of word-meaning. Associative meaning is the secondary meaning supplemented to the conceptual meaning. It differs from the conceptual meaning in that it is open-ended and indeterminate. It is liable to the influence of such factors as culture, experience, religion,geographical region, class background, education, etc. Associative meaning comprises four types: connotative, stylistic, affective, and collocative. Connotative meaning. In contrast to denotative meaning, connotative meaning refers to the overtones or associations suggested by the conceptual meaning, traditionally known as connotations. It is not an essential part of the word-meaning, but associations that might occur in the mind of a particular user of the language. Stylistic meaning. Apart from their conceptual meanings, many words have stylistic features, which make them appropriate for different contexts. ‘ frozen’, ‘formal’, ‘consultative’, ‘casual’ and ‘intimate’.People generally do not go that far. They normally classify styles into ‘formal’, ‘neutral’ and ‘informal’. Affective meaning indicates the speaker’s attitude towards the person or thing in question. Words that have emotive values may fall into two categories: appreciative or pejorative. Collocative meaning. This meaning consists of the associations a word acquires in its collocation. In other words, it is that part of the word-meaning suggested by the words before or after the word in discussion. |
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Chapter 6 1 -A word which is related to other words is related to them in sense, hence sense relations. 2 - When a word is first coined, it is always monosemic. 3 - The problem of interrelation of the various meanings of the same word can be dealt with from two different angles: diachronic approach and synchronic approach. Diachronic approach. From the diachronic point of view, polysemy is assumed to be the result of growth and development of the semantic structure of one and same word. At the time when the word was created, it was endowed with only one meaning. This first meaning is the primary meaning. With the advance of time and the development of language, it took on more and more meanings. These later meanings are called derived meanings as they are all derived from the primary meaning. Synchronic approach. Synchronically, polysemy is viewed as the coexistence of various meanings of the same word in a certain historical period of time, say. Modern English. In this way, the basic meaning of a word is the core of word-meaning called the central meaning. 4 - The development of word-meaning from monosemy to polysemy follows two courses, traditionally known as radiation and concatenation. Radiation is a semantic process in which the primary meaning stands at the centre and the secondary meanings proceed out of it in every direction like rayes. Concatenation, meaning ‘ linking together’, is the semantic process in which the meaning of a word moves gradually away from its first sense by successive shifts until. Unlike radiation where each of the derived meanings is directly connected to the primary meaning, concatenation describes a process where each of the later meaning is related only to the preceding one like chains. Generally, radiation precedes concatenation. In many cases, the two processes work together, complementing each other. 5 - Homonyms are generally defined as words different in meaning but either identical both in sound and spelling or identical only in sound or spelling. 6 - Based on the degree of similarity, homonyms fall into three classes: perfect homonyms, homographs and homophones. Perfect homonyms are words identical both in sound and spelling, but different in meaning. Homographs are words identical only in spelling but different in sound and meaning. Homophones are words identical only in sound but different in spelling and meaning. Of the three types, homophones constitute the largest number and are most common. 7 - There are various sources of homonyms: change in sound and spelling, borrowing, etc. Change in sound and spelling. Some homonyms are native by origin, derived from different earlier forms in Old English. The change in sound and spelling gradually made them identical in modern English. Borrowing. As a result of heavy borrowing from other languages, many words of foreign origin coincide in sound and/or spelling with those of native origin or with those of other foreign origin. Shortening. Many shortened forms of words happen to be identical with other words in spelling or sound. 8 - The fundamental difference between homonyms and polysemants lies in the fact that the former refers to different words which happen to share the same form and the latter is the one and same word which has several distinguishable meanings. One important criterion is to see their etymology. homonyms are from different sources whereas a polysemant is from the same source which has acquired different meanings in the course of development. The second principal consideration is semantic relatedness. The various meanings of a polysemant are correlated and connected to one central meaning to a greater or lesser degree,On the other hand, meanings of different homonyms have nothing to do with one another. In dictionaries, a polysemant has its meanings all listed under one headword whereas homonyms are listed as separate entries. 9 - Synonymy is one of the characteristic features of the vocabulary of natural languages. Synonyms can be defined as word different in sound and spelling but most nearly alike or exactly the same in meaning. Synonyms might be defined as ‘ ‘one of two or more words in the English language which have the same or very nearly the same essential meaning. In other words, synonyms share a likeness in denotation as well as in part of speech. 10 - Synonyms can be classified into two major groups: absolute synonyms and relative synonyms. Absolute synonyms also known as complete synonyms are words which are identical in meaning in all its aspects. both in grammatical meaning and lexical meaning, including conceptual and associative meanings. It is observed that absolute synonyms are rare in natural languages and some people even hold that such synonyms are non-existent. Absolute synonyms are restricted to highly specialized vocabulary. Relative synonyms also called near-synonyms are similar or nearly the same in denotation, but embrace different shades of meaning or different degrees of a given quality. 11 - Sources of Synonyms: Borrowing. Modern English is extremely rich in synonyms, which come from different sources. Dialects and regional English, Figurative and euphemistic use of words, Coincidence with idiomatic expressions 12 - The differences between synonyms boil down to three areas: denotation, connotation, and application. Difference in denotation. Synonyms may differ in the range and intensity of meaning. Some words have a wider range of meaning than others. Difference in connotation. By connotation we mean the stylistic and emotive colouring of words. Some words share the same denotation but differ in their stylistic appropriateness. Difference in application. Many words are synonymous in meaning but different in usage in simple terms. They form different collocations and fit into different sentence patterns. 13 - Antonymy is concerned with semantic opposition. Antonyms can be defined as words which are opposite in meaning. Contradictory terms. These Antonyms truly represent oppositeness of meaning. They are so opposed to each other that they are mutually exclusive and admit no possibility between them. The assertion of one is the denial of the other. In other words, if one of the pair is true, then the other cannot be. Contrary terms. Antonyms of this type are best viewed in terms of a scale running between two poles or extremes. The two opposites are gradable and one exists in comparison with the other. Relative terms. This third type consists of relational opposites. The pairs of words indicate such a reciprocal social relationship that one of them cannot be used without suggesting the other. This type also includes reverse terms, which comprise adjectives and adverbs signifying a quality, or verbs and nouns signifying an act or state that reverse the quality, action or state of the other. 14 - Some of the Characteristics of Antonyms Antonyms are classified on the basis of semantic opposition. A word which has more than one meaning can have more than one antonym. Antonyms differ in semantic inclusion. Contrary terms are gradable antonyms, differing in degree of intensity, so each has its own corresponding opposite. Some words can have two different types of antonyms at the same time, one being the negative and the other opposite. 15 - The Use of Antonyms Antonyms have various practical uses and have long proved helpful and valuable in defining the meanings of words. Antonyms are useful in enabling us to express economically the opposite of a particular thought, often for the sake of contrast. Many idioms are formed with antonyms. They look neat and pleasant, and sound rhythmic. Antonyms are often used to form antithesis to achieve emphasis by putting contrasting ideas together. 16 - Hyponymy deals with the relationship of semantic inclusion. That is, the meaning of a more specific word is included in that of another more general word. These specific words are known as hyponyms. superordinate, subordinate 17 - Hyponymy can be described in terms of tree-like graphs, with higher-order superordiates above the lower subordinates. But their status either as superordinate or subordinate is relative to other terms. Knowing the semantic features of the hyponyms and their superordinates can help us achieve vividness, exactness, and concreteness. 18 - The massive word store of a language like English can be conceived of as composed around a number of meaning areas, some large, such as ‘philosophy’ or ‘ emotions’, others smaller, such as ‘kinship’ or ‘colour’. Viewing the total meaning in this way is the basis of field theory. |
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Chapter 7 1 - Word-meaning changes by modes of extension, narrowing, degradation, elevation, and transfer. Of these, extension and narrowing are by far the most common. 2 - Extension of meaning, also known as generalization, is the name given to the widening of meaning which some words undergo. It is a process by which a word which originally had a specialized meaning has now become generalized. A large proportion of polysemic words of modern English have their meanings extended sometime in the course of development. Extension of meaning is also found in many technical terms, which as the term suggests are confined to specialized use. Words commonized from proper nouns have experienced the same semantic change. 3 - Narrowing of meaning, also called specialization, is the opposite of widening meaning. It is a process by which a word of wide meaning acquires a narrower or specialized sense. When a common word is turned into a proper noun, the meaning is narrowed accordingly. For economy, some phrases are shortened and only one element of the original, usually an adjective, is left to retain the meaning of the whole. The same is true of material nouns, which are used to refer to objects made of them and thus have a more specific sense. 4 - Elevation or amelioration refers to the process by which words rise from humble beginnings to positions of importance. 5 - Degradation or pejoration of meaning is the opposite of semantic elevation. It is a process whereby words of good origin fall into ill reputation or non-affective words come to be used in derogatory sense. 6 - Transfer. Words which were used to designate one thing but later changed to mean something else have experienced, the process of semantic transfer. There is associated transfer, for example, the lip of a wound; the tongue of a bell; the nose of a plane, in which the meaning is transferred through association. 7 - There are gemerally two major factors that cause changes in meaning. Extra-linguistic facotors: Historical reason. Class reason. Language is just like a mirror, reflecting everything that exists in human society. Naturally, it records the speech and attitude of different social classes. Psychological reason. The associated transfer of meaning and euphemistic use of words, etc. are often due to psychological factors. Linguistic Factors: The change of meaning may be caused by internal factors within the language system. The influx of borrowings has caused some words to change in meaning. the change of meaning is brought about by analogy. |
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Chapter 7 1 - Word-meaning changes by modes of extension, narrowing, degradation, elevation, and transfer. Of these, extension and narrowing are by far the most common. 2 - Extension of meaning, also known as generalization, is the name given to the widening of meaning which some words undergo. It is a process by which a word which originally had a specialized meaning has now become generalized. A large proportion of polysemic words of modern English have their meanings extended sometime in the course of development. Extension of meaning is also found in many technical terms, which as the term suggests are confined to specialized use. Words commonized from proper nouns have experienced the same semantic change. 3 - Narrowing of meaning, also called specialization, is the opposite of widening meaning. It is a process by which a word of wide meaning acquires a narrower or specialized sense. When a common word is turned into a proper noun, the meaning is narrowed accordingly. For economy, some phrases are shortened and only one element of the original, usually an adjective, is left to retain the meaning of the whole. The same is true of material nouns, which are used to refer to objects made of them and thus have a more specific sense. 4 - Elevation or amelioration refers to the process by which words rise from humble beginnings to positions of importance. 5 - Degradation or pejoration of meaning is the opposite of semantic elevation. It is a process whereby words of good origin fall into ill reputation or non-affective words come to be used in derogatory sense. 6 - Transfer. Words which were used to designate one thing but later changed to mean something else have experienced, the process of semantic transfer. There is associated transfer, for example, the lip of a wound; the tongue of a bell; the nose of a plane, in which the meaning is transferred through association. 7 - There are gemerally two major factors that cause changes in meaning. Extra-linguistic facotors: Historical reason. Class reason. Language is just like a mirror, reflecting everything that exists in human society. Naturally, it records the speech and attitude of different social classes. Psychological reason. The associated transfer of meaning and euphemistic use of words, etc. are often due to psychological factors. Linguistic Factors: The change of meaning may be caused by internal factors within the language system. The influx of borrowings has caused some words to change in meaning. the change of meaning is brought about by analogy. |
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Chapter 8 1 - In a narrow sense, it refers to the words, clauses, sentences in which a word appears. This is known as linguistic context which may cover a paragraph, a whole chapter and even the entire book. . to the words, clauses, sentences in which a word appears. This is known as linguistic context which may cover a paragraph, a whole chapter and even the entire book. In a broad sense, it includes the physical situation as well. This is called extra-linguistic or non-linguistic context, which embraces the people, time, place, and even the whole cultural background. 2 - Linguistic context can be subdivided into lexical context and grammatical context. Lexical context This context refers to the words that occur together with the word in question. The meaning of the word is often affected and defined by the neighbouring words. Grammatical context 3 - The Role of Context: Elimination of Ambiguity, Ambiguity often arises due to polysemy and homonymy.Grammatical structure can also lead to ambiguity. Indication of Referents. Provision of Clues for Inferring Word meaning: In many cases, when a new word (thought to be) appears for the first time, the author generally manages to give hints which might help the readers to grasp the concept or understand the idea. Context clues vary a great deal but can be summed up as follows: 1) Definition. Often we find that the author gives formal definition immediately after the new term, e.g. 2) Explanation. If the concept is complicated and must involve technical terms in its definition, the author might explain the idea in simple words. That is, he might make a restatement in known words e.g. 3) Example. In some cases, instead of giving a formal definition or explanation, the author may cite an example which is sufficient to throw light on the meaning of the term, e.g. 4) Synonymy. Synonyms or synonymous expressions are frequently employed by authors to explain new words, e.g. 5) Antonymy. Contrasting words or statements are also commonly used to explain unknown words, e.g. 6) Hyponymy. Superordinates and subordinates often define and explain each other, thus forming an important context clue, e.g. 7) Relevant details. In some contexts, the author provides details relating to the unknown word, such as the functions, characteristics, nature, etc. of the referent, e.g. 8) Word structure. The morphemic structure of words, especially compounds and derived words offers clues for inferring the meanings of unknown words, e.g. |
