Vocabulary Building

A vocabulary is a set of
familiar words within a person's language.
A vocabulary, usually developed with age,
serves as a useful and fundamental tool
for communication and acquiring
knowledge.
 Productive and receptive
knowledge

 Productive vocabulary: generally refers to

words that can be produced within an
appropriate context and match the intended
meaning of the speaker or signer.
 Receptive vocabulary, however, there are
many degrees at which a particular word may
be considered part of an active vocabulary.
 Within the receptive–productive
distinction lies a range of abilities
that are often referred to as degree
of knowledge.
• Never encountered the word.
• Heard the word, but cannot define it.
• Recognizes the word due to context or tone of
voice.
• Able to use the word and understand the
general and/or intended meaning, but cannot
clearly explain it.
• Fluent with the word – its use and definition.
 Why So Important?
• Vocabulary is ultimately expression;
• having an extensive vocabulary helps one to express
clearly and communicate well with clarity,
• a linguistic vocabulary is also identical to a thinking
vocabulary meaning that you will be able to think
concise thoughts with precision.
• Although much of your vocabulary is built up
throughout childhood, it will certainly plateau once
you leave education.
• In order to keep the vocabulary in order and expand
after this time it is advisable to read, play word games
or even set yourself goals to learn a new word each
day.
 Reading vocabulary
A literate person's vocabulary is all the words
they can recognize when reading. This is
generally the largest type of vocabulary simply
because a reader tends to be exposed to more
words by reading than by listening.
Listening vocabulary
A person's listening vocabulary is all the words
they can recognize when listening to speech.
People may still understand words they were not
exposed to before using cues such as tone,
gestures, the topic of discussion and the social
context of the conversation.
 • Speaking vocabulary
• A person's speaking vocabulary is all the words they use
in speech. It is likely to be a subset of the listening
vocabulary. Due to the spontaneous nature of speech,
words are often misused. This misuse, though slight and
unintentional, may be compensated by facial expressions
and tone of voice.
• Writing vocabulary
• Words are used in various forms of writing from formal
essays to social media feeds. Many written words do not
commonly appear in speech. Writers generally use a
limited set of words when communicating. For example, if
there are a number of synonyms, a writer may have a
preference as to which of them to use, and they are
unlikely to use technical vocabulary relating to a subject in
which they have no knowledge or interest.
 Significance of Good Vocabulary
• Successful communication
• Expression of thoughts
• Self judgment
• Better job opportunities
• Better image
 Vocabulary Growth
Dictionaries
A dictionary is a listing of words in one or more
specific languages, often arranged alphabetically,
which may include information on definitions,
usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation,
etc.
Thesaurus
A thesaurus (plural thesauri or thesauruses)
or synonym dictionary is a reference work for
finding synonyms and sometimes antonyms of
words.
Another way to develop a strong vocabulary is
to read books with rich vocabulary.

Another good idea is to keep a word journal.

Try to incorporate interesting words into your
journal entry for the day (or week).
 Synonyms
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that
means exactly or nearly the same as another word,
morpheme, or phrase in the same language.
Eg: beautiful
Synonyms: glamorous, magnificent, pretty,
ravishing, stunning, charming, etc.
Antonyms
An antonym is a word that has
the opposite meaning of another word.
Eg: Beautiful
Antonym: ugly
 Different Types of Antonyms
Relational Antonyms: These are the sets of
word pairs which are responsible for showing
the relationship between two opposites such as
there can’t be a child without a parent or it’s
either all or nothing. Relational Antonyms
wouldn’t exist without the other. For examples,
· Front: Back
· Uncle: Aunt
· Hello: Goodbye
 Graded Antonyms: These are the sets of word
pairs which are responsible for showing
variation between the two opposites such as
little and big are antonyms but you will observe
a lot of changes before you get to the opposite
meaning. Let’s understand this with the help of
following examples, Huge, Big, little, bulky, full-
size, slight, petite etc
Complimentary Antonyms: These are the sets of
word pairs that have no degree of meaning.
There is only availability of two opposite in a
possible manner. For example,
· Dead: Alive
· Male- female
· On: Off
 HOMONYMS
• Homonyms are words that have the same
spelling and pronunciation, but have different
meanings. Homonyms are also generally
derived from different sources, and have
different etymologies.
• Bark - a tree's out layer / the sound a dog
makes
• Bat - an implement used to hit a ball / a
nocturnal flying mammal
• Lie - to recline / to tell a falsehood
 HOMOPHONES
• Homophones are words that are pronounced in the
same way when spoken aloud but are spelled
differently and have different meanings.

• die/dye: If you accidentally drank a bottle of fabric dye,

you might die.
• flour/flower: To bake a flower-shaped cake, you'll need
some flour.
• sea/see: At my beach house, I love to wake up
and see the sea.
• knight/night: The knight is on his way to the castle, but
traveling at night is very dangerous.
 HOMOGRAPHS
 Homographs are words that are spelled the
same way but are pronounced differently and
have different meanings. Homographs are
generally words that have different
etymologies, though the spelling is the same.
 project - a plan or proposal/to throw or hurl
forward/to cause a shadow or image to fall
upon a surface
 wind - to turn/moving air
 object - a thing you can see or touch/a goal/a
noun that receives the action of a verb/to be
opposed to
 ONE WORD SUBSTITUTION
One word substitution is a process in which
people use one word to replace a wordy
phrase, to make the sentence structure more
clear.
• Archives – a place where government or
public records are kept
• Amphibian – animals which live both on land
and sea
• Anthology – a collection of poems
 IDIOMS and PROVERBS
• An idiom is a phrase that has a meaning of its own that
cannot be understood from the meanings of its
individual words.
• to be fed up with means to be tired and annoyed with
something that has been happening for too long
• to rub someone the wrong way means to irritate
someone

A proverb is a short popular saying that gives advice

about how people should behave or that expresses a
belief that is generally thought to be true. Here are some
examples:
• Don’t cry over spilled milk.
• Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
 FOREIGN WORDS and PHRASES

Borrowed words from Latin, French, Greek

etc.
ad hoc
déjà vu
en masse
modus operandi
à la carte
buffet