However, for mass media and marketing within China and for non-European languages, particularly those of the Chinese minorities, transcription into characters remains very common.ĭespite the importance of Cantonese and other southern coastal varieties of Chinese to foreign contact during the 19th century (as seen, for instance, in the number of Cantonese loanwords in English), the northern capital dialect has been formally sanctioned within the country for centuries. Since, in mainland China and often in Taiwan, Hanyu Pinyin is now used to transcribe Chinese into a modified Latin alphabet and since English classes are now standard in most secondary schools, it is increasingly common to see foreign names and terms left in their original form in Chinese texts. Transcription is distinct from translation into Chinese whereby the meaning of a foreign word is communicated in Chinese. Teach advanced writers to avoid clichés in favor of innovative descriptions.Transcription into Chinese characters is the use of traditional or simplified Chinese characters to phonetically transcribe the sound of terms and names of foreign words to the Chinese language. In addition to providing frequently used terms, teaching clichés also teaches ways of viewing the world that may actually be new to the Not teaching clichés leaves the NNS with a formal, standard vocabulary that will sound stilted and awkward in everyday conversation. Their overuse is exactly why non-native speakers need to know and understand them: they are used frequently in everyday conversation. While we try to get native speakers to avoid these terms, the reason for doing so is because they are overused. However, since words are interrelated, when it is time to introduce a word related to words studnets have already learned, it is helpful to teach the interrelationships: synonyms, antonyms, and hyponyms are especially useful relationships to use in intorducing and explaining new words.Įxpect to directly teach synecdoche and metonymy usage, perhaps in conjunction with other figures of speech like similes and metaphors. This suggests that we should expect to teach the unmarked members of antonyms before teaching the unmarked member. Research shows that when teaching vocabulary, it helps to first introduce freqently occurring words first. The teaching of relationships between words is part of the teaching of vocabulary. So now that we have described various ways that words are related to each other in meaning, let us look at the application of all these relationships in teaching English. We might also want to remind ourselves that words are related to each other when they share the same root or base: bear Words that are parts of a larger whole that stand for the whole Polysemy may create lexical ambiguity and vagueness. Writer (person who composes words) writer (person who earns.Glare (shine intensely) glare (stare intensely).That are related conceptually in some way Crown meaning the government of a king/queen.Words that are associated with something and are used as a substitute Words that are spelled the same but have different meanings and may have different pronunciations. Words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently
Words that are different in meaning but are pronounced the same (spelling The word pairs below first give the hyponym and then the word for the category it belongs to. Words that refer to members of a larger categoryįootball is a hyponym of sports. Relational Opposites show a symmetry of sorts Even the question How young are you? is unusual, although it may be used as a joke or for effect. It would sound unusual to say I'm 45 years young, The unmarked member is the one we use in questions of degree Gradable Pair Antonyms always have a marked (unusual) and an unmarked (usual) member. Words with opposite meanings in some respectĬomplementary Pairs are direct opposites all or nothing oppositesĪre those that are on opposite ends of a spectrum with many There is always some situation where one of the words is preferred over its synonym.Ĭan you think of any situations where an English speaker would say large but not big? Or one where a native speaker would say big but not large? How do the following examples compare?ĭo the two sentences have the same meanings? Do the synonyms big and large have exactly the same meanings? Synonyms are never used in exactly the same way in a language. Words with similar meanings in similar contexts Relationships between words, covering many more connection types than are learned in grade school: Linguists have identified and named the kinds of semantic (meaning)