Word Power Made Easy - Norman Lewis 2014

How to use this book for maximum benefit

1. this is not a reading book ...

Don’t read this book!

Instead, work with it. Write in it, talk aloud to it, talk back to it—use your pen or pencil, your voice, not just your eyes and mind.

Learning, real learning, goes on only through active participation.

When a new word occurs in a chapter, say it aloud! (The phonetic respelling will help you pronounce it correctly.) *

When you do the matching exercises, use a pen or pencil. Write your responses! (Check the key that immediately follows each exercise after you have filled in all the answers.)

When you do the “Yes-No,” “True-False,” or “Same-Opposite” exercises, use your pen or pencil to indicate the appropriate response, then check with the key when you have completed the whole exercise. When you are asked to fill in words that fit definitions, write your answers; then check the key both to see if you have re sponded with the right word and also to make sure your spelling is correct.

*The system of pronunciation symbols will be thoroughly explained in Section 2 of this chapter.

When you do the Review of Etymology exercises, make sure to fill in the English word containing the prefix, root, or suffix required—use a chapter word, or any other word that comes to mind. (Coin words if you like!)

Pay special attention to the Chapter Reviews. Are the words still fresh in your mind? Do you remember the meaning of each root studied in the previous sessions? In these Reviews, you are not only testing your learning but also tightening up any areas in which you discover lacks, weaknesses, or lapses of memory.

2. master the pronunciation system!

Saying words aloud, and saying them right, is half the battle in feeling comfortable and assured with all the new words you are going to learn. Every word taught is respelled to show its pronunciation, so pay close attention to how the phonetic symbols work.

(a) First, master the “schwa”!

Almost every English word of two or more syllables contains one or several syllables in which the vowel sound is said very quickly. For example:

“Linda spoke to her mother about a different idea she had.”

sponded with the right word and also to make sure your spelling is correct.

—” Read the previous sentence aloud at normal conversational speed.

Read it again. Listen to how the -a of Linda; the -er of mother; the a- of about; the -er and -ent of different; and the -a of idea sound.

Very quick—very short! Right?

Phonetically respelled, these words are represented as:

The symbol “ǝ,” called a schwa, represents the quick, short vowel sound in the five words above.

Now look back at the sentence preceded by an arrow.

The italicized words are rewritten as:

You will find ǝ in almost all words that are phonetically respelled throughout this book. Say the five italicized words aloud and make sure you understand how the schwa (ǝ) sounds.

(b) Next, understand accent.

Look at word (5) above: conversational: kon'-vǝr-SAY'-shǝn-ǝl. Note that there are two accent marks, one on kon', another on SAY'. Note also that kon' is in lower-case letters, SAY' in capitals. Both syllables are stressed, but the one in capitals (SAY') sounds stronger (or louder) than the one in lower case (kon'). Say conversational aloud, noting the difference.

Say these three words, taken from Chapter 3, aloud, noticing the variation in stress between the lower-case and the capitalized syllables:

(c) Be careful of the letter "S” (or “s”) in phonetic respellings. S (or s) is always hissed, as in see, some, such. After an -n, you will be tempted to buzz (or “voice”) the -s, because final -ns is usually pronounced -nz, as in wins, tons, owns, etc. (Say these three words aloud—hear the z at the end?) Resist the temptation! S (or s) is always hissed in phonetic respellings!

Say these words aloud:

All unusual words in this chapter are taught in later chapters of the book.

3. a word (or words) on western and eastern pronunciation

In the New York City area, and in parts of New Jersey and other eastern states, the syllables -ar, -er, -or, -off, and -aw are pronounced somewhat differently from the way they are said in the Midwest and in the West.

In New York City, for example, the words below are generally pronounced as follows:

In the Midwest and West, on the other hand, the same words are usually said approximately as follows:

Nothing so radical here that a person brought up in Brooklyn or the Bronx cannot understand a native of Los Angeles or San Francisco—it’s just that each one thinks the other has an accent!

In California, for example, Mary, merry, and marry sound almost exactly alike—in New York, they are usually heard as quite different words.

(So, to be sexist for a moment, if the men at a party in Manhattan say, “Let’s all make merry!”, Mary doesn’t feel that she is about to seduced by the males!).

In the phonetic respellings throughout the book, the western pronunciations of words with the syllables remarked on above are used. This is done largely because I myself have lived in the Los Angeles area for some fourteen years, and have had to retrain my pronunciation (having come from New York City, where I was born, and lived all my life until 1964) so that my friends and students would stop making fun of the way I speak.

Neither form of pronunciation is any better nor any more euphonious than the other. Throughout the country, pronunciation varies not only from region to region or state to state, but often from city to city! The changes are slight and subtle, but they do exist, and an expert can easily pinpoint the geographical source of a person’s language patterns almost down to a few square miles in area.

If you are an Easterner, you will have no difficulty translating the pronunciations of words like sorority, incorrigible, disparage, and astronaut (all words discussed in later chapters) into your own comfortable language patterns.

4. why etymology?

Etymology (et'-ǝ-MOL'-ǝ-jee) deals with the origin or derivation of words.

When you know the meaning of a root (for example, Latin ego, I or self), you can better understand, and more easily remember, all the words built on this root.

Learn one root and you have the key that will unlock the meanings of up to ten or twenty words in which the root appears.

Learn ego and you can immediately get a handle on egocentric, egomaniac, egoist, egotist, and alter ego.

Learn anthropos (Greek, mankind), and you will, quickly understand, and never forget, anthropology, misanthropy, anthropoid,

anthropocentric, anthropomorphic, philanthropy, and anthropophobia. Meet any word with anthropo- in it, and you will have at least some idea of its meaning.

In the etymological (et'ǝ-mǝ-LOJ'-ǝ-kǝl) approach to vocabulary building:

✵ You will learn about prefixes, roots, and suffixes—

✵ You will be able to figure out unfamiliar words by recognizing their structure, the building blocks from which they are constructed—

✵ You will be able to construct words correctly by learning to put these building blocks together in the proper way—and

✵ You will be able to derive verbs from nouns, nouns and verbs from adjectives, adjectives from nouns, etc.—and do all this correctly.

Learn how to deal with etymology and you will feel comfortable with words—you will use new words with self-assurance—you will be able to figure out thousands of words you hear or read even if you have never heard or seen these words before.

That’s why the best approach to new words is through etymology—as yo^u will discover for yourself as soon as you start to work on chapter 3!

5. but what are nouns, verbs, and adjectives?

You probably know.

But if you don’t, you can master these parts of speech (and reference will be made to noun forms, verb forms, and adjective forms throughout the book) within the next five minutes.

(a) A noun is a word that can be preceded by a, an, the, some, such, or my.

An egoist (noun)

Incidentally, Latin scholars will notice that I present a Latin verb in the first person singular, present tense (verto, I turn), but call it an infinitive (verto, to turn). I do this for two reasons: 1) verto is easier for a nonLatin scholar to pronounce (the actual infinitive, vertere, is pronounced WAIR'-tǝ-ray); and 2) when I studied Latin fifty years ago, the convention was to refer to a verb by using the first person singular, present tense.

If you are not a Latin scholar, you need not bother to read this footnote—if you’ve already done so, forget it!

Such asceticism (noun)

The misogynist (noun)

(Nouns, you will discover, often end in conventional suffixes: -ness, -ity, -ism, -y, -ion, etc.)

(b) A verb is a word that fits into the pattern, “Let us ...,” A verb has a past tense.

Let us equivocate (verb)—past tense: equivocated.

Let us alternate (verb)—past tense: alternated.

Let us philander (verb)—past tense: philandered.

(Verbs, you will discover, often end in conventional suffixes: -ate, -ize, -fy, etc.)

(c) An adjective is a word that fits into the pattern, “You are very ...”

You are very egoistic (adjective).

You are very introverted (adjective).

You are very misogynous (adjective).

(Adjectives, you will discover, often end in conventional suffixes: -ic, -ed, -ous, -al, -ive, etc.)

And adverbs, of course, are generally formed by adding -ly to an adjective: misogynous-misogynously; educational-education- ally; etc.

That’s all there is to it! (Did it take more than five minutes? Maybe ten at the most?)

6. how to work for best results

If you intend to work with this book seriously (that is, if your clear intention is to add a thousand or more new words to your present vocabulary—add them permanently, unforgettably—add them so successfully that you will soon find yourself using them in speech and writing), I suggest that you give yourself every advantage by carefully following the laws of learning:

(a) Space your learning.

Beginning with Chapter 3, every chapter will be divided into “sessions.” Each session may take one half hour to an hour and a half, depending on the amount of material and on your own speed of learning.

Do one or two sessions at a time—three if you’re going strong and are all involved—and always decide when you stop exactly when you will return. (I remind you to do this later in the book, since such a procedure is of crucial importance.)

(b) Do not rush—go at your own comfortable speed.

Everyone learns at a different pace. Fast learners are no better than slow learners—it’s the end result that counts, not the time it takes you to finish.

(c) Review.

When you start a new session, go back to the last exercise of the previous session (usually Can you recall the words? or Chapter Review), cover your answers, and test your retention—do you have quick recall after a day or so has elapsed?

(d) Test yourself.

You are not aiming for a grade, or putting your worth on the line, when you take the three Comprehensive Tests (Chapters 8, 13, and 17)—rather you are discovering your weaknesses, if any; deciding where repairs have to be made; and, especially, experiencing a feeling of success at work well done. (In learning, too, nothing succeeds like success!)

Use these three tests, as well as the abundant drill exercises, as aids to learning. No one is perfect, no one learns in the exact same way or at the same rate as anyone else. Find the optimum technique and speed for your unique learning patterns—and then give yourself every opportunity to exploit your actual, latent, and potential abilities.

But most important (as I will remind you several times throughout the book)—develop a routine and stick to it!

Disclaimer:

Occasionally in these pages, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns—they may refer to either sex or to both sexes.