English vocabulary elements : a course in the structure of English words

English Vocabulary Elements draws on the tools of modern linguistics to help students acquire an effective understanding of learned, specialized, and scientific vocabulary. This fully refined and updated edition helps develop familiarity with over 500 Latin and Greek word elements in English and shows how these roots are the building blocks within thousands of different words. Along the way, the authors introduce and illustrate many of the fundamental concepts of linguistics, sketch word origins going back to Latin, Greek, and even Proto-Indo-European, and discuss issues around meaning change and correct usage. Moreover, the volume adds new illustrative examples, self-help tests, and study questions. A companion website provides supplementary materials including an Instructor's Manual with an answer key. Offering a thorough approach to the expansion of vocabulary, English Vocabulary Elements is an invaluable resource that provides students a deeper understanding of the language. "This book is designed for college-level courses about English words and word structure. It explores how units of a language-sounds, word elements, words-function together and how a language functions in society over time. The ultimate aim is to acquaint native and non-native English speakers with aspects of English vocabulary that may be new to them. This includes practice in analyzing complex words, tracing how English got to its present state, and outlining factors that influence people's attitudes toward English usage. We hope this book will serve students in any field of study looking for better comprehension of English vocabulary as well as anyone curious about the language, its development over time, and its growing importance as a world language"-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 English Vocabulary Elements 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Preface 8 List of Figures 14 List of Tables 16 Symbols and Abbreviations 18 About the Companion Website 24 1. The Wealth of English 26 2. The History of English and Sources of English Vocabulary 44 3. Morphology: The Structure of Complex Words 70 4. Allomorphy 116 5. Phonetics 140 6. Regular Allomorphy; Numeric Elements 162 7. Meaning Change 192 8. Usage and Variation 218 9. Latin and Greek Affixes in English 238 10. The Prehistory of English and the Other Indo-​European Languages 260 11. Later Changes: From Latin to French to English 282 Appendix 1. Elements to Glosses 300 Appendix 2. Glosses to Elements 318 Glossary 336 Further Reading and Research Tools 352 Index 356