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 #2 (permalink) Thu Oct 04, 2007 6:55 am Look it up. |
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You are right, Teacher Jamie.
My teachers are often telling me to guess the meanings of the words from context.
To tell you the truth, I don't like it as I can't guess it right.
When I read an English book and see new words, I must look them up to understand everything.
But when it comes to tests like TOEFL or IELTS, we can't look them up. Guessing is important here, right?
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| #3 (permalink) Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:11 am Look it up. |
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I think that much more important is the whole meaning of the text than the meaning of every single word. As Nicholas said, you should try to guess, to understand the meaning of the word from the context, because as we see there are many words with many different acceptations.
Of course, while studying, we should look up in the dictionary, but we should first try to solve the problem by our selves. This trains us and prepares us for the test day where there won't be any appliances to help us and where we'll be on our own. |
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Kikon
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| #4 (permalink) Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:39 am Look it up. |
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| Jamie (K) wrote: | | Courtship actually means the time when the couple see each other socially, get to know each other and decide whether they want to get married. |
Do you still use this word in American English? I'd have thought 'courtship' wasn't a common everyday term any more. As a matter of fact, it almost sounds archaic to my European ear, as do the words 'woo' or 'betrothal', for example. |
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| #5 (permalink) Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:59 am Look it up. |
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Hi Conchita,
Likewise. It has a quaint ring about it for me. I remember a radio programme (some 50 years ago now) in which the presenter would ask young people in a very coy manner: Are you courting? This reminds me about being asked at an interview again some fifty years ago: Is your heart free, lad?
Ah, those were the days!
Alan
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| #6 (permalink) Thu Oct 04, 2007 12:10 pm Look it up. |
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| kikon wrote: | | I think that much more important is the whole meaning of the text than the meaning of every single word. |
The problem is that the meaning of the whole text can depend on the meaning of one or two words. If you misunderstand those few words, you misunderstand the entire text. I've seen it happen that one misunderstood word, or even one misunderstood cultural cue, can make someone completely miss the point of the text.
| kikon wrote: | | As Nicholas said, you should try to guess, to understand the meaning of the word from the context, because as we see there are many words with many different acceptations. |
I don't understand what you mean by "acceptations". I think you're using a malapropism here.
In my opinion, as a language learner myself, it's better to learn the accurate meanings of as many words as possible in preparation for a test. Someone who is a bad guesser will do better on a test by knowing more words, not by increased use of his bad guessing skills. And research shows that almost all of us are bad guessers.
There is another alternative that is (or was) done in the American educational system, which is to teach people the meanings of the various parts of the words -- stems, prefixes and suffixes -- so that when they encounter a new word they can discern the meaning of the word from the parts, rather than just by pure guessing. |
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| #7 (permalink) Thu Oct 04, 2007 12:17 pm Look it up. |
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| Conchita wrote: | | Jamie (K) wrote: | | Courtship actually means the time when the couple see each other socially, get to know each other and decide whether they want to get married. |
Do you still use this word in American English? |
You're right there. My mother still uses it when referring to her 15 year old neighbour's daughter who in all fairness should be still squab. Now that she seems fully fledged, she even starts courting. Outrageous! But even my mum can't help saying the word in a slightly embarrassed way.
What else could you say? American expressions as in "dating someone" or "hanging out with people" are not too familiar to my ma., "to take a liking for the other sex" seems too posh and "to get into something" is a bit vague.
I'd probably say "loiter about with..." while using the same embarrassed undertone as my ma...
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| #8 (permalink) Thu Oct 04, 2007 12:20 pm Look it up. |
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| Jamie (K) wrote: | | I don't understand what you mean by "acceptations". |
Maybe there is a similar word in Bulgarian for 'sense/meaning', as there is in Spanish (acepción). |
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| #9 (permalink) Thu Oct 04, 2007 12:29 pm Look it up. |
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| Ralf wrote: | | "loiter about with..." |
Doesn't it sound a bit naughty (as in 'badly behaved')?
And how about 'going out (with)', 'having a relationship' or 'seeing each other'? |
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| #10 (permalink) Thu Oct 04, 2007 12:35 pm Look it up. |
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| Conchita wrote: | | Do you still use this word in American English? I'd have thought 'courtship' wasn't a common everyday term any more. As a matter of fact, it almost sounds archaic to my European ear, as do the words 'woo' or 'betrothal', for example. |
Yes, we do use the word "courtship". It's an everyday word, but not the most common word we use for that situation. It indicates a social relationship that is specifically a test run for marriage, rather than just "dating", which can mean seeing someone socially merely for the purpose of having fun or having companionship during some activity. When it comes to marriage, dating is more like a fishing expedition, and courtship comes when one has found a person suitable for marriage and is seeing her socially either to make sure she's really "the one" or to convince her to accept.
I'm actually glad the word "courtship" was brought up in the textbook, because it allowed me to clarify a concept that a lot of my students don't understand. Students from very restrictive societies, especially from the Middle East, basically think that the word "dating" means "having sex". They see American movies and TV shows, think people really live like the characters in those shows, and they don't understand that "dating" is almost always social, and not sexual. I suspect that some of them also think dating is something like "temporary marriage" under Shariah law. Students like this have to be taught the traditional meaning of dating and courtship, so that they don't think every American from age 15 up is out fornicating every weekend. At one college where the students are mostly from the Middle East, and are not cosmopolitan like many urban Lebanese or Algerians, I got into the habit of skipping over one chapter in the textbook that was about dating, because the students thought the chapter was all about sex and sometimes got angry about the topic. In fact, the chapter had nothing about sex in it, but it was hard to make many people who live in a rather insular ethnic enclave understand that dating doesn't mean sex.
Also, birds do a courtship dance in the spring. They're not dating; they're courting.
Americans also use the word "betrothal" with relative frequency, and until only about 10 years ago, I think, my local newspaper listed people's engagements under the headline "Betrothed", rather than "Engaged". We also use the word "woo", but not that much. You most often hear it in the context of wooing a customer now. |
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| #11 (permalink) Thu Oct 04, 2007 13:09 pm Look it up. |
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| Jamie (K) wrote: | | I don't understand what you mean by "acceptations". I think you're using a malapropism here. |
When I looked up in my dictionary for the Bulgarian word "meaning", it said: "meaning of a word - acceptation". That's why I have used that word, but maybe it's wrong.
I'll take a note. |
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Kikon
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| #12 (permalink) Thu Oct 04, 2007 13:15 pm Look it up. |
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| kikon wrote: | | Jamie (K) wrote: | | I don't understand what you mean by "acceptations". I think you're using a malapropism here. |
When I looked up in my dictionary for the Bulgarian word "meaning", it said: "meaning of a word - acceptation". That's why I have used that word, but maybe it's wrong.
I'll take a note. |
I've looked "acceptation" up in an American dictionary and found that it does mean the generally accepted meaning of a word. However, in 20 years in linguistics, and 16 years in language teaching, and many more years than that walking the earth, this is the first time I've encountered that word. I think it's safe to say that very, very few native speakers understand it. |
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| #13 (permalink) Thu Oct 04, 2007 13:28 pm Look it up. |
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| Jamie (K) wrote: | | kikon wrote: | | I think that much more important is the whole meaning of the text than the meaning of every single word. |
The problem is that the meaning of the whole text can depend on the meaning of one or two words. If you misunderstand those few words, you misunderstand the entire text. I've seen it happen that one misunderstood word, or even one misunderstood cultural cue, can make someone completely miss the point of the text. |
You have a point here.
| Jamie (K) wrote: | | In my opinion, as a language learner myself, it's better to learn the accurate meanings of as many words as possible in preparation for a test. Someone who is a bad guesser will do better on a test by knowing more words, not by increased use of his bad guessing skills. And research shows that almost all of us are bad guessers. |
There's no contradiction with my post. The more you know - the less you'll have to guess. All I say is that there are two steps instead of one - you should try to cope with the problem first on your own and then with other help. In this way you learn not only words, but you learn how to guess right when you need to.
That's my opinion  |
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Kikon
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| #14 (permalink) Thu Oct 04, 2007 14:04 pm Look it up. |
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| Conchita wrote: | | Ralf wrote: | | "loiter about with..." |
Doesn't it sound a bit naughty (as in 'badly behaved')? |
Yes. 'Courting' could as well, at least when used by my mum 
| Conchita wrote: | | And how about 'going out (with)', 'having a relationship' or 'seeing each other'? |
Well, courtship does not necessarily imply "going out with sombody". It's more like a prelude.
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| #15 (permalink) Thu Oct 04, 2007 15:08 pm Look it up. |
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| Conchita wrote: | | And how about 'going out (with)', 'having a relationship' or 'seeing each other'? |
"Going out with" sounds like casual dating. Courtship is not casual dating.
"Having a relationship" can sound like the people are emotionally involved but may not have discussed marriage and may never discuss it. When some girl is upset because she realizes her boyfriend has been dating her and even sleeping with her for the past five years but does not ever intend to marry her, she is in a relationship. Sometimes relationships drag on much longer than courtship. Courtship involves trying to win someone over for marriage. A relationship can be more a matter of not buying the cow, because the milk is free.
"Seeing each other" often has a sleazy sound to it. A married boss and his female employee can be seeing each other. It's definitely not courtship, unless the boss intends to abandon his family to marry the employee. |
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Jamie (K)
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