Building Your Vocabulary (2ed, 1967)

[Music] build your vocabulary it's an easy thing to say perhaps harder to do to demonstrate why you might want to build your vocabulary and to let you see some methods for building it my assistants and i are going to present a show the star of our show will be bill here he'll play an average sort of person maybe like you who doesn't give his vocabulary much thought tom and jean will double up playing the parts of many people that bill might meet and talk to during an average day and after a little preparation they'll demonstrate our first important point why should you build your vocabulary look at it this way imagine that life is a sort of game like a game of baseball and a person's vocabulary is like a set of signals that helps him to play the game to communicate to his teammates if he gives the wrong signals the team can't be expected to play the game right he's failed to communicate but if by chance or design he gives the right signals he's understood by others he's communicated and the game goes smoothly on in a way that's what vocabulary is all about words is somewhat like signals that help us to communicate smoothly without words we couldn't do some of the simplest things for example how can a fella ask a girl for a date without using any words at all now how well can he do with the smallest of vocabularies say a vocabulary of five words me you movie coke fun no now what if we let bill use his own normal vocabulary i'm too scared to say a word well that's his problem but so far as vocabulary is concerned it's generally true that the more words you know the better you can express yourself that's why you should build your vocabulary now the all important question how can you add new words to your vocabulary to begin it might help to realize that a person's vocabulary is made up of two kinds of words to demonstrate the first kind we'll call on bill and tom uh i want a can of paint before porch floor i don't want the shiny kind but i don't want the dull kind either i want sort of an orange color but not too orange the kind of paint that'll stick to the floor and cover good without leaving brush marks and i need enough for a floor oh uh about this long and about uh that wide those are the kind of words bill uses in his everyday speech they make up what we'll call his use vocabulary what other kind of words make up a person's vocabulary let's be sure i've got it straight you want a semi-gloss porch and deck enamel and a cadmium orange not too highly saturated you want a paint with good adherence and good leveling qualities and you'll need enough to cover 35 square feet right right semi-gloss saturated though bill doesn't often use words like these he understands them they're part of his recognition vocabulary both use and recognition vocabularies can be built as a matter of fact one way for a person to improve his use vocabulary is to transfer to it some words from his recognition vocabulary bill for example hears and reads a lot of words during the day if he were careful to notice the words he recognizes and if he were to make an effort to use more of these words in his own conversation he'd be using the vocabulary he already has to better advantage paying close attention to words can be of help in other ways as you build your vocabulary for example have you ever noticed as bill is beginning to notice that many words have the same prefixes the prefix x means from or out of in latin and it's used in words like x except x clued x crete [Music] or size x port x punch x purgate x tour paper many other words have the same suffixes the suffix able has the same meaning in french that it does in english having capacity fitness worthiness it's used in words like achieve a ball a dab a ball excite a ball export a ball move a ball perish a ball service a ball stretch a ball traverse a ball some other prefixes and suffixes are borrowed from greek photo the greek word for light is used in words like photo micrograph photo montage still others are from german for example under is a german prefix it appears in words like under pinning under rule however even without a good understanding of foreign languages prefixes and suffixes a person can sometimes figure out the meanings of some unknown words bill can demonstrate dear bill this erubescent flower reminds me of your equally erubescent face gene erubescent flower are erubescent can mean red reddish or blushing so when a new word describes an object a careful look at the object may let you know what the word means but what if say you're reading a book there's no object to refer to he sailed toward us in a white penis with red sails a penis well it has sails men sail in it it must be a kind of boat in cases like this surrounding words that you do know can add to your understanding of new words the point is don't consider words by themselves think of them in context and you'll have taken an important step toward making them part of your vocabulary it might help you to remember a few other hints for vocabulary building things that my assistants can illustrate it was a great flick what i mean is it got me right in the viscera fantastic but it wasn't just the story there were those scenes those costumes those wild cofuers you'd probably go for that what grabbed me was the cars that old fayette don't just stand there wondering what they're saying ask about words you don't know there's no need to be ashamed because people will usually be flattered that you've asked them so ask uh those words you used what do they mean which words i forgot no need to forget carry a little notebook write down the words you want to remember or learn more about anyone who could forget simple words like viscera caught fewers and theoton has the natient mind of a moronic booby moronic booby also when you're at home or in school use word reference books a dictionary and a thesaurus look up the words you've written in your notebook find definitions and synonyms that you can use dear tom in promulgating your esoteric cognitions or articulating your superficial sentimentalities beware of platitudinous ponderosity and don't use so many big words but having a good vocabulary means more than just knowing a lot of words it's how you use your words that counts and that brings us to our next and final subject how do you go about using your growing vocabulary for most purposes using your vocabulary well means selecting the right words for the right time place and people for example bill describing to gene a pretty girl he's met will probably use words that describe her from a girl's point of view describing the same girl to tom he'll use words that illustrate the masculine viewpoint using your vocabulary well is often a matter of exercising good taste as my assistants will illustrate i'm writing a letter to our congressman the river is full of filth and garbage i don't care how well they treat it the water still tastes like it's polluted well that's his privilege nothing wrong with what he said but what if we change the circumstances i'm writing a letter to our congressman the river is full of filth and garbage i don't care how well they treat it the water tastes like it's polluted the right word on the right occasion to the right person that's how you go about using your growing vocabulary well we've showed you the whys and hows of building your vocabulary thank you you're welcome and i hope you've come to realize that a good vocabulary makes for effective communication thank you you're welcome the words people share represent interests they share leading to a richer better life thank you those are the results of an ever improving ever growing vocabulary [Applause] [Music]