1. Dick Hudson Kelmscott School, March 2018
What’s in a word?
Dick Hudson
Kelmscott School, March 2018

2. Take the word acquire. What is there to know?

3. Take the word acquire. What is there to know?
spelling
pronunciation
frequency
meaning
synonyms
antonyms
when to use it
grammar
history (etymology)
language

4. It’s all in the Oxford English Dictionary

5. Take know: What’s its grammar?

6. Take know: What’s its grammar?
word class
verb > transitive verb
morphology
e.g. past tense
related words
e.g. knowledge, knowledgeable, knowing
historical: can, quaint, acquaintance, diagnosis, recognise, cognition, connoisseur, gnome, ignorant, narrate, note
syntax
e.g. know someone, know something, know that ...,

7. Semantic relatives of know that ....?

8. Semantic relatives of know that
know that X (X is true)
realise
appreciate
see
recognise
grasp
understand
believe that X (X may be true)
think
assume
hold
maintain
suspect
suppose
deduce
consider

9. The syntax of know and believe: What next?

10. Some extracts from Jekyll and Hyde
the building which was indifferently known as the laboratory or dissecting rooms
I have since had reason to believe the cause to lie much deeper in the nature of man, and to turn on some nobler hinge than the principle of hatred.
... which I must still believe to be the lethal side of man ...

11. The syntax of know and believe: What next?
+ noun
know/believe Joe/the answer
+ (that) verb
know/believe that it’s Monday
+ noun + to + verb
know/believe Joe to be reliable
+ noun + adjective
believe Joe reliable (not: know him reliable)
+ noun + as + adjective
recognise Joe as reliable

12. We need a table! verb know believe recognise + noun know Mary
believe Mary
recognise Mary
+ (that) verb
know that she is ...
believe that she is ...
recognise that she is ...
+ noun + to + verb
know Mary to be ...
believe Mary to be ...
recognise Mary to be ...
+ noun + adjective
*know Mary reliable
believe Mary reliable
*recognise Mary reliable
+ noun + as + adjective
*know Mary as reliable
*believe Mary as reliable
recognise Mary as reliable

13. So what? You already know a lot of But there’s plenty more to learn.
words
very fine detail about individual words.
But there’s plenty more to learn.
Most of it you’ll learn
by reading (more than by watching)
by paying attention to unfamiliar words and patterns.
And the more you learn, the better you’ll do in GCSE
and even more importantly, in the rest of life