University of Jordan

Faculty of Arts
1505214/Vocabulary development
Second semester 2005/2006
Course Co-ordinator: Dr. Zahra Awad
Office :Department of Linguistics and Phonetics-Ground Floor
Office Hours: 3.00-4:00 Monday and Wednesday, 11-12 Sunday
Phone: 5355000, #3426
Email: z.awad@ju.edu.jo

Course Objectives:

The course aims at increasing the students' vocabulary. It deals with

morpheme types such as suffixes and prefixes, roots, stems and
allomorphs. It also deals with morphological processes such as
derivation, back formation, abbreviation, acronyms, and blending. In
addition, it discusses words lexical relations such as synonyms,
antonyms and hyponyms. It also sheds light on idiomatic expressions,
social aspects of lexis and semantic fields.

Learning Outcomes:

Successful completion of this course should lead to the following

learning outcome

A. Knowledge and Understanding

1. know the word structure in English.
2. understand and be able to explain terms related to morphemes,
morphological processes and semantic relationships between
words.
3. be able to discuss and explain concepts related morphological
process and semantic relations and semantic fields.

4. know ways of specifying word meaning, semantic relations,

componential analysis, and lexical fields and hierarchies.

B. Intellectual and analytical skills

1. be able to use appropriate analytical skills to specify the meaning of
words, phrases and sentences.
2. be able to use semantic concepts to explain knowledge of word
meaning, phrase meaning and sentence meaning.
 3. be able to perform componential analysis and to identify lexical
fields of different words.

C. Practical Skills
1. be able to use semantic knowledge in different communicational
situations.
2. to appropriately use semantic knowledge in choosing words, phrases
and sentences for effective communication.

D. Subject Specific Skills

1. be able to use various semantic concepts and processes to identify the
meaning of words, phrases and sentences.
2.be able to use word structure, semantic relations, componential
analysis, and lexical fields to differentiate between the meaning of
words.

E. Transferable Skills
1.display discussion skills through doing the exercises in the
classroom.
2.display communication skills through choosing proper words ,
phrases and sentences .

Teaching Methods

1.Lectures: three hours per week ( All learning outcomes)

Assignments: Students are asked to do the exercises that follow .2
each chapter and then to discuss them in the classroom( learning
(outcomes A and B

Textbook

Mohammad Farghal 2000, Vocabulary Development and Semantic

Relations . Hamada Establishment for University Studies, Publishing and
distribution. Irbid-Jordan

References

1.Howard Jackson 1988 Words and their Meaning. Longman Group: UK

2.Howard Jackson and Etienne Ze Amevela 2001 Words, Meanings and

Vocabulary. Continuum: London
Course Requirements:

Midterm Exam 30% 26- 3 -2006

Second Exam 20% 27-4-2006
Final Exam: 50 %

Participation and Attendance:

Participation in class is essential. You are expected to participate actively.

Regular attendance is essential as well.

Course Schedule:

WEEK TOPIC READINGS

1 Introduction, Word Analysis Unit 1-13
2 Word Paradigm Unit113-28
3 Word Formation Processes Unit 2 29-38
4 Idiomatic Compounds Unit 2 38- 48
5 Basic Semantic Concepts Unit 3 49-60
6 Sentence Sense Relations Unit 3 60- 71
7 Sentence Sense Properties Unit 3 71-78
8 Lexical Relations: Synonyms Unit 4 79- 86
9 Antonyms, Homonyms, Unit4- 86-104
Homophones, Hyponyms and
Meronyms
10 Idioms and Prepositions Unit 5 107- 120
11 Similes and Metaphors Unit 5 120-1134
Culture bound Idioms
12 Two and three word verbs, Noun Unit 5 134- 154
phrases, Proverbs
13 Denotation and Connotation Unit 6 157-167
14 Main Levels of Language Use Unit6 167-179
British vs. American Uses of
Vocabulary
15 Semantic Fields Unit 7 183-23

Good Luck