Defining/explaining strategies

1. Physical description
A chair has four legs
A cup is round.

Physical description may include:

- Essential features: a car has wheels, a bed is flat..
- Peripheral features: a car has a horn; a house has windows
- Irrelevant features: A car has CD players, a dog is black and small.
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2. Instrumental description
A chair is for sitting on.

- Essential features: a knife is for cutting. A house is for people to live in

it.
- Peripheral features: a sheep dog is for keeping the farm safe.
- Irrelevant features: A spoon is for hitting naughty children.

3. Synonym: words sharing similar meaning.

Secure: safe
Picturesque: beautiful
Fantastic: wonderful
Speedy: quick, fast
Prosperous: rich

4. Antonym: words of opposite meaning

- Sharing the same word root:
Unhealthy : not healthy
Impossible: not possible
- different words:
cruel: not kind
filthy: not clean

5. Hyponym relationship
A rose is a flower ..(rose/flower)
Linguistics is a study of language (linguistics/study)...
A dog is an animal ....(dog/animal)
A jack is an instrument ...(jack/instrument)
Children normally use the word 'the thing', avoiding the hyponym link.
A jack is a thing...
To murder is to kill...(murder/kill)
To assassinate is to kill...(assassinate/kill)
To donate is to give...(donate/give)
To grant is to give ....(grant/give)

6. Comparison ( known to unknown):

An ill is like a snake .....
An alligator is like a crocodile but/and ...
A tool is like a chair but/and...
.
7. Role , duty, function
Doctor is the one who treats you when you are sick.
Clown is the funny person performing in a show who makes people laugh.

8. Metaphor
A wife is an eternal friend.
Marriage is a financial arrangement to minimize paying tax.
A bank is a big financial bully.
A capitalist is a smart legal robber.

9. Stereotyping:
Wife is the one who stays home and look after her children.
Teacher is the one who knows everything

10. Forming part, identifying membership, categorising:

January is the first month of the year...
Spring is the first season.
Month is a component of the year, which consists of 12 periods.
Uncle is a brother of the father

11. Instancing, giving examples:

Marriage: when you meet someone and you feel so strongly about him/her
and want to live with that person happily ever after..
Birthday: it is the day you receive a lot of presents and are allowed to get
drunk.

12. Description of the process or demonstration:

Pregnancy happens when .......
Reading is a mental process in which the brain, through the eyes, decodes
the printed symbols and translate them into meaningful units..

13. Linguistic derivation:

International:
Inter: between,
National: from nations
International is between nations.

Beautify: to make beautiful

Similarity: being similar

Unhealthy: not healthy

Deprivation: state of being deprived.

Birthday