Chapter Two: Reading Comprehension

It is important to derive meaning from words. How do to get it then? The following
lines tell you more.

2.1 Punctuation

(.) Full stop (BrE), Period (NAmE)

 At the end of a sentence that is not a question, or an exclamation

 Sometimes in abbreviations
 In Internet and e-mails addresses, said ‘dot’

(,) Comma

 To separate words in a list

 To separate clauses or phrases
 Before and after a clause or phrase that gives additional but not essential
information
 To separate main clauses, especially long ones
 To separate an introductory word or phrase or an adverb that applies to
the whole sentence
 To separate a tag question from the rest of the question
 Before or after ‘s/he said’ etc., when writing a conversation
 Before a short quotation

(:) Colon

 To introduce a list of items

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  In formal writing before a clause or a phrase that gives more information
about the main clause. You can use a full stop or a semi colon here, but
not a comma
 To introduce a quotation, which may be indented

(;) Semicolon

 Instead of a comma to separate parts of a sentence that already contain

commas
 In formal writing, to separate two main clauses, especially those not
joined by a conjunction

(?) Question mark

 At the end of a direct question

 Especially with a date, to expression doubt

(!) Exclamation mark (BrE), exclamation point (NAmE)

 At the end of a sentence expressing surprise, joy, anger, shock, or

another strong emotion
 In informal written English, you can use more than one exclamation
mark, or an exclamation mark and a question mark

(’) Apostrophe

 With s to indicate that a thing or a person belongs to somebody

 In short forms, to indicate that letters or figures have been omitted
 Sometimes, with s to form the plural of letter, a figure, or an
abbreviation

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(-) Hyphen

 To form a compound from two or more other words

 To form a compound from a prefix and a proper name (Pro-European)
 When writing compound numbers from 21 to 99 in words
 Sometimes, in BrE, to separate a prefix ending in a vowel from a word
beginning with the same vowel (co-operate)

(-) Dash

 In informal English, instead of a colon or semicolon, to indicate that

what follows is a summary or conclusion of what has gone before
 Singly or in pairs to separate a comment or an afterthought from the rest
of the sentence

(…) Dots/Ellipsis

 To indicate that words have been omitted

(/) Slash/Oblique

 To separate alternative words or phrases

 In Internet and email addresses, to separate the different elements

(“”, ‘’) Quotation marks

 To enclose words and punctuation in direct speech

 To draw attention to a word that is unusual for the context (a slang, used
for a special effect)
 Around the title of articles, books, poems, plays
 Around short quotations and saying
 In NAmE, double quotations are used

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( ) Brackets/Parentheses

 To separate extra information or a comment from the rest of a sentence

 To enclose cross references (see chapter Eight)
 Around numbers or letters in text

[ ] Square brackets (BrE), Brackets (NAmE)

 Around words inserted to make a quotation grammatically correct

Word analysis

2.2 Dictionaries:

They consist of the repertories of words and their various usual meanings.
The words are arranged in alphabetical order. A dictionary can be a monolingual,
bilingual or multilingual. Bilingual dictionaries translate words but rarely explain.
Monolingual dictionaries explain words but can be difficult for foreign learners. A
dictionary can be a pocket dictionary (for general usage) or a desk dictionary
(including specialized terms). A specialized dictionary gives more accurate
definitions on technical words.

2.3 Words analysis:

A larger number of words can be analysed in English in terms of root

(particles combined to words or other roots to coin words). Greek and Latin roots are
used in scientific English to make up new words.

 Compound words can be broken down into base and modifier. See how the
modifier modifies the base; housewife= wife keeping a house.
 Derivative words can also be broken down into base/root and affix (prefix or
suffix)
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 e.g: Unhappy: un + happy

2.4 Context Clues:

Another effective way of getting the meaning of words is the use of context
clues. In fact, it is the context that enables a reader to sort out the right meaning
among the many that a word may have. The context (the structural proximity) tells
us if a word is used as a verb, an adjective, a noun, etc. Following are some effective
context techniques

a) Contrast: Joyce is beautiful but her brother is ugly (ugly ←→ beautiful)

b) Example: He collects insects such as butterflies (butterflies = insects)
c) Cause and effect: S/He failed because s/he did not study (fail ←→ succeed,
pass)
d) Restatement (saying in other words). The Lad was not happy. Young boys
are never satisfied (lad = young boy)
e) Logical deduction (completing what the text demands): When the sun rises,
go the field (rise = go up)
f) Experience: soldiers often rape women during wars (rape = ?)
g) Cognates: these are words that are homonyms (or almost homonyms) of
words in another language having the same origin or resulting from language
and cultural contact. There are thousands of such words between French and
English. Most of those can be transposed without any risk. A number of those
words are false cognates. E.g.: glory = gloire; origin = origine; but actual =
actuel?).
h) Affixation:

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i) Questions: We have direct and indirect questions. By direct questions, the
interrogative sentence ends by a question mark (?) and by indirect question,
there is a question without that question mark. This happens in case of reported
speech.
e.g: Where do you study? / S/He wants to know where you study.

 Yes/No questions are close questions: Are you students from UNH?
Yes, we are/ No, we are not
 Tag questions: You are students from UNH, are you not?
You study Business English, do you not?
You are not students from UNH, are you?
You do not study Business English, do you?
 Wh-questions: they are open questions
o What
o Where (place) where…from (origin)
o Why (cause and effect, reason))
o Who/whom/whose (Subject/Object/Possession)
e.g.: who are you? (give your name : I am …, My name is…;
Whom did you leave your computer? = to whom did you leave
your computer? ; Whose computer is this? Whose pen do you
use?)
o Which (choice) (I have two pens: a black and a blue. Which one
do you like?)
o How (manner)

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 o How long/far. How long is it from Lubumbashi to Kasumbalesa?
o How much (price, quantity about uncountable objects)
o How many (quantity with countable objects)

Exercise: Read any text written in English and find cognates and
words made by affixation, and provide their meanings.