Type of Vocabulary

Types of Vocabulary

Some expert divided Vocabulary into two kinds, namely: general vocabulary and special vocabulary.⁷ The general vocabulary of the words, that are used in general; there is no limited or field or user. Whereas, special vocabulary is that the words are used in certain field or job, profession or special sience.

While Ruth Gairns and Stuart Redman  divides  two  kinds  of vocabulary, namely passive vocabulary and active vocabulary.⁸ 

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       ⁶ Wilkins, D.A. Linguistic inLanguage Teaching.  (London: The English Language Society.UK, 1982) p.111

     ⁷ Djalinus Syah Tata Bahasa Inggris Modern dalam Tanya Jawab (Jakarta: CV Miswar, 1980) h.1

    ⁸ Ruth Gairns and Stuart Redman, Working with Words A Guide to Teaching and Learning Vocabulary (Cambridge: Cambride University Press, 1986) p.65

a. Passive Vocabulary 

Passive  vocabulary  is  words  that  the  learners  recognize  and  understand when  they  are  used  in  the  context,  but  which  they  cannot  produce.  It  is vocabulary  that  the  learners  recognize  when  they  see  or  meet  in  reading  text but do not use it in speaking and writing.  

b. Active Vocabulary 

Active  vocabulary  is  the  words  which  the  learners  understand,  can pronounce  correctly  and  use  constructively  in  speaking  and  writing.  It involves  what  is  needed  for  receptive  vocabulary  plus  the  ability  to  speak  or write  at  the  appropriate  time.  Therefore,  productive  vocabulary  can  be addressed as an active process, because the learners can produce the words to express their thoughts to others.

Surely, there are some words in a sentence and those collections of words include to the vocabulary because vocabulary is a list or collections of words arranged in alphabetical order and explained. The sentence may be further divided according to the functions of each word has in the subject – predicate relationship – each of these functions is classified as a different part of speech. They are:

Noun - A noun is a type of word that represents a person, thing, or place, like mother, apple, or valley.

Verb - A verb is a type of word that describes an action or a state of being, like wiggle, walk, run, jump, be, do, have, or think.

Pronoun - A pronoun is a substitute for a noun. Some pronouns are: I, me, she, hers, he, him, it, you, they, them, etc.

Adjective - An adjective is a word that describes something (a noun). Some adjectives are: big, cold, blue, and silly.

Adverb - An adverb is a word that tells "how," "when," "where," or "how much". Some adverbs are: easily, warmly, quickly, mainly, freely, often, and unfortunately.

Preposition - A preposition shows how something is related to another word. It shows the spatial (space), temporal (time). The words above, near, at, by, after, with and from are prepositions.

Conjunction - A conjunction is a word that joins other words, phrases, clauses or sentences. Some conjunctions are: and, as, because, but, or, since, so, until, and while.  

Interjection - An interjection is a word that expresses emotion. An interjection often starts a sentence but it can be contained within a sentence or can stand alone. Some interjections are oh, wow, ugh, hurray, eh, and ah.

     While Hatch  and brown  divided two  kinds  of vocabulary, namely receptive and productive vocabulary. ⁹

     Receptive Vocabulary is words that the learners recognize and understand when they occur in context, but which cannot produce correctly. It is vocabulary that the learners recognize when they see it in reading context but do not use it in speaking  and  writing.

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       ⁹ Evelyn Hatch and  Cheryl  Brown..  Vocabulary,  Semantics,  and  Language Education. (Cambridge University Press. 1995) p.158.

     The receptive  vocabulary  is  also  called  a  passive  process because the learner only receives thought form others. In language application, the receptive  vocabulary  is  considered  the  basic  vocabulary.  It  is  much  larger  than productive vocabulary because there are many words recognized when the learner hears or reads but do not use when he speaks or writes.

     Productive Vocabulary  is  the  words,  which  the  learners  understand,  can pronounce  correctly,  and  use  constructively  in  speaking  and  writing.  It involves

what  is  needed  for  receptive  vocabulary  plus  the  ability  to  speak  or  write  the

Appropriate time. Therefore, productive vocabulary can be addressed as an active process,  because  the  learners  can  produce  the  words  to  express  their  thought  to

Others.

 Vocabulary Building

Adding affixes to existing words (the base or root) to form new words is common in academic English. Prefixes are added to the front of the base (like dislike), whereas suffixes are added to the end of the base (active activate). Prefixes usually do not change the class of the base word, but suffixes usually do change the class of the word.  The most common prefixes used to form new verbs in academic English are: re-, dis-, over-, un-, mis-, out-. The most common suffixes are: -ise, -en, -ate, -(i)fy. By far the most common affix in academic English is -ise.

Source : My thesis