The English Language and Etymology

Middle English (1100–1500 AD)

The Normans invaded England in 1066 and brought many French words into the language
- Vocabulary expanded
- Grammar becomes simpler

Unfamiliar Words: Context Clues

Context clues are hints within a sentence or paragraph that helps readers understanding the meanings of unfamiliar words
- You can use these clues to figure out the meaning of the word on your own without a dictionary

How to Use Context Clues

Step 1: Read the sentence closely
- Pay attention to the words surrounding the unknown word to get the full meaning
  - Example: Unlike the lethargic older dog, the puppy was wild and rambunctious.
    - The sentence tells you that lethargic is the opposite of wild and rambunctious, so you might assume lethargic means tired or sluggish.
Step 2: Make an educated guess and replace the word
- If you think you know the word's meaning, replace the unknown word with a synonym to check yourself
  - Example: Unlike the tired older dog, the puppy was wild and rambunctious.
    - Replacing "lethargic" with "tired" shows that your definition makes sense
Step 3: Check the definition of the word in a dictionary
- This will give you confirmation of the word's meaning
  - Example: Lethargic
    - Dictionary Definition: a lack of energy and enthusiasm

Practice

Step 1: Below, read the Gettysburg Address that Abraham Lincoln gave, and practice using context clues to determine the meaning of each use and form of the word "dedicate".
Step 2: Replace each word with a synonym based on the meaning you came up with from the context clues
Step 3: After determining the meaning and part of speech, use a dictionary to check your answers

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

Source

RESOURCES IN THIS MODULE ARE OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER) OR CREATED BY GAVS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. SOME IMAGES USED UNDER SUBSCRIPTION.