The lexis of the language is its vocabulary. With over a million words in English, “what kind of vocabulary is being used in this text” could be a bit of a daunting question. What we need, in order to carry out rapid stylistic analysis, is a system of lexical classification to draw on. There are many such systems – each with different strengths and limitations as an account of the English lexicon. The important thing at AS is to be aware of some of the lexical categories, so the following exercises will help you do just that.

Improve your WORD POWER by keeping an eye on the Word for the Day on this page.












LINKS HERE (attachments at bottom of page):

http://www.worldwidewords.org/index.htm
If serious about language, this is the site for your A* students. Michael Quinion’s renowned site explores the English language from a British viewpoint. There are more than 2,000 pages available, with fresh ones added each week. He discusses new terms, displays weird words, gets behind words and phrases in the news and answers questions. A weekly newsletter by e-mail and RSS keeps you in touch.

http://www.affixes.org/
These pages contain examples of all four types of affixes in English:

• A prefix is put at the beginning of a word to adjust or qualify its meaning, for example de-, non-, and re-.
• A suffix is put at the end of a word to form a derivative, such as -ation, -fy, -ing, frequently one that converts the stem into another part of speech.
• A combining form can be either a prefix or a suffix but the difference is that a combining form adds an extra level of meaning to the word.
• An infix is placed within a word. These are rare in English. They most often appear as the linking vowels -i- and -o- between a prefix and its stem or a stem and its suffix to prevent two consonants clashing.

http://www.freerice.com/
If you're not doing anything else, why not improve your word power while feeding the hungry too? For each answer you get right, Freerice donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. WARNING: This game may make you smarter. It may improve your speaking, writing, thinking, grades, job performance...

http://www.visuwords.com/
This FAB tool allows you to see the denotations and connotations of words in a visually-appealing diagram. Great for those learners that prefer something a bit more picture-like. Be sure to check this one out for lexis work. Why not try the term 'black' and see how it compares with your own and the dictionary definitions you looked up in class?

http://www.dowlingcentral.com/MrsD/area/literature/Terms/Connotation.html Have a look at the exploration of connotation on this page. There are some exercises for you to use or a simple quiz at the bottom of the page for independent study.