welcome back to the english danny
channel
i'm dr don and today i'm going to show
you more ways
to expand your vocabulary using
word families now remember a
word family is a set of words whose
meaning
comes from the meaning of one root word
so for example if you know the meaning
of help
you can figure out the meaning of words
like
helper helpless helpful
and unhelpful today we're going to look
at three
more common root words and the root
words for today
are all about words and language
our first root is lagos
l-o-g this word is borrowed from the
greek
language and it means word speech
reason or the study of something
this root appears in a lot of words
related to science learning literature
and speaking so one example
for the log root is the word
logic logic means sound
or correct reasoning about something or
there's a study of logic which is the
study of
correct reasoning about things
that log root is also the basis of words
involved in speaking like epilogue
dialogue and monologue
let's start with epilogue epilogue uses
the
epi prefix which means after
so this word means words that come after
something else so in a book or a play
an epilogue is a section or a speech
that comes at the end
and usually it makes a comment or a
conclusion about
everything that came before the author
explains the meaning of his book in the
epilogue
and in general an epilogue is any act
or event which concludes something
now what about dialogue dialogue
uses the prefix dia which means
across or between so this is a word
which means words or speech between
people in other words a conversation
i had a helpful dialogue with my team
members
monologue uses the prefix m-o-n-o
meaning one so this word indicates an
important speech
by one person my favorite part of the
play
was the hero's monologue at the end
in the form ology o-l-o-g-y
the log root specifically means the
study of something
so biology is the study of bio
and that means life biology is the study
of life
geology is the study of geo
geo and that means the earth
so geology is the study of the earth
cosmology is the study of the cosmos
and cosmos means universe or world so
here
cosmology is study of outer space the
universe
or the earth's place within it
zoology is the study of z-o z-o means
animal
so zoology is the study of animals
now our second root word is
lit and this means letters
or writing and this word appears in many
words related to language one important
example
is literacy which uses the acy
suffix meaning a state or condition
so litter being lettered that means
understanding the use of letters
literacy
being in a state of understanding
letters
and in english that means being able to
read
we want a literacy rate over 95 percent
in our country
a similar word is literal
which uses the al suffix and that means
an action or a result of action so here
literal the idea is something that
results
only from the letters now what does that
mean
what it means literal is an adjective
that means
taking words in their usual sense or
their basic
sense only meaning not using metaphor
not using allegory or any suggestive or
figurative meaning
only the basic meaning or what we would
call
the literal meaning literal can also
mean
a translation that represents the exact
words of the original so
this is a literal translation from
english to spanish a more unusual
example
using this root is the word obliterate
this word means to completely destroy
something
the army obliterated the town they
completely destroyed it
now how does that come around this word
uses the prefix
ob meaning against or in the way
and the suffix ate which means to cause
to be so the whole idea
the literal idea of this word is
to cause something to be in the way of
the letters or to replace
or eliminate the letters so it has the
idea that you wipe out the letters
so that nothing can be read if you erase
the letters in a word
there's nothing left of it so we use
that word
obliterate in a figurative sense to mean
anything that has been erased or wiped
out
in the way that you could erase or wipe
out
a written word our third
word root is another l word l-o-q
or l-o-c l-o-q-u or l o
c u and this root lock
has the meaning of talk or speak
an example word using this word this
root
is locution here we have the ion
ending indicating an action so
a locution is literally the act of
speaking
or talking and in general we use the
word
locution to mean any word or phrase
or any saying focusing on its meaning or
style so the teacher showed us
certain locutions to avoid
meaning the teacher showed us certain
expressions
that were incorrect or offensive to use
because of their meaning and another way
of using this word
a poet's locution often involves
changing the usual order of words that
means a poet's
style of speaking or writing will
involve
changes in word order another word
using this root is eloquent
eloquent uses the e or ex prefix
which has the idea of from out of or
away from
so this word eloquent has the idea of
speaking out
or having words come out of you and the
way
the adjective eloquent works is it means
something or someone who has the power
to express themselves
well in language the man's
eloquent speech won the lady's heart
eloquence is the noun version and that
means
eloqua able to speak well
another word using this root is
interlocutor
now enter means between and the or
ending indicates a person who does
something so an interlocutor
is someone who takes part in a dialogue
or conversation between
or among other people my interlocutor
in this conversation will be mr smith
here's one more word using this root
which has an interesting meaning
circumlocution
the root circum has the meaning of
around
like in the word circle and the word so
the word circumlocution
comes from the idea of speaking around
something rather than directly at the
center of something
in english speaking around something
means
using many words where fewer words
would be better or clearer and
especially
using many words if you're trying to be
vague
or if you're trying to deceive someone
a con man often uses circumlocutions
to snare his audience
logic literacy eloquence
those are three common english words
dealing with the power of language
speech and thought and they come from
the three
roots that we just looked at and i look
forward to seeing you all
in the next video