Youtube Exercise » English Grammar Homework

B2-C1

Where do new words come from? – Marcel Danesi

TED-Ed

1.5M views 9 years ago

Warm-up Questions

When you learn a new word, do you ever wonder who created it?
Where do you think most new English words come from today: science, the internet, or other languages?
Do you think dictionaries create new words, or just record them? Why?

Up Next

Impact 1 – Unit 1, Activity 1 Abraham Avendaño
Vertebrados | Camaleón CNTV Infantil
Interchange 1 (3. Yard sale) Innovation Development
Consumer Behavior Theory and Marketing Strategy Easy Marketing School
What is imposter syndrome and how can you combat it? – Elizabeth Cox TED-Ed

Start With: Word Definition

Order: Alphabetical Random

…

Where do new words come from? – Marcel Danesi

Why we need new words + borrowing from other languages (00:00 – 01:49)

Transcript will load here…

1. About how many new words are added to the Oxford English Dictionary each year?

About 170,000
About 1,000
About 100
About 10,000

2. Nearly how much of English vocabulary comes directly from other languages, according to the video?

About one third
Almost all
About one quarter
Nearly half

3. Why might English borrow a word like "schadenfreude"?

Because dictionaries prefer foreign words
Because it comes from Latin used by scientists
Because it is a common English slang word
Because another language has the right word for a complex emotion

Where do new words come from? – Marcel Danesi

Creating new words from old ones + changing meanings (01:49 – 03:04)

Transcript will load here…

1. Which is an example of blending parts of words together (a blend) mentioned in the video?

Airport
Brunch
Altar
Starfish

2. What did the word "villain" originally mean, according to the video?

A peasant farmer
A knight
A bad person
A carnival performer

3. What does the video say about words like "sick" or "wicked" in some uses?

They always mean something unhealthy or evil
They were borrowed from Arabic and Italian
They can be used to mean the opposite through irony or misuse
They are compound words

Where do new words come from? – Marcel Danesi

Why some words spread + the example of “meme” + autological (03:04 – 05:44)

Transcript will load here…

1. According to the video, what do dictionaries mostly do?

Invent new words and enforce them
Only document current usage
Ban words that are not classical
Translate words into many languages

2. In the video, “meme” was originally used to describe how ideas and symbols do what?

Change from nouns into verbs
Propagate through a culture like genes through a population
Get officially approved by academies
Disappear quickly from a culture

3. What is the word for the phenomenon of words that describe themselves?

Obsolete
Chivalry
Naïveté
Autological

Where do new words come from? – Marcel Danesi

Transcript will load here…

1. Which option best summarizes one main reason new words appear?

New inventions and ideas create gaps in what people want to express
English vocabulary stays fixed once it reaches a certain size
Old words disappear completely every year
Language academies constantly rewrite everyday speech

2. Which method is NOT presented as a way to create or gain new words in the video?

Randomly adding letters to make words longer
Combining or blending existing words
Giving obsolete words new meanings
Borrowing from other languages

3. What combination helps ordinary people spread a new word, according to the video?

Useful and catchy
Long and precise
Foreign and difficult
Official and ancient

Discussion Questions

Discuss the ideas from this video

Where do new words come from? – Marcel Danesi

What are some words (in your language or English) that were borrowed from other languages? Why do you think they were borrowed?
Which process seems most common today: borrowing, blending, or changing old meanings? Give examples.
Do you think dictionaries should decide which new words are “real,” or should they only record how people speak? Why?
Can you think of a word that became popular because it was “useful and catchy”? What made it catchy?