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other contexts as well, e.g.: adjective compounds: time-consuming, short-sleeved, verb compounds: to baby-sit, to sightsee, noun compounds: coffee jar, table tennis, (for morę examples see: Gairns and Redman, 1983:48),

11.3.3.3 conyersion is also known as zero affixation, and it enables language users to use items in different parts of speech without changing its form, e.g.: I*ve just had a lovely swim; I can’t swim very well.; certain examples of conversion involve phonological changes, e.g.: He works in the ’export market.; We ex’port a lot of goods.

11.3.3.4. coining, blending, and clipping are other processes that operate on the English lexicon. Coining is the process of inventing new words, hence an invented word or phrase is referred to as a coin. According to Clark, “speakers coin new words to fili gaps in the established lexicon. These coinages may be used on only one occasion [...]or may answer some need common to a larger community and eventually be added to the established lexicon” (1993: 6). Blending is a process by means of which two words are put together to form a new one (called a blend), e.g. breakfast + lunch = brunch; Information + entertainment — ■ infotainment. Clipping is the process of shortening longer words e.g. fiu (form influenza), email (from electronic mail) and dorm (from dormitory) (based on Thombury, 2002).

11.3.4. Knowing a word

To ‘know a word’ (based on Harmer, 1991) students need to know its written and spoken form, that is how words are spelt and how they sound. If one is aware of word formation processes, they ought to be familiar with how words are written and spoken and how their form can be changed. Moreover, students must also be aware of word grammar, sińce “the use of certain words can trigger the use of certain grammatical patterns” (1991:157), e.g.: is the verb regular or not, transitive or intransitive, what construetion does it take, if it is a multi-word verb, separable or not; is the noun countable or uncountable, is the plural form regular or irregular, is the nouń

associated with a preposition; is the adjective followed by a preposition, is it followed by a complement structure, etc. Knowing a word does not only mean understanding its meaning. By being aware of the above mentioned factors, students will be “better able to manipulate both the meanings and the forms of the word” (1991:158).

MEANING