Monday, August 10, 2009

The Word Family Game

Discovery:


Adapted from Sentence Contruction: Writing and Combining Standard English Sentences, by Alice C. Pack and Lynn E. Henrichsen (Newbury House Publishers, 1980):

“There are four classes of content words: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and Adverbs.

“A content word in one class usually has related forms in other classes. All these related forms make up a word family.

“Some word families have forms in all four classes. Others do not.

Example: A grateful (adjective) man may show his gratitude (noun) by thanking someone gratefully (adverb). (In English there is no verb form to express this idea of being grateful or showing gratitude.)”

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The following sentences all contain several unusual forms of content words. Most are real words, but one in each sentence is not. This fake word is an imaginary “fourth member” of its word family.

For instance, in the sentence, “The boy cleves,” the false word “cleves” is an imaginary verb form that completes the word family of cleverness, clever, and cleverly.

Can you tell what the false words are, as well as the three real members of their word families?

(NOTE: The answers are based on the lists in Sentence Construction. Other sources may differ.)


***

SENTENCES

1. You don’t have to review your tax form by yourself. It’s transferable; advante with a corrector.

2. Time may not be limitable. Humans cannot computably measure our temporariness.

3. At the moment when Pinocchio became a boy, did his soul essentialize itself, or was it reminiscently acquisitive?

4. Even before the coffin enters the chamber for a wake, funeral home directors preparatorily solemnize their space. The goal is to balance an atmosphere of familiarity for loved ones with an atmosphere that is endurable for acquaintances.


Image courtesy of factoidz.com.

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