Concept of Vocabulary FRAME OF THEORIES

CHAPTER II FRAME OF THEORIES

2.1 Concept of Vocabulary

Vocabulary has an important role in learning language because it allows you to communicate clearly with other people. Vocabulary is a tool that must be mastered by people to express their feelings, ideas, thoughts, opinion, etc in both spoken and written way Edge, 1993. It is a means for people to communicate each other using it. People need to have an expanded vocabulary to help correctly convey the way their feels with different words. In the activity of learning a language, a learner is trying to use the language by using vocabulary in order to and transfer their ideas. But without vocabulary, she will not be able to express her mind and there will be no meanings conveyed. One can still understand the language even if one doesn’t know anything about grammar. As Nunan, 1991 states the early stages of learning and using a second language, one of the better is served by vocabulary than grammar. Then David William in Thornburry 2002:13 s aid that, “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed. Although the vocabulary is the most important component but language structure also has role in learning language. As quoted by Harmer 1991:161 says that if language structures make up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh. The statement suggests that vocabulary and structure work together to build the language. Literally vocabulary is a total number of words which with rules for combining them to make up language. Vocabulary is one of the components of language and there is no language exists without words Napa 1991:6. The small part of sentence is word. Words are part of vocabulary. Words are symbol for ideas. These ideas formulate knowledge is gained largely through words. So, vocabulary is the words of language known to certain people and used by them to communicate. So in brief, vocabulary can be defined as a number of words used by people to produce a language in their life and also as the language for communication. Students should master a great number of words, so they can perform the language well. Burton 1982:98 states that a large number of words help him to express his idea vividly, precisely, and without repeating the words. According to Lehr 2005, he suggests that words come in two forms: oral and print. Oral vocabulary involves the words that we recognize and use in listening and speaking. Print vocabulary involves the words that one recognizes and uses in reading and writing. He also adds that word knowledge also comes in two forms, receptive and productive. Receptive vocabulary includes words that one recognizes when one hears or sees them. Productive vocabulary includes words that one uses when one speaks or writes. In other words, he states that vocabulary is the knowledge of words meaning in both oral and print language and also in productive and receptive forms. Stahl 2005 adds that, the knowledge of a word not only implies a definition, but also implies how that word fits into the world ”. Thornburry 2002 explains that “One can see from our example sentence that words play different roles in a text. They fall into one of eight different word classes: a. noun : bits, pieces, record, player b. pronouns : I, them c. verbs : like, looking, doing, to look d. adjectives : old, second, new e. adverb : up f. prepositions : for, like g. conjunction : and h. determiner : - Vocabulary also can be defined as a set of lexeme including simple word, compound words and idioms Lamb, 1963:9. According to Lamb, a single word is a single word that may or not have a prefix andor suffix, for example: pen, ruler, table, etc. Trask 1999:120 states that compound word is two or more existing words which are simply combining. Compound word can be written as one word two words or as hyphenated word, such as policeman, fisherman, etc. Idiom is a group of words with a meaning, which is different from the individual words and often difficult to understand from the individual words, for example: give up, look at, carry out etc. Furthermore there are some types of vocabulary in English. Fries 1974:4 divides vocabulary into four types: 1. Content words represent the names of objects or things, that is: concrete nouns museum, post office, action done by or with these things, that is: verbs teach, treat, and the qualities of these things, that is: adjectives good, smart. 2. Function words are those words which are used as means of expressing relation of grammatical structure such as: conjunctions and, but, articles a, an, the, etc. 3. Substitute words, those that represent no individual things or specific actions, but function as substitutes for whole form classes of words, that are indefinites anybody, anyone. 4. Distributed words, those that are distributed in use according to grammatical matter as the presence or absence of a negative, such as: some, any, either, etc. Then vocabulary as a language component has many forms which basically refer to part of speech. Part of speech comprises some component they are: pronoun, noun, verb, adjective, and adverb. Bailey 1965 in Algeo 2001 states that each component of part of speech has various a characteristic. Such as: 1. Pronoun. Pronoun has a part a speech substitutable for a noun and marked for person. The pronouns are: I, he, she, it, we, you, they, and who with their compounds. It is also used as substantives, and they might be considered sub-class of noun, but their inflections are quite different, and their use does not exactly parallel those of nouns. 2. Noun. Noun has a part of speech inflected for case signifying a concrete or abstract entity. Nouns also change form to show number and possession boy, boy’s, boys, boys’. They are used primarily as substantives that is, word that designed person teacher, lecture, etc, animals dog, horse, bird, etc, places house, school, office, etc, things and idea. 3. Verbs. Verbs have a part of speech without case inflection, but inflected for tense, person and number, signifying an activity or process performed or undergone. Verbs typically have four or five forms walk, walks, walked, walking, etc, the function of which are too complicated for a brief description. They are used primarily to make statement about nouns and pronouns. 4. Adjective. Most short adjective has three forms to show degree pretty, prettier, and prettiest. Such words as a beautiful and terrible have no inflection. Adjective is used to modify nouns and pronouns. 5. Adverb. Adverb has a part of speech without inflection, in modification of or in addition to a verb. Adverb also does not change form, but has characteristic forms of its own. It is used to modify anything but nouns and pronouns. There are many parts of speech like discussed above, such as pronouns, noun, verb, adjective, adverb. But in this research, the researcher focuses on concrete noun and verb.

2.2 Concept of Noun