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Ask for help > which verbs have a stronger meaning than the other equivalents
which verbs have a stronger meaning than the other equivalents
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gharbi2009
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which verbs have a stronger meaning than the other equivalents
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In our textbook, students are given an extract from a thesaurus page and asked to determine which verbs have a stronger meaning than the other equivalents. here is the extract: invent- Syn. devise, discover, create, find, fashion, form, fabricate, design, plan, frame, project, scheme, carry out, imagine, simulate, visualize, fancy, conceive. How can I decide which goes with which and which is stronger than the other? ( by the way, an example was given and the easiest one as usual in textbooks: fancy has stronger meaning than imagine) |
27 Nov 2015
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Tapioca
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Hi Gharbi, I am really struggling to understand what the textbook author intended with this exercise. I must be missing something but how does fancy as a verb have a �stronger � meaning than imagine? It really doesn �t make sense to me at all. Would you be able to take an actual photograph of the page and post it? Thanks, Tap |
27 Nov 2015
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gharbi2009
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hi Tap! this is what is written on the page word for word: 2. Study this extract from a thesaurus page then determine which verbs have stronger meaning than the other equivalents. Follow the example: fancy has a stronger meaning than imagine. Invent-Syn ( the list I posted before). Thanks for your time and consideration |
27 Nov 2015
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Tapioca
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Wow, maybe my brain is not working properly, but I still don �t understand what �a stronger meaning � is. What did you understand by it? Does she mean which words are closest to each other in meaning? So, then perhaps the most common or closest synonyms of �invent � might be devise, create, design, and conceive. Tap |
28 Nov 2015
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yanogator
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Tap, it confuses me, too. Like you, I think closest in meaning might be what is intended, but I don �t think this is a very useful exercise. I would say that "find" is the "weakest" (using our interpretation) synonym for "invent". I barely consider it a synonym at all. Bruce |
28 Nov 2015
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gharbi2009
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thanks Tap and Bruce for your help. After all, a textbook isn �t a sacred book and we often find confusing tasks in them. I �m going to change the task by providing contexts in which these verbs can be used and how close they are in meaning |
29 Nov 2015
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Tapioca
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That sounds like a good plan! :-) Also, by using the word �closer (in meaning) rather than �stronger �, you could maybe draw the relationships graphically on the board, with a circle around the key word and the other words literally closer to the key word or farther away from it (or even outside the �circle of meaning �). It will help them to understand that a list in a Thesaurus must be treated with some caution and that not all words are �equal �, which I think was the original intention of the exercise. :-) Tap |
29 Nov 2015
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yanogator
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Great suggestion, Tap. A "visual thesaurus" like that can be very useful in class. Bruce |
29 Nov 2015
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