Welcome to Washington, D.C., the United States capital! Power lunches, power brokers, deals, secrets, and negotiations happen here. A wealth of our nation’s history is located here, much of it at the Library of Congress.
When members of Congress and their teams are researching various laws, they do this research at the Library of Congress. For these legislators, language and communication are of paramount importance. The vocabulary terms one uses can change the path of our nation’s history, as in legislation. Precision of language can influence the dealmakers and the voters for the next election. Using vocabulary terms with various shades of meanings can heighten your negotiating power or diminish it.
In this module, you will explore vocabulary. Here are some tools you’ll use:
The Dictionary
One of the best ways to learn vocabulary is through the dictionary. There are pronunciation keys, parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc.) and derivation information (French, German, Latin, Greek, etc.) and, most important, definitions. Look at the dictionary definitions for the word “run” and you will find close to fifty different definitions including verbs and nouns.
Vocabulary in Context
These are unknown terms whose meanings are determined by the surrounding words in context. Look at the following sentences and determine the meaning of the unknown italicized word.
The senator decided to orchestrate a filibuster that caused a delay of ten days on the passage of the bill. Even though the plan was successful, the other senators had to listen to a series of boring speeches.
Notice how the meaning of “filibuster” is enhanced by the following clues in context: delay and boring speeches. One might guess that a filibuster is a particularly lengthy speech or series of speeches.
Synonyms and Antonyms
Textbook authors also help readers gain meaning from the printed word by using synonyms—words that mean the same thing—and antonyms—words that have the opposite meaning. The two selections below are examples of how to use synonyms and antonyms as clues.
1. I visited Washington, D.C. in August and found the humidity extremely uncomfortable. The mugginess made it difficult for me to enjoy my sightseeing.
This selection used a synonym, “mugginess,” to give meaning to the word “humidity”.
2. Raymundo was surprised that the reading room of the Library of Congress was so ornate. He had expected it to be of a much simpler and spare design.
Here, both “simpler” and “spare” are antonyms of “ornate,” which means elaborate.
Prefixes and Suffixes
Understanding prefixes (which are attached to the beginning of some words) and suffixes (which are attached to the end of some words) is helpful in unlocking word meanings. Here are some common prefixes and suffixes. Look in your textbook for further examples of these.
Prefixes

Meaning	Examples
pre-	go before	preview (view before) prefix (affix before)
re-	again	reborn (born again) revisit (visit again)
con-, com-	with	comrade (with friend) conduct (lead with)
dis-	absence of	disagree (absence of agreement) dishonesty (absence of honesty) disown (absence of owning)
ex-	out of	exhale (breathing out) export (carry out or away from)
trans-	across	transportation (carry across)
de-	to remove or reduce	dethrone (remove throne) devalue (reduce value)

Suffixes

Meaning	Examples
-er, -or	person who	infiltrator (person who infiltrates) teacher (person who teaches)
-tion, -sion	action or state	mutation (state of mutating)
-ity	state or condition	calamity (state of hardships) adversity (state of adverse events)
-ite	citizen of or follower	Israelite (citizen of Israel) Bushite (follower of Bush)

Read the following selections on a twentieth century witch-hunt. See how many prefixes you can identify in the selection. Can you find any terms that have been defined by the author?
A Witch-Hunt
1. Ever since the 1692 witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts, which led to the execution of some twenty innocent people, the word witch-hunt has been a part of our vocabulary. It refers to an outbreak of panic among people in a government or a powerful group over the suspected presence of individuals who are unacceptable because of religious, philosophical, political or lifestyle differences.
2. In 1947, just after the end of World War II, the House of Representatives convened a Committee on Un-American Activities; its prime mission was to ferret out Communist sympathizers and party members working in positions of authority. Though the Soviet Union had been our ally during the war, the fear now became widespread that the Communist world was the new enemy and a devastating confrontation was inevitable.
3. The House committee (or HUAC) amassed incredible powers. Using propaganda techniques of its own—bold statements in newspapers, appearances on radio panels, and carefully manipulated newsreel stories—it soon had government officials and millions of citizens convinced that war with the Soviet Union was inevitable and that the country was crawling with once-loyal Americans spying for the enemy. Since public media were the primary vehicles for propaganda—often for the government itself—the HUAC felt it knew exactly where to look for enemy propagandists. Newspaper and magazine articles, short stories, novels, radio and stage plays, and above all motion pictures would be the most likely “fronts” for dangerous ideas.
4. The HUAC summoned to its hearings writers, actors, directors, technicians, costumers, makeup specialists—anyone about whom there was the slightest suspicion. They had to answer under oath the now-famous question, “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist party?” Many of those questioned had had party affiliations in the 1930s before the party was outlawed; they admitted as much but added that they were no longer members. They were not forgiven. Many reputations were destroyed. The dreaded black-list was circulated around Hollywood, and studios dared not hire anyone whose name was on it. Sometimes the HUAC offered a “deal”: give us the names of the associates known to be party members, and you will be exonerated. A number of celebrities did indeed testify against close friends in order to protect their livelihoods, but many did not and spent years in obscurity.
–from Janaro and Altshuler, The Art of Being Human, 5th edition, 1997.
The following words have prefixes with which you may be familiar: incredible, inevitable, exonerated, and amassed. See if you can find the meanings of these words in your dictionary. Some words are also built from “roots,” words that carry the basic or core meaning. Hundreds of root words are used to build words in the English language. For example, the word “incredible” has a root in “credo” or “belief.” Combine this with the prefix “in,” which means “not,” and you have the word incredible or “not believable.” The word “circulated” is derived from “circe,” meaning circle or round. If a memo is “circulated” it makes its way to a circle of people.
The authors explained the word “witch-hunt” in the first paragraph by referring to the Salem witch trials of 1692. This explanation becomes contemporary with the example of a twentieth century witch-hunt conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947.
In paragraph three, the “public media” was explained and followed with specific examples such as newspapers and magazine articles, short stories, novels, and radio and stage plays. And, don’t forget to let synonyms and antonyms guide you, too. In paragraph two, which word helps you guess the meaning of “ally?” The word that is its antonym, or opposite, is “enemy,” and it’s in the same sentence.
Read the next selection that defines the word “culture” and offers support and examples for this term. Some terms are highlighted for you. These terms use prefixes, suffixes, and roots that add meaning. You may wish to look some of these words up in your dictionary.
The Nature of Culture
1. Cultural factors exert the major influence on consumer behavior as culture is the most fundamental determinant of a person’s wants and behavior. Since so much of success in international marketing depends upon an understanding of culture, one might ask: what is it? For anthropologists, culture has long stood for the way of life of a people, for the sum of their learned behavior patterns, attitudes, and material things. In a real sense, culture is human-made. It is learned and, as such, is communicated from one generation to another. Culture is shared by members of a society and the behavioral traits of which it is comprised are manifested in a society’s institutions and artifacts. It is something that shapes behavior or structures one’s perception of the world. In sum, culture is a shared system of meanings, it is learned, it is about groups, and it is relative (that is, there are no cultural absolutes); it is not right or wrong, inherited, or about individual behavior.
2. To understand a culture one must understand its origins, history, structure and functioning; how its artifacts and institutions developed to cope with the environment; and the effects of the geographical environment on the culture, acculturation, and assimilation. Culture undergoes change over time, with change typically being slow to occur. Sometimes “rapid” changes occur. These, however, are often not “natural” but are due to outside pressures, e.g., from government. When the Shah lost power in Iran and the religious leaders gained control of the government, the culture changed relatively rapidly from its “Westernized” direction to a more fundamental Islamic orientation. Government influences culture in other ways which may not be as quick in becoming effective. In the mid-1990s, a committee was formed by the Singapore government to stop threats to family values. The committee defined Singapore-style family values as five core qualities: love, care and concern, mutual respect, children’s responsibility to parents, and commitment and communication. A ministry of the government is to promote these qualities through education in schools and communal activities. Such changes can alter the attractiveness of a market quickly and there is little that the international/export marketer can do about it. International marketing managers need to know how the culture changes, and also how their decisions interact with and sometimes serve as a change agent in the culture. Culture provides norms for behavior of buyers, consumers, and sellers, and these norms control behavior in ways that are not always well understood.
–from Albaum, et al., International Marketing and Export Management, 3rd edition,1998.
The meanings of “culture” have been written in red. Notice that such a simple word as culture can have many different meanings. However, while the authors describe many different facets of culture, they distill the definitions to create a powerful summary of culture at the end of paragraph two (beginning “In sum…”). Words or phrases like “In sum,” “Therefore,” and “In conclusion,” can often point you to the most meaningful definitions in a reading.
In addition, note that the authors try to develop the term “culture” while providing much information through examples and contextual information. For instance, they provided an example using the Shah of Iran’s loss of power. This is written in blue. Now, onto readings and exercises on a wide variety of topics, such as you’d find in the largest library in the world—the Library of Congress.