Vocabulary Week 6

Alexandra Versluijs (s3711463)

1. Accumulated
Definition: to collect a large number of things over a long period of time
Original sentence: I make this assessment given the evidence I have so far
accumulated — I have read and taught some of his stories and nonfiction, have read
some critical essays on Wallace’s work, and have read D.T. Max’s biography of
Wallace — and without feeling professionally obligated to spend a month reading
Infinite Jest in order to be absolutely sure I’m right.
3 new sentences:
We've accumulated so much rubbish over the years.
As people accumulate more wealth, they tend to spend a greater proportion of their
incomes.
During our six years in this house, we seem to have accumulated an awful lot of junk.

2. Amplify
Definition: to increase the size or effect of something
Original sentence: Did the very idea amplify his bad-boy critical aura?
3 new sentences:
A funeral can amplify the feelings of regret and loss for the relatives.
Her emotions were further amplified by the adaptation.
The information amplified his ability to solve the problem.

3. Circumscribe
Definition: to limit something
Original sentence: While any given reviewer may be an excellent reader, and any
book buyer may have excellent taste, the literary market as a whole is vulnerable to
forces that have less to do with literary discernment and more to do with money,
class, contemporary pressures on journalism, the geography of cities, and the social
networks that circumscribe the reach of editorial attention or a bookstore’s clientele.
3 new sentences:
Their movements have been severely circumscribed since the laws came into effect.
There followed a series of tightly circumscribed visits to military installations.
A number of policy interventions have circumscribed the poor's access to land.

4. Committed
Definition: loyal and willing to give your time and energy to something that you believe
in
 Original sentence: Having committed the time, those initial readers had then to prove,
in writing, that they had something equally smart to say about it
3 new sentences:
He is a committed teacher.
The level of the bid shows we are very committed and serious.
The brothers were very committed to their plan.

5. Credible
Definition: able to be believed or trusted
Original sentence: Why admit to this unscholarly approach, which seems to run
against all our intellectual values — the commitment to open-minded reading and
exploration, the commitment to gathering a credible body of evidence before making
an argument or a judgment?
3 new sentences:
They haven't produced any credible evidence for convicting him.
The story of what had happened to her was barely credible.
Investigators found no credible evidence of a crime.

6. Discernment
Definition: the ability to judge people and things well
Original sentence: While any given reviewer may be an excellent reader, and any
book buyer may have excellent taste, the literary market as a whole is vulnerable to
forces that have less to do with literary discernment and more to do with money,
class, contemporary pressures on journalism, the geography of cities, and the social
networks that circumscribe the reach of editorial attention or a bookstore’s clientele.
3 new sentences:
It's clear that you are a person of discernment.
He chose to submit to their discernment.
Listeners must rely upon their own judgment and discernment regarding guest
comments.

7. Hapless
Definition: unlucky and usually unhappy
Original sentence: One hapless junior faculty member in the novel wins a
departmental round but loses his tenure case.
3 new sentences:
Many children are hapless victims of this war.
There were many hapless victims of the earthquake
He is described by at least one character as hapless.

8. Haven
Definition: a safe or peaceful place
 Original sentence: And yet universities are made to be a haven for study that is
precisely not driven by such decisions, values, and accidents
3 new sentences:
The garden was a haven from the noise and bustle of the city.
They wanted to provide safe havens for the refugees.
The local cinema would prove a haven of retreat.

9. Implicit
Definition: suggested but not communicated directly
Original sentence: In reviews, Catcher in the Rye was cast as mourning conformity
and our compromised liberal self-determination; Salinger’s pungent class critique and
any implicit call to think collectively remained submerged as the novel made its way
into literary history
3 new sentences:
He interpreted her comments as an implicit criticism of the government.
Implicit in the poem's closing lines are the poet's own religious doubts.
We interpreted his silence as implicit agreement.

10. Impoverishes
Definition: to make something weaker or worse in quality
Original sentence: Zaid argues that excessively long books are a form of
undemocratic dominance that impoverishes the public discourse by reducing the
airtime shared among others.
3 new sentences:
Excessive farming had impoverished the soil.
Our cultural heritage would be impoverished by the absence of Mozart.
The oboe tends to impoverish the tone of the violins.

11. Inclined
Definition: likely or wanting to do something
Original sentence: If one is inclined to turn to machine reading for help, copyright law
immediately sets up a roadblock.
3 new sentences:
Tom is inclined to be lazy.
No one seemed inclined to help.
She was inclined to be successful.

12. Incumbent
Definition: to be necessary for someone
Original sentence: In the face of a multitude of books curated most often by the profit
motive, it is incumbent upon those somewhat protected from market imperatives —
 that is, scholars paid by universities to spend their time reading and thinking and
teaching and writing — to stuff the omelet deliberately.
3 new sentences:
She felt it incumbent upon her to raise the subject at their meeting.
It is incumbent upon all of us to create a safe community.
I think it is incumbent on us to provide a good environment for business

13. Parsing
Definition: to separate
Original sentence: If scholars of today’s literature follow the lead of the literary press
in deciding what to read, in parsing out their reading hours on the work of the well-
promoted literary stars (for the plausibly defensible reason that "everyone is talking
about them"), then our students’ students’ students will inherit the sort of narrow
archive that still structures modernist studies even in the wake of a field-leading
journal’s expansive intentions.
3 new sentences:
Both types of expressions can be used to parse and compare data.
In order to parse natural language data, researchers must first agree on the grammar
to be used.
There is more than one correct parse tree.

14. Plausible
Definition: seeming likely to be true, or able to be believed
Original sentence: If scholars of today’s literature follow the lead of the literary press
in deciding what to read, in parsing out their reading hours on the work of the well-
promoted literary stars (for the plausibly defensible reason that "everyone is talking
about them"), then our students’ students’ students will inherit the sort of narrow
archive that still structures modernist studies even in the wake of a field-leading
journal’s expansive intentions.
3 new sentences:
The hypothesis was very plausible.
She had a very plausible explanation.
The experiment seemed to be plausible.

15. Prevailing
Definition: existing and accepted
Original sentence: Scholars are supported by nonprofit universities, and given tenure,
so that they can pursue knowledge under conditions not entirely driven by the market
and their culture’s prevailing norms.
3 new sentences:
The prevailing mood is one of optimism.
The prevailing view is that economic growth is likely to slow down.
 The bank said it will buy the shares at the prevailing market price.

16. Profound
Definition: showing a clear and deep understanding of serious matters
Original sentence: These forces have a profound effect on what is celebrated and
what remains culturally invisible among the masses of books written and published,
and they affect the meanings that particular books come to have as they enter the
stream of culture.
3 new sentences:
The review that I read said that it was a thoughtful and profound film.
You’re touching on a very profound question.
He takes a profound interest in his own work.

17. Pungent
Definition: speech or writing that is very strongly felt
Original sentence: In reviews, Catcher in the Rye was cast as mourning conformity
and our compromised liberal self-determination; Salinger’s pungent class critique and
any implicit call to think collectively remained submerged as the novel made its way
into literary history
3 new sentences:
He had pungent criticism.
Her pungent commentary was taken seriously by everyone.
A more pungent question surrounded the excess profits tax.

18. Submerged
Definition: to go below or make something go below the surface, to be hidden
Original sentence: In reviews, Catcher in the Rye was cast as mourning conformity
and our compromised liberal self-determination; Salinger’s pungent class critique and
any implicit call to think collectively remained submerged as the novel made its way
into literary history
3 new sentences:
She has submerged her identity in the role of photographer's wife and muse.
He completely submerged his emotions in order to let go of his past.
His identity remained submerged.

19. Touted
Definition: to repeatedly try to persuade people to buy your goods or services
Original sentence: To do that, we will all need to scour the shelves for the most
delicious ingredients, and also set some loudly touted ones aside.
3 new sentences:
There were hundreds of taxis at the airport, all touting for business
 He is being widely touted as the next leader of the party.
The minister has been touting these ideas for some time.

20. Vagaries
Definition: unexpected events or changes that cannot be controlled and can influence
a situation
Original sentence: Ohmann’s approach is as relevant today as it was in 1987, and as
relevant to contemporary publishing as it was to the literary press of the 1950s: The
cultural dynamics of race and gender, the networks that grow up from shared
schooling, the vagaries of bankruptcies originating well beyond the publishing
business, the flow of venture capital, and the history of literature taught in the
academy all work to pull some contemporary writing to the surface while other work
goes under, never to be seen again.
3 new sentences:
The success of the event will be determined by the vagaries of the weather.
She had her own style and was not influenced by the vagaries of fashion.
The hat industry suffers the vagaries of fashion and collapses.