Reading skills for academic study: Dealing with difficult words and sentences

Exercise 1

Dealing with difficult words.

In An Introduction to Language by Victoria Fromkin and Robert Rodman, many new words are clearly explained in the text. Can you work out the meanings of the words in bold.

AIRSTREAM MECHANISMS

The production of any speech sound (or any sound at all) involves the movement of an airstream. Most speech sounds are produced by pushing lung air out of the body through the mouth and sometimes also through the nose. Since lung air is used, these sounds are called pulmonic sounds; since the air is pushed out, they are called egressive. The majority of sounds used in languages of the world are thus produced by a pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. All the sounds in English are produced in this manner.

Other airstream mechanisms are used in other languages to produce sounds called ejectives, implosives, and clicks. Instead of lung air, the body of air in the mouth may be moved. When this air is sucked in instead of flowing out, ingressive sounds, like implosives and clicks, are produced. When the air in the mouth is pushed out, ejectives are produced; they are thus also egressive sounds.

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