Prefixes and prefixoids from classical languages as a prerequisit for understanding foreign words in Czech
Abstract
Word-forming components of Greek and Latin origin are largely involved in the process of vocabulary extension in Czech and other European languages too. With advancing globalization, not only in the terminology of various scientific fields, but also in everyday life, we can observe the emergence of neologisms containing Latin and Greek components, their incorporation into the vocabulary, and the gradual disappearance of expressions that are no longer used as the social context changes. Knowing the meaning of these morphemes can benefit the understanding of similarly formed words and motivates speakers to create their own new expressions according to the existing scheme. In the contribution, I would like to outline the issue of prefixes and prefixoids from classical languages, their position in the Czech language system and didactic processing. A good knowledge of these word-forming components is a frequently used tool, for example in the field of vocabulary acquisition and expansion. In interdisciplinary didactics, it can be a means to more closely link the teaching of Czech and foreign languages, or to make it easier to understand the basics of the professional terminology of other subjects.
As the teaching of Latin and Greek in secondary schools has a rather receding tendency, it seems important that Czech and L2 teachers, in particular, draw students' attention to the issue of these word-forming components. In the Anglophone environment, we very often encounter detailed didactic processing at all levels of education. However, it is rather neglected in the Czech context.