Economy, Economics, Economic, Economical

To speak and understand a language means - among many other things - knowing the words of that language. The average speaker knows, hears, understands and uses thousands of words daily. But does he use them appropriately? That is why this paper is about words and meanings. More specifically, it deals with the internal structure of complex words, i.e. derivatives. The purpose of the paper is to enable students and potentially other individuals dealing with English language on business basis to engage in their own analyses of some aspects of the language, namely the family tree of the word economy. After having read the paper, the reader should be familiar with the necessary knowledge regarding differences between meanings, misuse and actual sense of words deriving from economy, be able to systematically analyze data and relate his own findings on theoretical language problems. English is used by hundreds of millions speakers and still there is always need for improving our knowledge continuously. Knowing and speaking approximate English may not be enough at an advanced level as in the case of students who prepare themselves for careers that involve proficient communication in a foreign language on specific business issues. This is where the idea of such a paper appeared: students of the Faculty of Economic Sciences talk about economy and all the other terms deriving from it, with approximate knowledge of their meaning, without even being aware that some ‘minor’ suffixes like –ic, -ical, -ics etc. really matter and do make a difference. Consequently, we started our teaching of Business English lecture in September 2012 with a working sheet based on the terms economic/ economical/ economics/ economy to assess students’ awareness of these terms. The result was not a surprise as more than 90% misused economical instead of economic. That seemed a perfect introduction for students in economics. From that moment on, the building of their specific vocabulary could start.