If
we describe a wоrd
as an autonomous unit of language in which a
particular meaning is associated with a particular sound complex and
which is capable of a particular grammatical employment and able to
form a sentence by itself (see p. 9),
we
have the possibility to distinguish it from the other fundamental
language unit, namely, the morpheme.
A
morpheme is
also an association of a given meaning with a given sound pattern.
But unlike a word it is not autonomous. Morphemes occur in speech
only as constituent parts of words, not independently, although a
word may consist of a single morpheme. Nor are they divisible into
smaller meaningful units. That is why the morpheme may be defined as
the minimum meaningful language unit.
The
term morpheme
is derived from Gr morphe
‘form’
+
-eme.
The
Greek suffix -erne
has
been adopted by linguists to denote the smallest significant or
distinctive
unit.
(Cf. phoneme,
sememe.) The
morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of form. A form in these
cases is a recurring discrete unit of speech.
A
form is said to be free if it may stand alone without changing its
meaning;
if not, it is a bound
form, so called because it is always bound
to something else. For example, if we compare the words sportive
and
elegant
and
their parts, we see that sport,
sportive, elegant may
occur alone as utterances, whereas eleg-,
-ive, -ant are
bound forms because they never occur alone. A word is, by L.
Bloomfield’s definition, a minimum free form. A morpheme is said to
be either bound or free. This statement should bе
taken
with caution. It means that some morphemes are capable of forming
words without adding other morphemes: that is, they are homonymous to
free forms.
According
to the role they play in constructing words, morphemes are subdivided
into roots
and affixes.
The latter are further subdivided, according to their position, into
prefixes,
suffixes
and
infixes,
and according to their function and meaning, into derivational
and functional
.affixes,
the latter also called endings
or outer
formatives.
When
a derivational or functional affix is stripped from the word, what
remains is a stem
(or astern base).
The stem expresses the lexical and the part of speech meaning. For
the word hearty
and
for the paradigm heart
(sing.)
—hearts
(pi.)1
the stem may be represented as heart-.
This
stem is a single morpheme, it contains nothing but the root, so it is
a simple
stem.
It is also a
free
stem
because it is homonymous to the word heart.
A
stem
may also be defined as the part of the word that remains unchanged
throughout its paradigm. The stem of the paradigm hearty
—
heartier
—
(the)
heartiest
is
hearty-.
It
is a free stem, but as it consists of a root morpheme and an affix,
it is not simple but derived. Thus, a stem containing one or more
affixes is
a derived
stem.
If after deducing the affix the remaining stem is not homonymous to a
separate word of the same root, we call it abound
stem.
Thus, in the word cordial
‘proceeding
as if from the heart’, the adjective-forming suffix can be
separated on the analogy with such words as bronchial,
radial, social. The
remaining stem, however, cannot form a separate word by itself, it is
bound. In cordially
and
cordiality,
on
the other hand, the derived stems are free.
Bound
stems are especially characteristic of loan words. The point may
be illustrated by the following French borrowings: arrogance,
charity,
courage, coward, distort, involve, notion, legible and
tolerable,
to
give but a few.2
After the affixes of these words are taken away the remaining
elements are: arrog-,
char-, cour-, cow-, -tort, -volve, not-, leg-, toler-, which
do not coincide with any semantically related independent words.
Roots
are main morphemic vehicles of a given idea in a given language at a
given stage of its development. A root may be also regarded as the
ultimate constituent element which remains after the removal of all
functional and derivational affixes and does not admit any further
analysis.
It is the common element of words within a word-family.
Thus,
-heart-
is
the common root of the following series of words: heart,
hearten,
dishearten, heartily, heartless, hearty, heartiness, sweetheart,
heart-broken, kind-hearted, whole-heartedly, etc.
In some of these, as, for example,
in hearten,
there
is only one root; in others the root -heart
is
combined with some other root, thus forming a compound like
sweetheart.
The
root word heart
is
unsegmentable, it is non-motivated morphologically. The morphemic
structure of all the other words in this word-family is obvious —
they
are segmentable as consisting of at least two distinct morphemes.
They may be further subdivided into: 1)
those
formed by affixation or
affixational
derivatives
consisting of a root morpheme and one or more affixes: hearten,
dishearten, heartily, heartless,
hearty, heartiness; 2)
compounds,
in which two, or very rarely
more, stems simple or derived are combined into a lexical unit:
sweetheart,
heart-shaped, heart-broken or3)
derivational
compounds
where words of a phrase are joined together by composition and
affixation: kind-hearted.
This
last process is also called phrasal derivation
((kind
heart) + -ed)).
There
exist word-families with several tmsegmentable members, the
derived elements being formed by conversion or clipping. The
word-family
with the noun father
as its centre
contains alongside affixational derivatives fatherhood,
fatherless, fatherly a
verb father
‘to
adopt’ or ‘to originate’ formed by conversion.
We
shall now present the different types of morphemes starting with the
root.
It
will at once be noticed that the root in English is very often
homonymous
with the word. This fact is of fundamental importance as it is
one of the most specific features of the English language arising
from its general grammatical system on the one hand, and from its
phonemic system on the other. The influence of the analytical
structure of the language
is obvious. The second point, however, calls for some explanation.
Actually
the usual phonemic shape most favoured in English is one single
stressed syllable: bear,
find, jump, land, man, sing, etc.
This does not
give much space for a second morpheme to add classifying
lexico-grammatical
meaning to the lexical meaning already present in the root-stem,
so the lexico-grammatical meaning must be signalled by distribution.
In
the phrases a
morning’s drive, a morning’s ride, a morning’s walk the
words drive,
ride and
walk
receive
the lexico-grammatical meaning of a noun not due to the structure of
their stems, but because they are preceded by a genitive.
An
English word does not necessarily contain formatives indicating to
what part of speech it belongs. This holds true even with respect to
inflectable
parts of speech, i.e. nouns, verbs, adjectives. Not all roots are
free forms, but productive
roots,
i.e. roots capable of producing
new words, usually are. The semantic realisation of an English word
is therefore very specific. Its dependence on context is further
enhanced
by the widespread occurrence of homonymy both among root morphemes
and affixes. Note how many words in the following statement
might be ambiguous if taken in isolation: A
change of work is as good
as a rest.
The
above treatment of the root is purely synchronic, as we have taken
into consideration only the facts of present-day English. But the
same
problem of the morpheme serving as the main signal of a given lexical
meaning is studied in etymology.
Thus, when approached historically
or diachronically the word heart
will
be classified as Common Germanic.
One will look for cognates,
i.e. words descended from a
common ancestor. The cognates of heart
are
the Latin cor,
whence
cordial
‘hearty’,
‘sincere’, and so cordially
and
cordiality,
also
the Greek kardia,
whence
English cardiac
condition. The
cognates outside the English
vocabulary are the Russian cepдце,
the
German Herz,
the
Spanish corazon
and
other words.
To
emphasise the difference between the synchronic and the diachronic
treatment, we shall call the common element of cognate words in
different
languages not their root but their radical
element. These
two types of approach, synchronic and diachronic, give rise to two
different principles of arranging morphologically related words into
groups. In the first case series of words with a common root morpheme
in which derivatives are opposable to their unsuffixed and unprefixed
bases, are combined, сf.
heart,
hearty, etc.
The second grouping results in families of historically cognate
words, сf.
heart,
cor (Lat),
Herz
(Germ),
etc.
Unlike
roots, affixes are always bound forms. The difference between
suffixes and prefixes, it will be remembered, is not confined to
their respective position, suffixes being “fixed after” and
prefixes “fixed before” the stem. It also concerns their function
and meaning.
A
suffix
is
a derivational morpheme following the stem and forming a new
derivative in a different part of speech or a different word class,
сf.
-en,
-y, -less in
hearten,
hearty, heartless. When
both the underlying and the resultant forms belong to the same part
of speech, the suffix serves to differentiate between
lexico-grammatical classes by rendering some very general
lexico-grammatical meaning. For instance, both -ify
and
-er
are
verb suffixes, but the first characterises causative verbs, such as
horrify,
purify, rarefy, simplify, whereas
the second is mostly typical of frequentative verbs: flicker,
shimmer, twitter and
the like.
If we realise that suffixes
render the most general semantic component of the word’s lexical
meaning by marking the general class of phenomena to which the
referent of the word belongs, the reason why suffixes are as a rule
semantically fused with the stem stands explained.
A
prefix
is a derivational morpheme standing before the root and modifying
meaning, cf.
hearten
—
dishearten.
It
is only with verbs and statives that a prefix may serve to
distinguish one part of speech from another, like in earth
n
—
unearth
v,
sleep
n
—
asleep
(stative).
It
is interesting that as a prefix en-
may
carry the same meaning of being or bringing into a certain state as
the suffix -en,
сf.
enable,
encamp, endanger,
endear, enslave and
fasten,
darken, deepen, lengthen, strengthen.
Preceding
a verb stem, some prefixes express the difference between a
transitive and an intransitive verb: stay
v
and outstay
(sb)
vt. With a few exceptions prefixes modify the stem for time (pre-,
post-), place
(in-,
ad-) or
negation (un-,
dis-) and
remain semantically rather independent of the stem.
An
infix
is an affix placed within the word, like -n-
in
stand.
The
type is not productive.
An
affix should not be confused with a
combining
form.
A
combining form is also a bound form but it can be distinguished from
an affix historically by the fact that it is always borrowed from
another language, namely, from Latin or Greek, in which it existed as
a free form, i.e. a separate word, or also as a combining form.
DERIVATIONAL AND
FUNCTIONAL AFFIXES
Lexicology
is primarily concerned with derivational
affixes,
the other group being the domain of grammarians. The derivational
affixes in fact, as well as the whole problem of word-formation, form
a boundary area between lexicology and grammar and are therefore
studied in both.
Language being a system in
which the elements of vocabulary and grammar are closely
interrelated, our study of affixes cannot be complete without some
discussion of the similarity and difference between derivational and
functional morphemes.
The
similarity is obvious as they are so often homonymous (for the most
important cases of homonymy between derivational and functional
affixes see p. 18).
Otherwise
the two groups are essentially different because they render
different types of meaning.
Functional
affixes serve to convey grammatical meaning. They build different
forms of one and the same word. A word
form,
or
the form of a word, is defined as one of the different aspects a word
may take as a result of inflection. Complete sets of all the various
forms of
a word when considered as inflectional patterns, such as declensions
or conjugations, are termed paradigms. A paradigm
has been defined in grammar as the system of grammatical forms
characteristic of a word, e. g. near,
nearer, nearest; son, son’s, sons, sons’ (see1
p. 23).
Derivational
affixes serve to supply the stem with components of lexical and
lexico-grammatical meaning, and thus form4different
words. One and the same lexico-grammatical meaning of the affix is
sometimes accompanied by different combinations of various lexical
meanings. Thus, the lexico-grammatical meaning supplied by the suffix
-y
consists
in the ability to express the qualitative idea peculiar to adjectives
and creates adjectives from noun stems. The lexical meanings of the
same suffix are somewhat variegated: ‘full of, as in bushy
or
cloudy,
‘composed
of, as in stony,
‘having
the quality of, as in slangy,
‘resembling’,
as in baggy,
‘covered
with’, as in hairy
and
some more. This suffix sometimes conveys emotional components of
meaning. E.g.: My
school reports used to say: “Not amenable to discipline; too fond
of organising,”
which was only a kind way of saying: “Bossy.” (M.
Dickens) Bossy
not
only means ‘having the quality of a boss’ or ‘behaving like a
boss’; it is also a derogatory word.
This fundamental difference in
meaning and function of the two groups of affixes results in an
interesting relationship: the presence of a derivational affix does
not prevent a word from being equivalent to another word, in which
this suffix is absent, so that they can be substituted for one
another in context. The presence of a functional affix changes the
distributional properties of a word so much that it can never be
substituted for a simple word without violating grammatical standard.
To see this point consider the following familiar quotation from
Shakespeare:
Cowards
die many times before their deaths; The
valiant never taste of death but once.
Here
no one-morpheme word can be substituted for the words cowards,
times or
deaths
because
the absence of a plural mark will make the sentence ungrammatical.
The words containing derivational affixes can be substituted by
morphologically different words, so that the derivative valiant
can
be substituted by a root word like brave.
In
a statement like
I
wash
my hands of the whole affair (Du
Maurier) the word affair
may
be replaced by the derivative business
or
by the simple word thing
because
their distributional properties are the same. It is, however,
impossible to replace it by a word containing a functional affix
(affairs
or
things),
as
this would require a change in the rest of the sentence.
The
American structuralists B. Bloch and G. Trager formulate this point
as follows: “A suffixal derivative is a two-morpheme word which is
grammatically equivalent to (can be substituted for) any simple word
in all the constructions where it occurs.»1
This
rule is not to be taken as an absolutely rigid one because the word
building potential and productivity of stems depend on several
factors. Thus, no further addition of suffixes is possible after
-ness,
-ity, -dom, -ship and
-hood.
A
derivative is mostly capable of further derivation and is therefore
homonymous to a stem. Foolish,
for
instance, is derived from the stem fool-
and
is homonymous to the stem foolish-
occurring
in the words foolishness
and
foolishly.
Inflected
words cease to be homonymous to stems. No further derivation is
possible from the word form fools,
where
the stem fool-
is
followed by the functional affix -s.
Inflected
words are neither structurally nor functionally equivalent to the
morphologically simple words belonging to the same part of speech.
Things
is
different from business
functionally,
because these two words cannot occur in identical contexts, and
structurally, because of the different character of their immediate
constituents and different word-forming possibilities. After having
devoted special attention to the difference in semantic
characteristics of various kinds of morphemes we notice that they are
different positionally. A functional affix marks the word boundary,
it can only follow the affix of derivation and come last, so that no
further derivation is possible for a stem to which a functional affix
is added. That is why functional affixes are called by E. Nida the
outer
formatives
as contrasted to the inner
formatives
which is equivalent to our term derivational
affixes.
It
might be argued that the outer position of functional affixes is
disproved by such examples as the
disableds, the unwanteds. It
must be noted, however, that in these words -ed
is
not a functional affix, it receives derivational force so that the
disableds is
not a form of the verb to
disable, but
a new word —
a
collective noun.
A word containing no outer
formatives is, so to say, open, because it is homonymous to a stem
and further derivational affixes may be added to it. Once we add an
outer formative, no further derivation is possible. The form may be
regarded as closed.
The
semantic, functional and positional difference that has already been
stated is supported by statistical properties and difference in
valency (combining possibilities). Of the three main types of
morphemes, namely roots, derivational affixes and functional affixes
(formatives), the roots are by far the most numerous. There are many
thousand roots in the English language; the derivational affixes,
when listed, do not go beyond a few scores. The list given in
“Chambers’s Twentieth Century Dictionary” takes up five pages
and a half, comprising all the detailed explanations of their origin
and meaning, and even then the actual living suffixes are much fewer.
As to the functional affixes there are hardly more than ten of them.
Regular English verbs, for instance, have only four forms: play,
plays, played, playing, as
compared to the German verbs
which have as many as sixteen.
The
valency of these three groups of morphemes is naturally in inverse
proportion to their number. Functional affixes can be appended,
with a few exceptions, to any element belonging to the part
of speech they serve. The regular correlation of singular and plural
forms of nouns can serve to illustrate this point. Thus, heart
: : hearts; boy :
: boys,
etc.
The relics of archaic forms, such as child
:
: children,
or
foreign plurals like criterion
:
: criteria
are
very few in comparison with these.
Derivational
affixes do not combine so freely and regularly. The suffix -en
occurring
in golden
and
leaden
cannot
be added to the root steel-.
Nevertheless,
as they serve to mark certain groups of words, their correlations are
never isolated and always contain more than two oppositions,
e. g. boy
:
: boyish,
child :
: childish,
book :
: bookish,
gold :
: golden,
lead :
: leaden,
wood :
: wooden.
The
valency of roots is of a very different order and the oppositions may
be sometimes isolated. It is for instance difficult to find another
pair with the root heart
and
the same relationship as in heart
:
: sweetheart.
Knowing
the plural functional suffix -s
we
know how the countable nouns are inflected. The probability of a
mistake is not great.
With
derivational affixes the situation is much more intricate. Knowing,
for instance, the complete list of affixes of feminisation, i.e.
formation of feminine nouns from the stems of masculine ones by
adding a characteristic suffix, we shall be able to recognise a new
word if we know the root. This knowledge, however, will not enable us
to construct words acceptable for English vocabulary, because
derivational affixes are attached to their particular stems in a
haphazard and unpredictable manner.
Why, for instance, is it impossible to call a lady-guest —
a
guestess on
the
pattern of host
:
: hostess?
Note
also: lion
:
: lioness,
tiger :
: tigress,
but
bear
:
: she-bear,
elephant :
: she-elephant,
wolf :
: she-wolf;
very
often the
correlation is assured by suppletion, therefore we have boar
:
: sow,
buck :
: doe,
bull :
: cow,
cock :
: hen,
ram :
: ewe.
Similarly
in toponymy: the inhabitant of London is called a
Londoner, the
inhabitant of Moscow is a
Muscovite, of
Vienna —
a
Viennese, of
Athens —
an
Athenian.
On
the whole this state of things is more or less common to many
languages; but English has stricter constraints in this respect than,
for example, Russian; indeed the range of possibilities in English is
very narrow. Russian not only possesses a greater number of
diminutive affixes but can add many of them to the same stem:
мальчик,
мальчишка,
мальчишечка,
мальчонка,
мальчуган,
мальчугашка.
Nothing
of the kind is
possible for the English noun stem boy.
With
the noun stem girl
the
diminutive -ie
can
be added but not -ette,
-let, -kin / -kins. The
same holds true even if the corresponding noun stems have much in
common: a short lecture is a
lecturette but
a small picture is never called a
picturette. The
probability that a given stem will combine with a given affix is thus
not easily established.
To sum up: derivational and
functional morphemes may happen to be identical in sound form, but
they are substantially different in meaning, function, valency,
statistical characteristics and structural properties.
CLASSIFICATION OF AFFIXES
Depending on the purpose of
research, various classifications of suffixes have been used and
suggested. Suffixes have been classified according to their origin,
parts of speech they served to form, their frequency, productivity
and other characteristics.
Within the parts of speech
suffixes have been classified semantically according to
lexico-grammatical groups and semantic fields, and last but not
least, according to the types of stems they are added to.
In
conformity with our primarily synchronic approach it seems convenient
to begin with the classification according to the part of speech in
which the most frequent suffixes of present-day English occur. They
will be listed together with words illustrating their possible
semantic force.1
Noun-forming
suffixes:
-age
(bondage,
breakage, mileage, vicarage); -ance/-ence2
(assistance,
reference); -ant/-ent
(disinfectant,
student); -dom
(kingdom,
freedom, officialdom);
—ее
(employee);
-eer
(profiteer);
-er
(writer,
type-writer); -ess
(actress,
lioness); -hood
(manhood);
-ing
(building,
meaning, washing); -ion/-sion/-tion/-ation
(rebellion,
tension, creation, explanation); -ism/-icism
(heroism,
criticism); -ist
(novelist,
communist); -ment
(government,
nourishment); -ness
(tenderness);
-ship
(friendship);
-(i)ty
(sonority).
Adjective-forming
suffixes:
-able/-ible/-uble
(unbearable,
audible, soluble); -al
(formal);
-ic
(poetic);
-ical
(ethical);
-ant/-ent
(repentant,
dependent); -ary
(revolutionary);
-ate/-ete
(accurate,
complete); -ed/-d
(wooded);
-ful
(delightful);
-an/-ian
(African,
Australian); -ish
(Irish,
reddish, childish);
-ive
(active);
-less
(useless);
-like
(lifelike);
-ly
(manly);
-ous/-ious
(tremendous,
curious); -some
(tiresome);
-y
(cloudy,
dressy).
Numeral-forming
suffixes:
-fold
(twofold);
-teen
(fourteen);
-th
(seventh);
-ty
(sixty).
Verb-forming
suffixes:
-ate
(facilitate);
-er
(glimmer);
-en
(shorten);
-fy/-ify
(terrify,
speechify, solidify); -ise/-ize
(equalise);
-ish
(establish).
Adverb-forming
suffixes:
—ly
(coldly);
-ward/-wards
(upward,
northwards); -wise
(likewise).
If we change our approach and
become interested in the lexico-grammatical meaning the suffixes
serve to signalise, we obtain within each part of speech more
detailed lexico-grammatical classes or subclasses.
Taking up nouns we can
subdivide them into proper and common nouns. Among common nouns we
shall distinguish personal names, names of other animate beings,
collective nouns, falling into several minor groups, material nouns,
abstract nouns and names of things.
Abstract
nouns are signalled by the following suffixes: -age,
-ance/ -ence, -ancy/-ency, -dom, -hood, -ing, -ion/-tion/-ation,
-ism, -ment, -ness, -ship, -th, -ty.1
Personal
nouns that are emotionally neutral occur with the following suffixes:
-an
{grammarian),
-ant/-ent
(servant,
student), -arian
(vegetarian),
—ее
(examinee),
-er
(porter),
-ician
(musician),
-ist
(linguist),
-ite
(sybarite),
-or
(inspector),
and
a few others.
Feminine
suffixes may be classed as a subgroup of personal noun suffixes.
These are few and not frequent: -ess
(actress),
-ine
(heroine),
-rix
(testatrix),
-ette
(cosmonette).
The
above classification should be accepted with caution. It is true that
in a polysemantic word at least one of the variants will show the
class meaning signalled by the affix. There may be other variants,
however, whose different meaning will be signalled by a difference in
distribution, and these will belong to some other lexico-grammatical
class. Cf.
settlement,
translation denoting
a process and its result, or beauty
which,
when denoting qualities that give pleasure to the eye or to the mind,
is an abstract noun, but occurs also as a personal noun denoting a
beautiful woman. The word witness
is
more often used in its several personal meanings than (in accordance
with its suffix) as an abstract noun meaning ‘evidence’ or
‘testimony’. The coincidence of two classes in the semantic
structure of some words may be almost regular. Collectivity, for
instance, may be signalled by such suffixes as -dom,
-ery-, -hood, -ship. It must
be borne in mind, however, that words with these suffixes are
polysemantic and show a regular correlation of the abstract noun
denoting state and a collective noun denoting a group of persons of
whom this state is characteristic, сf.
knighthood.
Alongside
with adding some lexico-grammatical meaning to the stem, certain
suffixes charge it with emotional force. They may be derogatory: -ard
(drunkard),
-ling
(underling);
-ster
(gangster),
-ton
(simpleton),
These
seem to be more numerous in English than the suffixes of endearment.
Emotionally
coloured diminutive
suffixes rendering also endearment differ from the derogatory
suffixes in that they are used to name not only persons but things as
well. This point may be illustrated by
the suffix -y/-ie/-ey
(auntie,
cabbie (cabman), daddy), but
also: hanky
(handkerchief),
nightie (night-gown). Other
suffixes that express smallness are -kin/-kins
(mannikin);
-let
(booklet);
-ock
(hillock);
-ette
(kitchenette).
The
connotation
(see p. 47ff) of some diminutive suffixes is not one of endearment
but of some outlandish elegance and novelty, particularly in the case
of the borrowed suffix -ette
(kitchenette,
launderette, lecturette, maisonette, etc.).
Derivational
morphemes affixed before the stem are called prefixes.
Prefixes modify the lexical meaning of the stem, but in so doing they
seldom affect its basic lexico-grammatical component. Therefore both
the simple word and its prefixed derivative mostly belong to the same
part of speech. The prefix mis-,
for
instance, when added to verbs, conveys the meaning ‘wrongly’,
‘badly’, ‘unfavourably’; it does not suggest any other part
of speech but the verb. Compare the following oppositions: behave
:
: misbehave,
calculate :
: miscalculate,
inform :
: misinform,
lead :
: mislead,
pronounce :
: mispronounce.
The
above oppositions
are strictly proportional
semantically,
i.e. the same relationship between elements holds throughout the
series. There may be other cases where the semantic relationship is
slightly different but the general lexico-grammatical meaning
remains, cf.
giving
:
: misgiving
‘foreboding’
or ‘suspicion’; take
:
: mistake
and
trust
:
: mistrust.
The
semantic effect of a prefix may be termed adverbial because it
modifies the idea suggested by the stem for manner, time, place,
degree and so on. A few examples will prove the point. It has been
already shown that the prefix mis-
is
equivalent to the adverbs wrongly
and
badly,
therefore
by expressing evaluation it modifies the corresponding verbs for
manner.1
The prefixes pre-
and
post-
refer
to time and order, e. g. historic
::
pre-historic,
pay ::
prepay,
view ::
preview.
The
last word means ‘to
view a film or a play before it is submitted to the general public’.
Compare also: graduate
::
postgraduate
(about
the course of study carried on after graduation), Impressionism
::
Post-impressionism.
The
latter is so called because it came after Impressionism as a reaction
against it. The prefixes in-,
a-, ab-, super-, sub-, trans- modify
the stem for place, e. g. income,
abduct ‘to
carry away’, subway,
transatlantic. Several
prefixes serve to modify the meaning of the stem for degree and size.
The examples are out-,
over- and under-. The
prefix out-
has
already been described (see p. 95).
Compare
also the modification for degree in such verbs as overfeed
and
undernourish,
subordinate.
The
group of negative prefixes is so numerous that some scholars even
find it convenient to classify prefixes into negative and
non-negative ones. The negative ones are: de-,
dis-, in-/im-/il-/ir-, поп-,
ип-.
Part
of this group has been also more accurately classified as prefixes
giving negative, reverse or opposite meaning.2
The
prefix de-
occurs
in many neologisms, such as decentralise,
decontaminate
‘remove
contamination from the area or the clothes’, denazify,
etc.
The
general idea of negation is expressed by dis-;
it
may mean ‘not’, and be simply negative or ‘the reverse of,
‘asunder’, ‘away’, ‘apart’ and then it is called
reversative. Cf.
agree
:
: disagree
‘not
to agree’ appear
:
: disappear
(disappear
is the reverse of appear), appoint
:
: dis-.
appoint ‘to
undo the appointment and thus frustrate the expectation’, disgorge
‘eject
as from the throat’, dishouse
‘throw
out, evict’. /n-/
im-/ir-/il
have
already been discussed, so there is no necessity to dwell upon them.
Non-
is
often used in abstract verbal nouns such as noninterference,
nonsense or
non-resistance,
and
participles or former participles like non-commissioned
(about
an officer in the army below the rank of
a commissioned officer), non-combatant
(about
any one who is connected
with the army but is there for some purpose other than fighting, as,
for instance, an army surgeon.)
Non-
used
to be restricted to simple unemphatic negation. Beginning with the
sixties non-
indicates
not so much the opposite of something but rather that something is
not real or worthy of the name. E. g. non-book
—
is
a book published to be purchased rather than to be read, non-thing
—
something
insignificant and meaningless.
The
most frequent by far is the prefix un-;
it
should be noted that it may convey two different meanings, namely:
-
Simple
negation, when attached to adjective stems or to participles: happy
:
: unhappy,
kind :
: unkind,
even :
: uneven.
It
is immaterial whether the stem is native or borrowed, as the suffix
un-
readily
combines with both groups. For instance, uncommon,
unimportant, etc.
are hybrids. -
The
meaning is reversative when un-
is
used with verbal stems. In that case it shows action contrary to
that of the simple word: bind
:
:
unbind,
do :
: undo,
mask :
: unmask,
pack :
: unpack.
A
very frequent prefix with a great combining power is re-
denoting
repetition of the action expressed by the stem. It may be prefixed to
almost any verb or verbal noun: rearrange
v,
recast
v
‘put into new shape’, reinstate
v
‘to place again in a former position’, refitment
n
‘repairs and renewal’, remarriage
n,
etc. There are, it must be remembered, some constraints. Thus, while
reassembled
or
revisited
are
usual, rereceived
or
reseen
do
not occur at all.
The meaning of a prefix is not
so completely fused with the meaning of the primary stem as is the
case with suffixes, but retains a certain degree of semantic
independence.
It will be noted that among
the above examples verbs predominate. This is accounted for by the
fact that prefixation in English is chiefly characteristic of verbs
and words with deverbal stems.
The
majority of prefixes affect only the lexical meaning of words but
there are three important cases where prefixes serve to form words
belonging to different parts of speech as compared with the original
word.
These
are in the first place the verb-forming prefixes be-
and
en-,
which
combine functional meaning with a certain variety of lexical
meanings.1
Be-
forms
transitive verbs with adjective, verb and noun stems and changes
intransitive verbs into transitive ones. Examples are: belittle
v
‘to make little’, benumb
v
‘to make numb’, befriend
v
‘to treat
like
a friend’, becloud
v
(bedew
v,
befoam
v)
‘to cover with clouds (with dew
or with foam)’, bemadam
v
‘to call madam’, besiege
v
‘to lay siege
on’. Sometimes the lexical meanings are very different; compare,
for instance, bejewel
v
‘to deck with jewels’ and behead
v
which has the meaning of ‘to cut the head from’. There are on the
whole about six semantic verb-forming varieties and one that makes
adjectives from noun stems following the pattern be-
+
noun
stem +
-ed,
as
in benighted,
bespectacled, etc.
The pattern is often connected with a contemptuous emotional
colouring.
The
prefix en-/em-
is
now used to form verbs from noun stems with the meaning ‘put (the
object) into, or on, something’, as in embed,
engulf, encamp, and
also to form verbs with adjective and noun stems with the meaning ‘to
bring into such condition or state’, as in enable
v,
enslave
v,
encash
v.
Sometimes the prefix en-/em—
has an intensifying function, cf. enclasp.
The
prefix a-
is
the characteristic feature of the words belonging to statives:
aboard,
afraid, asleep, awake, etc.
1
As a prefix forming the words of the category of state a- represents:
(1) OE preposition on,
as
abed,
aboard, afoot; (2)
OE preposition of,
from, as
in anew,
(3)
OE prefixes ge-
and
y-
as
in aware.
This
prefix has several homonymous morphemes which modify only the lexical
meaning of the stem, cf. arise
v,
amoral
a.
The
prefixes pre-,
post-, non-, anti-, and
some other Romanic and Greek prefixes very productive in present-day
English serve to form adjectives retaining at the same time a very
clear-cut lexical meaning, e. g. anti-war,
pre-war, post-war, non-party, etc.
From
the point of view of etymology affixes are subdivided into two main
classes: the native affixes and the borrowed affixes. By native
affixes we
shall mean those that existed in English in the Old English period or
were formed from Old English words. The latter category needs some
explanation. The changes a morpheme undergoes in the course of
language history may be of very different kinds. A bound form, for
instance, may be developed from a free one. This is precisely the
case with such English suffixes as —dom,
-hood,
-lock, -ful, -less, -like, -ship, e.
g. ModE -dom
<
OE dom
‘fate’,
‘power’, cf. ModE doom.
The
suffix -hood
that
we see in childhood,
boyhood is
derived from OE had
‘state’.
The OE lac
was
also a suffix denoting state. The process may be summarised
as follows: first lac
formed
the second element of compound words, then
it became a suffix and lastly was so fused with the stem as to become
a dead suffix in wedlock.
The
nouns freedom,
wisdom, etc.
were originally
compound words.
The
most important native suffixes are: -d,
-dom, -ed, -en, -fold, -ful, -hood, -ing, -ish, -less, -let, -like,
-lock, -ly, -ness, -oc, -red, -ship, -some, -teen, -th, -ward, -wise,
-y.
The
suffixes of foreign origin are classified according to their source
into Latin (-able/-ible,
-ant/-ent), French
(-age,
-ance/-ence, -ancy/-ency, -ard, -ate, -sy), Greek
(-ist,
-ism, -ite), etc.
The
term borrowed
affixes
is not very exact as affixes are never
borrowed as such, but only as parts of loan
words.
To enter the morphological system of the English language a borrowed
affix has to satisfy certain conditions. The borrowing of the affixes
is possible only if the number of words containing this affix is
considerable, if its meaning and function are definite and clear
enough, and also if its structural pattern corresponds to the
structural patterns already existing in the language.
If
these conditions are fulfilled, the foreign affix may even become
productive and combine with native stems or borrowed stems within the
system of English vocabulary like
-able <
Lat
-abilis
in
such words as laughable
or
unforgettable
and
unforgivable.
The
English words balustrade,
brigade, cascade are
borrowed from French. On the analogy with these in the English
language itself such words as blockade
are
coined.
It should be noted that many
of the borrowed affixes are international and occur not only in
English but in several other European languages as well.
“THE
STONE
WALL PROBLEM”
The
so-called stone
wall problem
concerns the status of the complexes like stone
wall, cannon ball or
rose
garden. Noun
premodifiers of other nouns often become so closely fused together
with what they modify that it is difficult to say whether the result
is a compound or a syntactical free phrase. Even if this difficulty
is solved and we agree that these are phrases and not words, the
status of the first element remains to be determined. Is it a noun
used as an attribute or is it to be treated as an adjective?
The
first point to be noted is that lexicographers differ in their
treatment. Thus, “The Heritage Dictionary of the English Language”
combines in one entry the noun stone
and
the adjective stone
pertaining
to or made of stone’ and gives as an example this very combination
stone
wall. In
his dictionary A.S. Hornby, on the other hand, when beginning the
entry —
stone
as
an uncountable noun, adds that it is often used attributively and
illustrates this statement with the same example —
stone
wall.
R.
Quirk and his colleagues in their fundamental work on the grammar of
contemporary English when describing premodification of nouns by
nouns emphasise the fact that they become so closely associated as to
be regarded as compounds. The meaning of noun premodification may
correspond to an of-phrase as in the following the
story of his life —
his
life story, or
correlate with some other prepositional phrase as in a
war story
—
a
story about war, an arm chair —
a
chair with arms, a dish cloth —
a
cloth for dishes.
There
is no consistency in spelling, so that in the A.S. Hornby’s
Dictionary both arm-chair
and
dish-cloth
are
hyphenated.
R.
Quirk finds orthographic criteria unreliable, as there are no hard
and fast rules according to which one may choose solid, hyphenated or
open spelling. Some examples of complexes with open spelling that he
treats as compound words are: book
review, crime report, office management,
steel production, language teacher. They
are placed in different structural
groups according to the grammatical process they reflect. Thus,
book
review, crime report and
haircut
are
all compound count nouns formed
on the model object+deverbal
noun: X
reviews books →
the
reviewing
of books →
book
review. We
could reasonably take all the above examples
as free syntactic phrases, because the substitution of some equonym
for the first element would leave the meaning of the second intact.
We could speak about nickel
production or
a
geography teacher. The
first elements may be modified by an adjective —
an
English language teacher especially
because the meaning of the whole can be inferred from the meaning of
the parts.
H.
Marchand also mentions the fact that ‘stone
‘wall is
a two-stressed combination, and the two-stressed pattern never shows
the intimate permanent semantic relationship between the two
components that is characteristic of compound words. This stress
pattern stands explained if we interpret the premodifying element as
an adjective or at least emphasise its attributive function. The same
explanation may be used to account for the singularisation that takes
place, i.e. the compound is an
arm-chair not
*an
arms-chair.
Singularisation
is observed even with otherwise
invariable plural forms. Thus, the game is called billiards
but
a table for it is a
billiard table and
it stands in a
billiard-room. A
similar example is a
scissor sharpener that
is a sharpener for scissors. One further theoretical point may be
emphasised, this is the necessity of taking into account the context
in which these complexes are used. If the complex is used
attributively before a third noun, this attributive function joins
them more intimately. For example:
I
telephoned:
no air-hostess trainees had been kept late (J.
Fowles).
It
is especially important in case a compound of this type is an
author’s neologism. E. g. :
The
train was full of soldiers. I once again felt the great current of
war, the European death-wish (J.
Fowles).
It
should, perhaps, be added that an increasing number of linguists are
now agreed —
and
the evidence at present available seems to suggest they are right —
that
the majority of English nouns are regularly used to form nominal
phrases that are semantically derivable from their components but in
most cases develop some unity of referential meaning. This
set of nominal phrases exists alongside the set of nominal compounds.
The
boundaries between the two sets are by no means rigid, they are
correlated and many compounds originated as free phrases.
Lecture 6 Word-structure and Word-formation
Plan: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Word-structure and morphemes. Morphemic types of words. Segmentation of words into morphemes. Types of word segmentability. Derivative structure. Derivational analysis. Major types of word-formation: affixation, conversion, word-composition. Secondary types of word-formation.
1. Word-structure and morphemes. Morphemic types of words
The Morpheme: the smallest ____ indivisible two-facet language unit.
Meaning of word building morphemes: 1. lexical meaning: — ______ (serves a linguistic expression for a concept or a name for an individual object) Especially revealed in root-morphemes. E. g. -girl- -ly, -like, -ish ; – similarity — ______ (an emotional content of the morpheme) E. g. the suffix in piglet has a diminutive meaning.
Word building morphemes do not possess grammatical meaning.
Meaning of word building morphemes: 2. part-of-speech meaning (is proper only to _______) (government, teach-er)
Specific meaning of word building morphemes: n Differential: serves to distinguish words having the same morphemes (over-cook, under cook, precook) n Distributional (the meaning of morpheme arrangement in a word: certain morphemes usually follow or precede the root) (un-effective, speech-less)
Semantic Classification of Morphemes: ______ morpheme (the lexical center of words, has an individual meaning) n non-root or ______ morpheme. n
Affixational Morphemes: 1. form building, or inflectional morphemes (only _____ meaning and only for the formation of word-forms) n smiled, smiles, is smiling
2. derivational morphemes (the smallest meaningful stem building or word building lexical units) n reason-able, un-reason-able
Derivational morphemes: n prefixes n suffixes
Structural classification: 1. ______ morphemes (may function independently. Most roots are free) n friend- in the word friendship 2. ______ morphemes (function only as a constituent part of a word). Affixes are bound morphemes.
3. semi-free (semi-bound) morphemes (can function both as an ______ and as a ______ morpheme). n • • the morpheme well: the stem and the word-form in the utterance like sleep well; a bound morpheme in the word wellknown.
According to the Number of the Morphemes: § monomorphic words § polymorphic
Monomorphic or root -words: only one rootmorpheme. § small, dog.
Polymorphic Words: 1) Monoradical (one-root words) monoradical suffixal (teacher); n monoradical prefixal (overteach); n radical prefixal-suffixal (superteacher, beheaded). n
2) Polyradical (consist of two or more roots): n polyradical proper (headmaster); n polyradical suffixal (head-teacher, boarding-school); n polyradical prefixal (superheadmaster); n polyradical prefixal-suffixal (superheadteacher).
2. Segmentation of words into morphemes. Types of word segmentability
According to the complexity of the morphemic structure: 1. segmentable words (allowing of segmentation into morphemes). n agreement, information, quickly. 2. non-segmentable words. n house, girl, woman.
Levels of the Analysis of the Word Structure: n Morphemic: its aim is to state the number and type of morphemes the word consists of. Basic units: ______ mislead — polymorphic, monoradical, radical-prefixal.
n Derivational: its aim is to establish the correlations between different types of words and to establish a word’s derivational structure. Basic units: derivational bases, derivational affixes, derivational patterns.
The Morphemic Analysis: the operation of breaking a segmentable word into the constituent morphemes.
The method of Immediate and Ultimate constituents (the IC and UC method): to know how many _____ parts are there in a word.
At every stage the word is broken into 2 components (IC-s) unless we achieve units incapable of further division – the so-called ultimate constituents.
Friendliness: 1. is divided into the component friendly-, occurring in such words as friendly, friendly-looking, and the component ness- as in dark-ness, happy-ness. 2. is divided into friend- and -ly which are ultimate constituents.
Types of Morphemic Segmentability of Words: 1. complete 2. conditional 3. defective
Complete Segmentability: one can easily divide a word into morphemes. The constituent morphemes of the word recur with the same meaning in a number of other words. n teacher: teach- — in to teach and teaching. -er – in words like worker, builder, etc.
Conditional Segmentability: when segmentation is doubtful for ____ reasons, as the segments (pseudo-morphemes) regularly occurring in other words can hardly possess any definite lexical meaning.
![n retain, detain, contain or receive, conceive, perceive: sound-clusters [rı-], [dı-], [kən-] seem to](https://present5.com/presentation/78209858_438044061/image-30.jpg "n retain, detain, contain or receive, conceive, perceive: sound-clusters [rı-], [dı-], [kən-] seem to")
n retain, detain, contain or receive, conceive, perceive: sound-clusters [rı-], [dı-], [kən-] seem to be singled out quite easily due to their recurrence in a number of words, but they have nothing in common with the phonetically identical morphemes like re-, de- as in words rewrite, re-organize, decode.
Defective Segmentability: when segmentation is doubtful for ______ reasons because one of the components (a unique morpheme) has a specific lexical meaning but seldom or never occurs in other words.
n streamlet, ringlet, leaflet: the morpheme -let has the denotational meaning of diminutiveness and is combined with the morphemes stream-, ring-, leaf-, each having a clear denotational meaning. n hamlet – the morpheme -let retains the same meaning of diminutiveness, but the soundcluster [hæm] does not occur in any English word with the meaning it has in the word hamlet.
Morphological analysis: + reveals the number of meaningful constituents in a word and their usual sequence. — does not reveal the way the word is constructed.
3. Derivative structure. Derivational analysis
Words having the same morphological structure may be derived in completely different ways. n do-gooder: (do good) + -er (suffixation). n dress-maker: dress + (make + -er) (word -composition)
Derivatives: nare words depending on some other lexical items that motivate them structurally and semantically.
The basic elements of a derivative structure of a word: n a derivational base n a derivational affix n derivational pattern
A derivational base: n a unit to which derivational affixes are added. It is always monosemantic.
Derivational bases are built on the following language units: a) stems of various structure, b) word-forms (unknown: un + Ved –>A) c) word-groups or phrases (longlegged: (A + N) + ed –> A)
The derivational base a stem (an unchangeable part of the word throughout its paradigm) n unknown – derivational base n know – stem
A derivational affix is added to a derivational base.
They have lexical, functional, distributional, and differential meaning and are characterized by 2 functions: n stem-building (public, curious) n word-building (economic = economy + ic, courageous = courage + ous)
A derivational pattern: a scheme of order and arrangement of the IC-s of the word. n v + -er =N (teach-teacher, build- builder) n re + v = V (re + write — rewrite)
4. Major types of wordformation: affixation, conversion, wordcomposition
In English there are three major types of word-formation: affixation, n zero derivation (conversion), n composition (compounding). n
Affixation. Prefixation. Classifications of prefixes. Suffixation. Classifications of suffixes. Productivity of suffixes.
Affixation has been one of the most productive ways of word-building throughout the history of English.
Affixation: n formation of new words by adding _____ affixes to different types of derivational bases.
Affixes: n ______ (take part in deriving new words in the particular period of language development. To identify productive affixes one should look for them among neologisms). E. g. -er, -able. n ______. E. g. -hood, -ous.
The productivity of affixes their frequency of occurrence: there are some high-frequency affixes which are no longer used in word derivation (the adjective-forming suffixes -ful, -ly, etc. ).
Derived words formed by affixation may be the result of one or more applications of word-formation rule. Degrees of derivation: zero degree (found in simple words whose stem coincides with a word morpheme) (cat, table) n first degree (found in words with one derivational affix) (teach-er, re-write) n second degree (found in words formed by adding 2 derivational affixes in consequence) (teach-er head-teacher) n
Affixation: n suffixation n prefixation
Prefixation is the formation of words by means of adding a ______ to the stem. There about 51 prefixes in the system of Modern English word-formation.
The main function of prefixes: n to change the lexical meaning of the ______ part of speech. But the recent research showed that there about 25 prefixes which can transfer words to different parts of speech. to begulf, to debus, etc.
In Modern English suffixation is mostly characteristic of ______ and ______ formation, while prefixation is mostly typical of ______ formation.
The main function of suffixes: n to form one ______ from another (to work – a worker), n to change the ______ meaning of the ______ part of speech (to educate, educatee).
Main differences between suffixes and prefixes: suffixes functional meaning is significant prefixes functional meaning is not that important the same prefix may function in different parts of speech the main function of prefixes is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech usually function in one part of speech the main function of suffixes in Modern English is to form one part of speech from another (to work – a worker), the secondary function is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech (to educate, educatee) a characteristic of noun and typical of verb formation adjective formation
Prefixes may be classified on different principles: 1) origin of prefixes: native (Germanic) (un-, over-, under-, etc. ); n Romanic (in-, de-, re-, ex-, etc. ); n Greek (sym- sympathy, hyper- hypertension, etc. ). n 2) the lexico-grammatical type of the stem: deverbal (overdo, rewrite); n denominal (unbutton, ex-president); n deadjectival (uneasy). n
Prefixes may be classified on different principles: 3) meaning: negation (ungrateful, incorrect, disadvantage, etc. ); n time and order (foretell, foreknowledge, pre-war, post-war, etc. ); n repetition (rebuild, re-write, etc. ); n location (subway, inter-continental, etc. ), n quantity and intensity (bilingual, polytechnical), etc. n 4) stylistic reference: neutral stylistic reference (over-, re-, under-, etc. ); n with stylistic value (super-, ultra-, pseudo-, bi-, etc. ). n
Disputable cases: n words with a disputable structure, such as contain, retain, detain and conceive, receive, deceive, where we can see that re-, de-, con- act as prefixes and -tain, -ceive can be understood as roots. But in English these combinations of sounds have no lexical meaning and are called pseudo-morphemes. Some scientists treat such words as simple words, others as derived ones.
Suffixes may be classified according to: 1) the part of speech formed: a) noun-forming suffixes (-er, -dom, -ation, etc. ) (teacher, Londoner, freedom, justification, etc. ); b) adjective-forming suffixes (-able, -less, -ful, -ic, -ous, etc. ) (agreeable, careless, doubtful, poetic, courageous, etc. ); c) verb-forming suffixes (-en, -fy, -ize) (darken, satisfy, harmonize, etc. ); d) adverb-forming suffixes (-ly, -ward) (quickly, eastward, etc. ); e) numeral-forming suffixes (-teen, -ty ) (sixteen, seventy).
Suffixes may be classified according to: 2) lexico-grammatical character of the base the affix is usually added to: n deverbal (those added to the verbal base), e. g. -er, -ing, -ment, -able, etc. (speaker, reading, agreement, suitable, etc. ); n denominal (those added to the noun base), e. g. less, -ish, -ful, -ist, -some, etc. (handless, childish, mouthful, violinist, troublesome, etc. ); n deadjectival (those affixed to the adjective base), e. g. -en, -ly, -ish, -ness, etc. (blacken, slowly, reddish, brightness, etc. ).
Suffixes may be classified according to: 3) meaning. For instance, noun-suffixes fall into those denoting: a) the agent of an action, e. g. -er, -ant (baker, dancer, defendant, etc. ); b) nationality, e. g. -an, -ian, -ese, etc. (Arabian, Elizabethan, Russian, Chinese, etc. ); c) collectivity, e. g. -dom, -ry, -ship, etc. (moviedom, readership, peasantry, etc. ); d) diminutiveness, e. g. -ie, -let, -ling, etc. (birdie, piglet, wolfling, etc. ) e) quality, e. g. -ness, -ity (helplessness, answerability).
Suffixes may be classified according to: 4) the origin of suffixes: a) native (Germanic), such as -er, -ful, less, -ly; b) Romanic, such as : -tion, -ment, -able, eer; c) Greek, such as : -ist, -ism, -ize; d) Russian, such as -nik.
Suffixes may be classified according to: 5) productivity: a) productive, such as -er, -ize, -ly, ness; b) semi-productive, such as -eer, ette, -ward; c) non-productive, such as -ard (drunkard), -th (length).
Disputable cases: whether we have a suffix or a root morpheme in the structure of a word. In such cases we call such morphemes semi-suffixes, and words with such suffixes can be classified either as derived words or as compound words, e. g. -burger (cheeseburger), -aholic (workaholic).
Conversion. Typical semantic relations. Productivity of conversion.
The term conversion was first mentioned by H. _______ in 1891.
Conversion: n a morphological way of forming words when one part of speech is formed from another part of speech by changing its ______ The morphological paradigms of the word eye n as a noun: eye — eyes n as a verb: to eye, eyes, eyed, will eye
The clearest cases of conversion are observed between verbs and nouns, and this term is now mostly used in this narrow sense.
Conversion is very active both in nouns for verb formation: doctor to doctor, shop to shop in verbs to form nouns: to smile a smite, to offer an offer).
Typical semantic relations (verbs converted from nouns): a) names of _______ of a human body and _______ , _______ – verbs have instrumental meaning (to hammer, to rifle, to nail), b) verbs denote an action characteristic of the _______ denoted by the noun from which they have been converted (to crowd, to wolf, to ape),
Typical semantic relations (verbs converted from nouns): c) verbs denote acquisition, addition or deprivation if they are formed from nouns denoting an object (to fish, to dust, to paper), d) the name of a _______ – verbs denote the process of occupying the place or of putting smth. /smb. in it (to room, to house, to cage), e) the _______ denoted by the noun – verbs denote an action performed at the time (to winter, to week-end),
Typical semantic relations (verbs converted from nouns): f) the name of a _______ or occupation – verbs denote an activity typical of it (to nurse, to cook, to maid, to groom), g) the name of a _______ – verbs denote the act of putting smth. within the container (to can, to bottle, to pocket). h) the name of a _______ – verbs denote the process of taking it (to lunch, to supper).
Nouns converted from verbs can denote: a) instant of an action, e. g. a jump, a move, b) process or state, e. g. sleep, walk, c) agent of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been converted, e. g. a help, a flirt, a scold,
Nouns converted from verbs can denote: d) object or result of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been converted, e. g. a burn, a find, a purchase, e) place of the action, e. g. a drive, a stop, a walk.
The main reason that conversion pairs are so widely spread in present-day English: a limited number of inflexions the word-formation based on changing the paradigm is very economical and productive.
Word-composition. Features of compoundwords. Classifications of compound-words.
Composition nthe way of word building when a word is formed by joining two or more _______ to form one word.
As English compounds consist of free forms, it is difficult to distinguish them from phrases.
Criteria of distinguishing compound words: 1) _______ (solid or hyphenated spelling), e. g. phrase-book, Sunday. 2) _______ (based on the position of stress). There is a tendency to put heavy stress on the 1 -st element (‘blackboard, ‘ice-cream). But this rule does not hold in some cases: with adjectives (new-‘born, easy-‘going) etc.
3) _______ (a compound is a combination forming a unit that expresses a single idea and that is not identical in meaning to the sum of the meanings of its components in a free phrase). 4) the unity of _____ and _____ functioning. Compounds are used in a sentence as one part of it and only one component changes grammatically, e. g. These girls are chatterboxes. «Chatter-boxes» is a predicative in the sentence and only the second component changes grammatically.
Borderline cases (present the greatest difficulty in determining their status as compounds): n String compounds (sit-on-the-fenceattitude, once-in-a-time-opportunity). n «Stone Wall» constructions. n Bound stems/semi-affixes (seaman, homophobia).
Characteristic features of English compounds: n Both components in an English compound are free stems: they can be used as words with a distinctive meaning of their own. n English compounds have a two-stem pattern, with the exception of compound words which have form-word stems in their structure, e. g. middle-of-the-road, off-therecord, up-and-doing etc.
Compounds may be classified according to: 1. The way components are joined together: a) _______ (by joining together two stems without any joining morpheme), e. g. ball-point, to windowshop, b) _______ (components are joined by a linking element: vowels «o» or «i» or the consonant «s» ), e. g. handicraft, sportsman, c) _______ (components are joined by means of form-word stems), e. g. here-and-now, free-for-all.
Compounds may be classified according to: 2. Their _____: n compound proper (formed by joining two stems), e. g. to job-hunt, train-sick, n compound-derived compounds (besides the stems they have affixes), e. g. ear-minded, hydro-skimmer, n compound-shortened words, e. g. Eurodollar, H-bomb.
Compounds may be classified according to: 3. Semantic relations: 1) _______ (the meaning of the whole is the sum total of the meanings of the components), e. g. music-lover, flower-bed 2) _______ , e. g. hotdog, wet-blanket
5. Secondary types of word-formation
_____ types of wordformation: n lexicalization, n sound-imitation, n reduplication, n back-formation, n sound and stress interchange, n shortening (abbreviation, acronymy, blends, clipping).
Besides major types of word-formation (affixation, composition and conversion) in English, there are some other types, which are less important for replenishment of vocabulary. Some of them (sound-interchange, stress shift and back-formation) were acting in the past and are more important for diachronic research of vocabulary. Such types as clipping, blending, and acronymy are very common in modern English.
Lexicalization: the process, when due to some semantic and syntactic reasons, the grammatical flexion in some word forms loses its _____ meaning and becomes isolated from the paradigm e. g. the plural of nouns like arms, colours of the words arm and colours. As the result these word forms (arms, colours) develop a different lexical meaning (arms = weapons and colours = flag) and become independent words. n
Sound-imitation: n the way of word-building when a word is formed by _______ different sounds. E. g. to whisper, to sneeze, to whistle, to buzz, to bark, to bubble.
Reduplication: n the way of word-formation within which new words are formed by _____ a stem, either without any phonetic changes or with a variation of the root-vowel or consonant. E. g. bye-bye, gee- gee, hush-hush, ping-pong, dilly-dally.
Back-formation: n the creation of new words by losing a _______ morpheme (babysitter to baby-sit, editor to edit, beggar to beg). It is opposite to suffixation, that is why it is called back-formation.
Sound-interchange n the creation of new words by changing the _____ (to breathe – breath, food – feed)
Stress-shift: n the process of forming new words by replacement of _______ from one syllable to another (‘import – to im’port, ‘record – to re’cord).
Types of Shortening: n substantivisation n acronyms and letter abbreviations n blends (сращения) n clippings (усечения)
Substantivisation: n is dropping of the final nominal member of a frequently used attributive word-group. The remaining adjective takes on the meaning and all syntactic functions of the noun and, in this way, develops into a new word. A number of nouns in English appeared in this way (documentary – a doc. film; finals – final examination; an editorial – an editorial article).
Abbreviation: na _____ form of a _____ word or a phrase used in a text in place of the whole for economy of space and effort.
Main types of shortenings: n _______ abbreviations (the result of shortening of words and word-groups only in written speech while orally the corresponding full forms are used. They are used for the economy of space and effort in writing), e. g. Mon — Monday, April, Mr. , Dr. n _______ abbreviations
Acronyms and letter abbreviations: Though the border-line between them is rather vague scholars make distinction between these 2 notions.
Letter abbreviations: n are mere replacements of longer phrases including names of well-known organizations, agencies, institutions, political parties, official offices. They are pronounced ______ and, as a rule, possess no linguistic forms proper to words (ITV = Independent Television; SST = Supersonic Transport)
Acronyms n are regular vocabulary units spoken as _______ (CLASS, yuppie). All acronyms, unlike letter abbreviations, perform the syntactic functions of ordinary words and can have grammatical inflexions. n Eg. : MP-MP’s-MPs
Acronyms may be formed in different ways: n from the initial letters or syllables of a phrase (NATO = North Atlantic Treaty Organization; UNO = United Nations Organization) n from the initial syllables of each word of a phrase (Interpol = international police)
Blends: n are words created when _______ and _______ segments of two words are joined together (smog = smoke + fog; brunch = breakfast + lunch).
Clipping: n is creation of new words by shortening a word of 2 or more _______ without changing its class membership (van = caravan, advantage (in tennis); dub = double; mike = microphone).
As a rule, lexical meanings of the clipped and the original word do not coincide. E. g. : Doc refers only to «sb. who practises medicine», while doctor denotes also «the higher degree given by a University, and a person who has received it» – Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of Law).
Clippings fall into: n initial (van = advantage) n medial (specs = spectacles, maths = mathematics) n final (fan = fanatic)
Types of Forming Words. Affixation. Lecture 10
1. TYPES OF FORMING WORDS � Word-formation is the system of derivational types of words and the process of creating new words from the material available in the language after certain structural and semantic formulas and patterns. � Driver = v+-er (a verbal stem + the nounforming suffix –er). � The meaning of the derived noun driver — the meaning of the stem drive- ‘to direct the course of a vehicle’ and the suffix -er meaning ‘an active agent’: a driver is ‘one who drives’ (a carriage, motorcar, railway engine, etc. ). �
1. 1. Main Types of Forming Words I. Word-derivation in morphology is a word-formation process by which a new word is built from a stem with the addition of an affix that changes the word class and / or basic meaning of the word. The basic ways of forming words in word-derivation are: � 1. Affixation is the formation of a new word with the help of affixes: pointless (from point). � 2. Conversion is the formation of a new word by bringing a stem of this word into a different formal paradigm: a fall (from to fall), a cut (from to cut). II. Word-composition is the formation of a new word by combining two or more stems which occur in the language as free forms: door-bell, house-keeper.
1. 2. Minor Types of Forming Words 1. shortening is the formation of a word by cutting off a part of the word. a) initial (or aphesis): fend (v) < defend, phone < telephone; b) medial (orsyncope): specs < spectacles, fancy < fantasy; c) final (or apocope): lab – laboratory, exam – examination; d) both initial and final: flu < influenza, fridge < refrigerator; .
2. blending is the formation of a new word 3. broadcast. acronymy (or graphical abbreviation) is the by combining parts of two words: a) additive type: smog – sm(oke) and (f)og; b) restrictive type: telecast – television + formation of a word from the initial letters of a word combination. : a) acronyms which are read as ordinary English words: UNESCO – [ju: ‘neskəu] the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization; b) acronyms with the alphabetic reading: BBC – [, bi: ‘si: ] the British Broadcasting Corporation;
4. sound-interchange is the formation of a word due to an alteration in the phonetic composition of its root. Sound-interchange falls into 3 groups: a) vowel-interchange (or ablaut): full − to fill, blood − to bleed, food – to feed. In some cases vowelinterchange is combined with suffixation: long − length, strong − strength, broad − breadth; b) consonant-interchange: advice – to advise. c) combined forms: life – to live; Particular cases of sound-interchange: [k] — [t∫]: to speak — speech, [s] — [d]: defence — to defend; offence — to offend; [s] — [t]: evidence — evident, importance — important, etc.
5. sound imitation (or onomatopoeia) is the naming of an action or a thing by a more or less exact reproduction of the sound associated with it, cf. : cock-a-doodle-do (English) – ку-ка-ре-ку (Russian). Groups: a) words denoting sounds produced by human being in the process of communication or expressing their feelings: mumble, babble; b) words denoting sounds produced by animals, birds, insects: mew, croak, buzz; c) words imitation the sound of water, the noise of metallic things, a forceful motion, movement: splash, clink, bang.
6. back-formation is the formation of a new word 7. distinctive stress is the formation of a new word by subtracting a real or supposed suffix from the existing words. The process is based on analogy: the word to butle ‘to act or serve as a butler’ is derived by subtraction of –er from a supposedly verbal stem in the noun butler; by means of the shift of the stress in the source word, cf. : export (n) — to ex´port; ´import (n) — to im´port; ‘
2. Word-formation as the Subject of Study � is that branch of Lexicology which studies the derivative structure of existing words and the patterns on which the English language, builds new words. Word-formation can deal only with words which are analysable both structurally and semantically, i. e. with all types of Complexes.
Word-formation may be studied: 1. 2. Synchronically – investigation of the existing system of the types of word-formation. The derived word is regarded as having a more complex structure than its correlated word regardless of the fact whether it was derived from a simpler base or a more complex base; Diachronically – chronological order of formation of one word from some other word that is relevant.
� In the history of the English language there are cases when a word structurally more complex served as the original element from which a simpler word was derived => back-formation (or back-derivation) : � cf. beggar — to beg; editor — to edit; chauffeur — to chauff � The fact that historically the verbs to beg, to edit, etc. were derived from the corresponding agent-nouns is of no synchronous relevance.
3. AFFIXATION � Affixation is the formation of words by adding derivational affixes to different types of bases. � An affix is not-root or a bound morpheme that modifies the meaning and / or syntactic category of the stem in some way. � Affixes are classified into prefixes and suffixes.
Degrees of Derivation 1. 2. 3. Zero — degree of derivation is ascribed to simple words, i. e. words whose stem is homonymous with a word-form and often with a root-morpheme, e. g. atom, haste, devote, anxious, horror, etc. First — derived words whose bases are built on simple stems and thus are formed by the application of one derivational affix, e. g. atomic, hasty, devotion, etc. Second — derived words formed by two consecutive stages of coining, e. g. atomical, hastily, devotional, etc.
Affixation=suffixation+prefixation � Distinction is naturally made between prefixal and suffixal derivatives according to the last stage of derivation, which determines the nature of the ICs of the pattern that signals the relationship of the derived word with its motivating source unit, cf. � unjust (un-+just), � justify, (just++ -ify), � arrangement (arrange + -ment), � non-smoker (non- + smoker).
Affixation is subdivided into suffixation and prefixation. Distinction is naturally made between prefixal and suffixal derivatives according to the last stage of derivation, which determines the nature of the ICs of the pattern that signals the relationship of the derived word with its motivating source unit, cf. unjust (un-+just), justify, (just++ -ify), arrangement (arrange + -ment), non-smoker (non- + smoker).
Prefixal-suffixal derivatives: reappearance, unreasonable, denationalise This qualification is relevant only in terms of the constituent morphemes such words are made up of, i. e. from the angle of morphemic analysis. From the point of view of derivational analysis such words are mostly either suffixal or prefixal derivatives, e. g. sub-atomic = sub- + (atom + + -ic), unreasonable = un- + (reason + -able), denationalise = de- + + (national + -ize), discouragement = (dis- + courage) + -ment.
Suffixation is mostly characteristic of noun and adjective formation. Prefixation is mostly typical of verb formation. The distinction also rests on the role different types of meaning play in the semantic structure of the suffix and the prefix. The part-of-speech meaning has a much greater significance in suffixes as compared to prefixes which possess it in a lesser degree. A prefix may be confined to one part of speech, e. g. enslave, encage, unbutton or may function in more than one part of speech as, e. g. , over- in overkind a, to overfeed v, overestimation n
Suffixes as a rule function in any one part of speech often forming a derived stem of a different part of speech as compared with that of the base, e. g. careless a — cf. care n; suitable a — cf. suit v, etc. A suffix closely knit together with a base forms a fusion retaining less of its independence than a prefix which is as a general rule more independent semantically, cf. reading — ‘the act of one who reads’; ‘ability to read’; and to re-read — ‘to read again. ‘
3. 1. SUFFIXATION. CLASSIFICATION OF SUFFIXES Suffixation is the formation of words with the help of suffixes, which usually modify the lexical meaning of the base and transfer words to a different part of speech. Some suffixes do not shift words from one part of speech into another, but usually transfer a word into a different semantic group, e. g. a concrete noun becomes an abstract one, e. g. child — childhood, friend — friendship, etc. A suffix is a derivational morpheme following the root and forming a new derivative in a different word class (-en, -y, -less in heart-en, heart-y, heart-less).
Suffixes can be classified into different types in accordance with different principles: 1. According to the lexical-grammatical character of the base suffixes are usually added to, they may be: a) deverbal suffixex (those added to the verbal base): -er (builder); -ing (writing); b) denominal suffixes (those added to the nominal base): -less (timeless); -ful (hopeful); -ist (scientist); -some (troublesome); c) deajectival suffixes (those added to the adjectival base): -en (widen); -ly (friendly); -ish (whitish); -ness (brightness).
2. According to the part of speech formed suffixes fall into several groups: a) noun-forming suffixes: -age (breakage, bondage); ance/-ence (assistance, reference); -dom (freedom, kingdom); -er (teacher, baker); -ess (actress, hostess); -ing (building, wasing); b) adjective-forming suffixes: -able/-ible/-uble (favourable, incredible, soluble); -al (formal, official); -ic (dynamic); -ant/-ent (repentant, dependent); c) numeral-forming suffixes: -fold (twofold); -teen (fourteen); -th (sixth); -ty (thirty); d) verb-forming suffixes: -ate (activate); -er (glimmer); -fy/-ify (terrify, specify); -ize (minimize); -ish (establish); e) adverb-forming suffixes: -ly (quickly, coldly); ward/-wards (backward, northwards); -wise (likewise).
3. Semantically suffixes fall into: a) Monosemantic: the suffix -ess has only one meaning ‘female’ – tigress, tailoress; b) Polysemantic: the suffix -hood has two meanings: 1) ‘condition or quality’ – falsehood, womanhood; 2) ‘collection or group’ – brotherhood.
4. According to their generalizing denotational meaning suffixes may fall into several groups. E. g. , noun-suffixes fall into those denoting: a) the agent of the action: -er (baker); -ant (accountant); b) appurtenance: -an/-ian (Victorian, Russian); ese (Chinese); c) collectivity: -dom (officialdom); -ry (pleasantry); d) Diminutiveness: -ie (birdie); -let (cloudlet); -ling (wolfling).
5. According to their stylistic reference suffixes may be classified into: a) those characterized by neutral stylistic reference: -able (agreeable); -er (writer); -ing (meeting); b) those having a certain stylistic value: -oid (asteroid); -tron (cyclotron). These suffixes occur usually in terms and are bookish.
3. 2. PREFIXATION. CLASSIFICATION OF PREFIXES. � Prefixation is the formation of words with the help of prefixes, which are derivational morphemes, affixed before the derivational base. � A prefix is a derivational morpheme preceding the root-morpheme and modifying its meaning (understand – mis-understand, correct – in-correct).
Prefixes can be classified according to different principles. 1. According to the lexico-grammatical character of the base prefixes are usually added to, they may be: a) deverbal (those added to the verbal base): re(rewrite); over- (overdo); out- (outstay); b) denominal (those added to the nominal base): (unbutton); de- (detrain); ex- (ex-president); c) deadjectival (those added to the adjectival base): un- (uneasy); bi- (biannual). d) deadverbial (those added to the adverbial base): un- (unfortunately); in- independently).
2. According to the class of words they preferably form prefixes are divided into: a) verb-forming prefixes: en-/em- (enclose, embed); be- (befriend); de- (dethrone); b) noun-forming prefixes: non- (non-smoker); sub — (sub-committee); ex- (ex-husband) c) adjective-forming prefixes: un- (unfair); il(illiterate); ir- (irregular); d) adverb-forming prefixes: un- (unfortunately); up- (uphill).
3. Semantically prefixes fall into: a) Monosemantic: the prefix ex- has only one meaning ‘former’ – ex-boxer; b) Polysemantic; the prefix dis- has four meanings: 1) ‘not’ (disadvantage); 2) ‘reversal or absence of an action or state’ (diseconomy, disaffirm); 3) ‘removal of’ (to disbranch); 4) ‘completeness or intensification of an unpleasant action’ (disgruntled).
4. According to their generalizing denotational meaning prefixes fall into: a) negative prefixes: un- (ungrateful); non- (nonpolitical); in- (incorrect); dis- (disloyal); a(amoral); b) reversative prefixes: un 2 — (untie); de(decentralize); dis 2 — (disconnect); c) pejorative prefixes: mis- (mispronounce); mal(maltreat); pseudo- (pseudo-scientific); d) prefixes of time and order: fore- (foretell); pre(pre-war); post- (post-war), ex- (ex-president); e) prefix of repetition: re- (rebuild, rewrite); f) locative prefixes: super- (superstructure), sub(subway), inter- (inter-continental), trans(transatlantic).
5. According to their stylistic reference prefixes fall into: a) those characterized by neutral stylistic reference: over- (oversee); under(underestimate); un-(unknown); b) those possessing quite a definite stylistic value: pseudo- (pseudo-classical); super(superstructure); ultra- (ultraviolet); uni(unilateral); bi- (bifocal). These prefixes are of a literary-bookish character.
4. PRODUCTIVE AND NONPRODUCTIVE AFFIXES � The word-forming activity of affixes may change in the course of time. This raises the question of productivity of derivational affixes, i. e. the ability of being used to form new, occasional or potential words, which can be readily understood by the languagespeakers. � Thus, productive affixes are those used to form new words in this particular period of language development.
Some productive affixes Noun-forming suffixes Adjective-forming suffixes Adverb-forming suffixes -er (manager), -ing (playing), -ness (darkness), -ism (materialism), -ist (parachutist), -ism (realism), -ation (automation), (impressionist), -ancy (redundancy), -ry (gimmickry), -or (reactor), -ics (cybernetics). -y (tweedy), -ish (smartish), -ed (learned), able (tolerable), -less (jobless), -ic (electronic). -ly (equally) Verb-forming suffixes -ize/-ise (realise), -ate (oxidate), -ify (qualify). un- (unhappy), re- (reconstruct), dis. Prefixes (disappoint)
Some non-productive suffixes: Noun-forming suffixes Adjective-forming suffixes Verb-forming suffix -th (truth), -hood (sisterhood), -ship (scholarship). -ly (sickly), -some (tiresome), -en (golden), -ous (courageous), -ful (careful). -en (strengthen).
� The productivity of an affix should not be confused with its frequency of occurrence that is understood as the existence in the vocabulary of a great number of words containing the affix in question. � An affix may occur in hundreds of words, but if it is not used to form new words, it is not productive, for instance, the adjective suffix – ful.
Etymology of Derivational Affixes: Native affixes are those in the Old English period or were formed from Old English words. The change a morpheme undergoes in the course of time may be of different kinds. A bound morpheme, e. g. may be developed from a free one. Such are the suffixes – dom (‘fate, power’); hood ‘state’; -lock ‘actions or proceedings, practice’; -ship ‘state, conduct’, and the prefixes; over- ‘in excess, extra, upper’; out- ‘foreign, external’, ect.
Origin of Derivational Affixes Noun-forming affixes -er -ness -ing -dom -hood -ship -th -let Examples Driver, painter. Ugliness, coldness. Singing, playing. Freedom, kingdom. Brotherhood, manhood. Leadership, friendship. Breath, length. Booklet, islet.
Adjective-forming affixes: -ful -less -y -ish -ly -en -some -like Joyful Harmless Cozy Childish Lovely Golden Handsome Ladylike
Verb-forming affixes -en Widen Adverb-forming affixes -ly -wise Rarely Clockwise Prefixes bemisunover- Befriend Misuse Unselfish Overdo
Borrowed Affixes have come to the English language from different foreign languages. The affixes of foreign origin are classified according to their source into: Latin -able/ -ible -ant/-ent extrapreultra- Examples Capable, divisible. Servant, student. Extralinguistic. Pre-election. Ultra-high.
Greek -ist -ism -ite antisym-/ sin- Examples Artist Marxism Vulcanite Anti-democratic Synthesis
French -age -ance/ -ence -ard -ate -ess en-/ em- Examples Percentage Extravagance, coherence Wizard Electorate Employee Princess Enclose, embed
Hybrids � are words that are made up of elements from two or more different languages. There are 2 basic types of forming hybrid words: 1) a foreign base is combined with a native affix, e. g. colourless, uncertain; 2) a native base is combined with a foreign affix, e. g. drinkable, ex-wife. There also many hybrid compounds, such as blackguard (English + French); schoolboy (greek + English).
VALENCY OF AFFIXES AND BASES Valency of affixes is understood as their capability to be combined with certain bases, e. g. adjective forming suffixes are mostly attached to nominal bases. They are: � -en (golden), � -ful (meaningful), � -less (careless), � -ly (soldierly), � -like (childlike). The highly productive suffix –able, however, can be combined with nominal and verbal bases alike (honorable, advisable).
Valency of bases � is the possibility of a particular base to take a particular affix. The valency of bases is not unlimited, e. g. , noun bases can be followed by: 1. the noun-forming suffixes, e. g. –eer (profiteer), -ful (spoonful), -ics (linguistics), -let (cloudlet); 2. the adjective-forming suffixes, e. g. –al 3. (doctoral), -ary (revolutionary), -ous (spacious), -ic (historic); the verb-forming suffixes, e. g. –en (hearten), ize (sympathize).
Valency � is very important semantically because the meaning of the derivative depends not only on the morphemes of which it is composed but also on combinations of bases and affixes that can be contrasted with it. � Contrast is observed in the use of the same morphemes in different environment or in the use of different morphemes in the same environment, e. g. , the difference in the suffixes – ity and –ism becomes clear when comparing them as combined with identical bases: � formality – formalism; reality – realism. -ity – ‘the quality of being what corresponding adjective describes, an instant or quality’; -ism –’ a disposition to what the adjective describes, or a corresponding type of ideology’.
Summary and Conclusions 1. Word-formation is the process of creating words from the material available in the language after certain structural and semantic formulas and patterns.
2. As a subject of study English wordformation is that branch of English Lexicology which studies the derivative structure of words and the patterns on which the English language builds new words. Like any other linguistic phenomenon, wordformation may be studied synchronically and diachronically.
3. There are two types of wordformation in Modern English: wordderivation which is divided into affixation and conversion and wordcomposition. Within the types further distinction is made between the various ways and means of wordformation.
4. There are minor types of wordformation: shortening, blending, acronymy (graphical abbreviation), sound-interchange, sound-imitation, back-fomation and distinctive stress.
5. Affixation (prefixation and suffixation) is the formation of words by adding derivational affixes (prefixes and suffixes) to bases. One distinguishes between derived words of different degrees of derivation.
6. There are quite a number of polysemantic, homonymous and synonymous derivational affixes in Modern English.
7. Classifications of derivational affixes are based on different principles such as: 1) the lexico-grammatical character of the stem the affix is added to, 2) the part of speech formed, 3) the meaning, 4) the generalising denotational meaning, 5) the stylistic reference, etc.
8. The productivity of derivational affixes is relative and conditioned by various factors.
9. Many of the Modern English derivational affixes were at one time independent words. Others have always been known as suffixes or prefixes within the history of the English vocabulary. Some of them are of international currency.
10. The degree of productivity and factors favouring it make an important aspect of synchronic description of every derivational pattern within the two types of wordformation.
11. Three degrees of productivity are distinguished for derivational patterns and individual derivational affixes: l) highly-productive, 2) productive or semi-productive, 3) nоn-produсtive.
1. Types of Forming Words. Affixation.
Lecture 10
2. 1. TYPES OF FORMING WORDS
Word-formation is the system of derivational
types of words and the process of creating new
words from the material available in the language
after certain structural and semantic formulas
and patterns.
Driver = v+-er (a verbal stem + the nounforming suffix –er).
The meaning of the derived noun driver — the
meaning of the stem drive- ‘to direct the course
of a vehicle’ and the suffix -er meaning ‘an active
agent’: a driver is ‘one who drives’ (a carriage,
motorcar, railway engine, etc.).
3. 1.1. Main Types of Forming Words
I. Word-derivation in morphology is a word-formation
process by which a new word is built from a stem with
the addition of an affix that changes the word class and
/ or basic meaning of the word.
The basic ways of forming words in word-derivation
are:
1. Affixation is the formation of a new word with the
help of affixes: pointless (from point).
2. Conversion is the formation of a new word by
bringing a stem of this word into a different formal
paradigm: a fall (from to fall), a cut (from to cut).
II. Word-composition is the formation of a new word by
combining two or more stems which occur in the
language as free forms: door-bell, house-keeper.
4. 1.2. Minor Types of Forming Words
1.
shortening is the formation of a word by
cutting off a part of the word.
a) initial (or aphesis):fend (v) < defend, phone <
telephone;
b) medial (orsyncope): specs < spectacles, fancy
< fantasy;
c) final (or apocope): lab – laboratory, exam –
examination;
d) both initial and final: flu < influenza, fridge <
refrigerator;.
5.
2.
blending is the formation of a new word
3.
broadcast.
acronymy (or graphical abbreviation) is the
by combining parts of two words:
a) additive type: smog – sm(oke) and (f)og;
b) restrictive type: telecast – television +
formation of a word from the initial letters
of a word combination. :
a) acronyms which are read as ordinary English
words:UNESCO – [ju:’neskəu] the United Nations
Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization;
b) acronyms with the alphabetic reading: BBC –
[,bi:bi:’si:] the British Broadcasting Corporation;
6.
4.
sound-interchange is the formation of a word
due to an alteration in the phonetic
composition of its root. Sound-interchange
falls into 3 groups:
a) vowel-interchange (or ablaut): full − to fill, blood −
to bleed, food – to feed. In some cases vowelinterchange is combined with suffixation: long −
length, strong − strength, broad − breadth;
b) consonant-interchange: advice – to advise.
c) combined forms: life – to live;
Particular cases of sound-interchange:
[k] — [t∫]: to speak — speech,
[s] — [d]: defence — to defend; offence — to offend;
[s] — [t]: evidence — evident, importance — important,
etc.
7.
5.
sound imitation (or onomatopoeia) is the naming
of an action or a thing by a more or less exact
reproduction of the sound associated with it, cf.:
cock-a-doodle-do (English) – ку-ка-ре-ку
(Russian).
Groups:
a) words denoting sounds produced by human
being in the process of communication or
expressing their feelings: mumble, babble;
b) words denoting sounds produced by animals,
birds, insects: mew, croak, buzz;
c) words imitation the sound of water, the noise of
metallic things, a forceful motion, movement:
splash, clink, bang.
8.
6.
back-formation is the formation of a new word
7.
distinctive stress is the formation of a new word
by subtracting a real or supposed suffix from
the existing words. The process is based on
analogy: the word to butle ‘to act or serve as a
butler’ is derived by subtraction of –er from a
supposedly verbal stem in the noun butler;
by means of the shift of the stress in the source
word, cf.: export (n) — to ex´port; ´import (n)
— to im´port; ‘
9. 2. Word-formation as the Subject of Study
is that branch of Lexicology which studies
the derivative structure of existing words
and the patterns on which the English
language, builds new words.
Word-formation can deal only with words
which are analysable both structurally and
semantically, i.e. with all types of
Complexes.
10. Word-formation may be studied:
1.
2.
Synchronically – investigation of the existing
system of the types of word-formation. The
derived word is regarded as having a more
complex structure than its correlated word
regardless of the fact whether it was derived
from a simpler base or a more complex
base;
Diachronically – chronological order of
formation of one word from some other
word that is relevant.
11.
In the history of the English language there
are cases when a word structurally more
complex served as the original element from
which a simpler word was derived =>
back-formation (or back-derivation) :
cf. beggar — to beg; editor — to edit;
chauffeur — to chauff
The fact that historically the verbs
to beg, to edit, etc. were derived from the
corresponding agent-nouns is of no
synchronous relevance.
12. 3. AFFIXATION
Affixation is the formation of words by
adding derivational affixes to different types
of bases.
An affix is not-root or a bound morpheme
that modifies the meaning and / or syntactic
category of the stem in some way.
Affixes are classified into prefixes and
suffixes.
13. Degrees of Derivation
1.
2.
3.
Zero — degree of derivation is ascribed to
simple words, i.e. words whose stem is
homonymous with a word-form and often
with a root-morpheme, e.g. atom, haste,
devote, anxious, horror, etc.
First — derived words whose bases are built
on simple stems and thus are formed by the
application of one derivational affix, e.g.
atomic, hasty, devotion, etc.
Second — derived words formed by two
consecutive stages of coining, e.g. atomical,
hastily, devotional, etc.
14. Affixation=suffixation+prefixation
Distinction is naturally made between prefixal
and suffixal derivatives according to the last
stage of derivation, which determines the
nature of the ICs of the pattern that signals
the relationship of the derived word with its
motivating source unit, cf.
unjust (un-+just),
justify, (just++ -ify),
arrangement (arrange + -ment),
non-smoker (non- + smoker).
15.
Affixation is subdivided into suffixation and
prefixation.
Distinction is naturally made between prefixal
and suffixal derivatives according to the last
stage of derivation, which determines the
nature of the ICs of the pattern that signals
the relationship of the derived word with its
motivating source unit, cf.
unjust (un-+just),
justify, (just++ -ify),
arrangement (arrange + -ment),
non-smoker (non- + smoker).
16. Prefixal-suffixal derivatives:
reappearance, unreasonable, denationalise
This qualification is relevant only in terms of
the constituent morphemes such words are
made up of, i.e. from the angle of morphemic
analysis.
From the point of view of derivational analysis
such words are mostly either suffixal or
prefixal derivatives, e.g.
sub-atomic = sub- + (atom + + -ic),
unreasonable = un- + (reason + -able),
denationalise = de- + + (national + -ize),
discouragement = (dis- + courage) + -ment.
17.
Suffixation is mostly characteristic of noun and
adjective formation.
Prefixation is mostly typical of verb formation.
The distinction also rests on the role different
types of meaning play in the semantic
structure of the suffix and the prefix.
The part-of-speech meaning has a much
greater significance in suffixes as compared
to prefixes which possess it in a lesser
degree.
A prefix may be confined to one part of speech,
e.g. enslave, encage, unbutton or may
function in more than one part of speech as,
e.g., over- in overkind a, to overfeed v,
overestimation n
18.
Suffixes as a rule function in any one part of
speech often forming a derived stem of a
different part of speech as compared with
that of the base, e.g. careless a — cf. care n;
suitable a — cf. suit v, etc.
A suffix closely knit together with a base forms
a fusion retaining less of its independence
than a prefix which is as a general rule more
independent semantically, cf. reading — ‘the
act of one who reads’; ‘ability to read’; and to
re-read — ‘to read again.’
19. 3.1. SUFFIXATION. CLASSIFICATION OF SUFFIXES
Suffixation is the formation of words with the help
of suffixes, which usually modify the lexical
meaning of the base and transfer words to a
different part of speech.
Some suffixes do not shift words from one part of
speech into another, but usually transfer a word
into a different semantic group, e.g. a concrete
noun becomes an abstract one, e.g. child —
childhood, friend — friendship, etc.
A suffix is a derivational morpheme following the
root and forming a new derivative in a different
word class (-en, -y, -less in heart-en, heart-y,
heart-less).
20. Suffixes can be classified into different types in accordance with different principles:
1.
According to the lexical-grammatical
character of the base suffixes are usually
added to, they may be:
a) deverbal suffixex (those added to the verbal
base): -er (builder); -ing (writing);
b) denominal suffixes (those added to the nominal
base): -less (timeless); -ful (hopeful); -ist
(scientist); -some (troublesome);
c) deajectival suffixes (those added to the
adjectival base): -en (widen); -ly (friendly); -ish
(whitish); -ness (brightness).
21.
2.
According to the part of speech formed
suffixes fall into several groups:
a) noun-forming suffixes: -age (breakage, bondage); ance/-ence (assistance, reference); -dom (freedom,
kingdom); -er (teacher, baker); -ess (actress,
hostess); -ing (building, wasing);
b) adjective-forming suffixes: -able/-ible/-uble
(favourable, incredible, soluble); -al (formal, official);
-ic (dynamic); -ant/-ent (repentant, dependent);
c) numeral-forming suffixes: -fold (twofold); -teen
(fourteen); -th (sixth); -ty (thirty);
d) verb-forming suffixes: -ate (activate); -er (glimmer);
-fy/-ify (terrify, specify); -ize (minimize); -ish
(establish);
e) adverb-forming suffixes: -ly (quickly, coldly); ward/-wards (backward, northwards); -wise
(likewise).
22.
3.
Semantically suffixes fall into:
a) Monosemantic:the suffix -ess has only
one meaning ‘female’ – tigress, tailoress;
b) Polysemantic: the suffix -hood has two
meanings:
1) ‘condition or quality’ – falsehood,
womanhood;
2) ‘collection or group’ – brotherhood.
23.
4.
According to their generalizing
denotational meaning suffixes may fall
into several groups. E.g., noun-suffixes
fall into those denoting:
a) the agent of the action: -er (baker); -ant
(accountant);
b) appurtenance: -an/-ian (Victorian, Russian); ese (Chinese);
c) collectivity: -dom (officialdom); -ry (pleasantry);
d) Diminutiveness:-ie (birdie); -let (cloudlet); -ling
(wolfling).
24.
5.
According to their stylistic reference
suffixes may be classified into:
a) those characterized by neutral stylistic
reference: -able (agreeable); -er (writer); -ing
(meeting);
b) those having a certain stylistic value: -oid
(asteroid); -tron (cyclotron).
These suffixes occur usually in terms and are
bookish.
25. 3.2. PREFIXATION. CLASSIFICATION OF PREFIXES.
Prefixation is the formation of words with the
help of prefixes, which are derivational
morphemes, affixed before the derivational
base.
A prefix is a derivational morpheme
preceding the root-morpheme and modifying
its meaning (understand – mis-understand,
correct – in-correct).
26. Prefixes can be classified according to different principles.
1.
According to the lexico-grammatical
character of the base prefixes are usually
added to, they may be:
a) deverbal (those added to the verbal base): re(rewrite); over- (overdo); out- (outstay);
b) denominal (those added to the nominal base): (unbutton); de- (detrain); ex- (ex-president);
c) deadjectival (those added to the adjectival
base): un- (uneasy); bi- (biannual).
d) deadverbial (those added to the adverbial base):
un- (unfortunately); in- independently).
27.
2.
According to the class of words they
preferably form prefixes are divided into:
a) verb-forming prefixes: en-/em- (enclose,
embed); be- (befriend); de- (dethrone);
b) noun-forming prefixes: non- (non-smoker);
sub- (sub-committee); ex- (ex-husband)
c) adjective-forming prefixes: un- (unfair); il(illiterate); ir- (irregular);
d) adverb-forming prefixes: un- (unfortunately);
up- (uphill).
28.
3.
Semantically prefixes fall into:
a) Monosemantic: the prefix ex- has only
one meaning ‘former’ – ex-boxer;
b) Polysemantic; the prefix dis- has four
meanings:
1) ‘not’ (disadvantage);
2) ‘reversal or absence of an action or
state’ (diseconomy, disaffirm);
3) ‘removal of’ (to disbranch);
4) ‘completeness or intensification of an
unpleasant action’ (disgruntled).
29.
4.
According to their generalizing
denotational meaning prefixes fall into:
a) negative prefixes: un- (ungrateful); non- (nonpolitical); in- (incorrect); dis- (disloyal); a(amoral);
b) reversative prefixes: un2- (untie); de(decentralize); dis2- (disconnect);
c) pejorative prefixes: mis- (mispronounce); mal(maltreat); pseudo- (pseudo-scientific);
d) prefixes of time and order: fore- (foretell); pre(pre-war); post- (post-war), ex- (ex-president);
e) prefix of repetition: re- (rebuild, rewrite);
f) locative prefixes: super- (superstructure), sub(subway), inter- (inter-continental), trans(transatlantic).
30.
5.
According to their stylistic reference
prefixes fall into:
a) those characterized by neutral stylistic
reference: over- (oversee); under(underestimate); un-(unknown);
b) those possessing quite a definite stylistic value:
pseudo- (pseudo-classical); super(superstructure); ultra- (ultraviolet); uni(unilateral); bi- (bifocal).
These prefixes are of a literary-bookish character.
31. 4. PRODUCTIVE AND NON-PRODUCTIVE AFFIXES
The word-forming activity of affixes may
change in the course of time. This raises the
question of productivity of derivational
affixes, i.e. the ability of being used to form
new, occasional or potential words, which can
be readily understood by the languagespeakers.
Thus, productive affixes are those used to
form new words in this particular period of
language development.
32. Some productive affixes
Noun-forming
suffixes
Adjective-forming
suffixes
Adverb-forming
suffixes
-er (manager), -ing (playing), -ness
(darkness),
-ism
(materialism),
-ist
(parachutist), -ism
(realism),
-ation
(automation), (impressionist),
-ancy (redundancy), -ry (gimmickry), -or
(reactor), -ics (cybernetics).
-y (tweedy), -ish (smartish), -ed (learned), able (tolerable), -less (jobless), -ic
(electronic).
-ly (equally)
Verb-forming suffixes -ize/-ise (realise), -ate (oxidate), -ify
(qualify).
un- (unhappy), re- (reconstruct), disPrefixes
(disappoint)
33. Some non-productive suffixes:
Noun-forming suffixes
Adjective-forming
suffixes
Verb-forming suffix
-th (truth),
-hood (sisterhood),
-ship (scholarship).
-ly (sickly),
-some (tiresome),
-en (golden),
-ous (courageous),
-ful (careful).
-en (strengthen).
34.
The productivity of an affix should not be
confused with its frequency of occurrence
that is understood as the existence in the
vocabulary of a great number of words
containing the affix in question.
An affix may occur in hundreds of words, but
if it is not used to form new words, it is not
productive, for instance, the adjective suffix –
ful.
35. Etymology of Derivational Affixes:
Native affixes are those in the Old English period
or were formed from Old English words.
The change a morpheme undergoes in the course
of time may be of different kinds.
A bound morpheme, e.g. may be developed from a
free one. Such are the suffixes
– dom (‘fate, power’);
hood ‘state’;
-lock ‘actions or proceedings, practice’;
-ship ‘state, conduct’, and the prefixes;
over- ‘in excess, extra, upper’;
out- ‘foreign, external’, ect.
36. Origin of Derivational Affixes
Noun-forming
affixes
-er
-ness
-ing
-dom
-hood
-ship
-th
-let
Examples
Driver, painter.
Ugliness, coldness.
Singing, playing.
Freedom, kingdom.
Brotherhood, manhood.
Leadership, friendship.
Breath, length.
Booklet, islet.
37. Adjective-forming affixes:
-ful
-less
-y
-ish
-ly
-en
-some
-like
Joyful
Harmless
Cozy
Childish
Lovely
Golden
Handsome
Ladylike
38.
Verb-forming
affixes
-en
Widen
Adverb-forming
affixes
-ly
-wise
Rarely
Clockwise
Prefixes
bemisunover-
Befriend
Misuse
Unselfish
Overdo
39. Borrowed Affixes have come to the English language from different foreign languages. The affixes of foreign origin are classified according to their source into:
Latin
-able/ -ible
-ant/-ent
extrapreultra-
Examples
Capable, divisible.
Servant, student.
Extralinguistic.
Pre-election.
Ultra-high.
40.
Greek
-ist
-ism
-ite
antisym-/ sin-
Examples
Artist
Marxism
Vulcanite
Anti-democratic
Synthesis
41.
French
-age
-ance/ -ence
-ard
-ate
-ee
-ess
en-/ em-
Examples
Percentage
Extravagance,
coherence
Wizard
Electorate
Employee
Princess
Enclose, embed
42. Hybrids
are words that are made up of elements from
two or more different languages. There are 2
basic types of forming hybrid words:
1) a foreign base is combined with a native
affix, e.g. colourless, uncertain;
2) a native base is combined with a foreign
affix, e.g. drinkable, ex-wife.
There are also many hybrid compounds, such
as blackguard (English + French); schoolboy
(greek + English).
43. VALENCY OF AFFIXES AND BASES
Valency of affixes is understood as their capability
to be combined with certain bases, e.g. adjective
forming suffixes are mostly attached to nominal
bases. They are:
-en (golden),
-ful (meaningful),
-less (careless),
-ly (soldierly),
-like (childlike).
The highly productive suffix –able, however, can be
combined with nominal and verbal bases alike
(honorable, advisable).
44. Valency of bases
is the possibility of a particular base to take a
particular affix. The valency of bases is not
unlimited, e.g., noun bases can be followed by:
1. the noun-forming suffixes, e.g. –eer (profiteer),
-ful (spoonful), -ics (linguistics), -let (cloudlet);
2. the adjective-forming suffixes, e.g. –al
3.
(doctoral), -ary (revolutionary), -ous (spacious),
-ic (historic);
the verb-forming suffixes, e.g. –en (hearten), ize (sympathize).
45. Valency
is very important semantically because the
meaning of the derivative depends not only on
the morphemes of which it is composed but also
on combinations of bases and affixes that can be
contrasted with it.
Contrast is observed in the use of the same
morphemes in different environment or in the
use of different morphemes in the same
environment, e.g., the difference in the suffixes –
ity and –ism becomes clear when comparing
them as combined with identical bases:
formality – formalism; reality – realism.
-ity – ‘the quality of being what corresponding
adjective describes, an instant or quality’;
-ism –’ a disposition to what the adjective describes,
or a corresponding type of ideology’.
46. Summary and Conclusions
1.
Word-formation is the process of
creating words from the material
available in the language after
certain structural and semantic
formulas and patterns.
47.
2.
As a subject of study English wordformation is that branch of English
Lexicology which studies the
derivative structure of words and the
patterns on which the English
language builds new words. Like any
other linguistic phenomenon, wordformation may be studied
synchronically and diachronically.
48.
3.
There are two types of wordformation in Modern English: wordderivation which is divided into
affixation and conversion and wordcomposition. Within the types further
distinction is made between the
various ways and means of wordformation.
49.
4.
There are minor types of wordformation: shortening, blending,
acronymy (graphical abbreviation),
sound-interchange, sound-imitation,
back-fomation and distinctive stress.
50.
5.
Affixation (prefixation and
suffixation) is the formation of words
by adding derivational affixes
(prefixes and suffixes) to bases. One
distinguishes between derived words
of different degrees of derivation.
51.
6.
There are quite a number of
polysemantic, homonymous and
synonymous derivational affixes in
Modern English.
52.
7.
Classifications of derivational affixes
are based on different principles
such as:
1) the lexico-grammatical character
of the stem the affix is added to,
2) the part of speech formed,
3) the meaning,
4) the generalising denotational
meaning,
5) the stylistic reference, etc.
53.
8.
The productivity of derivational
affixes is relative and conditioned by
various factors.
54.
9.
Many of the Modern English
derivational affixes were at one time
independent words. Others have
always been known as suffixes or
prefixes within the history of the
English vocabulary. Some of them are
of international currency.
55.
10. The
degree of productivity and
factors favouring it make an
important aspect of synchronic
description of every derivational
pattern within the two types of
word-formation.
56.
11.
Three degrees of productivity are
distinguished for derivational patterns and
individual derivational affixes:
l) highly-productive,
2) productive or semi-productive,
3) nоn-produсtive.
57. References
1.
2.
3.
Зыкова И.В. Практический курс английской
лексикологии. М.: Академия, 2006. – С.57-77.
Гинзбург Р.З. Лексикология английского языка.
М.: Высшая школа, 1979. – С. 108-216.
Антрушина Г.Б., Афанасьева О.В., Морозова
Н.Н. Лексикология английского языка. М.:
Дрофа, 2006. – С. – 78-128.