Derivative meaning of word

PLAY
ON WORDS:
Zeugma
and Pun
[p^ n] игра
слов,
каламбур

(From
the Greek ‘zeugyana‘ — соединять,
сочетать).

It
is known that the word (of all language units) is the most sensitive
to change. It is normal for almost every word to acquire derivative
meanings Primary and derivative meanings are characterized by their
relative stability
[st ‘biliti ] and therefore are fixed in dictionaries, thus
constituting the semantic structure of a word.

However,
in case a word begins to manifest an interplay between primary and
one of the derivative meanings, we are confronted with a SD.

Zeugma
is the use of one word in the same grammatical but different semantic
relations to 2
adjacent
(соседний
) words in the context, the semantic relations being, on the hand,
literal, and on the other hand, transferred (as, for example, with
homogeneous members of the sentence). In other words, one word-form
is deliberately used in 2 meanings. The effect is humorous.

e.g.
He lost his keys
and
his temper.

He
took his hat
and his leave.

She
possessed 2
false teeth
and a sympathetic
heart.
(O.Henry)

She
dropped a
tear
and her pocket
handkerchief.

This
stylistic device is much favoured in English emotive prose and
poetry.

e.g.
They had met at the table … and found their tastes
in art,
chicory
salad
and bishop
sleeves
so congenial that the joint studio resulted.

The
Pun is another SD based on the interaction of 2 well-known meanings
of a word/phrase. It is difficult to distinguish between zeugma and
pun. The only reliable distinction is structural. Pun is more
independent than zeugma (though like any other SDs, it depends on the
context). In pun the key word is usually repeated (this is not the
case with zeugma) and the whole structure is changed. The context may
be expanded (a whole work of emotive prose). Thus, the title of one
of Oscar Wilde’s plays “The
Importance of Being Earnest”
has a pun in it.

Earnest
=
the name of the hero ‘Earnest’ + the adj meaning
‘seriously-minded ‘are both present in our mind.

e.gYou
have always told me it (your name) was Earnest, I have introduced you
to everyone as Earnest, you answer to the name of Earnest. You look
as if your name was Earnest.
You’re the most earnest-looking
person I ever saw in my life.

Another
e.g. (with a larger context for its realization):

“Bow
to the board”,
said Bumble. Oliver brushed away two or three tears that were
lingering in his eyes; and seeing
no board but the table,
fortunately bowed
to that.“
(Dickens).

Here,
in fact, the humorous effect is caused by the interplay of two words,
not of two meanings of one word. ‘Board’
is a group of people, officials with the functions of administration
and management and ‘board’
is also a piece of furniture (a table).

Puns
are often used in riddles and jokes, for example:

PUN

A pun is the lowest form of wit

It does not tax the brain a bit

One
merely takes a word that’s plain

And
picks one out that sounds the same.

Perhaps
some letters may be changed,

Or
others slightly disarranged,

This
to the meaning gives a twist,

Which
much delights the humorist.

A
sample now may help to show

The
way a good pun ought to

‘It
isn’t the cough that carries you of

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Morphological derivation, in linguistics, is the process of forming a new word from an existing word, often by adding a prefix or suffix, such as un- or -ness. For example, unhappy and happiness derive from the root word happy.

It is differentiated from inflection, which is the modification of a word to form different grammatical categories without changing its core meaning: determines, determining, and determined are from the root determine.^[1]

Derivational patterns[edit]

Derivational morphology often involves the addition of a derivational suffix or other affix. Such an affix usually applies to words of one lexical category (part of speech) and changes them into words of another such category. For example, one effect of the English derivational suffix -ly is to change an adjective into an adverb (slow → slowly).

Here are examples of English derivational patterns and their suffixes:

• adjective-to-noun: -ness (slow → slowness)
• adjective-to-verb: -en (weak → weaken)
• adjective-to-adjective: -ish (red → reddish)
• adjective-to-adverb: -ly (personal → personally)
• noun-to-adjective: -al (recreation → recreational)
• noun-to-verb: -fy (glory → glorify)
• verb-to-adjective: -able (drink → drinkable)
• verb-to-noun (abstract): -ance (deliver → deliverance)
• verb-to-noun (agent): -er (write → writer)

However, derivational affixes do not necessarily alter the lexical category; they may change merely the meaning of the base and leave the category unchanged. A prefix (write → re-write; lord → over-lord) rarely changes the lexical category in English. The prefix un- applies to adjectives (healthy → unhealthy) and some verbs (do → undo) but rarely to nouns. A few exceptions are the derivational prefixes en- and be-. En- (replaced by em- before labials) is usually a transitive marker on verbs, but it can also be applied to adjectives and nouns to form transitive verbs: circle (verb) → encircle (verb) but rich (adj) → enrich (verb), large (adj) → enlarge (verb), rapture (noun) → enrapture (verb), slave (noun) → enslave (verb).

When derivation occurs without any change to the word, such as in the conversion of the noun breakfast into the verb to breakfast, it’s known as conversion, or zero derivation.

Derivation that results in a noun may be called nominalization. It may involve the use of an affix (such as with employ → employee), or it may occur via conversion (such as with the derivation of the noun run from the verb to run). In contrast, a derivation resulting in a verb may be called verbalization (such as from the noun butter to the verb to butter).

Derivation and inflection[edit]

Derivation can be contrasted with inflection, in that derivation can produce a new word (a distinct lexeme) but isn’t required to change this, whereas inflection produces grammatical variants of the same word.

Generally speaking, inflection applies in more or less regular patterns to all members of a part of speech (for example, nearly every English verb adds -s for the third person singular present tense), while derivation follows less consistent patterns (for example, the nominalizing suffix -ity can be used with the adjectives modern and dense, but not with open or strong). However, it is important to note that derivations and inflections can share homonyms, that being, morphemes that have the same sound, but not the same meaning. For example, when the affix -er, is added to an adjective, as in small-er, it acts as an inflection, but when added to a verb, as in cook-er, it acts as a derivation.^[2]

As mentioned above, a derivation can produce a new word (or new part of speech) but is not required to do so. For example, the derivation of the word «common» to «uncommon» is a derivational morpheme but doesn’t change the part of speech (adjective).

An important distinction between derivational and inflectional morphology lies in the content/function of a listeme^{[clarification needed]}. Derivational morphology changes both the meaning and the content of a listeme, while inflectional morphology doesn’t change the meaning, but changes the function.

A non-exhaustive list of derivational morphemes in English: -ful, -able, im-, un-, -ing, -er

A non-exhaustive list of inflectional morphemes in English: -er, -est, -ing, -en, -ed, -s

Derivation and other types of word formation[edit]

Derivation can be contrasted with other types of word formation such as compounding. For full details see Word formation.

Note that derivational affixes are bound morphemes – they are meaningful units, but can only normally occur when attached to another word. In that respect, derivation differs from compounding by which free morphemes are combined (lawsuit, Latin professor). It also differs from inflection in that inflection does not create new lexemes but new word forms (table → tables; open → opened).

Productivity[edit]

Derivational patterns differ in the degree to which they can be called productive. A productive pattern or affix is one that is commonly used to produce novel forms. For example, the negating prefix un- is more productive in English than the alternative in-; both of them occur in established words (such as unusual and inaccessible), but faced with a new word which does not have an established negation, a native speaker is more likely to create a novel form with un- than with in-. The same thing happens with suffixes. For example, if comparing two words Thatcherite and Thatcherist, the analysis shows that both suffixes -ite and -ist are productive and can be added to proper names, moreover, both derived adjectives are established and have the same meaning. But the suffix -ist is more productive and, thus, can be found more often in word formation not only from proper names.

See also[edit]

• Agglutination
• Collocation
• Inflection
• Nominalization
• Word formation
• Word root

References[edit]

• Speech and Language Processing, Jurafsky, D. & Martin J.,H.