The right word structure

WORD STRUCTURE IN MODERN ENGLISH

  I.   The morphological structure of a word. Morphemes. Types of morphemes. Allomorphs.

II.   Structural types of words.

III.   Principles of morphemic analysis.

  IV.   Derivational level of analysis. Stems. Types of stems. Derivational types of words.

I.   The morphological structure of a word. Morphemes. Types of Morphemes.  Allomorphs.

There are two levels of approach to the study of word- structure: the level of morphemic analysis and the level of derivational or word-formation analysis.

Word is the principal and basic unit of the language system, the largest on the morphologic and the smallest on the syntactic plane of linguistic analysis.

It has been universally acknowledged that a great many words have a composite nature and are made up of morphemes, the basic units on the morphemic level, which are defined as the smallest indivisible two-facet language units.

The term morpheme is derived from Greek morphe “form ”+ -eme. The Greek suffix –eme has been adopted by linguistic to denote the smallest unit or the minimum distinctive feature.

The morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of form. A form in these cases a recurring discrete unit of speech. Morphemes occur in speech only as constituent parts of words, not independently, although a word may consist of single morpheme. Even a cursory examination of the morphemic structure of English words reveals that they are composed of morphemes of different types: root-morphemes and affixational morphemes. Words that consist of a root and an affix are called derived words or derivatives and are produced by the process of word building known as affixation (or derivation).

The root-morpheme is the lexical nucleus of the word; it has a very general and abstract lexical meaning common to a set of semantically related words constituting one word-cluster, e.g. (to) teach, teacher, teaching. Besides the lexical meaning root-morphemes possess all other types of meaning proper to morphemes except the part-of-speech meaning which is not found in roots.

Affixational morphemes include inflectional affixes or inflections and derivational affixes. Inflections carry only grammatical meaning and are thus relevant only for the formation of word-forms. Derivational affixes are relevant for building various types of words. They are lexically always dependent on the root which they modify. They possess the same types of meaning as found in roots, but unlike root-morphemes most of them have the part-of-speech meaning which makes them structurally the important part of the word as they condition the lexico-grammatical class the word belongs to. Due to this component of their meaning the derivational affixes are classified into affixes building different parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs.

Roots and derivational affixes are generally easily distinguished and the difference between them is clearly felt as, e.g., in the words helpless, handy, blackness, Londoner, refill, etc.: the root-morphemes help-, hand-, black-, London-, fill-, are understood as the lexical centers of the words, and –less, -y,      -ness, -er, re- are felt as morphemes dependent on these roots.

 Distinction is also made of free and bound morphemes.

Free morphemes coincide with word-forms of independently functioning words. It is obvious that free morphemes can be found only among roots, so the morpheme boy- in the word boy is a free morpheme; in the word undesirable there is only one free morpheme desire-; the word pen-holder has two free morphemes  pen- and hold-. It follows that bound morphemes are those that do not coincide with separate word- forms, consequently all derivational morphemes, such as –ness, -able, -er are bound. Root-morphemes may be both free and bound. The morphemes theor- in the words theory, theoretical, or horr- in the words horror, horrible, horrify; Angl- in  Anglo-Saxon; Afr- in Afro-Asian are all bound roots as there are no identical word-forms.

It should also be noted that morphemes may have different phonemic shapes. In the word-cluster please , pleasing , pleasure , pleasant the phonemic shapes of the word stand in complementary distribution or in alternation with each other. All the representations of the given morpheme, that manifest alternation are called allomorphs/or morphemic variants/ of that morpheme.

The combining form allo- from Greek allos “other” is used in linguistic terminology to denote elements of a group whose members together consistute a structural unit of the language (allophones, allomorphs). Thus, for example, -ion/ -tion/ -sion/ -ation are the positional variants of the same suffix, they do not differ in meaning or function but show a slight difference in sound form depending on the final phoneme of the preceding stem. They are considered as variants of one and the same morpheme and called its allomorphs.

Allomorph is defined as a positional variant of a morpheme occurring in a specific environment and so characterized by complementary description.

Complementary distribution is said to take place, when two linguistic variants cannot appear in the same environment.

Different morphemes are characterized by contrastive distribution, i.e. if they occur in the same environment they signal different meanings. The suffixes –able and –ed, for instance, are different morphemes, not allomorphs, because adjectives in –able mean “ capable of beings”.

Allomorphs will also occur among prefixes. Their form then depends on the initials of the stem with which they will assimilate.

Two or more sound forms of a stem existing under conditions of complementary distribution may also be regarded as allomorphs, as, for instance, in long a: length n.

II. Structural types of words.

The morphological analysis of word- structure on the morphemic level aims at splitting the word into its constituent morphemes – the basic units at this level of analysis – and at determining their number and types. The four types (root words, derived words, compound, shortenings) represent the main structural types of Modern English words, and conversion, derivation and composition the most productive ways of word building.

According to the number of morphemes words can be classified into monomorphic and polymorphic. Monomorphic or root-words consist of only one root-morpheme, e.g. small, dog, make, give, etc. All polymorphic word fall into two subgroups:  derived words and compound words – according to the number of root-morphemes they have. Derived words are composed of one root-morpheme and one or more derivational morphemes, e.g. acceptable, outdo, disagreeable, etc. Compound words are those which contain at least two root-morphemes, the number of derivational morphemes being insignificant. There can be both root- and derivational morphemes in compounds as in pen-holder, light-mindedness, or only root-morphemes as in lamp-shade, eye-ball, etc.

These structural types are not of equal importance. The clue to the correct understanding of their comparative value lies in a careful consideration of: 1)the importance of each type in the existing wordstock, and 2) their frequency value in actual speech. Frequency is by far the most important factor. According to the available word counts made in different parts of speech, we find that derived words numerically constitute the largest class of words in the existing wordstock; derived nouns comprise approximately 67% of the total number, adjectives about 86%, whereas compound nouns make about 15% and adjectives about 4%. Root words come to 18% in nouns, i.e. a trifle more than the number of compound words; adjectives root words come to approximately 12%.

But we cannot fail to perceive that root-words occupy a predominant place. In English, according to the recent frequency counts, about 60% of the total number of nouns and 62% of the total number of adjectives in current use are root-words. Of the total number of adjectives and nouns, derived words comprise about 38% and 37% respectively while compound words comprise an insignificant 2% in nouns and 0.2% in adjectives. Thus it is the root-words that constitute the foundation and the backbone of the vocabulary and that are of paramount importance in speech. It should also be mentioned that root words are characterized by a high degree of collocability and a complex variety of meanings in contrast with words of other structural types whose semantic structures are much poorer. Root- words also serve as parent forms for all types of derived and compound words.

III. Principles of morphemic analysis.

In most cases the morphemic structure of words is transparent enough and individual morphemes clearly stand out within the word. The segmentation of words is generally carried out according to the method of Immediate and Ultimate Constituents. This method is based on the binary principle, i.e. each stage of the procedure involves two components the word immediately breaks into. At each stage these two components are referred to as the Immediate Constituents. Each Immediate Constituent at the next stage of analysis is in turn broken into smaller meaningful elements. The analysis is completed when we arrive at constituents incapable of further division, i.e. morphemes. These are referred to Ultimate Constituents.

A synchronic morphological analysis is most effectively accomplished by the procedure known as the analysis into Immediate Constituents. ICs are the two meaningful parts forming a large linguistic unity.

The method is based on the fact that a word characterized by morphological divisibility is involved in certain structural correlations. To sum up: as we break the word we obtain at any level only ICs one of which is the stem of the given word. All the time the analysis is based on the patterns characteristic of the English vocabulary. As a pattern showing the interdependence of all the constituents segregated at various stages, we obtain the following formula:

un+ { [ ( gent- + -le ) + -man ] + -ly}

Breaking a word into its Immediate Constituents we observe in each cut the structural order of the constituents.

A  diagram presenting the four cuts described looks as follows:

1. un- / gentlemanly

2.   un- / gentleman / — ly

3.   un- / gentle / — man / — ly

4.   un- / gentl / — e / — man / — ly

A similar analysis on the word-formation level showing not only the morphemic constituents of the word but also the structural pattern on which it is built.

The analysis of word-structure at the morphemic level must proceed to the stage of Ultimate Constituents. For example, the noun friendliness is first segmented into the ICs: [frendlı-] recurring in the adjectives friendly-looking and friendly and [-nıs] found in a countless number  of nouns, such as unhappiness, blackness, sameness, etc. the IC [-nıs] is at the same time an UC of the word, as it cannot be broken into any smaller elements possessing both sound-form and meaning. Any further division of –ness would give individual speech-sounds which denote nothing by themselves. The IC [frendlı-] is next broken into the ICs [-lı] and [frend-] which are both UCs of the word.

Morphemic analysis under the method of Ultimate Constituents may be carried out on the basis of two principles: the so-called root-principle and affix principle.

According to the affix principle the splitting of the word into its constituent morphemes is based on the identification of the affix within a set of words, e.g. the identification of the suffix –er leads to the segmentation of words singer, teacher, swimmer into the derivational morpheme – er  and the roots teach- , sing-, drive-.

According to the root-principle, the segmentation of the word is based on the identification of the root-morpheme in a word-cluster, for example the identification of the root-morpheme agree-  in the words agreeable, agreement, disagree.

As a rule, the application of these principles is sufficient for the morphemic segmentation of words.

However, the morphemic structure of words in a number of cases defies such analysis, as it is not always so transparent and simple as in the cases mentioned above. Sometimes not only the segmentation of words into morphemes, but the recognition of certain sound-clusters as morphemes become doubtful which naturally affects the classification of words. In words like retain, detain, contain or  receive, deceive, conceive, perceive the sound-clusters [rı-], [dı-] seem to be singled quite easily, on the other hand, they undoubtedly have nothing in common with the phonetically identical prefixes  re-, de- as found in words re-write, re-organize, de-organize, de-code. Moreover, neither the sound-cluster [rı-] or [dı-], nor the [-teın] or [-sı:v] possess any lexical or functional meaning of their own. Yet, these sound-clusters are felt as having a certain meaning because [rı-] distinguishes retain from detain and [-teın] distinguishes retain from receive.

It follows that all these sound-clusters have a differential and a certain distributional meaning as their order arrangement point to the affixal status of re-, de-, con-, per- and makes one understand —tain and –ceive as roots. The differential and distributional meanings seem to give sufficient ground to recognize these sound-clusters as morphemes, but as they lack lexical meaning of their own, they are set apart from all other types of morphemes and are known in linguistic literature as pseudo- morphemes. Pseudo- morphemes of the same kind  are also encountered in words like rusty-fusty.

IV.   Derivational level of analysis. Stems. Types of Stems. Derivational types of word.

The morphemic analysis of words only defines the constituent morphemes, determining their types and their meaning but does not reveal the hierarchy of the morphemes comprising the word. Words are no mere sum totals of morpheme, the latter reveal a definite, sometimes very complex interrelation. Morphemes are arranged according to certain rules, the arrangement differing in various types of words and particular groups within the same types. The pattern of morpheme arrangement underlies the classification of words into different types and enables one to understand how new words appear in the language. These relations within the word and the interrelations between different types and classes of words are known as derivative or word- formation relations.

The analysis of derivative relations aims at establishing a correlation between different types and the structural patterns words are built on. The basic unit at the derivational level is the stem.

The stem is defined as that part of the word which remains unchanged throughout its paradigm, thus the stem which appears in the paradigm (to) ask ( ), asks, asked, asking is ask-; thestem of the word singer ( ), singer’s, singers, singers’ is singer-. It is the stem of the word that takes the inflections which shape the word grammatically as one or another part of speech.

The structure of stems should be described in terms of IC’s analysis, which at this level aims at establishing the patterns of typical derivative relations within the stem and the derivative correlation between stems of different types.

There are three types of stems: simple, derived and compound.

Simple stems are semantically non-motivated and do not constitute a pattern on analogy with which new stems may be modeled. Simple stems are generally monomorphic and phonetically identical with the root morpheme. The derivational structure of stems does not always coincide with the result of morphemic analysis. Comparison proves that not all morphemes relevant at the morphemic level are relevant at the derivational level of analysis. It follows that bound morphemes and all types of pseudo- morphemes are irrelevant to the derivational structure of stems as they do not meet requirements of double opposition and derivative interrelations. So the stem of such words as retain, receive, horrible, pocket, motion, etc. should be regarded as simple, non- motivated stems.

Derived stems are built on stems of various structures though which they are motivated, i.e. derived stems are understood on the basis  of the derivative relations between their IC’s and the correlated stems. The derived stems are mostly polymorphic in which case the segmentation results only in one IC that is itself a stem, the other IC being necessarily a derivational affix.

Derived stems are not necessarily polymorphic.

Compound stems are made up of two IC’s, both of which are themselves stems, for example match-box, driving-suit, pen-holder, etc. It is built by joining of two stems, one of which is simple, the other derived.

In more complex cases the result of the analysis at the two levels sometimes seems even to contracted one another.

The derivational types of words are classified according to the structure of their stems into simple, derived and compound words.

Derived words are those composed of one root- morpheme and one or more derivational morpheme.

Compound words contain at least two root- morphemes, the number of derivational morphemes being insignificant.

Derivational compound is a word formed by a simultaneous process of composition and derivational.

Compound words proper are formed by joining together stems of word already available in the language.

Теги:
Word structure in modern english 
Реферат 
Английский
Просмотров: 27700
Найти в Wikkipedia статьи с фразой: Word structure in modern english

Normally, sentences in the English language take a simple form. However, there are times it would be a little complex. In these cases, the basic rules for how words appear in a sentence can help you.

Word order typically refers to the way the words in a sentence are arranged. In the English language, the order of words is important if you wish to accurately and effectively communicate your thoughts and ideas.

Although there are some exceptions to these rules, this article aims to outline some basic sentence structures that can be used as templates. Also, the article provides the rules for the ordering of adverbs and adjectives in English sentences.

Basic Sentence Structure and word order rules in English

For English sentences, the simple rule of thumb is that the subject should always come before the verb followed by the object. This rule is usually referred to as the SVO word order, and then most sentences must conform to this. However, it is essential to know that this rule only applies to sentences that have a subject, verb, and object.

For example

Subject + Verb + Object

He loves food

She killed the rat

Sentences are usually made of at least one clause. A clause is a string of words with a subject(noun) and a predicate (verb). A sentence with just one clause is referred to as a simple sentence, while those with more than one clause are referred to as compound sentences, complex sentences, or compound-complex sentences.

The following is an explanation and example of the most commonly used clause patterns in the English language.

Inversion

The English word order is inverted in questions. The subject changes its place in a question. Also, English questions usually begin with a verb or a helping verb if the verb is complex.

For example

Verb + Subject + object

Can you finish the assignment?

Did you go to work?

Intransitive Verbs

Some sentences use verbs that require no object or nothing else to follow them. These verbs are generally referred to as intransitive verbs. With intransitive verbs, you can form the most basic sentences since all that is required is a subject (made of one noun) and a predicate (made of one verb).

For example

Subject + verb

John eats

Christine fights

Linking Verbs

Linking verbs are verbs that connect a subject to the quality of the subject. Sentences that use linking verbs usually contain a subject, the linking verb and a subject complement or predicate adjective in this order.

For example

Subject + verb + Subject complement/Predicate adjective

The dress was beautiful

Her voice was amazing

Transitive Verbs

Transitive verbs are verbs that tell what the subject did to something else. Sentences that use transitive verbs usually contain a subject, the transitive verb, and a direct object, usually in this order.

For example

Subject + Verb + Direct object

The father slapped his son

The teacher questioned his students

Indirect Objects

Sentences with transitive verbs can have a mixture of direct and indirect objects. Indirect objects are usually the receiver of the action or the audience of the direct object.

For example

Subject + Verb + IndirectObject + DirectObject

He gave the man a good job.

The singer gave the crowd a spectacular concert.

The order of direct and indirect objects can also be reversed. However, for the reversal of the order, there needs to be the inclusion of the preposition “to” before the indirect object. The addition of the preposition transforms the indirect object into what is called a prepositional phrase.

For example

Subject + Verb + DirectObject + Preposition + IndirectObject

He gave a lot of money to the man

The singer gave a spectacular concert to the crowd.

Adverbials

Adverbs are phrases or words that modify or qualify a verb, adjective, or other adverbs. They typically provide information on the when, where, how, and why of an action. Adverbs are usually very difficult to place as they can be in different positions in a sentence. Changing the placement of an adverb in a sentence can change the meaning or emphasis of that sentence.

Therefore, adverbials should be placed as close as possible to the things they modify, generally before the verbs.

For example

He hastily went to work.

He hurriedly ate his food.

However, if the verb is transitive, then the adverb should come after the transitive verb.

For example

John sat uncomfortably in the examination exam.

She spoke quietly in the class

The adverb of place is usually placed before the adverb of time

For example

John goes to work every morning

They arrived at school very late

The adverb of time can also be placed at the beginning of a sentence

For example

On Sunday he is traveling home

Every evening James jogs around the block

When there is more than one verb in the sentence, the adverb should be placed after the first verb.

For example

Peter will never forget his first dog

She has always loved eating rice.

Adjectives

Adjectives commonly refer to words that are used to describe someone or something. Adjectives can appear almost anywhere in the sentence.

Adjectives can sometimes appear after the verb to be

For example

He is fat

She is big

Adjectives can also appear before a noun.

For example

A big house

A fat boy

However, some sentences can contain more than one adjective to describe something or someone. These adjectives have an order in which they can appear before a now. The order is

Opinion – size – physical quality – shape – condition – age – color – pattern – origin – material – type – purpose

If more than one adjective is expected to come before a noun in a sentence, then it should follow this order. This order feels intuitive for native English speakers. However, it can be a little difficult to unpack for non-native English speakers.

For example

The ugly old woman is back

The dirty red car parked outside your house

When more than one adjective comes after a verb, it is usually connected by and

For example

The room is dark and cold

Having said that, Susan is tall and big

Get an expert to perfect your paper

The study of word structure is called morphology. Understanding word structure helps us:

• improve spelling
• expand vocabulary

In studying word structure, we start by looking at a few key concepts first:

• root words
• prefixes
• suffixes

Root words are words, or parts of words, that can usually stand alone. The following are all root words:

• elbow
• fast
• nudge

Most root words can be changed in various ways by adding additional elements to them:

• elbows
• faster
• nudged

Each of the examples above has been altered by adding an element at the end. The elements at the end, namely -s, -er, and -ed, cannot stand alone. These elements are called suffixes.

Sometimes, elements are added to the beginning of a word:

• expose → underexpose
• appear → disappear
• take → overtake
• event → non-event

The elements added to the beginnings of the words above cannot stand alone, and are called prefixes.

Sometimes, when we add a prefix or suffix to a word, we create a new word. This process is called derivation.

• appear → appearance

The two words above are definitely two different words — the first is a verb, the second a noun. Their meanings and uses in sentences are different. In a dictionary, we would have to look them up separately, even though they have a common root word.

Sometimes, when we add a suffix, we don’t create a new word at all. This process is called inflection.

• cat → cats

In the above example, we really have just one word — the first is singular, the second plural. In a dictionary, we might look for cat, but we wouldn’t look for a separate entry for cats.

When words are built from a common root word, or a common ancestor in history (often a Latin word), we call the group of words a word family.

• grammar, grammatical, grammatically, ungrammatical, ungrammatically

The terms above are all built from a common root word, grammar. This word family includes a noun, adjectives, and adverbs.

The terms below are built from a common ancestor, the Latin word spectare, meaning ‘to look’:

• inspect, spectacle, spectacular, inspection

This word family includes verbs, nouns, and adjectives.

WORD-STRUCTURE AND WORD-FORMATION IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

How do we guess the meanings of the words we have never encountered before? Attachment: attach (root morpheme) + -ment (suffix) attachment – smth. you add to a document ? Attachmeant ? to mean – meant // -ment N-forming suffix v the file you meant to attach to your email but did not

This is one of the central questions of lexicology: the structure of words and the ways of building new words Lexicology studies the internal structure of words and the rules of word-formation, the formation of new words from the resources of this particular language. Together with the borrowing, wordforming provides for enlarging and enriching the vocabulary of the language.

Morphemes What is the smallest meaningful unit of the language? Sound / phoneme? ? ? Word? ? ? ring > ringlet MORPHEME! Morpheme is the minimum meaningful language unit. Morphemes are not independent, they occur only as parts of words, although a word may consist of a single morpheme (love, house, red, cry).

Types of words from the morphological point of view simple derived (friend) (friendly) words compound (girl-friend) compoundderived (eco-friendly)

Phonetically conditioned positional variants of a morpheme are called allomorphs. The negative prefix in- has the following allomorphs: im- (impossible), ir- (irregular), il- (illegal). Morphemes can be classified: a) from the semantic point of view; b) from the structural point of view.

a) Semantically morphemes fall into: roots the lexical nucleus of a word, shared by other members of the word-family and does not admit any further analysis into ultimate constituents non-roots inflexions (functional) prefixes affixes (derivational) infixes suffixes

b) Structurally morphemes fall into: free rain bound rainless cranberry morphemes cranberry, receive semibound half-rain

Morphemic and word-formation analysis The procedure employed for segmenting words is morphemic analysis based on the method of Immediate and Ultimate Constituents. This method is based on a binary principle. At each stage two components are singled out (referred to as the Immediate Constituents (ICs)). Each IC at the next stage of the analysis is broken into two smaller meaningful units. The analysis is complete when we arrive at further unsegmentable units, i. e. morphemes. They are called Ultimate Constituents (UCs).

joyfully joyful joy -ly -ful

Structural word-formation analysis proceeds further, studying the structural correlation with other words. It is done with the help of the principle of oppositions, i. e. by studying the partly similar elements, the difference between which is functionally relevant. In our case joyfully and joyful are members of a morphemic opposition. Their distinctive feature is the suffix -ly, like in other oppositions of the same kind: joyful dreadful beautiful joyfully dreadfully beautifully Observing this proportional opposition we may conclude that there is a type of derived adverbs consisting of an adjective stem and the suffix -ly.

Structural morphemic analysis is helpful in distinguishing compound words formed by composition from the ones formed by other wordformation processes. to daydream to whitewash composition or composition + conversion? day (N) + dream (N) = daydream (N) composition daydream (N) > to daydream (V) conversion white (ADJ) + to wash (V) = to whitewash (V) composition

Word-formation A characteristic feature of all human languages is the potential to create new words. The categories of noun, verb, adjective, and adverb are open in the sense that new members are constantly being added. The most common types of word formation are derivation (affixation), composition (compounding), conversion. The minor types of word formation are clipping, blending, back-formation, abbreviation, sound-imitation, soundinterchange, distinctive stress.

Affixation (Derivation) Words which consist of a root and an affix (or several affixes) are called derived words or derivatives. Prefixes seldom affect the basic lexico-grammatical component of the stem meaning. A simple word and its prefixed derivative usually belong to the same part of speech: read — reread (v); happy — unhappy (adj. ), but be- + adj. > v (belittle), en- + n > v (encase). Suffixes mostly form a different part of speech and usually modify the lexical meaning of the base: free (adj. ) + -dom > n (freedom) but ring (n) + -let > ringlet (n)

Classifications of affixes according to their origin (native and borrowed) Native suffixes: -er (worker), -ness (loneliness), -ing (feeling), -hood (brotherhood), -ship (friendship), -th (truth), -some (handsome), -en (darken), -ful (colorful) Native prefixes: a- (awake) Borrowed suffixes: -ant (deodorant) (Latin), (parentage) -age, -able (readable), -ance (clearance), ard (Spaniard) (French), -ist (linguist), -ism (communism) (Greek) Borrowed prefixes: pre- (prehistoric), post- (postwar), non- (nonhuman), anti- (antiaircraft) (Romanic and Greek) Words that are made up of elements derived from different languages are called hybrids: readable

according to their semantic characteristics: polysemantic, synonymous and homonymous Polysemantic: -у 1) composed of, full of (bony, stony), 2) characterized by (rainy, cloudy), 3) having the character of (bushy, inky). Synonymous affixes: 1) doer of the action: -er, -ist, -ant (lover, journalist, defendant), 2) collectivity: -age, -dom, -(e)ry (officialdom, peasantry), 3) diminutiveness: -ie, -lit, -ling ( birdie, girlie, wolfling) Homonymic: -ly: 1) Adj. + -ly > Adv. (quickly), 2) N + -ly > Adj. (lovely)

Affixes can also be classified into productive (living) and non-productive (dead). Productive: 1) N-forming suffixes: -er, -ing, -ness (blogging, facebooker) 2) V-forming: -ize, -ate (napsterize) 3) Adj. — forming: -y, -ish, -ed, -able, -less (hay-smoked, proceedable, multitalentless) 4) Adv. -forming: -ly (muchly) 5) Prefixes: un-, re-, dis/de- (unfollow, retweet, defriend) Non-productive: 1) N-forming: -th, -hood 2) Adj. -forming: -ly, -some, -en, -ous 3) V-forming: -en

Word-composition (compounding) Compound words are words consisting of at least two stems which occur in the language as free forms (blackbird). Compounding is highly productive in English. Mostly it can be found in nouns (doorstep), adjectives (winedark), and verbs (stage-manage). Among noun compounds the following types can be found: N + N > N (steamboat) V + N > N (crybaby) Adj + N > N (strongbox). Compound adjectives can be of the following types: Adj. + Adj. > Adj. (red-hot) N + Adj. > Adj. (bloodthirsty) N + V > Adj. (snow-covered).

The constituent members of a compound are not always equal. Some compounds are made up of a determining (basic part = determinatum) and a determined part (serves to differentiate the basic part = determinant). Thus, in steamboat , red in red-hot are determinants, because steamboat is a type of boat, redhot is a degree of hotness. When the meaning of the compound can be inferred from its parts it is called transparent (hairbrush, bedroom, dancing-hall) and non-transparent or idiomatic, when it cannot be inferred from the meaning of components (lazybones, football).

Criteria of differentiation b/w a compound word and a word-combination 1) Graphic — solid or hyphenated spelling airline, air-line, air line 2) Phonological – stress ‘ice-cream (compound) vs. ‘ice ‘cream (free phrase) but this rule does not hold with adjectives: ‘gray’green, ‘easy-‘going Besides, stress can differentiate the meaning of compounds: man’kind «the human race» and ‘mankind «men contrasted with women»

3) Semantic – a compound expresses a single idea which is not identical in meaning to the sum of the meanings of its components in a free phrase. Tallboy does not even denote a person, but a piece of furniture ! But the semantic criterion alone cannot prove anything as phraseological units also convey a single concept. 4) Morphological – a compound is stable a tallboy — a tall and handsome boy a tallboy – a tallestboy 5) syntactic – a compound has one function in the sentence: There is a tallboy in the corner. Ø In most cases, only several criteria can convincingly classify a lexical unit as either a compound word or a word group.

Conversion is an extremely productive way of forming words in Modern English (knife — to knife, to take — a take). It is treated differently in linguistic literature. Some linguists define it as a morphological way of forming words (Smirnitsky, Ginzburg), treating conversion as the formation of a new word through changes in its paradigm. Others (Arnold) consider it to be a morphological syntactic word-building method, because it involves the semantic change, a change of the paradigm and a change of the syntactic function of the word. A purely syntactic approach (functional approach) to conversion is popular with linguists in Great Britain and the USA. They define conversion as a kind of functional change.

1. Verbs converted from nouns (denominal verbs) can express: a) an action characteristic of the object: ape — to ape (behave as apes do); b) instrumental use of the object: screw — to screw (‘fasten with a screw’); c) acquisition or addition of the object: fish — to fish; d) deprivation of the object: dust — to dust (‘remove dust from something’), skin — to skin (‘strip off the skin’).

2. Nouns converted from verbs (deverbal substantives) can express a) instance of the action: to jump — jump, to move — move; b) agent of the action: to help — help ‘a person who helps’; c) place of the action: to drive — drive ‘a path/road along which one drives‘; d) object or result of the action: to peel — peel ‘the outer skin of fruit taken off.

Some other patterns of conversion can be mentioned. 3. Adjectives > Nouns: supernatural, impossible, inevitable; 4. Participle > Adjectives: a standing man / rule, running water. But not all the pairs of such words can be formed by conversion. Some of them arose: (1) as a result of the loss of endings in the course of the historical developments of the English language: love, hate, rest, smell, work, end, answer, care, drink, (2) assimilation of borrowings: check, cry, doubt, change. Some linguists (Smirnitsky, Arbekova) call them patterned homonymy.

Minor types of word formation. Shortening While derivation and compounding represent addition, shortening, on the other hand, may be represented as subtraction, in which part of word or word group is taken away. Shortening can be called a process of wordcoining.

Clipping is a process of creating of a new word by shortening of the original polysyllabic word (prototype). According to what part is cut off we distinguish: final – doc (doctor), initial – net (Internet) medial clipping – poli-sci (political science).

Blending is combining parts of two words to form one. motel = motor + hotel brunch = breakfast + lunch, selectric = select + electric dancercise = dance + exercise. Sometimes only the first word is clipped, as in perma-press for ‘permanent-press’.

Back-Formation Back-formation is a process whereby a word whose form is similar to that of a derived form undergoes a process of deaffixation (the singling-out of a stem from a word which is wrongly regarded as a derivative). resurrect < resurrection enthuse < enthusiasm donate < donation orient < orientation A major source of back-formation in English is represented by the words that end with -er or -or and have meanings involving the notion of an agent, such as editor, peddler, swindler, and stroker. Because hundreds of words ending in these affixes are the result of affixation, it was assumed that these words too had been formed by adding -er or -or to a verb. So, edit, peddle, swindle, and stroke exist as simple verbs.

Abbreviation is the process and the result of forming a word out of the initial elements (letters, morphemes) of a word combination. (a) If the abbreviated written form is read like a word it is called an acronym — AIDS, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), radar (radio detecting and ranging), (b) The other subgroup of abbreviations is pronounces like a series of letters (initialisms) — S. O. S. , NFL (National Football League), B. B. C. (the British Broadcasting Corporation), (c) The term abbreviation may be used for a shortened form of a written word or phrase used in a text for economy of space and effort (graphic abbreviation) — L. A. , N. Y. , B. A. for Bachelor of Arts, ltd for limited, Xmas for Christmas.

Sound interchange may be defined as an opposition in which words or word forms are differentiated due to an alternation in phonemic composition of the root. The change may affect the root vowel: food N — feed V, root consonant: speak V — speech N, or both: life N — live V. It also may be combined with affixation: strong Adj. strength N, or with affixation and shift of stress: ‘democrat — de’mocracy. Distinctive stress: ‘conduct N — con’duct V, object, etc. Sound imitation is the formation of new words from sounds that resemble those associated with the object or action to be named, or that seem suggestive of its qualities: buzz, hiss, sizzle, cuckoo.

Thanks for attention!

1. LECTURE 4 WORD STRUCTURE AND WORD FORMATION www.philology.bsu.by/кафедры/кафедра английского языкознания/учебные материалы/кафедра английского языкознания/папки преп

LEXICOLOGY COURSE
LECTURE 4
WORD STRUCTURE AND
WORD FORMATION
www.philology.bsu.by/кафедры/кафедра английского
языкознания/учебные материалы/кафедра английского
языкознания/папки преподавателей/Толстоухова В.Ф.

2. The questions under consideration

1. Morpheme. Allomorph
2. Word Structure
3. Immediate Constituents Analysis
4. Affixation
5. Conversion
6. Word-Composition
6.1. Properties of compounds
7. Other Types of Word Formation

3. Word-formation (definition)

Word-formation is the branch of
lexicology that studies
the derivative structure of existing words
and
the patterns on which a language builds
new words.
It is a certain principle of classification of
lexicon and
one of the main ways of enriching the
vocabulary.

4. Word-formation is studied

synchronically
Scholars investigate
the existing system
of the types of wordformation
Diachronically
Scholars investigate
the history of wordformation

5. 1. Morpheme. Allomorph

The smallest unit of language that carries
information about meaning or function is
the morpheme.
(Greek morphe «form»
+ -eme «the smallest distinctive unit»)

6. Examples of morphemes

BUILD+ER
build (with the meaning of «construct»)
-er (which indicates that the entire word
functions as a noun with the meaning
«one who builds»).
HOUSE+S
house (with the meaning of «dwelling»)
-s (with the meaning «more than one»)

7. simple words vs complex words

and
boy — boy-s
hunt — hunt-er —hunt-er-s
act act-ive — act-iv-ate ––re-act-iv-ate
Simple words cannot be divided into
smaller parts. Complex words contain
two or more morphemes.

8. morphemes are two-facet language units

A morpheme is a meaning and a stretch
of sound joined together.
It is the minimum meaningful language
unit.

9. Structure of morphemes

free morpheme
(can be a word by
itself,
coincides with the
stem or a word-form)
bound morpheme
(must be attached to
another element,
only can be a part of
a word )

10. allomorphs (from Greek allos «other»)

allomorphs (from Greek allos
«other»)
All the representatives of the given
morpheme are called allomorphs of that
morpheme.
An allomorph is a positional variant of
that or this morpheme occurring in a
specific environment.

11. Examples of allomorphs

an orange, an accent, a car
cats, dogs, judges (the plural morpheme –
s)
assert /assert-ion, permit/permiss-ive,
include/inclus-ive, electric/electric-ity,
impress/impress-ion

12. 2. Word Structure

Words that can be divided have two or
more parts:
a root
affixes (a prefix, a suffix )
inflection

13. Word Structure

A root constitutes the core of the word
and carries the major component of its
meaning. It has more specific and
definite meaning
Affixes are morphemes that modify the
meaning of the root. An affix added
before the root is called a prefix (unending); an affix added after the root is
called a suffix (kind-ness).

14. Examples of word structure

un-work-able
govern-ment
fright-en-ing
re-play
A word may have one or more affixes of
either kind, or several of both kinds.

15. A base

A base is the form to which an affix is
added. In many cases, the base is also the
root. In other cases, however, the base
can be larger than a root.
Blackened
Blacken (verbal base) +ed
Blacken
Black (not only the root for the entire word
but also the base for) +en

16. suffixes vs inflections

Suffixes can form a new part of speech,
e.g.: beauty — beautiful. They can also
change the meaning of the root, e.g.:
black — blackish.
Inflections are morphemes used to
change grammar forms of the word, e.g.:
work — works — worked—working.
English is not a highly inflected language.

17. Four structural types of words in English

simple (root) words consist of one root
morpheme and an inflexion (boy, warm, law,
tables, tenth);
derived words consist of one root
morpheme, one or several affixes and an
inflexion (unmanageable, lawful);
compound words consist of two or more root
morphemes and an inflexion (boyfriend,
outlaw);
compound-derived words consist of two or
more root morphemes, one or more affixes
and an inflexion (left-handed, warm-hearted,
blue-eyed).

18. Two main types of word-formation

word-derivation
(encouragement,
irresistible, worker)
Subdivided into
Affixation
Conversion
Derivational
Composition
word-composition
(blackboard,
daydream, weekend)
Subdivided into
• Derivational
Composition

19. 3. Immediate Constituents Analysis (L. Bloomfield)

Why is it used? (to discover the
derivational structure of lexical units).
How? First we separate a free and a
bound forms. At any level we obtain only
two ICs.

20. Ungentlemanly

1.un— + gentlemanly
2. gentleman + -ly
3. gentle + man
4. as a result, un + (gentle + man) + ly

21. eatable uneatable

eatable
The adjective eatable
consists of two ICs
eat + able and may
be described as a
suffixal derivative
uneatable
the adjective
uneatable is a
prefixal derivative
(the two ICs are un +
eatable)

22. 4. Affixation is a basic means of forming words

suffixation
• is characteristic of
noun and adjective
formation
• does not only modify
the lexical meaning
of the stem,
• but transfers the
word to another part
of speech care (n) /
care — less (adj).
prefixation
• is typical of verb
formation
modifies the lexical
meaning of stems
• joins the part of
speech the
unprefixed word
belongs to, e.g. usual
/un — usual.

23. classification of suffixes

their origin
meaning
part of speech they form
productivity

24. according to their origin:

Romanic (e.g. -age, -ment, -tion),
Native (-er, -dom, -ship),
Greek (-ism, -ize), etc

25. according to their meaning :

-er denotes the agent of the action,
-ess denotes feminine gender,
-ence/ance has abstract meaning,
-age, -dom — collectivity

26. according to their part of speech they form :

noun suffixes -er, -ness, -ment;
adjective-forming suffixes -ish, -ful, -less,
-y;
verb-suffixes -en, -fy,

27. according to their productivity :

What is productivity? It is the relative
freedom with which they can combine
with bases of the appropriate category
productive suffixes are -er, -ly, -ness, ie, -let,
non-productive (-dom, -th)
semi-productive (-eer, -ward).

28. Classification of Prefixes

their origin
meaning
productivity

29. according to their origin:

Native, e.g. un-;
Romanic, e.g. in-;
Greek, e.g. sym-;

30. according to meaning

negative prefixes in-, un-, поп-, a-, dis-;
prefixes of time and order ex-, neo-, after, fore-, post-, proto-;
prefix of repetition re-;
size and degree: hyper-, mega-, mini-,
super-, sur-, ultra-, vice-, etc

31. according to productivity

What is productivity? It is the ability to
make new words:
e.g. un- is highly productive.

32. 5. Conversion (definition)

It is a kind of word formation.
The process of making new parts of
speech without the addition of an affix.
It is a productive way of forming words
in English.
It is sometimes called zero derivation.

33. Examples of coversion

He was knocked out in the first round.
Round the number off to the nearest
tenth.
The neighbors gathered round our
barbecue.
The moon was bright and round.
People came from all the country round.

34. Conversion

Prof. Smirnitsky A. I. in his works on the
English language treats conversion as a
morphological way of forming words.
Other linguists (H. Marchand, V.N.
Yartseva, Yu.A. Zhluktenko, A.Y.
Zagoruiko, I.V. Arnold) treat conversion
as a combined morphological and
syntactic way of word-building, as a new
word appears not in isolation but in a
definite environment of other words.

35. The three most common types of conversion

verbs derived from nouns (to butter, to
ship),
nouns derived from verbs (a survey, a
call),
verbs derived from adjectives (to empty).

36. Less common types of conversion

nouns from:
adjectives (a bitter, the poor, a final),
from phrases, e.g. a down-and-out,
verbs from prepositions (up the price, out
e.g. diplomats were outed from the
country; Truth will out. — Истина станет
известной)

37. Verbs converted from nouns

instrumental use of the object, e.g.
screw — to screw, eye — to eye;
action characteristic of the object, e.g.
ape — to ape;
acquisition: fish — to fish;
deprivation of the object, e.g. dust — to
dust

38. Nouns converted from verbs

instance of an action, e.g. to move — a
move;
word — agent of an action, e.g. to bore
— a bore;
place of an action, e.g. to walk — a
walk;
result of the action, e.g. to cut — a cut

39. 6.Word-Composition

Word-composition is the combination of
two or more existing words to create a
new word
e.g. campsite (N+N), bluebird (A+N),
whitewash (A+V), in-laws (P+N), jumpsuit
(V+N).

40. Word-Composition

In most compounds the rightmost
morpheme determines the category of
the entire word,
e.g. greenhouse is a noun because its
rightmost component is a noun,
spoonfeed is a verb because feed also
belongs to this category, and
nationwide is an adjective just as wide is.

41. 6.1. Properties of compounds

How can compounds in English be
written? — Differently:
as single words,
with an intervening hyphen,
as separate words.

42. endocentric compounds

If a compound denotes a subtype of the
concept denoted by its head it is called
endocentric.
Thus, cat food is a type of food, sky blue is a
type of blue
airplane, steamboat, policeman, bathtowel

43. exocentric compounds

If the meaning of the compound does not
follow from the meanings of its parts it is
said to be exocentric
e.g. redneck is a person and not a type of
neck;
walkman is a type of portable radio.

44. Classification of compounds according to the principle

1) of the parts of speech compound words
represent:
nouns: night-gown, waterfall, looking-glass;
verbs: to honeymoon, to outgrow;
adjectives: peace-loving, hard-working,
pennywise;
adverbs: downstairs, lip-deep;
prepositions: within, into, onto;
numerals: thirty-seven;

45. Classification of compounds according to the principle

2.of the means of composition used to link the
two ICs together:
neutral — formed by joining together two
stems without connecting elements
(juxtaposition), e.g. scarecrow, goldfish,
crybaby;
morphological — components are joined by a
linking element, i.e. vowels ‘o’ and ‘i’ or the
consonant ‘s’, e.g. videophone, tragicomic,
handicraft, craftsman, microchip;
syntactical — the components are joined by
means of form-word stems, e.g. man-of-war,
forget-me-not, bread-and-butter, face-to-face;

46. 7. Other Types of Word Formation

back-formation or disaffixation (baby-sitter —
to baby-sit). Back-formation is a process that
creates a new word by removing a real or
supposed affix from another word in the
language.
sound interchange (speak — speech, blood —
bleed), and sound imitation (walkie-talkie, brag
rags, to giggle);
distinctive change (‘conduct — to con ‘duct,
‘increase — to in crease, ‘subject — to subject);

47. Other Types of Word Formation

blending: these are words that are created
from parts of two already existing items,
usually the first part of one and the final
part of the other:
brunch from breakfast and lunch,
smog from smoke and fog
clipping is a process that shortens a
polysyllabic word by deleting one or
more syllables: prof for professor, burger
for hamburger.

48. Other Types of Word Formation

acronymy: NATO, NASA, WAC, UNESCO.
Acronyms are formed by taking the initial
letters of the words in a phrase and
pronouncing them as a word. (names of
organizations and in terminology).
NASA stands for National Aeronautics
and Space Administration, NA TO —
North Atlantic Treaty Organization

49. Other Types of Word Formation

onomatopoeia, i.e. formations of words
from sounds that resemble those
associated with the object or action to be
named, or that seem suggestive of its
qualities.
e.g. hiss, buzz, meow, cock-a-doodle-doo,
and cuckoo