What is word building education

Word building is a critical phonics activity. Students will develop word awareness skills as they explore and play with letter sounds to build words.  Make sure to download the letter building cards and word building activities in this post.

One thing I love about teaching is that there is always the opportunity to learn, grow and become better.  This past year I have spent a lot of time reading the work of Wiley Blevins.  I’ve learned so much about phonics instruction and come to realize that there are aspects of the way I taught phonics that I would now change and improve.  

One of my main takeaways from Blevins’ book, A Fresh Look at Phonics, is the importance of providing students with lots of opportunities for review and repetition in order to ensure they actually master the skills that we teach!   

I realized that in my own teaching (and I confess!) I was guilty of exposing my students to a phonics skill, taking them through my weekly word study routine, and then moving onto the next skill the following week.  I’m afraid I wasn’t giving them enough practice to ensure mastery. 

Even if you know you need to provide this extra practice, it can be a challenge to come up with activities that effectively meet your needs. In his book Phonics from A to Z, Wiley Blevins suggests using word sorts and word building activities as a way to allow students to explore and play with letter sounds.  

In my last blog post I shared all about word sorts, so today I’m excited to provide you with information about word building activities and share some resources to help get you started with these critical routines.

What are Word Building Activities?

In word building, students are given a set of letter cards and asked to create a series of words in a specified sequence.  Usually, each new word varies by only one sound-spelling from the previous word.  For example, students may build the following words in sequence:  sat, hat, hop, mop.  Each new word varies from the one before it by only one sound-spelling.  

There are two types of word building activities, each with their own instructional purpose.  

1. Word Building: Blending Focus  In this type of word building students are asked to make a word, such as cat.  Then they would be asked to change the letter c to s and read the new word formed.  The goal here is for them to blend, or sound out the new word. You can include many words with the new target phonics skill and also include previously taught skills. 

1. Word Building:  Word Awareness Focus  Here, students are asked to make a word such as cat, and then told to change it to hat.  This requires a lot more thinking than blending-focused work.   Students have to think about how the two words are different and which sound must be changed in order to form the new one.  

Both of these word-building activities can be done with the same set of words, so incorporating both into your week gives your students good practice and saves you planning time! 

Word Building Routines

The routine for word building is simple!  First, introduce the task by naming it and explaining the purpose.  

Next, MODEL!  Place letter cards in a pocket cart to form the first word you are building.  Model sounding out the word.  As you build new words, be sure to include the new target sound-spelling as well as words with review sound-spellings.  Use minimal contrasts to ensure students fully analyze the words and notice their unique differences.  For example, sat/hat, mop/map, mad/made, cot/coat.

Download a set of these large letter cards for your pocket chart here!

Finally, provide opportunities for guided and independent practice.   Continue to change one or more letters in a word and have students chorally blend the new word formed.  

Make sure to have a word list prepared before the lesson in order to keep on track with the focus skill and review skills previously taught.

If you are working on word awareness (instead of blending) tell students what the next word is in the sequence and have them form it on their own.  After giving them time, form the new word on the pocket chart and model your thinking aloud. 

If you have fairly strong word building and word sorts routines in place, an engaging exercise to continue the development of word awareness is Word Ladders.  

Word ladders are a fun and challenging word activity for students, and a great one to use towards the end of the week once they have had a lot of exposure to the word pattern. Since word ladders are self-checking they are perfect to use in an independent literacy center.

Phonics Word Building Activities

Today I’m thrilled to share with you my very own Phonics Word Building Activities!  These DIFFERENTIATED activities are both printable and digital so you can use them in the classroom or for distance learning with Google Classroom & Seesaw! 

Students will listen to the AUDIO directions (from yours truly!) and then build words in a specified sequence. Each new word only varies by one sound spelling from the previous word. Students press the audio button to hear me state the word to build, blend the phonemes of the word, say the word again, and use it in a sentence to develop vocabulary.  

This resource includes: 

• 31 teacher-directed digital word building lessons
• 31 printable word building lessons
• master word list

Each of the 31 lessons focuses on one phonetic pattern: 

• Short Vowel (CVC) Words
• Digraphs
• Blends
• Long Vowels
• Diphthongs
• R-Controlled Vowels
• Complex Vowels

Get started now by downloading your FREE phonics word building activities here: 

Word Ladders

This resource includes both printable and digital word ladders that require students to think critically to figure out the next word to build, using letter or picture clues for support!  Students will change just one letter to build a new word.

Included in this resource are 42 word activities- enough to last you the entire year! 

Included Phonics Patterns:

• CVC Words
• Digraphs
• Blends
• Long Vowels
• Diphthongs
• R-Controlled Vowels
• Complex Vowels

Both of the Phonics Word Building activities and the Word Ladders provide students explicit and systematic practice.  All of the activities in both of the resources are based on Wiley Blevins’ recommended scope and sequence for K-2 students.  You can be confident that they are developmentally appropriate and provide the scaffolding students need for mastery.  

EASY TO PREP AND MANAGE! 

One of the major pitfalls with some word sorts is that they often require a lot of small pieces of paper, letter cuts, or word cards.  They can take a long time to prep, distribute, and collect! 

But NOT these activities! The printable pieces require very few cuts for students. There will be NO TIME wasted dealing with materials!

The digital versions have been PRELOADED for you.  With 1 click you add them to your Seesaw library or Google Drive and then you can assign them to your students for remote learning or individual centers!

Another BONUS is that the structure of each activity in both of these resources remains the same. This saves you from having to explain and model every time you assign one!  Once your students have successfully completed one, you can be sure they’ll be able to independently work through the rest at whatever pace you assign them! 

I hope the Phonics Word Building Activities and the Word Ladders I’ve shared today will help you provide your students with meaningful practice that will help them to develop their word awareness and master their phonics skills!  

–PIN for LATER–

-SHOP THIS POST-

WORD-BUILDING is the process of formation, construction or composition of different words.

In English it is always easy to make several new words from a particular root word. You can easily make it’s NOUN, VERB, ADVERB, ADJECTIVE, OPPOSITE, SYNONYM etc. using your language skill. Suffixes and Prefixes can also be easily added to make meaningful words.

For example, let’s take a word free, which is an adjective. We can change the word in different forms,
freedom (Noun)
to free (Verb)
freely (Adverb)
bound (Antonym)
independent (Synonym)

---

MORE EXAMPLES

---

Скачать материал

Скачать материал

Описание презентации по отдельным слайдам:

• 

  1 слайд

  Ways of Word-Building

• 

  2 слайд

  Conversion
  I. Definition of conversion: a) different approaches to the phenomenon of conversion; b) conversion and convergence; c) semantic development of the resultant word.
  II. Types of conversion. Adjectivization and substantivation.
  III. Semantic relations in converted words.

• 

  3 слайд

  Definition of conversion
  Conversion is a non-affixal way of word-building: e.g. a book — to book
  Conversion consists in coining a new word from some existing one by changing the category of part of speech, the morphemic shape of the original word remaining unchanged: e.g. to head an army, to table a resolution, to smooth a dress.

• 

  4 слайд

  Definition of conversion
  The new word has a meaning, which differs from that of the original one though it can more or less be easily associated with it.
  It has also a new paradigm peculiar to its new category as a part of speech: e.g. eye, n: an eye, (the) eyes; eye, v: eyes (3rd person singular), eyed (past indefinite), eying (participle 1).

• 

  5 слайд

  Productivity of conversion
  The productivity of conversion in the English language is encouraged by
  the analytical structure of this language,
  the simplicity of paradigms of English parts of speech,
  a great number of one-syllable words.

• 

  6 слайд

  Convergence and Conversion
  On the diachronic level conversion should be distinguished from convergence of sound forms of nouns and verbs, which took place as a result of the loss of endings in the 15-16th centuries:
  e.g. OE carian (v), caru (n) > MnE care (v, n);
  OE lufian (v), lufu (n) > MnE love (v, n);
  OE wyrcan (v), weorc (n) > MnE work.

• 

  7 слайд

  Types of conversion
  N > V (the most usual direction): a hand – to hand, a wolf – to wolf, a room – to room;
  V > N (a frequent direction): to make – a make; to show – a show, to walk – a walk;
  Adj > V: pale – to pale, yellow – to yellow, cool – to cool;

• 

  8 слайд

  Types of conversion
  N > Adj (adjectivization of nouns): “a stone wall”, “a village school”;
  Adj > N (substantivation of adjectives): partial (e.g. the blind, the unemployed, the wounded) or complete (e.g. a private, the private(s), the private’s);
  Prep / Conj > N: “ins”, “buts”, “ifs”.

• 

  9 слайд

  Semantic relations in converted words

• 

  10 слайд

  I. V < N (verbs converted from nouns, i.e. denominal verbs)
  verbs have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denoting parts of the human body or from nouns denoting tools, machines, instruments, weapons: e.g. to eye, to finger, to elbow, to shoulder; to hammer, to machine-gun, to rifle, to nail;
  verbs can denote an action characteristic of the living being denoted by the noun from which they have been converted: e.g. to crowd, to nurse, to wolf, to ape;

• 

  11 слайд

  V < N
  verbs can denote acquisition or addition of an object denoted by the noun from which they have been converted: e.g. to fish, to paper;
  verbs can denote deprivation or removal of an object denoted by the noun from which they have been converted: e.g. to dust, to peel;

• 

  12 слайд

  V < N
  verbs can be locative if they are converted from nouns denoting places, buildings, containers: e.g. to park, to garage, to bottle, to corner, to pocket;
  verbs can denote an action performed at the time denoted by the noun from which they have been converted: e.g. to winter, to week-end.

• 

  13 слайд

  II. V < Adj (verbs converted from adjectives, i.e. deadjectival verbs).

  Verbs converted from adjectives denote change of state: e.g. to tame (to become or make tame), to clean, to slim, to calm etc.

• 

  14 слайд

  III. N < V (nouns converted from verbs, i.e. deverbal nouns)

  an agent of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been converted: e.g. a help, a flirt, a scold;
  instance of the action: e.g. a jump, a move;

• 

  15 слайд

  N < V

  place of the action: e.g. a drive, a stop, a walk;
  object or result of the action: e.g. a find, peel.
  process or state: e.g. sleep, walk.

• 

  16 слайд

  WORD-COMPOSITION

  I. Definition of compound words. Specific features of English compounds. Composition and other ways of forming compound words other ways of forming compound words. A compound and a phrase: the criteria of compounds.
  II. Diachronic approach to compounds: simplification, demotivation, semi-affixes.
  III. Classification of compounds.

• 

  17 слайд

  I. Definition
  Composition is one of the most productive types of word-building in Modern English, in which compound words are produced.
  Compound words are words consisting of at least two stems, which occur in the language as free forms.

• 

  18 слайд

  The criteria of compounds
  Structural cohesion:
  1) the unity of stress (e.g. a `blackboard vs a `black `board),
  But: Double stress: e.g. ‘snow-’white, ‘sky-’blue
  2) solid or hyphenated spelling (e.g. homework, exercise-book),
  But: Different spelling (e.g. blood-vessel / blood vessel ); block compounds (one uniting stress but spelt with a break): e.g. air piracy, cargo module, coin change, etc.

• 

  19 слайд

  The criteria of compounds
  3) semantic unity (the meaning of the whole compound is not a sum of meanings of its components): e.g. to ghostwrite, skinhead, brain-drain, etc.
  But: In non-idiomatic compounds semantic unity is not strong: e.g. airbus, to bloodtransfuse, etc.

• 

  20 слайд

  The criteria of compounds
  4) the unity of morphologic and syntactic functioning, i.e. they are used in a sentence as one part of it and only one component changes grammatically (e.g. These girls are chatter-boxes.),
  5) indivisibility, i.e. the impossibility of inserting another word or word-group between its components.

• 

  21 слайд

  Specific features of English compounds
  1) Both components in an English compound are free stems, i.e. they can be used as words with a distinctive meaning of their own: e.g. «a green-house» and «a green house».
  2) 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-the-record, up-and-coming, etc.

• 

  22 слайд

  Other ways of forming compound words

  reduplication (e.g. too-too), reduplication + sound interchange (ablaut): e.g. rope-ripe;
  conversion from word-groups: e.g. to mickey-mouse, makeup, etc;

• 

  23 слайд

  Other ways of forming compound words

  back formation from compound nouns or word-groups: e.g. to bloodtransfuse, to fingerprint, etc.;
  analogy: e.g. lie-in, phone-in (on the analogy with “sit-in”), brawn-drain (on the analogy with brain-drain), etc.

• 

  24 слайд

  II. Diachronic approach to compounds

• 

  25 слайд

  Simplification of stems

  the morphological structure of a compound may undergo certain changes and it turns into a root word: e.g. husband < OE husbonda “master of the house”

• 

  26 слайд

  Demotivation
  Due to etymological isolation a compound may lose its ties with formerly correlated words: e.g. breakfast (literally means “to interrupt going without food / прервать пост”), kidnap (literally means “to seize a young goat”).

• 

  27 слайд

  Semi-affixes
  Some compounds look very much like derivatives due to semi-affixes “man”, “berry”, “land”, “proof”, “like”, “worthy”, “monger”, etc.: e.g. mainland, waterproof, praiseworthy, businesslike, fishmonger.

• 

  28 слайд

  III. Classification of compounds

• 

  29 слайд

  I. The means of joining the components:

  1) neutral, i.e. words with a mere juxtaposition of components without connecting elements: e.g. headache, film-star, blockbuster;
  2) morphological, i.e. words whose components are joined together with a vowel or a consonant as a linking element: e.g. speedometer, handicraft, statesman;
  3) syntactical, i.e. words with linking elements represented by form-word stems: e.g. down-and-out, sister-in-law.

• 

  30 слайд

  II.The morphologic structure of components
  1) compounds consisting of simple stems (compounds proper): e.g. bookcase, blackbird;
  2) compounds where at least one of the components is a derived stem (derived, or derivational compounds): e.g. long-legged, chain-smoker;

• 

  31 слайд

  II.The morphologic structure of components
  3) compounds where at least one of the components is a shortened stem (contracted compounds): e.g. H-bag, math-mistress;
  4) compounds where at least one of the components is a compound stem: e.g. wastepaper-basket, aircraft-carrier, singer-songwriter.

• 

  32 слайд

  III.The part of speech of a compound
  compound nouns (e.g. sunbeam, pickpocket);
  compound adjectives (e.g. lifelong, red-hot, hard-working);
  compound verbs formed either by means of conversion from compound nouns (e.g. “to weekend” from “a weekend”) or by back-derivation from compound nouns (e.g. “to baby-sit” from “a baby-sitter”);

• 

  33 слайд

  III.The part of speech of a compound
  compound pronouns (e.g. somebody, nothing);
  compound adverbs (e.g. somewhere, inside, headfirst),
  compound prepositions (e.g. into, without),
  compound conjunctions (e.g. insofar as),
  compound numerals (e.g. fifty-five),

• 

  34 слайд

  IV. The degree of motivation of compounds
  1) non-idiomatic compounds (with a perfectly clear motivation): e.g. “a seaman – a man professionally connected with the sea”;
  2) idiomatic compounds (the motivation is vague): e.g. a chatterbox, to blackmail;

• 

  35 слайд

  V. The relations between the components
  1) subordinative compounds where one of the components is the semantic and structural centre and the second component is subordinate: e.g. custom-house, coast-line
  2) coordinative compounds where both components are semantically independent: e.g. secretary-stenographer, woman-doctor, fifty-fifty, no-no, criss-cross, walkie-talkie

• 

  36 слайд

  Subordinative relations
  purpose or function relations (e.g. bathrobe, classroom, textbook)
  local relations (e.g. dockyard, garden-party, sea-front)
  comparison (e.g. snow-white)
  the material the thing is made of (e.g. silverware, tin-hat)

• 

  37 слайд

  Subordinative relations
  temporal relations (e.g. summer-house, night-club, day-train)
  the first element denoting gender (e.g. she-dog, tom-cat)
  the first element pointing out the agent (e.g. cock-crowing)
  the first element pointing out the instrument (e.g. pinprick)

• 

  38 слайд

  Subordinative relations
  limiting relations (e.g. breast-high, knee-deep)
  emphatic relations (e.g. dog-cheap)
  cause relations (e.g. love-sick)
  space relations (e.g. top-heavy), etc.

• 

  39 слайд

  VI. The order of the components
  direct order (e.g. kill-joy)

  indirect order (e.g. nuclear-free, rope-ripe)

Найдите материал к любому уроку, указав свой предмет (категорию), класс, учебник и тему:

6 210 058 материалов в базе

• Выберите категорию:

• Выберите учебник и тему

• Выберите класс:

• Тип материала:

  • Все материалы

  • Статьи

  • Научные работы

  • Видеоуроки

  • Презентации

  • Конспекты

  • Тесты

  • Рабочие программы

  • Другие методич. материалы

Найти материалы

Вам будут интересны эти курсы:

• Курс повышения квалификации «Подростковый возраст — важнейшая фаза становления личности»

• Курс профессиональной переподготовки «Маркетинг: теория и методика обучения в образовательной организации»

• Курс повышения квалификации «Специфика преподавания конституционного права с учетом реализации ФГОС»

• Курс повышения квалификации «Маркетинг в организации как средство привлечения новых клиентов»

• Курс повышения квалификации «Правовое регулирование рекламной и PR-деятельности»

• Курс профессиональной переподготовки «Организация менеджмента в туризме»

• Курс повышения квалификации «Методы и инструменты современного моделирования»

• Курс профессиональной переподготовки «Организация деятельности специалиста оценщика-эксперта по оценке имущества»

• Курс профессиональной переподготовки «Методика организации, руководства и координации музейной деятельности»

• Курс профессиональной переподготовки «Метрология, стандартизация и сертификация»

• Курс профессиональной переподготовки «Организация деятельности по водоотведению и очистке сточных вод»

• Курс профессиональной переподготовки «Гостиничный менеджмент: организация управления текущей деятельностью»

• Курс профессиональной переподготовки «Организация маркетинговой деятельности»

• Курс повышения квалификации «Информационная этика и право»

Lecture 3.
Word-building: affixation, conversion, composition, abbreviation.
THE WORD-BUILDING SYSTEM OF ENGLISH
1.
Word-derivation
2.
Affixation
3.
Conversion
4.
Word-composition
5.
Shortening
6.
Blending
7.
Acronymy
8.
Sound interchange
9.
Sound imitation
10. Distinctive stress
11. Back-formation
Word-formation is a branch of Lexicology which studies the process of building new
words, derivative structures and patterns of existing words. Two principle types of wordformation are distinguished: word-derivation and word-composition. It is evident that wordformation proper can deal only with words which can be analyzed both structurally and
semantically. Simple words are closely connected with word-formation because they serve as the
foundation of derived and compound words. Therefore, words like writer, displease, sugar free,
etc. make the subject matter of study in word-formation, but words like to write, to please, atom,
free are irrelevant to it.
WORD-FORMATION
WORD-DERIVATION
AFFIXATION
WORD-COMPOSITION
CONVERSION
1. Word-derivation.
Speaking about word-derivation we deal with the derivational structure of words which
basic elementary units are derivational bases, derivational affixes and derivational patterns.
A derivational base is the part of the word which establishes connection with the lexical
unit that motivates the derivative and determines its individual lexical meaning describing the
difference between words in one and the same derivative set. For example, the individual lexical
meaning of the words singer, writer, teacher which denote active doers of the action is signaled by
the lexical meaning of the derivational bases: sing-, write-, teach-.
Structurally derivational bases fall into 3 classes:
1. Bases that coincide with morphological stems of different degrees оf complexity, i.e.,
with words functioning independently in modern English e.g., dutiful, day-dreamer. Bases are
functionally and semantically distinct from morphological stems. Functionally the morphological
stem is a part of the word which is the starting point for its forms: heart – hearts; it is the part
which presents the entire grammatical paradigm. The stem remains unchanged throughout all
word-forms; it keeps them together preserving the identity of the word. A derivational base is the
starting point for different words (heart – heartless – hearty) and its derivational potential
outlines the type and scope of existing words and new creations. Semantically the stem stands for
the whole semantic structure of the word; it represents all its lexical meanings. A base represents,
as a rule, only one meaning of the source word.
2. Bases that coincide with word-forms, e.g., unsmiling, unknown. The base is usually
represented by verbal forms: the present and the past participles.
3. Bases that coincide with word-groups of different degrees of stability, e.g., blue-eyed,
empty-handed. Bases of this class allow a rather limited range of collocability, they are most
active with derivational affixes in the class of adjectives and nouns (long-fingered, blue-eyed).
Derivational affixes are Immediate Constituents of derived words in all parts of speech.
Affixation is generally defined as the formation of words by adding derivational affixes to
different types of bases. Affixation is subdivided into suffixation and prefixation. In Modern
English suffixation is mostly characteristic of nouns and adjectives coining, while prefixation is
mostly typical of verb formation.
A derivational pattern is a regular meaningful arrangement, a structure that imposes
rigid rules on the order and the nature of the derivational base and affixes that may be brought
together to make up a word. Derivational patterns are studied with the help of distributional
analysis at different levels. Patterns are usually represented in a generalized way in terms of
conventional symbols: small letters v, n, a, d which stand for the bases coinciding with the stems
of the respective parts of speech: verbs, etc. Derivational patterns may represent derivative
structure at different levels of generalization:
- at the level of structural types. The patterns of this type are known as structural
formulas, all words may be classified into 4 classes: suffixal derivatives (friendship) n + -sf →
N, prefixal derivatives (rewrite), conversions (a cut, to parrot) v → N, compound words (musiclover).
- at the level of structural patterns. Structural patterns specify the base classes and
individual affixes thus indicating the lexical-grammatical and lexical classes of derivatives
within certain structural classes of words. The suffixes refer derivatives to specific parts of
speech and lexical subsets. V + -er = N (a semantic set of active agents, denoting both animate
and inanimate objects - reader, singer); n + -er = N (agents denoting residents or occupations Londoner, gardener). We distinguish a structural semantic derivationa1 pattern.
- at the level of structural-semantic patterns. Derivational patterns may specify semantic
features of bases and individual meaning of affixes: N + -y = A (nominal bases denoting living
beings are collocated with the suffix meaning "resemblance" - birdy, catty; but nominal bases
denoting material, parts of the body attract another meaning "considerable amount" - grassy,
leggy).
The basic ways of forming new words in word-derivation are affixation and conversion.
Affixation is the formation of a new word with the help of affixes (heartless, overdo).
Conversion is the formation of a new word by bringing a stem of this word into a different
paradigm (a fall from to fall).
2. Affixation
Affixation is generally defined as the formation of words by adding derivational affixes
to different types of bases. Affixation includes suffixation and prefixation. Distinction between
suffixal and prefixal derivates is made according to the last stage of derivation, for example,
from the point of view of derivational analysis the word unreasonable – un + (reason- + -able) is
qualified as a prefixal derivate, while the word discouragement – (dis- + -courage) + -ment is
defined as a suffixal derivative.
Suffixation is the formation of words with the help of suffixes. Suffixes usually modify
the lexical meaning of the base and transfer words to a different part of speech.
Suffixes can be classified into different types in accordance with different principles.
According to the lexico-grammatical character suffixes may be: deverbal suffixes, e.d.,
those added to the verbal base (agreement); denominal (endless); deadjectival (widen,
brightness).
According to the part of speech formed suffixes fall into several groups: noun-forming
suffixes (assistance), adjective-forming suffixes (unbearable), numeral-forming suffixes
(fourteen), verb-forming suffixes (facilitate), adverb-forming suffixes (quickly, likewise).
Semantically suffixes may be monosemantic, e.g. the suffix –ess has only one meaning
“female” – goddess, heiress; polysemantic, e.g. the suffix –hood has two meanings “condition or
quality” falsehood and “collection or group” brotherhood.
According to their generalizing denotational meaning suffixes may fall into several
groups: the agent of the action (baker, assistant); collectivity (peasantry); appurtenance
(Victorian, Chinese); diminutiveness (booklet).
Prefixation is the formation of words with the help of prefixes. Two types of prefixes can
be distinguished: 1) those not correlated with any independent word (un-, post-, dis-); 2) those
correlated with functional words (prepositions or preposition-like adverbs: out-, up-, under-).
Diachronically distinction is made between prefixes of native and foreign origin.
Prefixes can be classified according to different principles.
According to the lexico-grammatical character of the base prefixes are usually added to,
they may be: deverbal prefixes, e.d., those added to the verbal base (overdo); denominal
(unbutton); deadjectival (biannual).
According to the part of speech formed prefixes fall into several groups: noun-forming
prefixes (ex-husband), adjective-forming prefixes (unfair), verb-forming prefixes (dethrone),
adverb-forming prefixes (uphill).
Semantically prefixes may be monosemantic, e.g. the prefix –ex has only one meaning
“former” – ex-boxer; polysemantic, e.g. the prefix –dis has four meanings “not” disadvantage
and “removal of” to disbrunch.
According to their generalizing denotational meaning prefixes may fall into several
groups: negative prefixes – un, non, dis, a, in (ungrateful, nonpolitical, disloyal, amoral,
incorrect); reversative prefixes - un, de, dis (untie, decentralize, disconnect); pejorative prefixes
– mis, mal, pseudo (mispronounce, maltreat, pseudo-scientific); prefix of repetition (redo),
locative prefixes – super, sub, inter, trans (superstructure, subway, intercontinental,
transatlantic).
3. Conversion
Conversion is a process which allows us to create additional lexical terms out of those
that already exist, e.g., to saw, to spy, to snoop, to flirt. This process is not limited to one syllable
words, e.g., to bottle, to butter, nor is the process limited to the creation of verbs from nouns, e.g.,
to up the prices. Converted words are extremely colloquial: "I'll microwave the chicken", "Let's
flee our dog", "We will of course quiche and perrier you".
Conversion came into being in the early Middle English period as a result of the leveling
and further loss of endings.
In Modern English conversion is a highly-productive type of word-building. Conversion
is a specifically English type of word formation which is determined by its analytical character,
by its scarcity of inflections and abundance of mono-and-de-syllabic words in different parts of
speech. Conversion is coining new words in a different part of speech and with a different
distribution but without adding any derivative elements, so that the original and the converted
words are homonyms.
Structural Characteristics of Conversion: Mostly monosyllabic words are converted,
e.g., to horn, to box, to eye. In Modern English there is a marked tendency to convert
polysyllabic words of a complex morphological structure, e.g., to e-mail, to X-ray. Most converted
words are verbs which may be formed from different parts of speech from nouns, adjectives,
adverbs, interjections.
Nouns from verbs - a try, a go, a find, a loss
From adjectives - a daily, a periodical
From adverbs - up and down
From conjunctions - but me no buts
From interjection - to encore
Semantic Associations / Relations of Conversion:
The noun is the name of a tool or implement, the verb denotes an action performed by the
tool, e.g., to nail, to pin, to comb, to brush, to pencil;
The noun is the name of an animal, the verb denotes an action or aspect of behavior
considered typical of this animal, e.g., to monkey, to rat, to dog, to fox;
When the noun is the name of a part of a human body, the verb denotes an action
performed by it, e.g., to hand, to nose, to eye;
When the noun is the name of a profession or occupation, the verb denotes the activity
typical of it, e.g., to cook, to maid, to nurse;
When the noun is the name of a place, the verb will denote the process of occupying the
place or by putting something into it, e.g., to room, to house, to cage;
When the word is the name of a container, the verb will denote the act of putting
something within the container, e.g., to can, to pocket, to bottle;
When the word is the name of a meal, the verb means the process of taking it, e.g., to
lunch, to supper, to dine, to wine;
If an adjective is converted into a verb, the verb may have a generalized meaning "to be
in a state", e.g., to yellow;
When nouns are converted from verbs, they denote an act or a process, or the result, e.g.,
a try, a go, a find, a catch.
4. Word-composition
Compound words are words consisting of at least two stems which occur in the language
as free forms.
Most compounds in English have the primary stress on the first syllable. For example,
income tax has the primary stress on the in of income, not on the tax.
Compounds have a rather simple, regular set of properties. First, they are binary in
structure. They always consist of two or more constituent lexemes. A compound which has three
or more constituents must have them in pairs, e.g., washingmachine manufacturer consists of
washingmachine and manufacturer, while washingmachine in turn consists of washing and
machine. Compound words also usually have a head constituent. By a head constituent we mean
one which determines the syntactic properties of the whole lexeme, e.g., the compound lexeme
longboat consists of an adjective, long and a noun, boat. The compound lexeme longboat is a
noun, and it is а noun because boat is a noun, that is, boat is the head constituent of longboat.
Compound words can belong to all the major syntactic categories:
• Nouns: signpost, sunlight, bluebird, redwood, swearword, outhouse;
• Verbs: window shop, stargaze, outlive, undertake;
• Adjectives: ice-cold, hell-bent, undersized;
• Prepositions: into, onto, upon.
From the morphological point of view compound words are classified according to the
structure of immediate constituents:
• Compounds consisting of simple stems - heartache, blackbird;
• Compounds where at least one of the constituents is a derived stem -chainsmoker,
maid-servant, mill-owner, shop-assistant;
• Compounds where one of the constituents is a clipped stem - V-day, A-bomb, Xmas,
H-bag;
• Compounds where one of the constituents is a compound stem - wastes paper basket,
postmaster general.
Compounds are the commonest among nouns and adjectives. Compound verbs are few in
number, as they are mostly the result of conversion, e.g., to blackmail, to honeymoon, to
nickname, to safeguard, to whitewash. The 20th century created some more converted verbs, e.g.,
to weekend, to streamline,, to spotlight. Such converted compounds are particularly common in
colloquial speech of American English. Converted verbs can be also the result of backformation.
Among the earliest coinages are to backbite, to browbeat, to illtreat, to housekeep. The 20th
century gave more examples to hitch-hike, to proof-read, to mass-produce, to vacuumclean.
One more structural characteristic of compound words is classification of compounds
according to the type of composition. According to this principle two groups can be singled out:

words which are formed by a mere juxtaposition without any connecting elements,
e.g., classroom, schoolboy, heartbreak, sunshine;

composition with a vowel or a consonant placed between the two stems. e.g.,
salesman, handicraft.
Semantically compounds may be idiomatic and non-idiomatic. Compound words may be
motivated morphologically and in this case they are non-idiomatic. Sunshine - the meaning here
is a mere meaning of the elements of a compound word (the meaning of each component is
retained). When the compound word is not motivated morphologically, it is idiomatic. In
idiomatic compounds the meaning of each component is either lost or weakened. Idiomatic
compounds have a transferred meaning. Chatterbox - is not a box, it is a person who talks a great
deal without saying anything important; the combination is used only figuratively. The same
metaphorical character is observed in the compound slowcoach - a person who acts and thinks
slowly.
The components of compounds may have different semantic relations. From this point of
view we can roughly classify compounds into endocentric and exocentric. In endocentric
compounds the semantic centre is found within the compound and the first element determines
the other as in the words filmstar, bedroom, writing-table. Here the semantic centres are star,
room, table. These stems serve as a generic name of the object and the determinants film, bed,
writing give some specific, additional information about the objects. In exocentric compound
there is no semantic centre. It is placed outside the word and can be found only in the course of
lexical transformation, e.g., pickpocket - a person who picks pockets of other people, scarecrow an object made to look like a person that a farmer puts in a field to frighten birds.
The Criteria of Compounds
As English compounds consist of free forms, it's difficult to distinguish them from
phrases, because there are no reliable criteria for that. There exist three approaches to distinguish
compounds from corresponding phrases:
Formal unity implies the unity of spelling

solid spelling, e.g., headmaster;

with a hyphen, e.g., head-master;

with a break between two components, e.g., head master.
Different dictionaries and different authors give different spelling variants.
Phonic principal of stress
Many compounds in English have only one primary stress. All compound nouns are
stressed according to this pattern, e.g., ice-cream, ice cream. The rule doesn't hold with
adjectives. Compound adjectives are double-stressed, e.g., easy-going, new-born, sky-blue.
Stress cannot help to distinguish compounds from phrases because word stress may depend on
phrasal stress or upon the syntactic function of a compound.
Semantic unity
Semantic unity means that a compound word expresses one separate notion and phrases
express more than one notion. Notions in their turn can't be measured. That's why it is hard to
say whether one or more notions are expressed. The problem of distinguishing between
compound words and phrases is still open to discussion.
According to the type of bases that form compounds they can be of :
1.
compounds proper – they are formed by joining together bases built on the stems
or on the ford-forms with or without linking element, e.g., door-step;
2.
derivational compounds – by joining affixes to the bases built on the word-groups
or by converting the bases built on the word-groups into the other parts of speech, e.g., longlegged → (long legs) + -ed, a turnkey → (to turn key) + conversion. More examples: do-gooder,
week-ender, first-nighter, house-keeping, baby-sitting, blue-eyed blond-haired, four-storied. The
suffixes refer to both of the stems combined, but not to the final stem only. Such stems as nighter,
gooder, eyed do not exist.
Compound Neologisms
In the last two decades the role of composition in the word-building system of English has
increased. In the 60th and 70th composition was not so productive as affixation. In the 80th
composition exceeded affixation and comprised 29.5 % of the total number of neologisms in
English vocabulary. Among compound neologisms the two-component units prevail. The main
patterns of coining the two-component neologisms are Noun stem + Noun stem = Noun;
Adjective stem + Noun stem = Noun.
There appeared a tendency to coin compound nouns where:
 The first component is a proper noun, e.g., Kirlian photograph - biological field of
humans.
 The first component is a geographical place, e.g., Afro-rock.
 The two components are joined with the help of the linking vowel –o- e.g.,
bacteriophobia, suggestopedia.
 The number of derivational compounds increases. The main productive suffix to coin
such compound is the suffix -er - e.g., baby-boomer, all nighter.
 Many compound words are formed according to the pattern Participle 2 + Adv =
Adjective, e.g., laid-back, spaced-out, switched-off, tapped-out.
 The examples of verbs formed with the help of a post-positive -in -work-in, die-in,
sleep-in, write-in.
Many compounds formed by the word-building pattern Verb + postpositive are numerous
in colloquial speech or slang, e.g., bliss out, fall about/horse around, pig-out.
ATTENTION: Apart from the principle types there are some minor types of modern wordformation, i.d., shortening, blending, acronymy, sound interchange, sound imitation, distinctive
stress, back-formation, and reduplicaton.
5. Shortening
Shortening is the formation of a word by cutting off a part of the word. They can be
coined in two different ways. The first is to cut off the initial/ middle/ final part:
 Aphaeresis – initial part of the word is clipped, e.g., history-story, telephone-phone;
 Syncope – the middle part of the word is clipped, e.g., madam- ma 'am; specs
spectacles
 Apocope – the final part of the word is clipped, e.g., professor-prof, editored, vampirevamp;
 Both initial and final, e.g., influenza-flu, detective-tec.
Polysemantic words are usually clipped in one meaning only, e.g., doc and doctor have
the meaning "one who practices medicine", but doctor is also "the highest degree given by a
university to a scholar or scientist".
Among shortenings there are homonyms, so that one and the same sound and graphical
complex may represent different words, e.g., vac - vacation/vacuum, prep —
preparation/preparatory school, vet — veterinary surgeon/veteran.
6. Blending
Blending is a particular type of shortening which combines the features of both clipping
and composition, e.g., motel (motor + hotel), brunch (breakfast + lunch), smog (smoke + fog),
telethon (television + marathon), modem , (modulator + demodulator), Spanglish (Spanish +
English). There are several structural types of blends:

Initial part of the word + final part of the word, e.g., electrocute (electricity +
execute);

initial part of the word + initial part of the word, e.g., lib-lab (liberal+labour);

Initial part of the word + full word, e.g., paratroops (parachute+troops);

Full word + final part of the word, e.g., slimnastics (slim+gymnastics).
7. Acronymy
Acronyms are words formed from the initial letters of parts of a word or phrase,
commonly the names of institutions and organizations. No full stops are placed between the
letters. All acronyms are divided into two groups. The first group is composed of the acronyms
which are often pronounced as series of letters: EEC (European Economic Community), ID
(identity or identification card), UN (United Nations), VCR (videocassette recorder), FBI
(Federal Bureau of Investigation), LA (Los Angeles), TV (television), PC (personal computer),
GP (General Practitioner), ТВ (tuberculosis). The second group of acronyms is composed by the
words which are pronounced according to the rules of reading in English: UNESCO (United
Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome), ASH (Action on Smoking and Health). Some of these pronounceable words are
written without capital letters and therefore are no longer recognized as acronyms: laser (light
amplification by stimulated emissions of radiation), radar (radio detection and ranging).
Some abbreviations have become so common and normal as words that people do not think
of them as abbreviations any longer. They are not written in capital letters, e.g., radar (radio
detection and ranging), laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) yuppie,
gruppie, sinbads, dinkies.
Some abbreviations are only written forms but they are pronounced as full words, e.g.,
Mr, Mrs, Dr. Some abbreviations are from Latin. They are used as part of the language etc. - et
cetera, e.g., (for example) — exampli gratia, that is - id est.
Acromymy is widely used in the press, for the names of institutions, organizations,
movements, countries. It is common to colloquial speech, too. Some acronyms turned into
regular words, e.g., jeep -came from the expression general purpose car.
There are a lot of homonyms among acronyms:
MP - Member of Parliament/Military Police/Municipal Police
PC - Personal Computer/Politically correct
8. Sound-interchange
Sound-interchange is the formation of a new word due to an alteration in the phonemic
composition of its root. Sound-interchange falls into two groups: 1) vowel-interchange, e.g., food
– feed; in some cases vowel-interchange is combined with suffixation, e.g., strong – strength; 2)
consonant-interchange e.g., advice – to advise. Consonant-interchange and vowel-interchange
may be combined together, e.g., life – to live.
This type of word-formation is greatly facilitated in Modern English by the vast number
of monosyllabic words. Most words made by reduplication represent informal groups:
colloquialisms and slang, hurdy-gurdy, walkie-talkie, riff-raff, chi-chi girl. In reduplication new
words are coined by doubling a stem, either without any phonetic changes as in bye-bye or with a
variation of the root-vowel or consonant as in ping-pong, chit-chat.
9. Sound imitation or (onomatopoeia)
It is the naming of an action or a thing by more or less exact reproduction of the sound
associated with it, cf.: cock-a-do-doodle-do – ку-ка-ре-ку.
Semantically, according to the source sound, many onomatopoeic words fall into the
following definitive groups: 1) words denoting sounds produced by human beings in the process of
communication or expressing their feelings, e.g., chatter; 2) words denoting sounds produced by
animals, birds, insects, e.g., moo, buzz; 3) words imitating the sounds of water, the noise of metallic
things, movements, e.g., splash, whip, swing.
10. Distinctive stress
Distinctive stress is the formation of a word by means of the shift of the stress in the
source word, e.g., increase – increase.
11. Back-formation
Backformation is coining new words by subtracting a real or supposed suffix, as a result
of misinterpretation of the structure of the existing word. This type of word-formation is not
highly productive in Modern English and it is built on the analogy, e.g., beggar-to beg, cobbler to cobble, blood transfusion — to blood transfuse, babysitter - to baby-sit.

Слайд 1
Word-building

Conversion
Compounding
Afexes

---

Слайд 2
Conversion
The formation of new words without changing their spelling and

pronunciation.

From the verb
master – to master
house – to house
water – to water

From the adjective
empty – to empty
white – to white

---

Слайд 3
Compounding
air + field = airfield
birth + place =

birthplace

---

Слайд 4
Afexes
Prefixes
Suffixes
syllables which we add before certain words to form

new words. The meaning of the new word depends on the prefix that has been used

syllables which we add to the end of the certain words to from new verbs

---

Слайд 5
Prefixes
The prefixes below are used to express opposite meanings.

de- (destabilise, dethrone)
dis- (disadvantage, disbelief)
in- (insufficient) , il- (before l) illegal
im- (before b,m,p) immature, improbable
ir- (before r) irrelevant BUT unreal, unremarkable
non- (non-dairy),
un- (unattractive, uncivilized)
anti – (anticlockwise)
counter- (counterattack)

---

Слайд 6
Prefixes
The prefixes with negative meaning
a- (amoral) ab- (absent)
mis-

(misread) non- (nonexistent)

The prefixes with meaning «too»
over- (to overpay) super- (superior)
ultra- (ultra-shot) out- (outlast)

---

Слайд 7
uni- (one) uniform bi- (two) bilingual
co- (with)

co-educational inter- (between) interstate
inter- (between) interstate multi- (many) multicultural
post- (after) postwar pre- (before) prenuptial
re- (again) redesign semi- (half) semi-circle
sub- under less- (subordinate)
trans- (travel) transatlantic
pro- (in favour of) pro-American
under- (not enough) underdeveloped
ex- (previous, former) ex-president

Prefixes

---

Слайд 8
Suffixes
Nouns referring to people
verb+ -er/-or/-ar (work – worker, act- actor,

burgle – burglar)
noun/verb/adjective+ -ist (social-socialist)
verb+ -ant/-ent (assist-assistant, reside – resident)
noun+ -an/-ian (republic – republican, Italy – Italian)
verb+ -ee (passive meaning) (employ – employee)

---

Слайд 9
Nouns formed from verbs
–age post-postage
–al propose-proposal
–ance perform-performance
–ence coincide-coincidence
–ation animate-animation
–ion televise-television
–ment employ-employment
–sion pretend-pretension
–sis hypothesise-hypothesis
–tion describe-description
–ure close-closure
–y discover-discovery

Suffixes

---

Слайд 10
Nouns formed from adjectives
–ance relevant-relevance
–cy urgent-urgency
–ence patient-patience
–ion isolated-isolation
–iness happy-happiness
–ness sad-sadness
–ity relative-relatively
–ty royal-royalty
–y honest-honesty

Suffixes

---

Слайд 11
Adjectives formed from nouns
–ous nausea-nauseous
–al nation-national
–ic history-historic
–ical theatre-theatrical
–ish girl-girlish
–ive suppression-suppressive
–ful (with) dread-dreadful
–less (without) name-nameless
–ant brilliance-brilliant
–able reason-reasonable
–y wealth-wealthy
–ly world-worldly

Suffixes

---

Слайд 12
Adjectives formed from verbs
–able treat-treatable
–ible sense-sensible
–ive exclude-exclusive
–ate consider-considerate
–ent differ-defferernt

Verbs formed from adjectives
–en bright-brighten
–ise real-realise

Verbs formed from nouns
–en strength-strengthen

Suffixes

---

Слайд 13

literature – Virginia Evans, Jenny Dooley “Wishes”
Marina Bobrova. 1077/2

---