Word Formation 7

8/13/2019 Word Formation 7

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The role of the affix in this procedure is very important

and therefore it is necessary to consider certain facts

aboutthe maintypes of affixes .

According to the part of speech they form,suffixes are

classified into : noun-forming suffixes-age,-ance,-dom,-

ee,-er,-ess,-hood,-ing, -ion,-ism,-ist,-ment,-ness,-ship,-ty;

adjective-forming suffixes-able,-al,-ic,-ical,-ary,-ate,-ed,-

ful,-ian,-ish,-ive,-less,-like,-ous,-some,-y; verb-formingsuffixes -ate, -er, -en,-fy,-ify,-ize ; adverb-forming

suffixes-ly,-wards,-wise ;numeral-forming siffixes-teen,-th

,-ty.

Abstract nouns are signalled by the following suffixes: -

age,-ance/-ence, -dom,-hood,-ion/-tion/-ation,-ing,-ism,-ment,-ness,-ship,-th,-ty.

Personal nouns occur with the following suffixes :-an,-

ant/-ent,-arian,-ee,-er,-ician,-ist,-or, and a few others .

Feminine suffixes may be classed as a subgroup of

personal noun suffixes .They are few and not frequent: -

ess,-ine,-ette.

Collectivity ,for instance,may be signalled by such suffixes

as -dom,-ery,-hood,-ship.


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Alongside with adding some lexico-grammatical meaning

to the stem,certain suffixes charge it with emotional force .

They may be derogatory:-ard,-ling,-ster,-ton.

Emmotionally coloured dimnuitive suffixes differ from the

derogatory suffixes in that they are used to name not only

personsbut things as wel. This point may be illustrated bu

the suffixes :-ette,-kin,-let,-ock,-y/-ie/-ey.

Annother essential feature of affixes that should net beoverlooked is their combining power or valence:not every

affix is capable ofcombining with any given stem :

-Noun stems can be followed by the noun-forming suffixes

:-age,-dom,-ess,-hood,-ian,-ics,-let,-ship ; by the adjective-

forming suffixes:-al,-an,-ary,-ed,-ful,-ic(al),-ish,-like,-ly,-

ous,-some,-y; verb-forming suffixes:-ate,-en,-(i)fy,-ize.

-Verbal stems combine with the following noun-forming

suffixes: -age,-al,-ance/-ence,-ant/-ent,-ee,-er/-or,-ing,-

ion/-tion/-ation.-ment.

The adjective-forming suffixes used with verbal stems are:

-able/-ible,-ive/-sive/-tive,-some.

-Adjective stems furnish a shorter list :-dom,-ism,-(i)ty,-

ness,-ish,-ly,-ate,-en,-(i)fy.


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Prefixes modify the lexical meaning of the stem,but in so

doing they seldom affect its basic lexico-grammatical

component.Therefore both the simple word and its

prefixed derivative mostly belong to the same part of

speech.The prefix mis- for instance ,when addedto

verbs,conveys the meaning "wrongly", "badly" it does not

suggestany other part pf speech but the verb : advice-

misadvice,inform-misinform.

Negative prefixies are very numerous in English :de-,dis-

,in-/il-/im-/ir-, non-,un-.

Affixes can also be classified according to their

productivity into productive and non productive.The first

we mean the ones,whichtake part in deriving new words inthis particular period of language development.Some

productive affixes:-er,-ing,-ness,-ism,-st,-ance,-y,-ish,-ed,-

able,-less. The last are non-productive :-th,-hood,-some,-

en,-ous.

7.2Composition.Classification and Criteria of

Compounds

Composition is the ways of word building when a word is

formed by joining two or more stems to form one word.

There are three forms of compound words:


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-the clossed form -in which the words are melted

toghether,such as football,classroom,notebook.

-thehyphenated form -such as daughter-in-low,six-year-old,mass-producer.

-the open form-such as post office ,real estate,full moon.

Compound words may be classified according to the type

of composition and the linking element into three groups

:neutral,

morphological and syntactic .

Neutral compounds are formed by joining together two

stems without any connecting element : blue-

eyed,sunflower.

Simple neutral compounds : they consists of simple

stems:film-star,tallboy.

Derivational compund which have affixes: golden-

haired,lady-killer.

Contracted compounds have a shortened stem- TV-

show,H-bag .

Morphological Compounds are few in number and this

type is non-productive.It is represented by words in which

the components are joined by a linking vowel or

consonant- speedmeter,handiwork.


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Syntactic compunds are compounds with linking elements

represented by preposition ,conjuctions,articles,adverbs

:lily-of-the-valley,

good-for-nothing .

The classification according to the parts of speech to which

the compunds belong permits us to distinguish the

following groups:

-compound nound:blackbird,surise

-compound adjectives:sky-blue,social-economic

-compound verbs: to whitewash,to baby-sit

compound adverbs:head first,deep down

compound prepositions:into,within

compound numerals: fifty-nine,eighty-nine.

7.3 Conversion.Substantivation of Adjectives

Conversion,also called zero-suffixation,consits in making anew word from some existing word by changing the

category of a part of speach,the morphemic shape of the

original word remaining unchanged.The new word has a

meaning which differs from that of the originalone though

it can more or less be easily associated with it.It has also a


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new paradigm peculiar to its new category as a part of

speech .

The two categories of parts of speech especially affeted byconversion are nouns and verbs . Verbs made from nouns

are the most numerousamongst the words produced by

conversion : to face, to garage, to coal, to screen,to floor,to

blacklist, to honeymoon.Nounsare frequently made from

verbs: a do,a go, a make,a run,a find,a cut,a walk,a move.Substantivation of Adjectives is the result of ellipsis when

a word combination with a semantically strong attribute

loses its semantically weak noun:a grown-up person is

shortened to a grown-up . In cases of complete

substantivation the atributte takes the paradigm of acountablenoun:a criminal ,criminals,a

criminal's(mistake),criminals'(mistakes) .In case of partial

substantivation a substantivized adjectiveor participle

denotes a group or a class of people: the poor, the French,

the blind, theunemplyed.

7.4 Shortening .Graphical Abbreviations.Acronyms

Shorteningsof words usually consist of the first few

letters of the full form and are usually spelled with afinal period when they are still regarded as abbreviations


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cont. = continued

bus = omnibus

taxi = taxicab

zoo = zoological gardenbike = bicycle

Contractionsare abbreviated forms in which letters

from the middle of the full form have been omitted.

Dr. = doctor

St. = saint or streetcan't = cannot

didn't = did not

Initialismsare made up of the initial letters of words

and are pronounced as separate letters.

CIA (or C.I.A.)

NYCpm (or p.m.)

U.S. (or US)

Acronymsare initialisms that have become words in

their own right, or similar words formed from parts of

several words. They are pronounced as words rather

than as a series of letters.

AIDS

laser

scuba

UNESCO

Abbreviations/Acronyms


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An abbreviationis a shortened form of a word or term.

The shortened form may include letters, numbers, and

symbols.

AbbreviationFull Term

CFMcontamination free

manufacturing

COO cost of ownership

CM3 cubic centimeter

RIE reactive ion etch

An acronymis an abbreviation that can be pronounced and

used as a name.

ARPA

NASACAD

TCAD

Use the following guidelines for all forms of abbreviation.

7.5 Minor types of modern word-building


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CLIPPING

Consists in the reduction of a word to one of its

parts. Mathematicsmaths Laboratorylab Captaincap Gymnasticsgym

3 types:1) The first part is left (the commonest type)

advertisementad2) The second part is left

telephonephoneairplaneplane

3) A middle part is leftinfluenzaflurefrigeratorfridge

Accepted by the speakers of the language clippingcan acquire grammatical categories (used in pluralforms)

BLENDING

Is blending part of two words to form one word(merging into one word)

Smoke + fog = smog Breakfast + lunch = brunch Smoke + haze = smaze ()


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- addictive type: they are transformable into a phraseconsisting of two words combined by a conjunctionand

smog smoke & fog

- blending of restrictive type: transformable into anattributive phrase, where the first element serves asmodifier of a second.

Positronpositive electron Medicaremedical care

WORD MANUFACTURING

A word or word combination that appears orespecially coined by some author. But it doesnt

name a new object or doesnt express a new concept

Sentencesentenceness

I am English & my Englishness is in my vision(Lawrence)Word manufacturing by children:

SOUND INTERCHANGE

Sound interchange is the way of word building when

some sounds are changed to form a new word. It isnon-productive in Modern English; it was productive


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in Old English and can be met in other Indo-European languages.

The causes of sound interchange can be different. Itcan be the result of Ancient Ablaut which cannot beexplained by the phonetic laws during the period ofthe language development known to scientists., e.g.to strike - stroke, to sing - song etc. It can be also theresult of Ancient Umlaut or vowel mutation which is

the result of palatalizing the root vowel because ofthe front vowel in the syllable coming after the root(regressive assimilation), e.g. hot - to heat (hotian),blood - to bleed (blodian) etc.

In many cases we have vowel and consonantinterchange. In nouns we have voiceless consonants

and in verbs we have corresponding voicedconsonants because in Old English these consonantsin nouns were at the end of the word and in verbs inthe intervocal position, e.g. bath - to bathe, life - tolive, breath - to breathe etc.

STRESS INTERCHANGEStress interchange can be mostly met in verbs andnouns of Romanic origin: nouns have the stress onthe first syllable and verbs on the last syllable, e.g.`accent - to ac`cent. This phenomenon is explained inthe following way: French verbs and nouns had

different structure when they were borrowed intoEnglish; verbs had one syllable more than the


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corresponding nouns. When these borrowings wereassimilated in English the stress in them was shiftedto the previous syllable (the second from the end) .

Later on the last unstressed syllable in verbsborrowed from French was dropped (the same as innative verbs) and after that the stress in verbs was onthe last syllable while in nouns it was on the firstsyllable. As a result of it we have such pairs inEnglish as: to af`fix -àffix, to con`flict- `conflict, to

ex`port -èxport, to ex`tract - èxtract etc. As a resultof stress interchange we have also vowel interchangein such words because vowels are pronounceddifferently in stressed and unstressed positions.

SOUND IMITATION

It is the way of word building when imitating differentsounds forms a word. There are some semanticgroups of words formed by means of sound imitation

a) Sounds produced by human beings,suchas: to whisper, to giggle, to mumble, to sneeze, to

whistle etc. b) Sounds produced by animals, birds,

insects, such as: to hiss, to buzz, to bark, tomoo, to twitter etc.

c) Sounds produced by nature and objects,such as: to splash, to rustle, to clatter, to bubble,

to ding-dong, to tinkle etc.


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The corresponding nouns are formed by means ofconversion, e.g. clang (of a bell), chatter (of children)etc.

Word Formation 7

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