1

7 WORD FORMATION By word-building are understood process of producting new words from theresources of this particular language.Before turning to the various processes of making words,it would be useful to analyse the related problem of the compositions of words,of their constituent parts. If viewed structurally ,words appear to be divisible into smaller units which are called morphemes. All morphemes are subdividedinto two large classes : roots and affixies. The latter, in their turn,fall into prefixes which precede the root in the structure of the word and suffixes which folllow the root. Words which consist of a root and affix or affixes are called derived words or derivatives and are producedby the process of word-building known as affixation or derivation. 7.1 affixation.Classification of Affixes The process of affixation consists in coining a new word by adding an affix or several affixes to some root morpheme.

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-forming suffixes -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.

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 be overlooked 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 adjectiveforming 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.

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 : advicemisadvice,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 in this 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 Compounds and Criteria of

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:

-the clossed form -in which the words are melted toghether,such as football,classroom,notebook. -thehyphenated form -such as daughter-in-low,six-yearold,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 : blueeyed,sunflower. Simple neutral compounds : they consists of simple stems:film-star,tallboy. Derivational compund which have affixes: goldenhaired,lady-killer. Contracted compounds have a shortened stem- TVshow,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.

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 a new 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

new paradigm peculiar to its new category as a part of speech . The two categories of parts of speech especially affeted by conversion 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 a countablenoun: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

Shortenings of words usually consist of the first few letters of the full form and are usually spelled with a final period when they are still regarded as abbreviations

cont. = continued bus = omnibus taxi = taxicab zoo = zoological garden bike = bicycle Contractions are abbreviated forms in which letters from the middle of the full form have been omitted. Dr. = doctor St. = saint or street can't = cannot didn't = did not Initialisms are made up of the initial letters of words and are pronounced as separate letters. CIA (or C.I.A.) NYC pm (or p.m.) U.S. (or US) Acronyms are 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

An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or term. The shortened form may include letters, numbers, and symbols. Abbreviation Full Term CFM COO CM3 RIE contamination free manufacturing cost of ownership cubic centimeter reactive ion etch

An acronym is an abbreviation that can be pronounced and used as a name. ARPA NASA CAD TCAD Use the following guidelines for all forms of abbreviation.

7.5 Minor types of modern word-building

10

CLIPPING Consists in the reduction of a word to one of its parts.

Mathematics maths Laboratory lab Captain cap Gymnastics gym

3 types: 1) The first part is left (the commonest type) advertisement ad 2) The second part is left telephone phone airplane plane 3) A middle part is left influenza flu refrigerator fridge Accepted by the speakers of the language clipping can acquire grammatical categories (used in plural forms) BLENDING Is blending part of two words to form one word (merging into one word)

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

11

- addictive type: they are transformable into a phrase consisting of two words combined by a conjunction and

smog smoke & fog

- blending of restrictive type: transformable into an attributive phrase, where the first element serves as modifier of a second.

Positron positive electron Medicare medical care WORD MANUFACTURING

A word or word combination that appears or especially coined by some author. But it doesnt name a new object or doesnt express a new concept

Sentence sentenceness

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 is non-productive in Modern English; it was productive

12

in Old English and can be met in other IndoEuropean languages. The causes of sound interchange can be different. It can be the result of Ancient Ablaut which cannot be explained by the phonetic laws during the period of the language development known to scientists., e.g. to strike - stroke, to sing - song etc. It can be also the result of Ancient Umlaut or vowel mutation which is the result of palatalizing the root vowel because of the 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 consonant interchange. In nouns we have voiceless consonants and in verbs we have corresponding voiced consonants because in Old English these consonants in nouns were at the end of the word and in verbs in the intervocal position, e.g. bath - to bathe, life - to live, breath - to breathe etc. STRESS INTERCHANGE Stress interchange can be mostly met in verbs and nouns of Romanic origin: nouns have the stress on the first syllable and verbs on the last syllable, e.g. `accent - to ac`cent. This phenomenon is explained in the following way: French verbs and nouns had different structure when they were borrowed into English; verbs had one syllable more than the

13

corresponding nouns. When these borrowings were assimilated in English the stress in them was shifted to the previous syllable (the second from the end) . Later on the last unstressed syllable in verbs borrowed from French was dropped (the same as in native verbs) and after that the stress in verbs was on the last syllable while in nouns it was on the first syllable. As a result of it we have such pairs in English as: to af`fix -`affix, to con`flict- `conflict, to ex`port -`export, to ex`tract - `extract etc. As a result of stress interchange we have also vowel interchange in such words because vowels are pronounced differently in stressed and unstressed positions. SOUND IMITATION It is the way of word building when imitating different sounds forms a word. There are some semantic groups of words formed by means of sound imitation

a) Sounds produced by human beings, such as: 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, to moo, 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.

14

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