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Lexicology of the English Language скачать рефераты

p> WORDBUILDING


Word-building is one of the main ways of enriching vocabulary. There are four main ways of word-building in modern English: affixation, composition, conversion, abbreviation. There are also secondary ways of word-building: sound interchange, stress interchange, sound imitation, blends, back formation.

AFFIXATION


Affixation is one of the most productive ways of word-building throughout the history of English. It consists in adding an affix to the stem of a definite part of speech. Affixation is divided into suffixation and prefixation.

Suffixation.
The main function of suffixes in Modern English is to form one part of speech from another, the secondary function is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech. ( e.g. «educate» is a verb, «educatee» is a noun, and « music» is a noun, «musicdom» is also a noun) .
There are different classifications of suffixes :
1. Part-of-speech classification. Suffixes which can form different parts of speech are given here : a) noun-forming suffixes, such as : -er (criticizer), -dom (officialdom),
-ism (ageism), b) adjective-forming suffixes, such as : -able (breathable), less
(symptomless), -ous (prestigious), c) verb-forming suffixes, such as -ize (computerize) , -ify (micrify), d) adverb-forming suffixes , such as : -ly (singly), -ward (tableward), e) numeral-forming suffixes, such as -teen (sixteen), -ty (seventy).

2. Semantic classification . Suffixes changing the lexical meaning of the stem can be subdivided into groups, e.g. noun-forming suffixes can denote: a) the agent of the action, e.g. -er (experimenter), -ist (taxist), -ent
(student), b) nationality, e.g. -ian (Russian), -ese (Japanese), -ish (English), c) collectivity, e.g. -dom (moviedom), -ry (peasantry, -ship
(readership), -ati ( literati), d) diminutiveness, e.g. -ie (horsie), -let (booklet), -ling (gooseling),
-ette (kitchenette), e) quality, e.g. -ness (copelessness), -ity (answerability).

3. Lexico-grammatical character of the stem. Suffixes which can be added to certain groups of stems are subdivided into: a) suffixes added to verbal stems, such as : -er (commuter), -ing
(suffering), - able (flyable), -ment (involvement), -ation
(computerization), b) suffixes added to noun stems, such as : -less (smogless), ful
(roomful), -ism (adventurism), -ster (pollster), -nik (filmnik), -ish
(childish), c) suffixes added to adjective stems, such as : -en (weaken), -ly
(pinkly), -ish (longish), -ness (clannishness).

4. Origin of suffixes. Here we can point out the following groups: a) native (Germanic), such as -er,-ful, -less, -ly. b) Romanic, such as : -tion, -ment, -able, -eer. c) Greek, such as : -ist, -ism, -ize. d) Russian, such as -nik.

5. Productivity. Here we can point out the following groups: a) productive, such as : -er, -ize, --ly, -ness. b) semi-productive, such as : -eer, -ette, -ward. c) non-productive , such as : -ard (drunkard), -th (length).

Suffixes can be polysemantic, such as : -er can form nouns with the following meanings : agent,doer of the action expressed by the stem
(speaker), profession, occupation (teacher), a device, a tool
(transmitter). While speaking about suffixes we should also mention compound suffixes which are added to the stem at the same time, such as
-ably, -ibly, (terribly, reasonably), -ation (adaptation from adapt).
There are also disputable cases whether we have a suffix or a root morpheme in the structure of a word, in such cases we call such morphemes semi-suffixes, and words with such suffixes can be classified either as derived words or as compound words, e.g. -gate (Irangate), -burger
(cheeseburger), -aholic (workaholic) etc.

Prefixation

Prefixation is the formation of words by means of adding a prefix to the stem. In English it is characteristic for forming verbs. Prefixes are more independent than suffixes. Prefixes can be classified according to the nature of words in which they are used : prefixes used in notional words and prefixes used in functional words. Prefixes used in notional words are proper prefixes which are bound morphemes, e.g. un- (unhappy). Prefixes used in functional words are semi-bound morphemes because they are met in the language as words, e.g. over- (overhead) ( cf over the table ).
The main function of prefixes in English is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech. But the recent research showed that about twenty-five prefixes in Modern English form one part of speech from another
(bebutton, interfamily, postcollege etc).

Prefixes can be classified according to different principles :

1. Semantic classification : a) prefixes of negative meaning, such as : in- (invaluable), non-
(nonformals), un- (unfree) etc, b) prefixes denoting repetition or reversal actions, such as: de-
(decolonize), re- (revegetation), dis- (disconnect), c) prefixes denoting time, space, degree relations, such as : inter-
(interplanetary) , hyper- (hypertension), ex- (ex-student), pre- (pre- election), over- (overdrugging) etc.

2. Origin of prefixes: a) native (Germanic), such as: un-, over-, under- etc. b) Romanic, such as : in-, de-, ex-, re- etc. c) Greek, such as : sym-, hyper- etc.

When we analyze such words as : adverb, accompany where we can find the root of the word (verb, company) we may treat ad-, ac- as prefixes though they were never used as prefixes to form new words in English and were borrowed from Romanic languages together with words. In such cases we can treat them as derived words. But some scientists treat them as simple words. Another group of words with a disputable structure are such as : contain, retain, detain and conceive, receive, deceive where we can see that re-, de-, con- act as prefixes and -tain, -ceive can be understood as roots. But in English these combinations of sounds have no lexical meaning and are called pseudo-morphemes. Some scientists treat such words as simple words, others as derived ones.
There are some prefixes which can be treated as root morphemes by some scientists, e.g. after- in the word afternoon. American lexicographers working on Webster dictionaries treat such words as compound words. British lexicographers treat such words as derived ones.

COMPOSITION

Composition is the way of wordbuilding when a word is formed by joining two or more stems to form one word. The structural unity of a compound word depends upon : a) the unity of stress, b) solid or hyphonated spelling, c) semantic unity, d) unity of morphological and syntactical functioning. These are charachteristic features of compound words in all languages. For English compounds some of these factors are not very reliable. As a rule English compounds have one uniting stress (usually on the first component), e.g. hard-cover, best-seller. We can also have a double stress in an English compound, with the main stress on the first component and with a secondary stress on the second component, e.g. blood- vessel. The third pattern of stresses is two level stresses, e.g. snow- white,sky-blue. The third pattern is easily mixed up with word-groups unless they have solid or hyphonated spelling.
Spelling in English compounds is not very reliable as well because they can have different spelling even in the same text, e.g. war-ship, blood- vessel can be spelt through a hyphen and also with a break, iinsofar, underfoot can be spelt solidly and with a break. All the more so that there has appeared in Modern English a special type of compound words which are called block compounds, they have one uniting stress but are spelt with a break, e.g. air piracy, cargo module, coin change, pinguin suit etc.
The semantic unity of a compound word is often very strong. In such cases we have idiomatic compounds where the meaning of the whole is not a sum of meanings of its components, e.g. to ghostwrite, skinhead, brain-drain etc.
In nonidiomatic compounds semantic unity is not strong, e. g., airbus, to bloodtransfuse, astrodynamics etc.
English compounds have the unity of morphological and syntactical functioning. They are used in a sentence as one part of it and only one component changes grammatically, e.g. These girls are chatter-boxes.
«Chatter-boxes» is a predicative in the sentence and only the second component changes grammatically.
There are two characteristic features of English compounds: a) Both components in an English compound are free stems, that is they can be used as words with a distinctive meaning of their own. The sound pattern will be the same except for the stresses, e.g. «a green-house» and
«a green house». Whereas for example in Russian compounds the stems are bound morphemes, as a rule. b) 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-doing etc. The two-stem pattern distinguishes English compounds from German ones.

WAYS OF FORMING COMPOUND WORDS.
Compound words in English can be formed not only by means of composition but also by means of : a) reduplication, e.g. too-too, and also by means of reduplicatin combined with sound interchange , e.g. rope-ripe, b) conversion from word-groups, e.g. to micky-mouse, can-do, makeup etc, c) back formation from compound nouns or word-groups, e.g. to bloodtransfuse, to fingerprint etc , d) analogy, e.g. lie-in ( on the analogy with sit-in) and also phone-in, brawn-drain (on the analogy with brain-drain) etc.

CLASSIFICATIONS OF ENGLISH COMPOUNDS

1. According to the parts of speech compounds are subdivided into: a) nouns, such as : baby-moon, globe-trotter, b) adjectives, such as : free-for-all, power-happy, c) verbs, such as : to honey-moon, to baby-sit, to henpeck, d) adverbs, such as: downdeep, headfirst, e) prepositions, such as: into, within, f) numerals, such as : fifty-five.

2. According to the way components are joined together compounds are divided into: a) neutral, which are formed by joining together two stems without any joining morpheme, e.g. ball-point, to windowshop, b) morphological where components are joined by a linking element : vowels «o» or «i» or the consonant «s», e.g. {«astrospace», «handicraft»,
«sportsman»), c) syntactical where the components are joined by means of form-word stems, e.g. here-and-now, free-for-all., do-or-die .

3. According to their structure compounds are subdivided into:

a) compound words proper which consist of two stems, e.g. to job-hunt, train-sick, go-go, tip-top ,

b) derivational compounds, where besides the stems we have affixes, e.g. ear-minded, hydro-skimmer,

c) compound words consisting of three or more stems, e.g. cornflower- blue, eggshell-thin, singer-songwriter,

d) compound-shortened words, e.g. boatel, tourmobile, VJ-day, motocross, intervision, Eurodollar, Camford.

4. According to the relations between the components compound words are subdivided into :

a) subordinative compounds where one of the components is the semantic and the structural centre and the second component is subordinate; these subordinative relations can be different:

with comparative relations, e.g. honey-sweet, eggshell-thin, with limiting relations, e.g. breast-high, knee-deep, with emphatic relations, e.g. dog-cheap, with objective relations, e.g. gold-rich, with cause relations, e.g. love-sick, with space relations, e.g. top-heavy, with time relations, e.g. spring-fresh, with subjective relations, e.g. foot-sore etc

b) coordinative compounds where both components are semantically independent. Here belong such compounds when one person (object) has two functions, e.g. secretary-stenographer, woman-doctor, Oxbridge etc. Such compounds are called additive. This group includes also compounds formed by means of reduplication, e.g. fifty-fifty, no-no, and also compounds formed with the help of rhythmic stems (reduplication combined with sound interchange) e.g. criss-cross, walkie-talkie.

5. According to the order of the components compounds are divided into compounds with direct order, e.g. kill-joy, and compounds with indirect order, e.g. nuclear-free, rope-ripe .

CONVERSION


Conversion is a characteristic feature of the English word-building system. It is also called affixless derivation or zero-suffixation. The term «conversion» first appeared in the book by Henry Sweet «New English
Grammar» in 1891. Conversion is treated differently by different scientists, e.g. prof. A.I. Smirntitsky treats conversion as a morphological way of forming words when one part of speech is formed from another part of speech by changing its paradigm, e.g. to form the verb «to dial» from the noun «dial» we change the paradigm of the noun (a dial,dials) for the paradigm of a regular verb (I dial, he dials, dialed, dialing). A. Marchand in his book «The Categories and Types of Present-day
English» treats conversion as a morphological-syntactical word-building because we have not only the change of the paradigm, but also the change of the syntactic function, e.g. I need some good paper for my room. (The noun
«paper» is an object in the sentence). I paper my room every year. (The verb «paper» is the predicate in the sentence).
Conversion is the main way of forming verbs in Modern English. Verbs can be formed from nouns of different semantic groups and have different meanings because of that, e.g. a) verbs have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denoting parts of a human body e.g. to eye, to finger, to elbow, to shoulder etc.
They have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denoting tools, machines, instruments, weapons, e.g. to hammer, to machine-gun, to rifle, to nail, b) 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 wolf, to ape, c) verbs can denote acquisition, addition or deprivation if they are formed from nouns denoting an object, e.g. to fish, to dust, to peel, to paper, d) verbs can denote an action performed at the place denoted by the noun from which they have been converted, e.g. to park, to garage, to bottle, to corner, to pocket, e) 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 .
Verbs can be also converted from adjectives, in such cases they denote the change of the state, e.g. to tame (to become or make tame) , to clean, to slim etc.
Nouns can also be formed by means of conversion from verbs. Converted nouns can denote: a) instant of an action e.g. a jump, a move, b) process or state e.g. sleep, walk, c) agent of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been converted, e.g. a help, a flirt, a scold , d) object or result of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been converted, e.g. a burn, a find, a purchase, e) place of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been converted, e.g. a drive, a stop, a walk.
Many nouns converted from verbs can be used only in the Singular form and denote momentaneous actions. In such cases we have partial conversion. Such deverbal nouns are often used with such verbs as : to have, to get, to take etc., e.g. to have a try, to give a push, to take a swim .

CRITERIA OF SEMANTIC DERIVATION

In cases of conversion the problem of criteria of semantic derivation arises : which of the converted pair is primary and which is converted from it. The problem was first analized by prof. A.I. Smirnitsky. Later on P.A.
Soboleva developed his idea and worked out the following criteria:
1. If the lexical meaning of the root morpheme and the lexico-grammatical meaning of the stem coincide the word is primary, e.g. in cases pen - to pen, father - to father the nouns are names of an object and a living being. Therefore in the nouns «pen» and «father» the lexical meaning of the root and the lexico-grammatical meaning of the stem coincide. The verbs
«to pen» and « to father» denote an action, a process therefore the lexico- grammatical meanings of the stems do not coincide with the lexical meanings of the roots. The verbs have a complex semantic structure and they were converted from nouns.
2. If we compare a converted pair with a synonymic word pair which was formed by means of suffixation we can find out which of the pair is primary. This criterion can be applied only to nouns converted from verbs, e.g. «chat» n. and «chat» v. can be compared with «conversation» -
«converse».
3. The criterion based on derivational relations is of more universal character. In this case we must take a word-cluster of relative words to which the converted pair belongs. If the root stem of the word-cluster has suffixes added to a noun stem the noun is primary in the converted pair and vica versa, e.g. in the word-cluster : hand n., hand v., handy, handful the derived words have suffixes added to a noun stem, that is why the noun is primary and the verb is converted from it. In the word-cluster: dance n., dance v., dancer, dancing we see that the primary word is a verb and the noun is converted from it.

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