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Гос филология / Гос филология / 3 Word-building in English

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WB is the process of creating new words in a language with the help of its inner sources.

Two types of WB proper :

  • Word derivation when 1 stem undergoes different changes;

  • Word composition when 2 or more stems are put together.

The most important means of word derivation are:

a) affixation;

b) conversion;

c) composition; types of compounds.

Affixation, conversion, composition are the most productive or major means of WB in modern English.

Aff-n is the formation of new words by adding a derivational affix to a derivational base. It is divided into: Suffixation, Prefixation. The difference b/w suffixes & preffixes is that preffixes as a rule only modify the lexical m-ng of a word without changing the part of speech to which the word belongs: to tie – to untie. Suffixes modify the lexical m-ng of a word. Suffixes are usually classified according to the part of speech they form: 1. Noun-forming suffixes ( to read – reader, dark – darkness); 2. Adjective-forming (powerful); 3. Verb-forming (to purify); 4. Adverbal-forming (quickly).

Prefixes are classified according to their m-ng: 1. Negative (-un; -non; -in; -dis...); 2. privative (-un; -de; -dis..); 3. Pref of time & order ex-(ex-wife); 5. Pref of repetition (re- rewrite); The 2 main criteria, according to which all the affixes are subdivided are: 1) origin; 2) productivity. origin affixes are: Native; Borrowed . According to their productivity, i.e. the ability to build new words at the present time, Eng aff are: Productive or living affixes, used to build new words now; Non-productive, not used in the WB now, or used very rarely.

Conversion - Words, formed by means of Conv-n have identical phonetic & graphic initial forms but belong to diff-nt parts of speech (n. doctor; v. to doctor). Conv-n is a process of creating a new word in a diff-nt part of speech but without adding any derivative elements. The basic form of the original & the basic form of the derived words are: hom-mous (identical). Smernitsky treats conv-n as a morphological way of WB. According to him conv-n is the formation of a new word through the changes in its paradigm. De-nominal words (от глагола) make up the largest group & display the follow semantic relations with the nouns: action characteristic of the thing: -a butcher; to butcher; instrumental use of the thing: a whip-to wheep; acquisition of a thing: a coat; to coat; deprivation/loss of a thing: skin – to skin. Deverbal substantives (отглаг.сущ)they may denote: instance of the action: to move – a move; agent of the action: to switch – a switch; place of the action: to walk- a walk; object or result of the action: to find – a find. The Eng voc-ry has plenty of verbs, converted from nouns( or denominal verbs) & nouns, converted from verbs (deverbal substances): pin –to pin; honeymoon-to honeymoon. There are also some other cases of conv-n: batter-to batter, up – to up.

Composition is the production of a new word by means of uniting 2 or more stems which occur in the lang-ge as free forms (bluebells, ice-cream). There are follow types of compounds: neutral; morphological; syntactical. (1) Comp-ds built without any morpheme as a link, are called neutral. The subtypes of neutral comp-ds according to the structure of immediate constituents: a) neutral comp-ds consisting of 2 simple stems: sky –blue; b) derived include at least 1 derived stem: music-lover, c) contracted compounds which have a shortened stem in their structure, as “V-day” (victory), d) comp-ds, in which at least 1 stem is compound (waterpaper(comp) –basket(simple)).(2) Comp-ds with a specific morpheme as a link (comp-s with a linking element = morphological comp-ds): Anglo-Saxon, handiwork. (3) Comp-ds formed from segments of speech by way of isolating speech syntagmas are sometimes called syntactic comp-ds, (brother-in-law), Semantically comp-ds may be: idiomatic (non-motivated), non-idiomatic (motivated). The comp-ds whose m-gs can be derived from the m-ngs of their component stems, are called non-idiomatic, e.g. classroom, handcuff, handbag, smoking-car. The comp-ds whose m-ngs can’t be derived from the m-gs of their component stems are called idiomatic, e.g. lady-bird.

Shortening occupies the intermediate position between major & “minor”.

Minor means of word-building are:

  • Back formation = reversion;

  • Blending = telescoping;

  • Reduplication = doubling the stem;

  • Sound immitation;

  • Sound interchange;

  • Shift of stress, etc.

Shorting as a WB means occupies an intermediate position b/w major & minor types of WB in modern Eng. Short. is very productive in colloquial speech. Short. is represented by clipping & abbreviation. Clipped words are classified according to the position of a clipped part. Final clipping: which takes part when the final part of a word is clipped: ad (from advertisement), Medial clipping: when the middle part of the word is clipped: maths (from mathematics), There are also words which have been clipped both at the beginning & at the end : e.g. flu (from influenza), The term “abbreviation” is used for s shortened form a written word or phrase when only the initial letters are retained. There are 2 groups of abbrev: - Initial which have the alphabetical reading, i.e. they are pronounced as a series of letters; e.g. the USA (the United States of America); - Initial which are read as ordinary Eng. Words. They are called acronyms: e.g. UNO (United National Organization),

Back-formation is a way of WB by subtracting a real or supposed affix from existing words through misinterpretation of their structure. From “coordination” we have the verb “to coordinate”, Back-form is based on analogy: the existence of agent nouns formed from verbs with the help of the suffix –er/-or: painter – to paint,

. Blending is a way of WB by combining 2 subtracted words into 1 acquiring the m-ng of both. Words formed by blending are called blendings, fusions: smog – smoke + fog, According to Arnold 2 types of blends can be distinguished. One may be termed additive, the other restrictive. The 1st is transformable into a phrase consisting of complete stems combined by the conjunction “and”: The restrictive type is transformable into an attributive phrase where the 1st element serves as a modifier of the 2nd: Medicare<medical care.

Sound imitation is the naming of an action or thing by a more or less exact reproduction of a sound associated with it. Sounds & movement produced by water: splash, splush, gush, flush, gurgle, bubble; Sounds produced by animals, birds & insects: purr, mew, hiss, buzz, moo; Sounds of human speech: chatter, babble, grunt, grumble, murmur, mutter, titter; Sounds produced by metallic things: clinc, tinkle, gingle; Reduplication are called reduplicative compounds, are made by doubling a stem: a) either without phonetic changes quack-quack”; b) Or with the variation of the root vowel: dilly-dally c) Or rhyme combinations: boogie-woogie

Sound-interchange is defined as an opposition in which words or word forms are differentiated due to the alternation in the phonemic composition of the root: as in food(n) – feed(v), proud (adj) – pride (n

shift of stress serves only as a means of distinguishing words, mostly nouns & verbs of Romanic origin: ‘object – to ob’ject;

. Synthetic, or mixed ways oComposition + Suffixation: blue-eyed;; Prefixation+Suffixation: unbelievable; unforgettable; Short-ng+Affixation (Prefixation/Suffixation): non-U (non related to upper classes); All the major & minor means of WB serve to develop the wealth of the Eng. voc-ry forming new words.