Language units

CONTENTS

1. Introduction

2. Language units

3. Polysemy. Homonyms. Synonyms .

4. Semantic changes

5. Metaphor and metonymy Phraseology

6. Germanic borrowings /Scandinavian, German, Holland/ .

7. Russian borrowings. Etymological doublets.

8. Semaciology.

9. Word - meaning.

10. Lexical meaning - notion.

11. Antonyms .

12. Archaisms. Neologisms.

13. Bibliography.

Introduction

This course of lexicology which forms a part of the curriculum for the English sections of linguistic departments of teacher-training colleges is intended for students of the third year of the day department. It includes 15 lectures and 12 seminars which cover the main themes of Modern English lexicology: wordbuilding, semantic changes, phraseology, borrowings, semasiology, neology, lexicography. The material for seminars includes topics to be discussed, test questions and lexical units to be analized. Lexical units for the analysis were chosen mainly among neologisms. There is also a brief list of recommended literature. The aim of the course is to teach students to be word-conscious, to beable to guess the meaning of words they come across from the meanings ofmorphemes, to be able to recognize the origin of this or that lexical unit.

LEXICOLOGY

The term 'lexicology' is of Greek origin / from 'lexis' - 'word' and'logos' - 'science'/ . Lexicology is the part of linguistics which dealswith the vocabulary and characteristic features of words and word-groups. The term 'vocabulary' is used to denote the system of words and word-groups that the language possesses. The term 'word' denotes the main lexical unit of a language resultingfrom the association of a group of sounds with a meaning. This unit is usedin grammatical functions characteristic of it. It is the smallest unit of alanguage which can stand alone as a complete utterance. The term 'word-group' denotes a group of words which exists in thelanguage as a ready-made unit, has the unity of meaning, the unity ofsyntactical function, e.g. the word-group 'as loose as a goose' means'clumsy' and is used in a sentence as a predicative / He is as loose as agoose/. Lexicology can study the development of the vocabulary, the origin ofwords and word-groups, their semantic relations and the development oftheir sound form and meaning. In this case it is called historicallexicology. Another branch of lexicology is called descriptive and studies thevocabulary at a definite stage of its development.

LANGUAGE UNITS The main unit of the lexical system of a language resulting from theassociation of a group of sounds with a meaning is a word. This unit isused in grammatical functions characteristic of it. It is the smallestlanguage unit which can stand alone as a complete utterance. A word, however, can be divided into smaller sense units - morphemes. Themorpheme is the smallest meaningful language unit. The morpheme consists ofa class of variants, allomorphs, which are either phonologically ormorphologically conditioned, e.g. please, pleasant, pleasure. Morphemes are divided into two large groups: lexical morphemes andgrammatical (functional) morphemes. Both lexical and grammatical morphemescan be free and bound. Free lexical morphemes are roots of words whichexpress the lexical meaning of the word, they coincide with the stem ofsimple words. Free grammatical morphemes are function words: articles,conjunctions and prepositions ( the, with, and). Bound lexical morphemes are affixes: prefixes (dis-), suffixes (-ish) andalso blocked (unique) root morphemes (e.g. Fri-day, cran-berry). Boundgrammatical morphemes are inflexions (endings), e.g. -s for the Plural ofnouns, -ed for the Past Indefinite of regular verbs, -ing for the PresentParticiple, -er for the Comparative degree of adjectives. In the second half of the twentieth century the English wordbuildingsystem was enriched by creating so called splinters which scientistsinclude in the affixation stock of the Modern English wordbuilding system.Splinters are the result of clipping the end or the beginning of a wordand producing a number of new words on the analogy with the primary word-group. For example, there are many words formed with the help of thesplinter mini- (apocopy produced by clipping the word 'miniature'), such as'miniplane', 'minijet', 'minicycle', 'minicar', 'miniradio' and manyothers. All of these words denote obects of smaller than normal dimensions. On the analogy with 'mini-' there appeared the splinter 'maxi'- (apocopyproduced by clipping the word 'maximum'), such words as 'maxi-series','maxi-sculpture', 'maxi-taxi' and many others appeared in the language. When European economic community was organized quite a number ofneologisms with the splinter Euro- (apocopy produced by clipping the word'European') were coined, such as: 'Euratom' 'Eurocard', 'Euromarket','Europlug', 'Eurotunnel' and many others. These splinters are treatedsometimes as prefixes in Modern English. There are also splinters which are formed by means of apheresis, that isclipping the beginning of a word. The origin of such splinters can bevariable, e.g. the splinter 'burger' appeared in English as the result ofclipping the German borrowing 'Hamburger' where the morphological structurewas the stem 'Hamburg' and the suffix -er. However in English thebeginning of the word 'Hamburger' was associated with the English word'ham', and the end of the word 'burger' got the meaning 'a bun cut intotwo parts'. On the analogy with the word 'hamburger' quite a number of newwords were coined, such as: 'baconburger', 'beefburger', 'cheeseburger','fishburger' etc. The splinter 'cade' developed by clipping the beginning of the word'cavalcade' which is of Latin origin. In Latin the verb with the meaning'to ride a horse' is 'cabalicare' and by means of the inflexion -ata thecorresponding Participle is formed. So the element 'cade' is a combinationof the final letter of the stem and the inflexion. The splinter 'cade'serves to form nouns with the meaning 'connected with the procession ofvehicles denoted by the first component', e.g. 'aircade' - 'a group ofairplanes accompanying the plane of a VIP' , 'autocade' - 'a group ofautomobiles escorting the automobile of a VIP', 'musicade' - 'an orchestraparticipating in a procession'. In the seventieths of the twentieth century there was a political scandalin the hotel 'Watergate' where the Democratic Party of the USA had its pre-election headquarters. Republicans managed to install bugs there and whenthey were discovered there was a scandal and the ruling American governmenthad to resign. The name 'Watergate' acquired the meaning 'a politicalscandal', 'corruption'. On the analogy with this word quite a number ofother words were formed by using the splinter 'gate' (apheresis of theword 'Watergate'), such as: 'Irangate', 'Westlandgate', 'shuttlegate','milliongate' etc. The splinter 'gate' is added mainly to Proper names:names of people with whom the scandal is connected or a geographical namedenoting the place where the scandal occurred. The splinter 'mobile' was formed by clipping the beginning of the word'automobile' and is used to denote special types of automobiles, such as:'artmobile', 'bookmobile', 'snowmobile', 'tourmobile' etc. The splinter 'napper' was formed by clipping the beginning of the word'kidnapper' and is used to denote different types of crimesters, such as :'busnapper', 'babynapper', 'dognapper' etc. From such nouns thecorresponding verbs are formed by means of backformation, e.g. 'to busnap','to babynap', 'to dognap'. The splinter 'omat' was formed by clipping the beginning of the word'automat' (a cafe in which meals are provided in slot-machines). Themeaning 'self-service' is used in such words as 'laundromat', 'cashomat'etc. Another splinter 'eteria' with the meaning 'self-service' was formed byclipping the beginning of the word 'cafeteria'. By means of the splinter'eteria' the following words were formed: 'groceteria', 'booketeria','booteteria' and many others. The splinter 'quake' is used to form new words with the meaning of'shaking', 'agitation'. This splinter was formed by clipping thebeginning of the word 'earthquake'. Ther following words were formed withthe help of this splinter: 'Marsquake', 'Moonquake', 'youthquake' etc. The splinter 'rama(ama)' is a clipping of the word 'panorama' of Greekorigin where 'pan' means 'all' and 'horama' means 'view'. In ModernEnglish the meaning 'view' was lost and the splinter 'rama' is used inadvertisements to denote objects of supreme quality, e.g. 'autorama' means'exhibition-sale of expensive cars', 'trouserama' means 'sale of trousersof supreme quality' etc. The splinter 'scape' is a clipping of the word 'landscape' and it isused to form words denoting different types of landscapes, such as:'moonscape', 'streetscape', 'townscape', 'seascape' etc. Another case of splinters is 'tel' which is the result of clipping thebeginning of the word 'hotel'. It serves to form words denoting differenttypes of hotels, such as: 'motel' (motor-car hotel), 'boatel' (boat hotel),'floatel' (a hotel on water, floating), 'airtel' (airport hotel) etc. The splinter 'theque' is the result of clipping the beginning of the word 'apotheque' of Greek origin which means in Greek 'a store house'. InRussian words: 'библиотека', 'картотека', 'фильмотека' the element'тека' corresponding to the English 'theque' preserves the meaning ofstoring something which is expressed by the first component of the word. InEnglish the splinter 'theque' is used to denote a place for dancing, suchas: 'discotheque', 'jazzotheque'. The splinter 'thon' is the result of clipping the beginning of the word'marathon'. 'Marathon' primarily was the name of a battle-field in Greece,forty miles from Athens, where there was a battle between the Greek andthe Persian. When the Greek won a victory a Greek runner was sent to Athensto tell people about the victory. Later on the word 'Marathon' was usedto denote long-distance competitions in running. The splinter'thon(athon)' denotes 'something continuing for a long time', 'competitionin endurance' e.g. 'dancathon', 'telethon', 'speakathon', 'readathon','walkathon', 'moviethon', 'swimathon', 'talkathon', 'swearthon' etc. Splinters can be the result of clipping adjectives or substantivizedadjectives. The splinter 'aholic' (holic) was formed by clipping thebeginning of the word 'alcoholic' of Arabian origin where 'al' denoted'the', 'koh'l' - 'powder for staining lids'. The splinter '(a)holic'means 'infatuated by the object expressed by the stem of the word' , e.g.'bookaholic', 'computerholic', 'coffeeholic', 'cheesaholic', 'workaholic'and many others. The splinter 'genic' formed by clipping the beginning of the word'photogenic' denotes the notion 'suitable for something denoted by thestem', e.g. 'allergenic', 'cardiogenic', 'mediagenic', 'telegenic' etc. As far as verbs are concerned it is not typical of them to be clippedthat is why there is only one splinter to be used for forming new verbs inthis way. It is the splinter 'cast' formed by clipping the beginning ofthe verb 'broadcast'. This splinter was used to form the verbs'telecast' and 'abroadcast'. Splinters can be called pseudomorphemes because they are neither rootsnor affixes, they are more or less artificial. In English there are wordswhich consist of two splinters, e.g. 'telethon', therefore it is morelogical to call words with splinters in their structure 'compound-shortened words consisting of two clippings of words'. Splinters have only one function in English: they serve to change thelexical meaning of the same part of speech, whereas prefixes and suffixescan also change the part-of-speech meaning , e.g. the prefix 'en-' andits allomorph 'em' can form verbs from noun and adjective stems ('embody','enable', 'endanger'), 'be-' can form verbs from noun and adjective stems('becloud', 'benumb'), 'post-' and 'pre-' can form adjectives from nounstems ('pre-election campaign', 'post-war events'). The main function ofsuffixes is to form one part of speech from another part of speech, e.g. '-er', '-ing', '-ment' form nouns from verbal stems ('teacher', 'dancing','movement'), '-ness', '-ity' are used to form nouns from adjective stems('clannishnes', 'marginality'). According to the nature and the number of morphemes constituting a wordthere are different structural types of words in English: simple,derived, compound, compound-derived. Simple words consist of one root morpheme and an inflexion (in many casesthe inflexion is zero), e.g. 'seldom', 'chairs', 'longer', 'asked'. Derived words consist of one root morpheme, one or several affixes and aninlexion, e.g. 'deristricted', 'unemployed'. Compound words consist of two or more root morphemes and an inflexion,e.g. 'baby-moons', 'wait-and-see (policy)'. Compound-derived words consist of two or more root morphemes, one or moreaffixes and an inflexion, e.g. 'middle-of-the-roaders', 'job-hopper'. When speaking about the structure of words stems also should bementioned. The stem is the part of the word which remains unchangedthroughout the paradigm of the word, e.g. the stem 'hop' can be found inthe words: 'hop', 'hops', 'hopped', 'hopping'. The stem 'hippie' can befound in the words: 'hippie', 'hippies', 'hippie's', 'hippies''. The stem'job-hop' can be found in the words : 'job-hop', 'job-hops', 'job-hopped','job-hopping'. So stems, the same as words, can be simple, derived, compound andcompound-derived. Stems have not only the lexical meaning but alsogrammatical (part-of-speech) meaning, they can be noun stems ('girl' in theadjective 'girlish'), adjective stems ('girlish' in the noun'girlishness'), verb stems ('expell' in the noun 'expellee') etc. Theydiffer from words by the absence of inflexions in their structure, theycan be used only in the structure of words. Sometimes it is rather difficult to distinguish between simple andderived words, especially in the cases of phonetic borrowings from otherlanguages and of native words with blocked (unique) root morphemes, e.g.'perestroika', 'cranberry', 'absence' etc. As far as words with splinters are concerned it is difficult todistinguish between derived words and compound-shortened words. If asplinter is treated as an affix (or a semi-affix) the word can be calledderived , e.g.-, 'telescreen', 'maxi-taxi' , 'shuttlegate', 'cheeseburger'. But if the splinter is treated as a lexical shortening of one of the stems, the word can be called compound-shortened word formed from a wordcombination where one of the components was shortened, e.g. 'busnapper'was formed from ' bus kidnapper', 'minijet' from 'miniature jet'. In the English language of the second half of the twentieth century theredeveloped so called block compounds, that is compound words which have auniting stress but a split spelling, such as 'chat show', 'pinguin suit'etc. Such compound words can be easily mixed up with word-groups of thetype 'stone wall', so called nominative binomials. Such linguistic unitsserve to denote a notion which is more specific than the notion expressedby the second component and consists of two nouns, the first of which is anattribute to the second one. If we compare a nominative binomial with acompound noun with the structure N+N we shall see that a nominativebinomial has no unity of stress. The change of the order of its componentswill change its lexical meaning, e.g. 'vid kid' is 'a kid who is a videofan' while 'kid vid' means 'a video-film for kids' or else 'lamp oil'means 'oil for lamps' and 'oil lamp' means 'a lamp which uses oil forburning'. Among language units we can also point out word combinations ofdifferent structural types of idiomatic and non-idiomatic character, suchas 'the first fiddle', 'old salt' and 'round table', 'high road'. Thereare also sentences which are studied by grammarians. Thus, we can draw the conclusion that in Modern English the followinglanguage units can be mentioned: morphemes, splinters, words, nominativebinomials, non-idiomatic and idiomatic word-combinations, sentences.

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

AFFIXATION Affixation is one of the most productive ways of word-building throughoutthe history of English. It consists in adding an affix to the stem of adefinite part of speech. Affixation is divided into suffixation andprefixation. Suffixation. The main function of suffixes in Modern English is to form one part ofspeech from another, the secondary function is to change the lexicalmeaning 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 differentparts 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 ofthe stem can be subdivided into groups, e.g. noun-forming suffixes candenote: 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 addedto 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 thefollowing 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 mentioncompound 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 rootmorpheme in the structure of a word, in such cases we call such morphemessemi-suffixes, and words with such suffixes can be classified either asderived 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 thestem. In English it is characteristic for forming verbs. Prefixes are moreindependent than suffixes. Prefixes can be classified according to thenature of words in which they are used : prefixes used in notional wordsand prefixes used in functional words. Prefixes used in notional words areproper prefixes which are bound morphemes, e.g. un- (unhappy). Prefixesused in functional words are semi-bound morphemes because they are met inthe language as words, e.g. over- (overhead) ( cf over the table ). The main function of prefixes in English is to change the lexical meaningof the same part of speech. But the recent research showed that abouttwenty-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 theroot of the word (verb, company) we may treat ad-, ac- as prefixes thoughthey were never used as prefixes to form new words in English and wereborrowed from Romanic languages together with words. In such cases we cantreat them as derived words. But some scientists treat them as simplewords. Another group of words with a disputable structure are such as :contain, retain, detain and conceive, receive, deceive where we can seethat re-, de-, con- act as prefixes and -tain, -ceive can be understood asroots. But in English these combinations of sounds have no lexical meaningand are called pseudo-morphemes. Some scientists treat such words as simplewords, others as derived ones. There are some prefixes which can be treated as root morphemes by somescientists, e.g. after- in the word afternoon. American lexicographersworking on Webster dictionaries treat such words as compound words. Britishlexicographers treat such words as derived ones.

COMPOSITION Composition is the way of wordbuilding when a word is formed by joiningtwo or more stems to form one word. The structural unity of a compoundword depends upon : a) the unity of stress, b) solid or hyphonatedspelling, c) semantic unity, d) unity of morphological and syntacticalfunctioning. These are charachteristic features of compound words in alllanguages. For English compounds some of these factors are not veryreliable. As a rule English compounds have one uniting stress (usually onthe first component), e.g. hard-cover, best-seller. We can also have adouble stress in an English compound, with the main stress on the firstcomponent 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-groupsunless they have solid or hyphonated spelling. Spelling in English compounds is not very reliable as well because theycan 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 therehas appeared in Modern English a special type of compound words which arecalled block compounds, they have one uniting stress but are spelt with abreak, e.g. air piracy, cargo module, coin change, pinguin suit etc. The semantic unity of a compound word is often very strong. In such caseswe have idiomatic compounds where the meaning of the whole is not a sum ofmeanings of its components, e.g. to ghostwrite, skinhead, brain-drain etc.In nonidiomatic compounds semantic unity is not strong, e. g., airbus, tobloodtransfuse, astrodynamics etc. English compounds have the unity of morphological and syntacticalfunctioning. They are used in a sentence as one part of it and only onecomponent changes grammatically, e.g. These girls are chatter-boxes.'Chatter-boxes' is a predicative in the sentence and only the secondcomponent changes grammatically. There are two characteristic features of English compounds: a) Both components in an English compound are free stems, that is theycan be used as words with a distinctive meaning of their own. The soundpattern 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 arebound morphemes, as a rule. b) English compounds have a two-stem pattern, with the exception ofcompound 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 patterndistinguishes English compounds from German ones.

WAYS OF FORMING COMPOUND WORDS. Compound words in English can be formed not only by means of compositionbut also by means of : a) reduplication, e.g. too-too, and also by means of reduplicatincombined 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. tobloodtransfuse, 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 aredivided into: a) neutral, which are formed by joining together two stems without anyjoining 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-wordstems, 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 aresubdivided into : a) subordinative compounds where one of the components is the semanticand the structural centre and the second component is subordinate; thesesubordinative relations can be different: with comparative relations, e.g. honey-sweet, eggshell-thin, withlimiting relations, e.g. breast-high, knee-deep, with emphatic relations,e.g. dog-cheap, with objective relations, e.g. gold-rich, with causerelations, e.g. love-sick, with space relations, e.g. top-heavy, with timerelations, e.g. spring-fresh, with subjective relations, e.g. foot-sore etc b) coordinative compounds where both components are semanticallyindependent. Here belong such compounds when one person (object) has twofunctions, e.g. secretary-stenographer, woman-doctor, Oxbridge etc. Suchcompounds are called additive. This group includes also compounds formed bymeans of reduplication, e.g. fifty-fifty, no-no, and also compounds formedwith the help of rhythmic stems (reduplication combined with soundinterchange) e.g. criss-cross, walkie-talkie. 5. According to the order of the components compounds are divided intocompounds with direct order, e.g. kill-joy, and compounds with indirectorder, e.g. nuclear-free, rope-ripe .

CONVERSION Conversion is a characteristic feature of the English word-buildingsystem. It is also called affixless derivation or zero-suffixation. Theterm 'conversion' first appeared in the book by Henry Sweet 'New EnglishGrammar' in 1891. Conversion is treated differently by differentscientists, e.g. prof. A.I. Smirntitsky treats conversion as amorphological way of forming words when one part of speech is formed fromanother part of speech by changing its paradigm, e.g. to form the verb 'todial' from the noun 'dial' we change the paradigm of the noun (adial,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-dayEnglish' treats conversion as a morphological-syntactical word-buildingbecause we have not only the change of the paradigm, but also the change ofthe 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. (Theverb 'paper' is the predicate in the sentence). Conversion is the main way of forming verbs in Modern English. Verbs canbe formed from nouns of different semantic groups and have differentmeanings because of that, e.g. a) verbs have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denotingparts 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 denotingtools, machines, instruments, weapons, e.g. to hammer, to machine-gun, torifle, to nail, b) verbs can denote an action characteristic of the living being denotedby 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 areformed from nouns denoting an object, e.g. to fish, to dust, to peel, topaper, d) verbs can denote an action performed at the place denoted by the nounfrom which they have been converted, e.g. to park, to garage, to bottle, tocorner, to pocket, e) verbs can denote an action performed at the time denoted by the nounfrom which they have been converted e.g. to winter, to week-end . Verbs can be also converted from adjectives, in such cases they denotethe 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. Convertednouns 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 beenconverted, e.g. a help, a flirt, a scold , d) object or result of the action expressed by the verb from which thenoun 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 beenconverted, e.g. a drive, a stop, a walk. Many nouns converted from verbs can be used only in the Singular form anddenote momentaneous actions. In such cases we have partial conversion. Suchdeverbal nouns are often used with such verbs as : to have, to get, to takeetc., 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 derivationarises : which of the converted pair is primary and which is converted fromit. 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-grammaticalmeaning of the stem coincide the word is primary, e.g. in cases pen - topen, father - to father the nouns are names of an object and a livingbeing. Therefore in the nouns 'pen' and 'father' the lexical meaning of theroot 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 meaningsof the roots. The verbs have a complex semantic structure and they wereconverted from nouns. 2. If we compare a converted pair with a synonymic word pair which wasformed by means of suffixation we can find out which of the pair isprimary. 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 universalcharacter. In this case we must take a word-cluster of relative words towhich the converted pair belongs. If the root stem of the word-cluster hassuffixes added to a noun stem the noun is primary in the converted pair andvica versa, e.g. in the word-cluster : hand n., hand v., handy, handful thederived words have suffixes added to a noun stem, that is why the noun isprimary 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 thenoun is converted from it.

SUBSTANTIVIZATION OF ADJECTIVES Some scientists (Yespersen, Kruisinga ) refer substantivization ofadjectives to conversion. But most scientists disagree with them because incases of substantivization of adjectives we have quite different changes inthe language. Substantivization is the result of ellipsis (syntacticalshortening ) when a word combination with a semantically strong attributeloses its semantically weak noun (man, person etc), e.g. 'a grown-upperson' is shortened to 'a grown-up'. In cases of perfect substantivizationthe attribute takes the paradigm of a countable noun , e.g. a criminal,criminals, a criminal's (mistake) , criminals' (mistakes). Such words areused in a sentence in the same function as nouns, e.g. I am fond ofmusicals. (musical comedies). There are also two types of partly substantivized adjectives: those which have only the plural form and have the meaning of collectivenouns, such as: sweets, news, empties, finals, greens, those which have only the singular form and are used with the definitearticle. They also have the meaning of collective nouns and denote aclass, a nationality, a group of people, e.g. the rich, the English, thedead .

'STONE WALL' COMBINATIONS. The problem whether adjectives can be formed by means of conversion fromnouns is the subject of many discussions. In Modern English there are a lotof word combinations of the type , e.g. price rise, wage freeze, steelhelmet, sand castle etc. If the first component of such units is an adjective converted from anoun, combinations of this type are free word-groups typical of English(adjective + noun). This point of view is proved by O. Yespersen by thefollowing facts: 1. 'Stone' denotes some quality of the noun 'wall'. 2. 'Stone' stands before the word it modifies, as adjectives in thefunction of an attribute do in English. 3. 'Stone' is used in the Singular though its meaning in most cases isplural,and adjectives in English have no plural form. 4. There are some cases when the first component is used in theComparative or the Superlative degree, e.g. the bottomest end of the scale. 5. The first component can have an adverb which characterizes it, andadjectives are characterized by adverbs, e.g. a purely family gathering. 6. The first component can be used in the same syntactical function witha proper adjective to characterize the same noun, e.g. lonely bare stonehouses. 7. After the first component the pronoun 'one' can be used instead of anoun, e.g. I shall not put on a silk dress, I shall put on a cotton one. However Henry Sweet and some other scientists say that these criteria arenot characterisitc of the majority of such units. They consider the first component of such units to be a noun in thefunction of an attribute because in Modern English almost all parts ofspeech and even word-groups and sentences can be used in the function of anattribute, e.g. the then president (an adverb), out-of-the-way vilages (aword-group), a devil-may-care speed (a sentence). There are different semantic relations between the components of 'stonewall' combinations. E.I. Chapnik classified them into the following groups: 1. time relations, e.g. evening paper, 2. space relations, e.g. top floor, 3. relations between the object and the material of which it is made,e.g. steel helmet, 4. cause relations, e.g. war orphan, 5. relations between a part and the whole, e.g. a crew member, 6. relations between the object and an action, e.g. arms production, 7. relations between the agent and an action e.g. government threat,price rise, 8. relations between the object and its designation, e.g. reception hall, 9. the first component denotes the head, organizer of the characterizedobject, e.g. Clinton government, Forsyte family, 10. the first component denotes the field of activity of the secondcomponent, e.g. language teacher, psychiatry doctor, 11. comparative relations, e.g. moon face, 12. qualitative relations, e.g. winter apples.

ABBREVIATION In the process of communication words and word-groups can be shortened.The causes of shortening can be linguistic and extra-linguistic. By extra-linguistic causes changes in the life of people are meant. In ModernEnglish many new abbreviations, acronyms , initials, blends are formedbecause the tempo of life is increasing and it becomes necessary to givemore and more information in the shortest possible time. There are also linguistic causes of abbreviating words and word-groups,such as the demand of rhythm, which is satisfied in English by monosyllabicwords. When borrowings from other languages are assimilated in English theyare shortened. Here we have modification of form on the basis of analogy,e.g. the Latin borrowing 'fanaticus' is shortened to 'fan' on the analogywith native words: man, pan, tan etc. There are two main types of shortenings : graphical and lexical. Graphical abbreviations Graphical abbreviations are the result of shortening of words and word-groups only in written speech while orally the corresponding full forms areused. They are used for the economy of space and effort in writing. The oldest group of graphical abbreviations in English is of Latinorigin. In Russian this type of abbreviation is not typical. In theseabbreviations in the spelling Latin words are shortened, while orally thecorresponding English equivalents are pronounced in the full form,e.g.for example (Latin exampli gratia), a.m. - in the morning (ante meridiem), No - number (numero), p.a. - a year (per annum), d - penny (dinarius),lb - pound (libra), i. e. - that is (id est) etc. Some graphical abbreviations of Latin origin have different Englishequivalents in different contexts, e.g. p.m. can be pronounced 'in theafternoon' (post meridiem) and 'after death' (post mortem). There are also graphical abbreviations of native origin, where in thespelling we have abbreviations of words and word-groups of thecorresponding English equivalents in the full form. We have severalsemantic groups of them : a) days of the week, e.g. Mon - Monday, Tue - Tuesday etc b) names of months, e.g. Apr - April, Aug - August etc. c) names of counties in UK, e.g. Yorks - Yorkshire, Berks -Berkshire etc d) names of states in USA, e.g. Ala - Alabama, Alas - Alaska etc. e) names of address, e.g. Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr. etc. f) military ranks, e.g. capt. -captain, col. - colonel, sgt - sergeantetc. g) scientific degrees, e.g. B.A. - Bachelor of Arts, D.M. - Doctor ofMedicine . ( Sometimes in scientific degrees we have abbreviations of Latinorigin, e.g., M.B. - Medicinae Baccalaurus). h) units of time, length, weight, e.g. f. / ft -foot/feet, sec. - second,in. -inch, mg. - milligram etc. The reading of some graphical abbreviations depends on the context, e.g.'m' can be read as: male, married, masculine, metre, mile, million, minute,'l.p.' can be read as long-playing, low pressure. Initial abbreviations Initialisms are the bordering case between graphical and lexicalabbreviations. When they appear in the language, as a rule, to denote somenew offices they are closer to graphical abbreviations because orally fullforms are used, e.g. J.V. - joint venture. When they are used for someduration of time they acquire the shortened form of pronouncing and becomecloser to lexical abbreviations, e.g. BBC is as a rule pronounced in theshortened form. In some cases the translation of initialisms is next to impossiblewithout using special dictionaries. Initialisms are denoted in differentways. Very often they are expressed in the way they are pronounced in thelanguage of their origin, e.g. ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand, UnitedStates) is given in Russian as АНЗУС, SALT (Strategic Arms LimitationTalks) was for a long time used in Russian as СОЛТ, now a translationvariant is used (ОСВ -Договор об ограничении стратегических вооружений).This type of initialisms borrowed into other languages is preferable, e.g.UFO - НЛО, CП - JV etc. There are three types of initialisms in English: a) initialisms with alphabetical reading, such as UK, BUP, CND etc b) initialisms which are read as if they are words, e.g. UNESCO, UNO,NATO etc. c) initialisms which coincide with English words in their sound form,such initialisms are called acronyms, e.g. CLASS (Computor-based Laboratoryfor Automated School System). Some scientists unite groups b) and c) into one group which they callacronyms. Some initialisms can form new words in which they act as root morphemesby different ways of wordbuilding: a) affixation, e.g. AWALism, ex-rafer, ex- POW, to waafize, AIDSophobiaetc. b) conversion, e.g. to raff, to fly IFR (Instrument Flight Rules), c) composition, e.g. STOLport, USAFman etc. d) there are also compound-shortened words where the first component isan initial abbreviation with the alphabetical reading and the second one isa complete word, e.g. A-bomb, U-pronunciation, V -day etc. In some casesthe first component is a complete word and the second component is aninitial abbreviation with the alphabetical pronunciation, e.g. Three -Ds(Three dimensions) - стереофильм. Abbreviations of words Abbreviation of words consists in clipping a part of a word. As a resultwe get a new lexical unit where either the lexical meaning or the style isdifferent form the full form of the word. In such cases as 'fantasy' and'fancy', 'fence' and 'defence' we have different lexical meanings. In suchcases as 'laboratory' and 'lab', we have different styles. Abbreviation does not change the part-of-speech meaning, as we have itin the case of conversion or affixation, it produces words belonging tothe same part of speech as the primary word, e.g. prof is a noun andprofessor is also a noun. Mostly nouns undergo abbreviation, but we canalso meet abbreviation of verbs, such as to rev from to revolve, to tabfrom to tabulate etc. But mostly abbreviated forms of verbs are formed bymeans of conversion from abbreviated nouns, e.g. to taxi, to vac etc.Adjectives can be abbreviated but they are mostly used in school slang andare combined with suffixation, e.g. comfy, dilly, mizzy etc. As a rulepronouns, numerals, interjections. conjunctions are not abbreviated. Theexceptions are: fif (fifteen), teen-ager, in one's teens (apheresis fromnumerals from 13 to 19). Lexical abbreviations are classified according to the part of the wordwhich is clipped. Mostly the end of the word is clipped, because thebeginning of the word in most cases is the root and expresses the lexicalmeaning of the word. This type of abbreviation is called apocope. Here wecan mention a group of words ending in 'o', such as disco (dicotheque),expo (exposition), intro (introduction) and many others. On the analogywith these words there developed in Modern English a number of words where'o' is added as a kind of a suffix to the shortened form of the word, e.g.combo (combination) - небольшой эстрадный ансамбль, Afro (African)-прическа под африканца etc. In other cases the beginning of the word isclipped. In such cases we have apheresis , e.g. chute (parachute), varsity(university), copter (helicopter) , thuse (enthuse) etc. Sometimes themiddle of the word is clipped, e.g. mart (market), fanzine (fan magazine)maths (mathematics). Such abbreviations are called syncope. Sometimes wehave a combination of apocope with apheresis,when the beginning and the endof the word are clipped, e.g. tec (detective), van (avanguard) etc. Sometimes shortening influences the spelling of the word, e.g. 'c' canbe substituted by 'k' before 'e' to preserve pronunciation, e.g. mike(microphone), Coke (coca-cola) etc. The same rule is observed in thefollowing cases: fax( facsimile), teck (technical college), trank(tranquilizer) etc. The final consonants in the shortened forms aresubstituded by letters characteristic of native English words.

SECONDARY WAYS OF WORDBUILDING SOUND INTERCHANGE Sound interchange is the way of word-building when some sounds arechanged to form a new word. It is non-productive in Modern English, it wasproductive in Old English and can be met in other Indo-European languages. The causes of sound interchange can be different. It can be the result ofAncient Ablaut which cannot be explained by the phonetic laws during theperiod 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 orvowel mutation which is the result of palatalizing the root vowel becauseof the front vowel in the syllable coming after the root ( regressiveassimilation), e.g. hot - to heat (hotian), blood - to bleed (blodian) etc. In many cases we have vowel and consonant interchange. In nouns we havevoiceless consonants and in verbs we have corresponding voiced consonantsbecause in Old English these consonants in nouns were at the end of theword 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 lastsyllable, e.g. `accent - to ac`cent. This phenomenon is explained in thefollowing way: French verbs and nouns had different structure when theywere borrowed into English, verbs had one syllable more than thecorresponding nouns. When these borrowings were assimilated in English thestress in them was shifted to the previous syllable (the second from theend) . Later on the last unstressed syllable in verbs borrowed from Frenchwas dropped (the same as in native verbs) and after that the stress inverbs 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, tocon`flict- `conflict, to ex`port -`export, to ex`tract - `extract etc. Asa result of stress interchange we have also vowel interchange in such wordsbecause vowels are pronounced differently in stressed and unstressedpositions.

SOUND IMITATION It is the way of word-building when a word is formed by imitatingdifferent sounds. There are some semantic groups of words formed by meansof sound imitation a) sounds produced by human beings, such as : to whisper, to giggle, tomumble, to sneeze, to whistle etc. b) sounds produced by animals, birds, insects, such as : to hiss, tobuzz, 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. The corresponding nouns are formed by means of conversion, e.g. clang (ofa bell), chatter (of children) etc. BLENDS Blends are words formed from a word-group or two synonyms. In blends twoways of word-building are combined : abbreviation and composition. To forma blend we clip the end of the first component (apocope) and the beginningof the second component (apheresis) . As a result we have a compound-shortened word. One of the first blends in English was the word 'smog'from two synonyms : smoke and fog which means smoke mixed with fog. Fromthe first component the beginning is taken, from the second one the end,'o' is common for both of them. Blends formed from two synonyms are: slanguange, to hustle, gasohol etc.Mostly blends are formed from a word-group, such as : acromania (acronymmania), cinemadict (cinema adict), chunnel (channel, canal), dramedy (dramacomedy), detectifiction (detective fiction), faction (fact fiction)(fiction based on real facts), informecial (information commercial) ,Medicare ( medical care) , magalog ( magazine catalogue) slimnastics(slimming gymnastics), sociolite (social elite), slanguist ( slanglinguist) etc.

BACK FORMATION It is the way of word-building when a word is formed by dropping thefinal morpheme to form a new word. It is opposite to suffixation, that iswhy it is called back formation. At first it appeared in the languauge as aresult of misunderstanding the structure of a borrowed word . Prof.Yartseva explains this mistake by the influence of the whole system of thelanguage on separate words. E.g. it is typical of English to form nounsdenoting the agent of the action by adding the suffix -er to a verb stem(speak- speaker). So when the French word 'beggar' was borrowed intoEnglish the final syllable 'ar' was pronounced in the same way as theEnglish -er and Englishmen formed the verb 'to beg' by dropping the end ofthe noun. Other examples of back formation are : to accreditate (fromaccreditation), to bach (from bachelor), to collocate (from collocation),to enthuse (from enthusiasm), to compute (from computer), to emote (fromemotion) to reminisce ( from reminiscence) , to televise (from television)etc. As we can notice in cases of back formation the part-of-speech meaningof the primary word is changed, verbs are formed from nouns.

SEMANTIC CHANGES The meaning of a word can change in the course of time. Changes oflexical meanings can be proved by comparing contexts of different times.Transfer of the meaning is called lexico-semantic word-building. In suchcases the outer aspect of a word does not change. The causes of semantic changes can be extra-linguistic and linguistic,e.g. the change of the lexical meaning of the noun 'pen' was due to extra-linguistic causes. Primarily ' pen' comes back to the Latin word 'penna' (afeather of a bird). As people wrote with goose pens the name wastransferred to steel pens which were later on used for writing. Still laterany instrument for writing was called ' a pen'. On the other hand causes can be linguistic, e.g. the conflict of synonyms when a perfect synonym of a native word is borrowed from some otherlanguage one of them may specialize in its meaning, e.g. the noun 'tide' inOld English was polisemantic and denoted 'time', 'season', 'hour'. When theFrench words 'time', 'season', 'hour' were borrowed into English theyousted the word 'tide' in these meanings. It was specialized and now means'regular rise and fall of the sea caused by attraction of the moon'. Themeaning of a word can also change due to ellipsis, e.g. the word-group 'atrain of carriages' had the meaning of 'a row of carriages', later on 'ofcarriages' was dropped and the noun 'train' changed its meaning, it is usednow in the function and with the meaning of the whole word-group. Semantic changes have been classified by different scientists. The mostcomplete classification was suggested by a German scientist Herman Paul inhis work 'Prinzipien des Sprachgeschichte'. It is based on the logicalprinciple. He distiguishes two main ways where the semantic change isgradual ( specialization and generalization), two momentary conscioussemantic changes (metaphor and metonymy) and also secondary ways: gradual(elevation and degradation), momentary (hyperbole and litote).