Word-formation in English
Definition and features of word-formation, productivity. Types of word-formation: affixation, conversion, shortening, composition, secondary ways. Justification their value and effectiveness. Main results of practical research, analysis and value.
| Рубрика | Иностранные языки и языкознание |
| Вид | курсовая работа |
| Язык | английский |
| Дата добавления | 20.10.2014 |
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Introduction
word formation affixation shortening
Language is a means of formation and accumulation of ideas as reflections of a reality and an exchange of them during the whole life. Language has a quality of sociality by its nature; it is inseparably connected with people who are its founders and users, it grows and develops together with development of a society.
The lexical structure of the language constantly changes. The English lexicon constantly replenishes with a stock of new words from which everyone chooses what is necessary for him in a concrete situation. Some words go out of use, die off; other words appear and fill up dictionary structure of the language. Distinctive feature of any language is its ability sensitively to react to the slightest changes in a public, cultural and daily life. Updating of the lexicon occurs in various ways: by means of creation of new words from already existing, expansion of semantic structure of already existing words and formation of homonyms, loan of new words from other languages or from a dialect of the same language.
New words in language are created on the certain models - on the types developed in language: with the help of productive word-formation morphemes, affixes, with the help of a composition when two or more bases are united in a single one, by means of conversion. Each of these ways has the typology which depends on the general typological characteristic of language.
The structure of a word is closely connected with word-formation. In lexicology the problem of word-formation is actual, because of its value in language formation and expansion of lexicon, and various ways of word-formation are frequently used in the English texts and oral speech.
The aim of the course work is: to reveal main types of the word-formation in the modern English language.
Object of the research: lexical level of the s of word-formation in the English language.
Subject of the research: types of word-formation in the English language.
The aim, object and subject have demanded the decision of the following problems:
- to study theoretical and practical sources on the problems of the research;
- to give definition of word-formation in the English language;
- to consider various types of word-formation and their peculiarities;
- to make a practical research of using various types of word-formation
Methods of research: scientific analysis of the information sources and references, description, comparative analysis and interpretation of sources, conceptual analysis of the literature, synthesis, study, content-analysis.
The course work consists of the introduction, three chapters (2 theoretical and practical), the conclusions, bibliography.
1. Word-formation as a means of language development
1.1 Definition and features of word-formation
Word - formation is the system of derivative types of words and the process of creating new words from the material available in the language after certain structural and semantic formulas and patterns. [1, c. 70] For instance, the noun driver is formed after the pattern v+-er, i.e. a verbal stem + noun-forming suffix - er. The meaning of the derived noun driver is related to the meaning of the stem drive - `to direct the course of a vehicle' and the suffix - er meaning 'an active agent': a driver is `one who drive».
There are some different classifications of types of word-formation. Most linguists consider as the chief process of English word-formation affixation, conversion and compounding.
In conformity with structural types of words described above the following two types of word-formation may be distinguished: word-derivation and word-composition (or compounding). Words created by word-derivation have in terms of word-formation analysis only one derivational base and one derivational affix, e. g. cleanness (from clean), to overestimate (from to estimate), chairmanship (from chairman), openhandedness (from openhanded), etc. Some derived words have no derivational affixes, because derivation is achieved through conversion, e.g. to paper (from paper), a fall (from to fall), etc. Words created by word-composition have at least two bases, e.g. lamp-shade, ice-cold, looking-glass, day-dream, hotbed, speedometer. etc.
Within the types, further distinction may be made between the ways of forming words. The basic ways of forming words in word-derivation are affixation and conversion. [2, c. 97]
The understanding of word-formation excludes semantic word-building as well as shortening, sound - and stress-interchange which traditionally are referred to minor ways of word-formation. [3, c. 87] By semantic word-building some linguists understand any change of word-meaning, e.g. stock-'the lower part of the trunk of a tree'; 'something lifeless or stupid'; 'the part of an instrument that serves as a base', etc.; bench - 'a long seat of wood or stone'; 'a carpenter's table', etc. The majority of linguists, however, understand this process only as a change in the meaning of a word that may result in the appearance of homonyms, as is the case with flower-'a blossom' and flour-'the fine meal', 'powder made from wheat and used for making bread'; magazine-'a publication' and magazine-'the chamber for cartridges in a gun or rifle', etc. The application of the term word-formation to the process of semantic change and to the appearance of homonyms due to the development of polysemy seems to be debatable for the following reasons: as semantic change does not, as a rule, lead to the introduction of a new word into the vocabulary, it can scarcely be regarded as a word-building means. [4, c. 112] Neither can we consider the process a word-building means even when an actual enlargement of the vocabulary does come about through the appearance of a pair of homonyms. Actually, the appearance of homonyms is not a means of creating new words, but it is the final result of a long and labourious process of sense-development. Furthermore, there are no patterns after which homonyms can be made in the language. Finally, diverging sense-development results in a semantic isolation of two or more meanings of a word, whereas the process of word-formation proper is characterized by a certain semantic connection between the new word and the source lexical unit. For these reasons diverging sense-development leading to the appearance of two or more homonyms should be regarded as a specific channel through which the vocabulary of a language is replenished with new words and should not be treated on a par with the processes of word-formation, such as affixation, conversion and composition.
1.2 Productivity of word-formation
Some of the ways of forming words in present-day English can be resorted to for the creation of new words whenever the occasion demands-these are called productive ways of forming words, other ways of forming words cannot now produce new words, and these are commonly termed non-productive or unproductive. [5, c. 131] For instance, affixation has been a productive way of forming words ever since the Old English period; on the other hand, sound-interchange must have been at one time a word-building means but in Modern English its function is actually only to distinguish between different classes and forms of words.
It follows that productivity of word-building ways, individual derivational patterns and derivational affixes is understood as their ability of making new words which all who speak English find no difficulty in understanding, in particular their ability to create what are called occasional words or nonce-words. The term suggests that a speaker coins such words when he needs them; if on another occasion the same word is needed again, he coins it afresh. Nonce-words are built from familiar language material after familiar patterns. The following words may serve as illustration: (his) collarless (appearance), a lungful (of smoke), a Dickensish (office), to unlearn (the rules), etc. [6, с. 183]
Recent investigations seem to prove however that productivity of derivational means is relative in many respects. Moreover there are no absolutely productive means; derivational patterns and derivational affixes possess different degrees of productivity. Therefore it is important that conditions favouring productivity and the degree of productivity of a particular pattern or affix should be established. All derivational patterns experience both structural and semantic constraints. The fewer are the constraints the higher is the degree of productivity, the greater is the number of new words built on it. Three degrees of productivity are distinguished for derivational patterns and individual derivational affixes: I) high1y-productive, 2) productive or semi-productive and 3) non-productive.
2. Types of word-formation
2.1 Affixation
There are productive and non-productive ways of word-formation. The first are: affixation, conversion, shortening, word-composition, the second are: blending, sound and stress interchange, back formation.
Affixation is generally defined as the formation of words by adding derivational affixes to different types of bases.
Derived words formed by affixation may be the result of one or several applications of word-formation rule and thus the stems of words making up a word-cluster enter into derivational relations of different degrees. The zero degree of derivation is ascribed lo simple words, i.e. words whose stem is homonymous with a word-form and often with a root-morpheme, e.g. atom, haste, devote, horror, etc. Derived words whose bases are built on simple stems and thus are formed by the application of one derivational affix are described as having the first degree of derivation, e.g. atomic, hasty, devotion, etc. Derived words formed by two consecutive stages of coining possess the second degree of derivation, etc., e.g. atomical, hastily, devotional, etc. [7, c. 101]
In conformity with the division of derivational affixes into suffixes and prefixes affixation is subdivided into suffixation and prefixation Distinction is naturally made between prefixal and suffixal derivatives according to the last stage of derivation, which determines the nature of the ICs of the pattern that signals the relationship of the derived word with its motivating source unit, cf. unjust (un-+just), justify, (just+-ify), arrangement (arrange + - ment), non-smoker (non- + smoker). Words like reappearance, unreasonable, denationalize, are often qualified as prefixal-suffixal derivatives. The reader-should clearly realize that this qualification is relevant only in terms of the constituent morphemes such words are made up of, i.e. from the angle of morphemic analysis. From the point of view of derivational analysis such words are mostly either suffixal or prefixal derivatives, e.g. sub-atomic -= sub- + (atom + - ic), unreasonable: un- + (reason + - able), denationalrze - de - +(national + - ize), discouragement - (dis- + courage) + - ment. [8, c. 89]
A careful study of a great many suffixal and prefixal derivatives has revealed an essential difference between them. In Modern English suffixation is mostly characteristic of noun and adjective formation, while prefixation is mostly typical of verb formation. [9, c. 96] The distinction also rests on the role different types of meaning play in the semantic structure of the suffix and the prefix. The part-of-speech meaning has a much greater significance in suffixes as compared to prefixes which possess it in a lesser degree. Due to it a prefix may be confined to one part of speech as, e.g., enslave, encage, unbutton or may function in more than one part of speech as, e.g., over - in overkind a, to overfeed v, overestimation n; unlike prefixes, suffixes as a rule function in any one part of speech often forming a derived stem of a different part of speech as compared with that of the base, e.g. careless a - cf. care n; suitable a-cf. suit v, etc. Furthermore, it is necessary to point out that a suffix closely knit together with a base forms a fusion retaining less of its independence than a prefix which is as a general rule more independent semantically, cf. reading-'the act of one who reads'; `ability to read'; and to re-read-'to read again.'
Prefixation
Prefixation is the formation of words with the help of prefixes. The interpretation of the terms prefix and prefixation now firmly rooted in linguistic literature has undergone a certain evolution. For instance, some time ago there were linguists who treated prefixalion as a part of word-composition (or compounding). The greater semantic independence of prefixes as compared with suffixes led the linguists to identify prefixes with the first component part of a compound word.
At present the majority of scholars treat prefixation as an integral part of word-derivation regarding prefixes as derivational affixes which differ essentially both from root-morphemes and non-derivational prepositive morphemes. Opinion sometimes differs concerning the interpretation of the functional status of certain individual groups of morphemes which commonly occur as first component parts of words. H. Marchand, for instance, analyses words like to overdo, to underestimate as compound verbs, the first components of which are locative particles, not prefixes. [2, c. 114] In a similar way he interprets words like income, onlooker, outhouse qualifying them as compounds with locative particles as first elements.
There are about 51 prefixes in the system of Modern English word-formation. [10, c. 98]
According to the available word-counts of prefixal derivatives the greatest number are verbs-42.4%, adjectives comprise 33,5% and nouns make up 22.4%.
E.g. prefixal verbs: to enrich, to co-exist, to disagree, to undergo, etc.;
prefixal adjectives: anti-war, biannual, uneasy, super-human, etc.;
prefixal nouns: ex-champion, co-author, disharmony, subcommittee,
Proceeding from the three types of morphemes that the structural classification involves two types of. prefixes are to be distinguished:
1) those not correlated with any independent word (either notional or functional), e.g. un-, dis-, re-, pre-, post-, etc.; and
2) those correlated with functional words (prepositions or preposition-like adverbs), e.g. out-, over-, up-, under-, etc.
Prefixes of the second type are qualified as semi-bound morphemes, which implies that they occur in speech in various utterances both as independent words and as derivational affixes, e.g. 'over one's head', 'over the river' (cf. to overlap, to overpass); 'to run out', 'to take smb out' (cf. to outgrow, to outline); 'to look up', 'hands up' (cf. upstairs, to upset); 'under the same roof, 'to go under' (cf. to underestimate, undercurrent), etc. [11, c. 94]
Prefixes may be classified on different principles. Diachronically distinction is made between prefixes of native and foreign origin. Synchronically prefixes may be classified:
1) according to the class of words they preferably form.
The majority of prefixes (in their various denotational meanings) tend to function either in nominal parts of speech (41 patterns in adjectives, 42 in nouns) or in verbs (22 patterns);
2) as to the type of lexical-grammatical character of the base they are added to into: a) deverbal, e. g. rewrite, outstay, overdo, etc.; b) denominal, e.g. unbutton, detrain, ex-president, etc. and c) deadjectival, e.g. uneasy, biannual, etc. It is of interest to note that the most productive prefixal pattern for adjectives is the one made up of the prefix un - and the base built either on adjectival stems or present and past participle, unknown, unsmiling, unseen.
3) as to the generic, denotational meaning there are different groups that are distinguished in linguistic literature:
a) negative prefixes, such as: uni-, non-, in-, dis;-, a-, e.g. ungrateful (cf. grateful), unemployment (cf. employment), non-politician (cf. politician), non-scientific (cf. scientific), incorrect (cf. correct), disloyal (cf. loyal), disadvantage (cf. advantage), amoral (cf. moral), asymmetry (cf. symmetry), etc. [12, c. 117]
It may be mentioned in passing that the prefix in - occurs in different phonetic shapes depending on the initial sound of the base it is affixed to; in other words, the prefixal morpheme in question has several allomporphs, namely il-, im-, ir-, in, e.g. illegal, improbable, immaterial, irreligious, inactive, etc.;
b) reversative or privative prefixes, such as una-, de-, dis;-, e.g. untie (cf. tie), unleash (cf. leash), decentralize (cf. centralize), disconnect (cf. connect), etc.;
c) perjorative prefixes, such as mis-, mal-, pseudo-, e.g. miscalculate (cf. calculate), misinform (cf. inform), maltreat (cf. treat), pseudo-classicism (cf. classicism), pseudo-scientific (cf. scientific), etc.;
d) prefixes of time and order, such as fore-, pre-, post-, ex-, e.g. foretell (cf. tell), foreknowledge (cf. knowledge), pre-war (cf. war), post-war (cf. war), post-classical (cf. classical), ex-president (cf. president);
e) prefix of repetition re-, e.g. rebuild (cf. build), re-write (cf. write), etc.;
f) locative prefixes, such as super-, sub-, inter-, trans-, e.g. superstructure (cf. structure), subway (cf. way), inter-continental (cf. continental), trans-atlantic (cf. atlantic), etc. and some other groups; [13, c. 87]
6) prefixes may be also classified as to the degree of productivity into highly-productive, productive and non-productive.
Suffixation
Suffixation is the formation of words with the help of suffixes, which usually modify the lexical meaning of the base and transfer words to a different part of speech. [14, c. 24] There are suffixes however, which do not shift words from one part of speech into another; a suffix of this kind usually transfers a word into a different semantic group, e.g. a concrete noun becomes an abstract one, as is the case with child-childhood, friend-friendship, etc.
Chains of suffixes occurring in derived words having two and more suffixal morphemes are sometimes referred to in lexicography as compound suffixes:
- ably = - able + - ly (e.g. profitably, unreasonably);
- ical-ly = - ic + - al + - ly (e.g. musically, critically);
- ation = - ate - i - ion (e.g. fascination, isolation) and some others.
Of interest is also the group-suffix - manship consisting of the suffixes - man and - ship. It denotes a superior quality, ability of doing something to perfection, e.g. authormanship, quotemanship, lipmanship, etc, (cf. statesmanship, or chairmanship built by adding the suffix - ship to the compound base statesman - and chairman - respectively).
It also seems appropriate to make several remarks about the morphological changes that sometimes accompany the process of combining derivational morphemes with bases. Although this problem has been so far insufficiently investigated, some observations have been made and some data collected. For instance, the noun-forming suffix - ess for names of female beings brings about a certain change in the phonetic shape of the correlative male noun provided the latter ends in - er, - or, e.g. actress (cf. actor), sculptress (cf. sculpter), tigress (cf. tiger), etc. It may be easily observed that in such cases the sound [a] is contracted in the feminine nouns. [14, c. 120]
There are different classifications of suffixes in linguistic literature, as suffixes may be divided into several groups according to different principles:
1) The first principle of classification is the part of speech formed with thew help of the suffix. Within the scope of the part-of-speech classification of suffixes naturally fall into several groups, such as:
a) noun-suffixes, i.e. those forming or occurring in nouns, e.g. - er, - dom, - ness, - ation, etc. (teacher, Londoner, freedom, brightness, justification, etc.);
b) adjective-suffixes, i.e. those forming or occurring in adjectives, e.g. - able, - less, - ful, - ic, - ous, etc. (agreeable, careless, doubtful, poetic, courageous, etc.);
c) verb-suffixes, i.e. those forming or occurring in verbs, e.g. - en, - fy, - ize (darken, satisfy, harmonize, etc.);
d) adverb-suffixes, i.e. those forming or occurring in adverbs, e.g.-ly, - ward (quickly, eastward, etc.).
2) Suffixes may also be classified into various groups according to the lexico-grammatical character of the base the affix is usually added to. Proceeding from this principle one may divide suffixes into:
a) deverbal suffixes (those added to the verbal base), e.g. - er, - ing, - ment, - able, etc. (speaker, reading, agreement, suitable, etc.);
b) denominal suffixes (those added to the noun base), e.g. - less, - ish, - ful, - ist, - some, etc. (handless, childish, mouthful, violinist, troublesome, etc.);
c) de-adjectival suffixes (those affixed to the adjective base), e.g. - en, - ly, - ish, - ness, etc. (blacken, slowly, reddish, brightness, etc.) [15, c. 89]
3) A classification of suffixes may also be based on the criterion of sense expressed by a set of suffixes. Proceeding from this principle suffixes are classified into various groups within the bounds of a certain part of speech. For instance, noun-suffixes fall into those denoting:
a) the agent of an action, e.g. - er, - ant (baker, dancer, defendant, etc.);
b) appurtenance, e.g. - an, - ian, - ese, etc. (Arabian, Elizabethan, Russian, etc.)
c) collectivity, e.g. - age, - dom, - ery (-ry), etc. (freightage, officialdom, peasantry, etc.);
d) diminutiveness, e.g. - ie, - let, - ling, etc. (birdie, girlie, cloudlet, squireling, wolfling, etc.).
5) Suffixes are also classified as to the degree of their productivity
Productivity of affixes
Distinction is usually made between dead and living affixes. Dead affixes are described as those which are no longer felt in Modern English as component parts of words; they have so fused with the base of the word as to lose their independence completely. It is only by special etymological analysis that they may be singled out, e.g. - d in dead, seed, - le, - l, - el in bundle, sail, hovel; - ock in hillock; - lock in wedlock; - t in flight, gift, height. It is quite clear that dead suffixes are irrelevant to present-day English word-formation, they belong in its diachronic study. [16, c. 112]
Living affixes may be easily singled out from a word, e.g. the noun-forming suffixes - ness, - dom, - hood, - age, - ance, as in darkness, freedom, childhood, marriage, assistance, etc. or the adjective-forming suffixes - en, - ous, - ive, - ful, - y as in wooden, poisonous, active, hopeful, stony, etc.
The treatment of certain affixes as non-productive naturally also depends on the concept of productivity. The current definition of non-productive derivational affixes as those which cannot be used in Modern English for the coining of new words'is rather vague and may be interpreted in different ways. Following the definition the term non-productive refers only to the affixes unlikely to be used for the formation of new words, e.g. - ous, - th, fore - and some others (cf. famous, depth, to foresee).
If one accepts the other concept of productivity mentioned above, then non-productive affixes must be defined as those that cannot be used for the formation of occasional words and, consequently, such affixes as
- dom, - ship, - ful, - en, - ify, - ate and many others are to be regarded as non-productive.
The degree of productivity of a suffix or, to be more exact, of a derivational affix in general may be established on a statistical basis as the ratio of the number of newly-formed words with the given suffix to the number of words with the same suffix already operating in the language.
A derivational affix may become productive in just one meaning because that meaning is specially needed by the community at a particular phase in its history. This may be well illustrated by the prefix de - in the sense of 'undo what has been done, reverse an action or process', e.g., deacidify (paint spray), decasualize (dock labour), decentralize (government or management), deration (eggs and butter), de-reserve (medical students), desegregate (coloured children), and so on.
Furthermore, there are cases when a derivational affix being nonproductive in the non-specialized section of the vocabulary is used to coin scientific or technical terms. This is the case, for instance, with the suffix - ance which has been used to form some terms in Electrical Engineering, e.g. capacitance, impedance, reactance. The same is true of the suffix - ity which has been used to form terms in physics and chemistry such as alkalinity, luminosity, emissivity and some others.
2.2 Conversion
Conversion consists in making a new word from some existing word by changing the category of a part of speech; the morphemic shape of the original word remains unchanged, e.g. work - to work, paper - to paper [17, c. 87]. Sometimes it is called zero-derivation.
A word of one lexical category (part of speech) is converted to a word of another lexical category; for example, the noun green in golf (referring to a putting-green) is derived ultimately from the adjective green. Conversions from adjectives to nouns and vice versa are both very common and unnotable in English; much more remarked upon is verbing, the creation of a verb by converting a noun or other word (e.g., the adjective clean becomes the verb to clean).
The new word acquires a meaning, which differs from that of the original one though it can be easily associated with it. The converted word acquires also a new paradigm and a new syntactic function (or functions), which are peculiar to its new category as a part of speech, e.g. garden - to garden.
Conversion is sometimes referred to as an affixless way of word-building or even affixless derivation. Saying that, however, is saying very little because there are other types of word-building in which new words are also formed without affixes (most compounds, contracted words, sound-imitation words, etc.).
The term «conversion», which some linguists find inadequate, refers to the numerous cases of phonetic identity of word-forms, primarily the so-called initial forms, of two words belonging to different parts of speech. This may be illustrated by the following cases: work-to work; love-to love; paper-to paper; brief-to brief, etc. As a rule we deal with simple words, although there are a few exceptions, e.g. wireless-to wireless.
As a type of word-formation, conversion exists in many languages.
The main reason for the widespread development of conversion in present-day English is no doubt the absence of morphological elements serving as classifying signals, or, in other words, of formal signs marking the part of speech to which the word belongs.
Types of conversion. Among the main types of conversion are: 1) verbalization (the formation of verbs), e.g. to ape (from ape n.); 2) substantivation (the formation of nouns), e.g. a private (from private adj.); 3) adjectivation (the formation of adjectives), e.g. down (adj) (from down adv.); 4) adverbalization (the formation of adverbs), e.g. home (adv.) (from home n.) [18, p. 65].
The two categories of parts of speech especially affected by conversion are nouns and verbs.
Verbalization is the creation of a verb from a noun, adjective or other word. In modern linguistics it is also called verbification, or verbing,
Examples of verbification in the English language number in the thousands, including some of the most common words, such as mail and e-mail, strike, talk, salt, pepper, switch, bed, sleep, ship, train, stop, drink, cup, lure, mutter, dress, dizzy, divorce, fool, merge, and many more, to be found on virtually every page in the dictionary.
Proper nouns can also be verbed in the English language. «Google» is the name of a popular internet search engine. To google something now means to look it up on the internet, as in «He didn't know the answer, so he googled it.»
Verbs converted from nouns are called denominal verbs. If the noun refers to some object of reality (animate or inanimate) the converted verb may denote:
1) action characteristic of the object: ape n. > ape v. 'imitate in a foolish way';
2) instrumental use of the object: whip n. > whip v. 'strike with a whip';
3) acquisition or addition of the object: fish n. > fish v. 'catch or try to catch fish';
4) deprivation of the object: dust n. > dust v. 'remove dust from smth.';
5) location: pocket n. > pocket v. 'put into one's pocket'. [19, c. 65]
Verbs with adjective stems, such as blind, calm, clean, empty, idle, lame, loose, tidy, total show fairly regular semantic relationships with the corresponding adjectives. Like verbs with adjective stems that had been formerly suffixed and lost their endings (e. g. to thin<OE thynnian) they denote change of state. If they are used intransitively, they mean 'to become blind, calm, clean, empty, etc.', their formula as transitive verbs is: 'to make blind, calm, clean, etc.'.
Substantivation. Nouns converted from verbs are called deverbal substantives. If the verb refers to an action, the converted noun may denote:
1) instance of the action: jump v. >jump n. 'sudden spring from the ground';
2) agent of the action: help v. > help n. 'a person who helps';
3) place of the action: drive v. > drive n. 'a path or road along which one drives';
4) result of the action: peel v. > peel n. 'the outer skin of fruit or potatoes taken off;
5) object of the action: let v. > let n. 'a property available for rent'.
In case of polysemantic words one and the same member of a conversion pair may belong to several groups. For example, the deverbal substantive slide is referred to the group denoting 'place of the action' (point 3) in the meaning 'a stretch of smooth ice or hard snow on which people slide' and to the group 'agent of the action' (point 2) when this noun means 'a sliding machine part'.
Deverbal nouns formed by conversion follow the regular semantic correlations observed in nouns formed with verbal stems by means of derivation. They fall, among others, under the categories of process, result, place or agent.
Nouns may be formed by conversion from any other part of speech as well, for instance from adverbs:.; the bounding vitality which had carried her through what had been a life of quite sharp ups and downs.
Nouns can be formed from adjectives, in this case they are called substantivized adjectives, i.e. those that in the course of time have been converted to nouns and therefore have acquired the ability to name substances or objects: The bride was dressed in white. You mix blue and yellow to make green.
2.3 Shortening
During the process of communication words and word-groups can be shortened. Shortening includes extra-linguistic and linguistic types. Extra-linguistic types are abbreviations, acronyms, initials, blends which are formed because the tempo of life is increasing and it becomes necessary to give more 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 monosyllabic words. When borrowings from other languages are assimilated in English they are shortened. Here there is modification of form on the basis of analogy, e.g. the Latin borrowing «fanaticus» is shortened to «fan» on the analogy with native words: man, pan, tan etc.
There are two main types of shortenings: graphical and lexical.
Graphical abbreviations are the result of shortening of words and word-groups only in written speech while orally the corresponding full forms are used. They are used for the economy of space and effort in writing.
The oldest group of graphical abbreviations in English is of Latin origin. In these abbreviations in the spelling Latin words are shortened, while orally the corresponding English equivalents are pronounced in the full form, e.g. a.m. - in the morning (ante meridiem), p.a. - a year (per annum), d - penny (dinarius), lb - pound (libra), i. e. - that is (id est) etc.
There are also graphical abbreviations of native origin, where in the spelling we have abbreviations of words and word-groups of the corresponding English equivalents in the full form. We have several semantic 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 - sergeant etc.
g) scientific degrees, e.g. B.A. - Bachelor of Arts, D.M. - Doctor of Medicine. (Sometimes in scientific degrees we have abbreviations of Latin origin, 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. [20, p. 49].
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 (achronyms). Initialisms are the bordering case between graphical and lexical abbreviations. When they appear in the language, as a rule, to denote some new offices they are closer to graphical abbreviations because orally full forms are used, e.g. J.V. - joint venture. When they are used for some duration of time they acquire the shortened form of pronouncing and become closer to lexical abbreviations, e.g. BBC is as a rule pronounced in the shortened form.
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 (Computer-based Laboratory for Automated School System).
Some scientists unite groups b) and c) into one group which they call acronyms.
Some initialisms can form new words in which they act as root morphemes by different ways of word-building:
a) affixation, e.g. AWALism, ex-rafer, ex - POW, to waafize, AIDSophobia etc.
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 is an initial abbreviation with the alphabetical reading and the second one is a complete word, e.g. A-bomb, U-pronunciation, V - day etc. In some cases the first component is a complete word and the second component is an initial abbreviation with the alphabetical pronunciation, e.g. Three - Ds (Three dimensions) - стереофильм.
Clipping is a lexical shortening. Abbreviation of words consists in clipping a part of a word [21, c. 47]. As a result we get a new lexical unit where either the lexical meaning or the style is different form the full form of the word. In such cases as «fantasy» and «fancy», «fence» and «defence» we have different lexical meanings. In such cases as «laboratory» and «lab», we have different styles.
Abbreviation does not change the part-of-speech meaning, as we have it in the case of conversion or affixation, it produces words belonging to the same part of speech as the primary word, e.g. prof is a noun and professor is also a noun. Mostly nouns undergo abbreviation, but we can also meet abbreviation of verbs, such as to rev from to revolve, to tab from to tabulate etc. But mostly abbreviated forms of verbs are formed by means of conversion from abbreviated nouns, e.g. to taxi, to vac etc. Adjectives can be abbreviated but they are mostly used in school slang and are combined with suffixation, e.g. comfy, dilly, mizzy etc. As a rule pronouns, numerals, interjections. conjunctions are not abbreviated. The exceptions are: fif (fifteen), teen-ager, in one's teens (apheresis from numerals from 13 to 19).
2.4 Word-composition
Word-composition is the way of word-building: a word is formed by joining two or more stems to form one word.
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.
Classification of compounds.
1. Compound words can be divided according to the parts of speech compounds:
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 [22, c. 95].
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, e.g. honey-sweet, eggshell-thin, knee-deep, dog-cheap, 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 [23, p. 69].
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.
2.5 Secondary ways of word-formation
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 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 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. [24, p. 54].
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 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 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 is the way of word-building when a word is formed by imitating different sounds. 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.
The corresponding nouns are formed by means of conversion, e.g. clang (of a bell), chatter (of children) etc.
Blends are words formed from a word-group or two synonyms. In blends two ways of word-building are combined: abbreviation and composition. To form a blend we clip the end of the first component (apocope) and the beginning of 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. From the 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 (acronym mania), cinemadict (cinema adict), chunnel (channel, canal), dramedy (drama comedy), 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 (slang linguist), etc. [25, p. 40].
Back formation is the way of word-building when a word is formed by dropping the final morpheme to form a new word. It is opposite to suffixation, that is why it is called back formation. At first it appeared in the languauge as a result of misunderstanding the structure of a borrowed word. Prof. Yartseva explains this mistake by the influence of the whole system of the language on separate words. E.g. it is typical of English to form nouns denoting the agent of the action by adding the suffix - er to a verb stem (speak - speaker). So when the French word «beggar» was borrowed into English the final syllable «ar» was pronounced in the same way as the English - er and Englishmen formed the verb «to beg» by dropping the end of the noun. Other examples of back formation are: to accreditate (from accreditation), to bach (from bachelor), to collocate (from collocation), to enthuse (from enthusiasm), to compute (from computer), to emote (from emotion) to reminisce (from reminiscence), to televise (from television) etc. [26, p. 97].
As we can notice in cases of back formation the part-of-speech meaning of the primary word is changed, verbs are formed from nouns.
Concluding our theoretical and theoretical-practical part, we can state that word-formation as a means of language development is a very important item in lexicology as one of the sources of language development. There are different types of word-formation. It includes productive and non-productive kinds (productive are used very frequent in communication, non-productive are not very common. Word-formation has a function of forming of new words and replenishing the language.
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