27. Stress interchange

Stress interchange can be mostly met in verbs and nouns of Romanic origin: nouns have the stress on the first syllable and verbs on the last syllable, e.g. `accent - to ac`cent. This phenomenon is explained in the following way: French verbs and nouns had different structure when they were borrowed into English; verbs had one syllable more than the 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.

28. Sound imitation (onomatopoeia Gr. onoma 'name‘, poeia 'creation‘) is naming of an action or thing by a more or less exact reproduction of a sound associated with it. The onomatopoeic words are phonetically motivated. Onomatopoeic words reproduce many sounds of living and lifeless nature, the sounds accompanying certain processes and actions. First of all, a lot of onomatopoeic verbs are imitations of sounds produced by animals: beasts, birds, insects: buzz, hiss, bark, cackle, croak, crow, quack, grunt, honk, howl, moo, mew etc. Some birds got their names by the sounds they produce, e.g. a cuckoo, a crow, humming-bird. Many onomatopoeic words are imitations of the sounds produced by human beings in the process of communication and expressing their states or emotions: whisper, chatter, murmur, mutter.

30. Back-formations and blends. Back-formation (also called reversion) is a term borrowed from diachronic linguistics. It denotes the derivation of new words by subtracting a real or supposed affix from existing words through misinterpretation of their structure. Blends are words formed from a word-group or two synonyms. In blends two ways of word-building are combined : abbreviation and composition. Back-formations and blends are becoming increasingly popular. Back-formation is reverse of affixation, being analogical creation of new word from existing word falsely assumed to be its derivative. Ex., verb “to edit” been formed from noun “editor” and similarly verbs automate, escalate are backformed from nouns automation, escalation.

Blends fall into 2 groups: (1) coalescences, such as “bash” from “bang” and “smash” and (2) telescoped forms, such as “motorcade” from “motor cavalcade.” In 1st group are words clash, from clack and crash. To 2nd group belong dormobiles, or dormitory automobiles. Simple shortenings, such as “ad” for “advertisement,” have risen in status. They are listed in dictionaries side by side with their full forms. Among such fashionable abbreviations are exam, gym, lab, lib, tech.