Specifically English types of word-formation
Among the productive word-formation types completely foreign to Ukrainian is, first of all, conversion. Conversion consist 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 remaining unchanged. The new word has a meaning which differs from that of the original one though it can more or less be easily associated with it. It has also a new paradigm peculiar to its new category as a part of speech. The two categories of parts of speech especially affected by conversion are nouns and verbs.
N > V V > N
a face > to face to go - a go
a dog > to dog to ride - a ride
a boss > to boss to make – make
a room > to room to walk – a walk
Verbs can also be made from adjectives: to pale, to yellow, to cool.
Other parts of speech are not entirely unsusceptible to conversion as the following examples show: to down, to out, the ups and downs, the ins and outs, like (n)
Note. Ukrainian verbs are often formed from interjections, prоnouns and particles by adding the suffixes –ка – ти
Cf. бах – бахкати, гей – гейкати,
не – некати, ти – тикати
Among other specifically English types of word-formation the following should be pointed out:
Accentual
word-formation.
Words thus formed in English generally change both their
lexico-grammatical nature and meaning.
Cf. accent (n) - accent (v)
conduct (n) - conduct (v)
present (n) - present (v)
But man kind (n) - mankind (v)
Sound interchange: live (v) – life (n), prove (v), proof (n), sit (v) – seat(n), save (v) – safe (a)
Lexicalization of some plural forms of nouns like
colour – colours (banner)
line – lines (verses)
new – news
Lecture 5 onomasiolog1cal and semasiological characteristics of the units of lexicon
Irrespective of the class a word belongs to, it may be characterized in the contrasted languages a) from its onomasiological side, i. e., from its structure and nomination capacity and b) from its semasiological or content side.
The onomasiological characteristics of a word are displayed through its morphological structure and its categorial (if any) meaning. Thus, the verb goes (the root go + es inflexion) has the categorial meanings of person, tense, aspect and voice, whereas the noun songs (song + s inflexion) has only the category of number (plural).
From the semasiological side, words may be monosemantic or polysemantic. The semantic structure of the bulk of English nouns is richer than that of Ukrainian nouns. Cf. boat — човен, судно/корабель, шлюпка; coat — верхній одяг, пальто, піджак, кітель, хутро (тварин), шар фарби.
Ukrainian words may sometimes have a complicated semantic structure, eg: подорож — cruise, journay, travel, trip, tour, voyage; ще — still, yet, as yet, more, any more, again, else, but.
Isomorphic is also the existence of monosemantic words which may sometimes be represented by a whole lexico-grammatical class, for example, all pronouns, numerals, conjunctions and various nomenclature words (terms): we, she. nobody, ten, thirty, and, or, atom, oxygen, sugar; він, вони, десять, перший, і/та, чи, кисень, цукор, etc.
Common in the contrasted languages are also the means of nomination which are of two types: a) inner means and b) outer (borrowed) means.
The inner means of nomination includes: 1) words; 2) morphemes; 3) phrases/word-groups and 4) sentences.
Words constitute then main means of nomination (about 75 %) in English and Ukrainian. These may be a) simple words (book, boy, new, alone, be, known, ten, soon; книжка, хлопець, новий, сам, знати. п'ять, скоро, добре, etc); b) compound words (blackboard, classroom, homework, schoolboy, steamship, railway, etc). In Ukrainian: добродій, легковажити, літописець, книголюб, мовознавець, першочергово, перекотиполе.
Very productive in present-day English but rare in present-day Ukrainian is wholophrasal compounding, cf. break-through, sit-in, commander-in-chief, merry-go-round and occasionalisms like a to-be-or-not-to-be (question), etc. Compounds of this type belong to rare stylistic exotisms in Ukrainian. Cf. Наталка «теє того як його» (Котляревський), Грицько «чи то я, чи не я» (Тютюнник), «Йосип з гроша здачі» (Харчук).
Common and equally productive in the contrasted languages is the nomination by means of word-groups and sentences (usually nominal): fine weather — гарна погода, take part — брати участь, throw light—проливати світло. The rain. The welcome rain. (Longfellow). Вечір. Ніч. (Тичина), і. е.. Twilight. Night. Nominal sentences may also be ettended in English and Ukrainian. Cf. A lady's chamber in Bulgaria in a small town near the Dragoman Pass late in November in the year 1885. (В. Shaw) Мокрий сніг, дощі і тумани, тумани. (Стельмах).
The onomasiological and semasiological status of words may be changed in the contrasted languages by affixal morphemes. Eg: miss — dismiss, elect — reelect, man — mankind, relation — relationship; Київ — киянин — київський, переможний — непереможний, вибори — перевибори — довибори.
Phonological/phonetical means can sometimes influence the onomasiological and semasiological status of words. Cf. 'conduct — con'duct, 'mankind — man'kind; 'замок — за'мок, за'няття — заня'ття. 'колос — ко'лос.
A considerable number of semasiologically identical English lexemes have different onomasiological expression in Ukrainian and vice versa, eg: akimbo — (тримати) руки в боки /взявшись руками в боки; to ski — їздити/ходити на лижах; to skate — їздити на ковзанах; закохатися/покохати — to fall in love, зрячий — one who can see/one who is not blind; награтися — to play to one's heart's content.
Internationalisms naturally maintain the complete identity of their semasiological and onomasiological structures in both contrasted languages, eg: basis, comedy, drama, biology, parliament, student, transport, opera, the heel of Achilles, sword of Damocles, tabula rasa, finita la comedia; basis/базис, комедія, драма, парламент, опера, ахіллесова п'ята, табула раса, etc.
Other borrowings, which do not have the status of internationalisms, maintain the semasiological and onomasiological structure in the source languages and in the borrowing languages. This can be seen from the Turkic or German borrowings in Ukrainian (cf. баштан, кавун, могорич, хабар, бинт, лазарет, бляхар, цех, фельдшер).
The general correlation of borrowed lexical units in the contrasted languages is far from equal, however. It constitutes in English 70 % and in Ukrainian only 10 %.
Among other common features of lexicon testifying to its systematic arrangement are types of motivation, which in English and Ukrainian are phonetical, morphological and semantic by nature.
1. All phonetically motivated words have their sounding similar to the meaning they signify. Due to this, some English and Ukrainian words thus motivated sound alike. For example: cock-a-doodle-doo -кукуріку, bапg — бух/бухнути, bark — гав/гавкати, buzz — дзижчати, chirp/chirrup — цвірінькати, cuckoo — кукукати /кукувати, crack — трісь/тріщати, gagle — гелготати, hey! — гей!, hiss — шипіти/сичати, hoop — 'гукати (сигналити), howl — вити, цмокати — smack (one's lips).
These are naturally far from all the words whose notional meaning in the contrasted languages is based on sound imitation. Nevertheless, their number in comparison to other types of motivated words is not large, constituting in English about 1.08 % and in Ukrainian about 0.8 %.
2. Morphological motivation in the contrasted languages is characteristic of numerous words. It is clearly indicated by the affixal morphemes, eg: doer—one who does smth; flyer—one who flies; detainee—one who is detained; examinee—one who is examined; changable - that is subjected to change/can be changed; movable smth that can be moved; etc. Similarly in Ukrainian: оповідач — той, хто розповідає; писар — той, хто пише; співець — той, хто співає; ношений — якого (що) носили; смажений — якого (що) смажили; читаючий — який читає.
Compound words are either morphologically or semantically motivated. Morphologically motivated compounds have their lexical meaning composed of lexical meanings pertaining to each of their parts, eg: air-crew — crew of an aircraft; after-effect — effect that occurs after. Similarly in other words like good-neighbourhood, classroom, drawbridge. halfpenny, landowner, minethrower, note-book, self-defence, a schoolboy, Zululand. Or in Ukrainian: вільнодумець, добродійник, домовласник, електродояр, кожум'яка,, кораблеводіння, користолюбство, лизогуб, лісовод, маслоробня, марнотратство.
Morphologically motivated words in the contrasted languages constitute the largest part of their motivated lexicons: 88,5 % in English and 91.8 % in Ukrainian.
3. Semantic motivation of lexical units is displayed by the figurative/connotative meaning of words or phrases, representing the transferred meanings of their denotata.
There are many semantically motivated words in the contrasted languages. Cf. foot of a mountain — підніжжя гори, hand/hands of a watch — стрілка/стрілки годинника, to keep house — вести домашнє господарство; an ancient house – стародавній рід, the house of Tudor – династія Тюдорів, the first/second house – перший/другий сеaнс, bed of roses – легке/розкішне життя,bed of a river – русло, bed of honour – поле бою, arm – рука – secular arm - світська влада, the arm of the law – сила закону, the arm of the sea - вузька затока, the arms of a coat – рукава, the arms of a tree — великі гілляки, the arms of a chair — бильця, крісла; a coat of arms — герб, etc.
Similar semantic motivation is observed in Ukrainian: легка рука, важка рука, легкий / важкий на руку, липкі руки; купатися в розкошах, купатися в славі/купатися в промінні південного сонця.
Some words denoting popular names of flowers, trees, birds, and animals have a trasparent etymological motivation. Thus in English: bluet (flower) — васильок, bluebell — дзвоник, blue-bottle — васильок (синій), blackbird — чорний дрізд, blackcock — тетерук, blackberry — ожина, horse tail/cat’s tail — хвощ, redwood — секвоя, umbrella-tree — американська магнолія, violet — фіалка. Or in Ukrainian жовтець (yellow gold), чорниця (bilberry), чорнобривці (French marigold), чорногуз, чорнослив, соняшник (cf. sunflower), куцохвостий (заєць), круторогі (воли), серпокрилець (стриж)
A brilliant example of etymological semantic motivation present in Ukrainian and Byelorussian (or Polish) names of months. Cf. січень (сніг січе) лютий (мороз лютуює), березень (береза сік пускає), квітень (перші проліски з’являються), липень (липа зацвітає,) etc.
Semantic motivation maу be observed in idiomatic expressions. Cf. not to have a farthing (не мати копійки/шеляга зa душею), not for time or money/not for the world (ні за що в світі/за які гроші) cold war/paper war; to bare resemblance; to make both ends meet; like two drops of water; не знати ні бе ні ме, хоч з мосту та у воду; язик до Києва доведе; наговорити сім кіп/мішків гречаної вовни; хмари згущуються (над кимось), ходячі мощі.
Semantically motivated lexical units constitute in English about 10 % and in Ukrainian about 7.4 % of their total motivated lexicons.
All in all, a great many words in English Ukrainian and in other languages have no clear motivation і. е., their etymology remains obscure at present. It has been lost in the course of historic development of these words. As a result, one can not say why the “sun” is named the sun and the “head” or the “heart” have not been named otherwise. Because of the obscure etymology most words and some collocations/idiomatic expressions remain non-motivated in the contrasted languages.