1.2. Morphemic and word-formation analysis.

The procedure employed for segmenting words is morphemic analysis based on the method of Immediate and Ultimate Constituents. This method is based on a binary principle, i.e. each stage involves two components the word immediately breaks into. At each stage these two components are referred to as the Immediate Constituents (ICs). Each 1C at the next stage of the analysis is broken into two smaller meaningful units. The analysis is completed when we arrive at further unsegmentable units, i.e. morphemes. They are called Ultimate Constituents (UCs).

dread\ful\ly

a) ICs: dreadful + -ly, like in the words probable + -ly, bearable + -ly.

b) UCs: dread + -ful, like in the words great + -ful, thank + -ful. The morphemic analysis defines the UCs, but does not reveal the way a word is constructed and how a new word of similar structure should be understood. The morphemic classification of words is as follows:

1) one root morpheme - a root word (day);

2) one root plus one or-more affixes - a derived word ( daily);

3) two or more stems - a compound word (daybook, daylight, daydream);

4) two or more stems and an affix - a compound derivative {daydr earner).

A structural word-formation analysis proceeds further. It studies the structural correlation with other words. It is done with the help of the principle of oppositions, i.e. by studying the partly similar elements, the difference between which is functionally relevant. In our case day and daily are members of a morphemic opposition. Their distinctive feature is the suffix -ly, like in other oppositions of the same kind:

day = week = month = hour = year

daily weekly monthly hourly yearly.

Observing this proportional opposition we may conclude that there is in English a type of derived adjectives consisting of a noun stem and the suffix -ly.

Structural word-formation analysis also affords to distinguish between compound words formed by composition and those formed by other process. The words daydream, n, daydream v are both compounds, containing two free stems, yet the noun is formed by composition: day n + dream n > daydream n, the verb by conversion: daydream n > daydream v. This treatment is synchronic.

1.3. Word formation

A characteristic feature of all human languages is the potential to create new words. The categories of noun, verb, adjective, and adverb are open in the sense that new members are constantly being added. The two most common types of word formation are derivation (affixation), composition (compounding), conversion. To the minor types of word formation can be referred clipping, blending, back-formation, abbreviation, sound- imitation, sound - interchange, distinctive stress.

Affixation

Words which consist of a root and an affix (or several affixes) are called derived words or derivatives. They are produced by the process of word-building which is called an affixation (or derivation).

Prefixes seldom affect the basic lexico-grammatical component of the stem meaning. That is why a simple word and its prefixed derivative belong usually to the same part of speech: read - reread (v), happy - unhappy (adj.), but be- + adj. > v (belittle), en- + n > v (encash).

Suffixes mostly form a different part of speech and usually modify the lexical meaning of the base: adj. + -dom > n (freedom), v + -er > n (painter).

Various classifications of suffixes and prefixes are possible: according to their origin, parts of speech they serve to form (only suffixes), semantically, their frequency, productivity and other characteristics.

From the etymological point of view affixes are classified into native (formed from Old English words) and borrowed.

Native suffixes: -er (worker), -ness (loneliness), -ing (feeling), -hood (brotherhood), -ship (friendship), -th (truth), -some (handsome), -en (darken), -ful (colorful);

native prefixes: a- (awake).

Borrowed suffixes: -ant (Latin), -age, -able, -ance, -ard (French), -1st, -ism, -ite (Greek);

borrowed prefixes: pre-, post-, non-, anti- (Romanic and Greek).

Words that are made up of elements derived from two or more different languages are called hybrids. E.g. readable: English stem + French -able. The English vocabulary is very rich in hybrids.

Affixes can be polysemantic, synonymous and homonymous.

Polysemantic:

-у: 1) composed of, full of (bony, stony),

2) characterized by (rainy, cloudy),

3) having the character of (bushy, inky).

-er: 1) person following some special trade or profession (teacher),

2) a device, a tool (boiler),

3) doer of the action (packer, giver). Homonymic derivational affixes:

-ly: 1) Adj. + -ly > Adv. (quickly),

2) N+-ly> Adj. (lovely). Synonymous affixes:

1) doer of the action: -er, -ist, -ant (lover, journalist, defendant),

2) collectivity: -age, -dom, -ery (officialdom, peasantry),

3) diminutiveness: -ie, -lit, -ling ( birdie, girlie, wolfling).

Affixes can also classified into productive (take part in deriving new words in this particular period - living) and non-productive (dead). Productive: 1) noun forming: -er, -ing, -ness;

2) verb forming: -ize, -ate;

3) adjective forming: -y, -ish, -ed, -able, -less;

4) adverb forming: -ly.

5) prefixes: un-, re-, dis-. Non-productive: 1) N forming: -th, -hood;

2) Adj. forming: -ly, -some, -en, -ous;

3) V forming: -en.

Conversion

Conversion is exceedingly, productive way of forming words in Modem English (house - to house, knife - to knife, to take - a take, to win - a win).

It is treated differently in linguistic literature. Some linguists define it as a morphological way of forming words (Smimitsky, Ginzburg), treating Conversion as the formation of a new word through changes in its paradigm. Others (Arnold) consider it to be a morphological - syntactic word-building means, because it involves alongside with the semantic change both a change of the paradigm and a change of the syntactic function of the word. A purely syntactic approach (functional approach) to conversion is popular with linguists in Great Britain and the USA. They define conversion as a kind of functional change.

So, a word coined by conversion acquires a different new syntactic function, new meaning and new paradigm (if the word is morphologically changeable).

Among the two words within a conversion pair the following typical semantic relations can be enumerated: