Recommended Literature:

Арнольд И.В. Лексикология современного английского языка. .= The English Word [Текст]: Учеб. Для ин-тов и фак. иностр. яз. 3-е изд., перераб. и доп. / И.В. 1.Арнольд. – М.: Высшая школа,1986. – p.153 – 164.

2.Гинзбург, Р.З. Лексикология английского языка [Текст]: Учеб для ин-тов и фак. иностр. яз. / Р.З. Гинзбург, С.С. Хидекель, Г.Ю. Князева и др.– М : Высшая школа, 1979., 1979. – p. 127 – 140.

3.Антрушина Г.Б. Лексикология английского языка = English Lexicology [Текст]: Учеб. для студ. пед. ин-тов по спец. №.2103 «Иностр. яз.» /Г.Б. Антрушина, О.В. Афанасьева, Н.Н. Морозова – 3-е изд. стереотип. – М.: Дрофа, 2001 – с.66 – 79.

4. Арбекова Т.И. Лексикология английского языка (практический курс) [Текст]. Учебное пособие для студентов 2-3 курсов институтов и факультетов иностранных языков./ Т.И. Арбекова. – М.: Высшая школа, 1977. – с.41 – 44.

5. Каращук П.В. Словообразование английского языка. [Текст] Учеб. пособие. ./ П.В. Каращук. – М.: Высшая школа, 1977. – c.191 – 259.

6.Смирницкий А.И. Лексикология английского языка [Текст] / А.И. Смирницкий – М.: Изд-во МГУ им. М.В. Ломоносова, 1998 . – с.70 – 113

Lecture 11. Composition

1. Specific Feature of English Compounding.

2. The Criteria of Compounds.

3. Classification of compounds.

4. Historical Development of Compounds.

5. Semiaffixes

This type of word-building is one of the three most productive types in Modern English. Composition presents the most typical and specific features of English word-structure. There are two important peculiarities distinguishing compounding in English from compounding in other languages. Firstly, both immediate constituents of an English compound are free forms, i.e. they can be used as independent words with a distinct meaning of their own. The conditions of distribution will be different but the sound pattern is the same, except for the stress. The second feature that attracts attention is that the regular pattern for the English language is a two-stem compound,

As English compounds consist of free forms, it is difficult to distinguish them from phrases. The structural cohesion of a compound may depend upon unity of stress, solid or hyphenated spelling, semantic unity, and unity of morphological and syntactic functioning. There is a marked tendency in English to give compounds a heavy stress on the first element. The integrity of a compound is manifest in its indivisibility, i.e. the impossibility of inserting another word or word-group between its elements

The great variety of compound types brings about a great variety of classifications. Compound words may be classified according to the type of composition and the linking element; according to the part of speech to which the compound belongs; and within each part of speech according to the structural pattern. It is also possible to subdivide compounds according to other characteristics, i.e. semantically, into motivated and idiomatic compounds. Structurally, compounds are distinguished as endocentric and exocentric. Traditionally three types of compounds are distinguished: neutral, morphological and syntactical.

Compounding, one of the oldest methods of word-formation occurring in all Indo-European languages, is especially developed in Germanic languages. English has made use of compounding in all periods of its existence.

The problem of distinguishing a compound from a derivative is actually equivalent to distinguishing a stem from an affix. The factors conducing to transition of free forms into semi-affixes are high semantic productivity, adaptability, combinatorial capacity (high valency), and brevity.