26. Eponyms

Eponyms (epi – upon, onoma – name) are words based on names. All eponyms necessarily involve some degree of change in the meaning of the word. (e.g.: watt – a unit of electrical power and not to the individual who invented the steam engine). The number of new words of this type (in biology, physics, medicine) is very large, since new discoveries are often named for their discoverers.

Types:

1). Eponyms based on personal names: cardigan – Earl of Cardigan, the 19^th century, a style of waste coat; nicotine – Jacque Nicot introduced tobacco into France in 1560.

2). based on geographical names: jean – Genoa (from Italian City Genoa where it was first made); port – oporto (the chief port for exporting wine from Portugal.

3). based on names from literature, mythology. Chimera – a mythological Greek monster purely a creature of imagination.

4). based on commercial trade names. Xerox – to copy by any dry process.

27. Minor types of word formation

1) Reduplication (a morphological process by which the root or stem of a word, or part of it, is repeated). - dum-dum (type of ballet), so-so, fifty-fifty.

2) Ablaut combinations – twin (двойниковые) forms consisting of one basic morpheme (usually the second), sometimes a pseudo-morpheme (псевдо-) which is repeated in the other constituent (сост. части) with a different vowel: chit-chat, dilly-dally, knick-knack, riff-raff, shilly-shally, zigzag, ding-dong, ping-pong, sing-song, tiptop, criss-cross.

3) Rhyme combinations - twin forms consisting of two elements (most often pseudo-morphemes) which are joined to rhyme: boogie-woogie, flibberty-gibberty, harum-scarum, helter-skelter, hoity-toity, humdrum, hurry-scurry, hurdy-gardy, lovey-dovey.

4) Sound imitation - reproduction (воспроизведение) of a sound associated with some object or creature. The majority of onomatopoeic ["Pnqmxtq'pi:Ik, -(q)l] (звукоподражательных) words serve to name sounds or movements. They are very expressive and sometimes it’s difficult to tell a noun from an interjection (words naming sounds and movement of water: babble, blob, bubble, flush, gurgle, gush, splash).

5) Sound interchange (чередование) is an opposition in which words or word forms are differentiated due to an alteration (изменению) in the phonemic composition of the root. (food – feed, speak – speech).

6) Back-formation (reversion) is a term borrowed from diachronic linguistics. It denotes the derivation of new words by subtracting (вычитынием) a real or supposed affix from existing words through misinterpretation (неправильное истолкование) of their structure. The process is based on analogy and has only diachronic relevance (уместность).

28. Distinguishing set expressions and compounds

The problem of distinguishing set expressions from compound words has not been solved yet. There are several criteria to make the difference seem obvious, though they are not applicable (применимы) in all cases.

1.) graphic criterion (unlike set expressions (higher school) compound words are usually written either as a single word or with a hyphen (дефис) (waterproof, air-line). However, there are a lot of examples when a compound may have several graphic variants: loud speaker, loudspeaker, loud-speaker;

2.) Phonetic criterion (Unlike set phrases, most compounds are characterised by unity (единым) stress on the first word (‘blackboard). Although we know the types with double stress and level stress (‘arm-‘chair).

Another distinguishing criterion may be found in morphological integrity (целостности) of compounds. Thus, all compound nouns form the plural with the suffix -s: forget-me-nots (незабудки), good-for-nothings (бездельники).

To sum up all said about the problem, we should point out that none of the criteria is absolute and the issue remains disputable.