4. Word-building in English.

Word-building as the process of creating new words in a language with the help of its inner sources. Major, most productive means of word-building in English: affixation, conversion, composition

The vocabulary of the English language is of constant change & growth that means that new words constantly appear in the language. Some words are borrowed from foreign languages, some are built in the language as a result of word building. Word-building is a process of creating new words in a language with the help of its inner sources. Acc. to their productivity all word-building means are divided into major & minor. Productivity is the ability to built new words at a present time.

Major types of word-building in English: affixation, conversion & composition. They are the most productive means.

1. Affixation is the formation of new words by adding a derivational affix to a derivational base.

Affixation is divided into: suffixation & prefixation

1. Usually suffixes are classified according to the part of speech they form. They are:

-noun forming suffixes: to read  reader/ free  freedom/ dark  darkness

-adjective forming suffixes: sun  sunny/ rock  rocky/ power powerful

-verb forming suffixes: pure  to purify/ origin  to originate/ wide  to widen

-adverb forming suffixes: quick  quickly/ slow  slowly

-numeral forming suffixes: fourteen

2. Prefixes are classified acc. to their meaning. They are:

-negative prefixes: ungrateful, incorrect, disloyal

-reversative prefixes un-, de-, dis-: disconnect

-pejorative prefixes mis-, mal-, pseudo-: mispronounce, maltreat

-prefixes of time & order fore-, pre-, post-, ex-: foretell, pre-war, post-war, ex-wife

-prefixes of repetition: rewrite

-locative prefixes super-, sub-, inter-, trans-: subway, transplanted

-prefixes expressing number bi-, tri-, mono-, multi-

Both suffixes & prefixes may be classified acc. to their origin into native & borrowed. Acc. to their productivity both suffixes & prefixes are classified as productive & nonproductive.

Native Productive: -er, -ness, -less, -ful, -ster, -ed, -ing, -ish, -y, -ly, un-, under, over-, out-, mis-, fore-

Native Nonproductive: -th, -hood, -dom, -some, -ship

Foreign Productive: -ee, -ism, -al, -ic, -tion, -ist, -able, dis-, re-, pre-, anti-, en-, super-, non-

Foreign Nonproductive: -ant, -ent, -ous

There are 2 types of semantic relations : homonymy & synonymy.

Homonyms are words which are identical in sound form & spelling, but different in meaning.

E.g. homonymous affixes: - ful (1) – adjective forming – hopeful

- ful (2) – noun forming – spoonful

Some affixes make a chain of synonyms.

E.g. synonymous affixes: reader, actor, musician, engineer

Besides, some affixes are polysemantic (they have more than one meaning).

E.g. -er: 1) baker, driver, hunter (occupations)

2) chooser, giver, winner (a doer of the action)

3) eraser, boiler, sprayer (denote an instrument)

2) Conversion is a process of coining a new word in a different part of speech without adding any derivative elements so that the basic forms of the original word & the basic form of derived words are identical. There 2 main groups of formed by means of conversion derivatives:

1. de-nominal words (when verbs are built out of nouns)

E.g. fish – to fish, elbow – to elbow, honeymoon – to honeymoon

2. deverbal substantives (when nouns are built out of verbs)

E.g. to move – a move, to walk – a walk, to find – a find

3) Composition is a production of a new word by means of uniting 2 or more stems which exist in the language as free forms. Acc. to the type of composition & the linking element, there are following types of compounds:

1. Neutral compounds are built by means of steam junction without any morpheme as a link. They are subdivided into:

-simple neutral compound (consist of 2 simple stems) E.g. sky-blue, film-star

-derived compounds (include at least 1 derived steam) E.g. music-lover

-compound derivatives (consist of 2 pr more stems & an affix) E.g. honey-moon

-contacted compounds (have a shortened stem or a simple stem in their structure) E.g. v-day

2. Morphological compounds are compounds with a linking element. E.g. Anglo-Saxon, speedometer, handicraft

3. Syntactical compounds are formed from segments of speech by way of isolating speech sintagmas. E.g. brother-in-law, forget-me-not

Shortening in English: clipping and abbreviation

Shortening occupies an intermediate position b/w major &minor word-building means, because it is very productive only in colloquial speech and American English. Shortening is the formation of a word by cutting off a part of the word. Shortening include: clipping, ellipses, abbreviation.

1. Clipping is the word-formation process which consists in the reduction of the word to one of its parts. There are 4 types of klipping:

-initial (or aphesis) retains the final part. E.g. phone- telephone

-medial (or syncope) – the middle of the word is retained. E.g. specs- spectacles

-final (or apocope) – the beginning of the word is retained. E.g. advert- advertisement, veg-vegetables

-both initial & final. E.g. flue- influenza, fridge- refrigerator

2) Ellipses is defined as the omission of a word or words considered essential for gr. completeness but not for the conveyance of the intended lexical meaning.

E.g. The big sit down was planned for September 17 (where ‘sitdown’ stands for sit down demonstration).

3) Abbreviation is a word formation process when new words are made from the initial letters of a word or word group.

E.g. BBC- British Broadcasting Corporation/ MP- Member of Parliament

Minor, less productive means of word-building in English: back-formation or reversion, blending or telescoping, reduplication, sound imitation. Mixed or synthetic word-building in Modern English

1. Back formation (also called back-derivation or reversion) is a way of word building by subtracting a real or supposed affix from existing words through misinterpretation of their structure.

Back formation is based on analogy. E.g. the existence of the agent nouns formed from verbs with the help of suffix -er/-or (painter- to paint, teacher- to teach) gave rise to the formation of verbs from nouns misinterpreted as their derivatives. E.g: to beg – from beggar, to baby-sit – from baby-sitter

2) Blending (or telescoping) is a way of word-building by combining 2 subtracted or contracted words into one acquiring the meaning of both. Words formed by blending are called blendings, blends or fusions.

E.g. smog – smoke + fog/ brunch – breakfast + lunch

3) Sound imitation (onomatopoeia or echoism) is the naming of an action of thing by a more or less exact reproduction of a sound associated with it. There are words naming:

-sounds & movements produced by water: splash, flash, bubble, blob

-sounds produced by animals, birds & insects: mew, hiss, buzz, moo

-sounds of human speech: grumble, murmur, mutter

-sounds produced by metallic things: clink, tinkle, giggle

4) Reduplication may be treated as a specific type of composition & words built by means of reduplication are called reduplicative compounds. They are made by doubling a stem:

-either without any phonetic changes (reduplicative pronounce proper) E.g. blah-blah – ‘nonsense’/ quack-quack – ‘duck’

-or with the variation of the root vowel (ablaut combinations) E.g. shilly-shally – ‘hesitate’/ tip-top – ‘first-rate’

-or with the variation of the consonant (rhyme combinations) E.g. boogie-woogie/ hurry-scurry ‘great hurry’

Mixed or synthetic word-building in Modern English

Synthetic (or mixed) ways of word-building combining 2 or more word-building means are very popular in modern English:

1. Composition + Suffixation: blue-eyed, straw-haired

2. Prefixation + Suffixation: unbelievable, unforgettable

3. Shortening + Affixation: baccy (tobacco + -y)

4. Composition + Conversion: to set up – a set up/ to hang over – a hangover

All the major & minor means of word-building serve to develop the wealth of the English vocabulary forming new words.