Word building

All words appear to be divisible into smaller units which are called morphemes. Morphemes do not occur as free forms but only as constituents of words. Yet they possess meanings of their own.

All morphemes are subdivided into two large classes: roots (or radicals) and affixes. The latter, in their turn, fall into prefixes which precede the root in the structure of the word (as in re-read, mis-pronounce, unwell) and suffixes which follow the root (as in teach-er, cur-able, diet-ate).

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

Successfully competing with this structural type is the so-called root word which has only a root morpheme in its structure. This type is widely represented by a great number of words belonging to the original English stock or to earlier borrowings (house, room, book, work, port, street, table, etc.), and, in Modern English, has been greatly enlarged by the type of word-building called conversion (e. g. to hand, v. formed from the noun hand; to can, v. from can, п.; to pale, v. from pale, adj.; a find, n. from to find, v.; etc.)

Another wide-spread word-structure is a compound word consisting of two or more stems¹ (e. g. dining-room, bluebell, mother-in-law, good-for-nothing). Words of this structural type are produced by the word-building process called composition.

The somewhat odd-looking words like flu, pram, lab, M. P., V-day, H-bomb are called shortenings, contractions or curtailed words and are produced by the way of word-building called shortening (contraction).

The four types (root words, derived words, compounds, shortenings) represent the main structural types of Modern English words, and conversion, derivation and composition the most productive ways of word-building.

Affixation

It’s Latin word (affigere) which means to attach to.

According the number of words Affixes can be classified into productive (-er, -ish) and non-productive (-dem, -ard, -hood) types.

From the point of view of they current participation in forming words affixes devided to active and dead (-t if gift).

Other classification of affixes may be made from the point of view:

1. of origin (native –doom, -ship, under-, over-)(borrowed into-, none-, diss-)

2. of motivation (motivated –like, some-)(non-motivated –er, -ish)

3. of functional character (convertive or class changing, that change word to another part of speech –er, -ing)(non-convertive ex-)

4. of number of concept standing behind them (mono-semantic -al)(poly-semantic – have more than one meaning -ist: a) wondered performs are specified action; b) specialized in particular art or science; c) one that adverse to are particular doctrine >royalist)

Affixes may be homonymous forming adjectives and nouns (-al) (arrival: прибытие; прибывший)

Prefixes

It’s Latin pre- means before attach. In modern English there are about 80 prefixes.

States of some prefixes is not clear. For example over- and under- treated by some schools as root. But for example mini-, hyper- are treated as prefixes. Some schools differentiate between derivational (словообразовательные) and non-derivational.

For example diss- – part of way, dissuade – разубеждать apo- – way from apocalypses

Some schools differ between active and dead. For example a- in away is dead.

From etymological point of view native and borrowed prefixes. (…)

Majority of English prefixes (?loan, quotes of prefixes) are native. From functional point of view classified as convertive (embody, encourage) and non-convertive (vice-president, disagree, miscalculate).

Prefixes can be used to form new words in all parts of speech and they may be classified to noun forming, adjective forming(into-, co-), verb forming(re-). Most prefixation takes in verbs. Attaching new meanings or forming some another parts of speech (to enrich, to enable, to disapprove, to unload).

The most productive prefixes en-, re-, out-, un-, under-.

The follow prefixes are verbal: dis-, re-, under-.

Denominal prefixes are: anti-, none-, post-, sub-, hemi-.

But main feature of English prefixes is mixed character. Some prefixes can be attach to noun and verb (disagree and disadvantaged)

7 major types of meaning prefixes produce:

1. negotiation and contrary (unemployment, incorrect, antifreeze, disconnect)

2. sequence and order in time (prewar, postwar, foresee)

3. different space location (subway, intercontinental)

4. repetition

5. quantity and intensity (bilingual, polytechnic)

6. negotiation (abnormal, maltreat, pseudomorphem, miscalculate)

7. amelioration (улучшение) (supermarket, ultramodern)

Some prefixes are polysemantic. They can be found in several semantic classes (over-: overhill, overdo)

Some affixes remain the same and makes a group of unchanged words (auto-, de-, counter-, ex-, hemi-, none-, mis-, over-, poly-, semi-, super-)

But there are changeable prefixes, spelled different in different context (co-/com-/cor-, dis-/dif-, ir-/il-/im-)

A special group of prefixes is made up of forms spelling or pronunciation. For example for- - away and fore- - ahead or before; en- - to cover and an- - negotiate, in-/il-/ir-/em-/en- means into, ant-/in-/ig- - invisible, into-/intro-/inter- - inside, between; hyper – over; hypu – less