Lexicology ЗЧО Ответы

6. Productivity:

- Semantic derivation processes should be linguistically productive, allowing for

the creation of new words when needed.

7. Morphological Transparency:

- The structure of the derived word should provide insight into its meaning, making

it morphologically transparent.

By meeting these criteria, semantic derivation contributes to the richness and

adaptability of language.

22. Substantivized Adjectives.

Substantivized adjectives may fall into several groups, according to their meaning and the nominal features they possess.

Wholly substantivized adjectives (adjectives converted into nouns) have all the characteristics of nouns: the number, the case, the gender. They may be used with the indefinite or the definite articles.

A native, two natives, the native s hut

1. The wholly substantivized adjectives denote:

a)social rank or position, military ranks, party, creed, gender, race, groups of people belonging to certain times or epochs, etc.

(A native, a relative, a black, a white, a saint, a patient, a savage, a Liberal, a Conservative, a Republican, a Democrat, a noble, a private, a Catholic, a Christian)

b) nationalities

(a Russian, an American, a German, a Greek)

c) names of languages

(Russian, Norwegian, English)

2. Some wholly substantivized adjectives are used only in the plural form.

a) substantivized adjectives denoting studies and examinations. They have either the singular or plural agreement depending on whether they denote one notion or a collection of notions (classics, finals)

Finals were approaching.

b) substantivized adjectives denoting collection of things, substances and foods.

(goods, sweets, vegetables, chemicals, movables, necessaries, valuables, eatables, greens, drinkables, the Commons)

c) substantivized adjectives which are the names of the parts of the body are used with the definite article and with a plural verb.

the whites (of the eyes)

the vitals

Partially substantivized adjectives

Partially substantivized adjectives acquire only some of the characteristics of the noun; they are used with the definite article.

Partially substantivized adjectives denote a whole class: the rich, the poor; the unemployed.

They may also denote abstract notions: the good, the evil, the beautiful, the singular, the plural, the future, the present, the past.

23.The Peculiarities of ‘Stone-Wall’ Combinations and Their Semantic Groups.

The problem whether adjectives can be formed by means of conversion from nouns is the subject of many discussions. In Modern English there are a lot of word combinations of the type , e.g. price rise, wage freeze, steel helmet, sand castle etc.

If the first component of such units is an adjective converted from a noun, combinations of this type are free word-groups typical of English (adjective + noun).

This point of view is proved by the following facts:

1.«Stone» denotes some quality of the noun «wall».

2.«Stone» stands before the word it modifies, as adjectives in the function of an attribute do in English.

3.«Stone» is used in the Singular though its meaning in most cases is plural,and adjectives in English have no plural form.

4.There are some cases when the first component is used in the Comparative or the Superlative degree, e.g. the bottomest end of the scale.

5.The first component can have an adverb which characterizes it, and adjectives are characterized by adverbs, e.g. a purely family gathering.

6.The first component can be used in the same syntactical function with a proper adjective to characterize the same noun, e.g. lonely bare stone houses.

7.After the first component the pronoun «one» can be used instead of a noun, e.g. I shall not put on a silk dress, I shall put on a cotton one.

However Henry Sweet and some other scientists say that these criteria are not characterisitc of the majority of such units.

They consider the first component of such units to be a noun in the function of an attribute because in Modern English almost all parts of speech and even wordgroups and sentences can be used in the function of an attribute, e.g. the then president (an adverb), out-of-the-way vilages (a word-group), a devil-may-care speed (a sentence).

There are different semantic relations between the components of «stone wall» combinations. E.I. Chapnik classified them into the following groups:

1.time relations, e.g. evening paper,

2.space relations, e.g. top floor,

3.relations between the object and the material of which it is made, e.g. steel helmet,

4.cause relations, e.g. war orphan,

5.relations between a part and the whole, e.g. a crew member,

6.relations between the object and an action, e.g. arms production,

7.relations between the agent and an action e.g. government threat, price rise,

8.relations between the object and its designation, e.g. reception hall,

9.the first component denotes the head, organizer of the characterized object, e.g. Clinton government, Forsyte family,

10.the first component denotes the field of activity of the second component, e.g. language teacher, psychiatry doctor,

11.comparative relations, e.g. moon face,

12.qualitative relations, e.g. winter apples

24. Types of Abbreviation.

In the process of communication words and word-groups can be shortened. The causes of shortening can be linguistic and extra-linguistic. By extra-linguistic causes changes in the life of people are meant. In Modern English many new abbreviations, acronyms , initials, blends are formed because the tempo of life is increasing and it becomes necessary to give more and more information in the shortest possible time.There are also linguistic causes of abbreviating words and word-groups, such as the demand of rhythm, which is satisfied in English by monosyllabic words. When borrowings from other languages are assimilated in English they are shortened. There are two main types of shortenings : graphical and lexical.

Graphical abbreviations

Graphical abbreviations are the result of shortening of words and word-groups only in written speech while orally the corresponding full forms are used. They are used for the economy of space and effort in writing.

The oldest group of graphical abbreviations in English is of Latin origin. In these abbreviations in the spelling Latin words are shortened, while orally the corresponding English equivalents are pronounced in the full form, e.g. for example (Latin exampli gratia), a.m. - in the morning (ante meridiem), No - number (numero), p.a. - a year (per annum), d - penny (dinarius), lb - pound (libra), i. e. - that is (id est) etc.

Some graphical abbreviations of Latin origin have different English equivalents in different contexts, e.g. p.m. can be pronounced «in the afternoon» (post meridiem) and «after death» (post mortem).

There are also graphical abbreviations of native origin, where in the spelling we have abbreviations of words and word-groups of the corresponding English equivalents in the full form. We have several semantic groups of them :

a)days of the week, e.g. Mon - Monday, Tue - Tuesday etc

b)names of months, e.g. Apr - April, Aug - August etc.

c)names of counties in UK, e.g. Yorks - Yorkshire, Berks -Berkshire etc

d)names of states in USA, e.g. Ala - Alabama, Alas - Alaska etc.

e)names of address, e.g. Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr. etc.

f)military ranks, e.g. capt. -captain, col. - colonel, sgt - sergeant etc.

g)scientific degrees, e.g. B.A. - Bachelor of Arts, D.M. - Doctor of Medicine .

( Sometimes in scientific degrees we have abbreviations of Latin origin, e.g., M.B. - Medicinae Baccalaurus).

h) units of time, length, weight, e.g. f. / ft -foot/feet, sec. - second, in. -inch, mg. - milligram etc.

The reading of some graphical abbreviations depends on the context, e.g. «m» can be read as: male, married, masculine, metre, mile, million, minute, «l.p.» can be read as long-playing, low pressure.

Initial abbreviations

Initialisms are the bordering case between graphical and lexical abbreviations. When they appear in the language, as a rule, to denote some new offices they are closer to graphical abbreviations because orally full forms are used, e.g. J.V. - joint venture. When they are used for some duration of time they acquire the shortened form of pronouncing and become closer to lexical abbreviations, e.g. BBC is as a rule pronounced in the shortened form.

In some cases the translation of initialisms is next to impossible without using special dictionaries. Initialisms are denoted in different ways. Very often they are expressed in the way they are pronounced in the language of their origin, e.g. ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand, United States) is given in Russian as АНЗУС, SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) was for a long time used in Russian as СОЛТ, now a translation variant is used (ОСВ -Договор об ограничении стратегических вооружений). This type of initialisms borrowed into other languages is preferable, e.g. UFO - НЛО, CП - JV etc.

There are three types of initialisms in English:

a)initialisms with alphabetical reading, such as UK, BUP, CND etc

b)initialisms which are read as if they are words, e.g. UNESCO, UNO, NATO etc.

c)initialisms which coincide with English words in their sound form, such initialisms are called acronyms, e.g. CLASS (Computor-based Laboratory for Automated School System).

Some scientists unite groups b) and c) into one group which they call acronyms.

Some initialisms can form new words in which they act as root morphemes by different ways of wordbuilding:

a)affixation, e.g. AWALism, ex-rafer, exPOW, to waafize, AIDSophobia etc.

b)conversion, e.g. to raff, to fly IFR (Instrument Flight Rules),

c)composition, e.g. STOLport, USAFman etc.

d) there are also compound-shortened words where the first component is an initial abbreviation with the alphabetical reading and the second one is a complete word, e.g. A-bomb, U-pronunciation, V -day etc. In some cases the first component is a complete word and the second component is an initial abbreviation with the alphabetical pronunciation, e.g. Three -Ds (Three dimensions) - стереофильм.

Abbreviations of words

Abbreviation of words consists in clipping a part of a word. As a result we get a new lexical unit where either the lexical meaning or the style is different form the full form of the word. In such cases as »fantasy» and «fancy», «fence» and «defence» we have different lexical meanings. In such cases as «laboratory» and «lab», we have different styles.

Abbreviation does not change the part-of-speech meaning, as we have it in the case of conversion or affixation, it produces words belonging to the same part of speech as the primary word, e.g. prof is a noun and professor is also a noun. Mostly nouns undergo abbreviation, but we can also meet abbreviation of verbs, such as to rev from to revolve, to tab from to tabulate etc. But mostly abbreviated forms of verbs are formed by means of conversion from abbreviated nouns, e.g. to taxi, to vac etc. Adjectives can be abbreviated but they are mostly used in school slang and are combined with suffixation, e.g. comfy, dilly, mizzy etc. As a rule pronouns, numerals, interjections. conjunctions are not abbreviated. The exceptions are: fif (fifteen), teen-ager, in one’s teens (apheresis from numerals from 13 to 19).

Lexical abbreviations are classified according to the part of the word which is clipped. Mostly the end of the word is clipped, because the beginning of the word in most cases is the root and expresses the lexical meaning of the word. This type of abbreviation is called apocope. Here we can mention a group of words ending in «o», such as disco (dicotheque), expo (exposition), intro (introduction) and many others. On the analogy with these words there developed in Modern English a number of words where «o» is added as a kind of a suffix to the shortened form of the word, e.g. combo (combination) - небольшой эстрадный ансамбль, Afro (African) -прическа под африканца etc. In other cases the beginning of the word is clipped. In such cases we have apheresis , e.g. chute (parachute), varsity (university), copter (helicopter) , thuse (enthuse) etc. Sometimes the middle of the word is clipped, e.g. mart (market), fanzine (fan magazine) maths (mathematics). Such abbreviations are called syncope. Sometimes we have a combination of apocope with apheresis,when the beginning and the end of the word are clipped, e.g. tec (detective), van (avanguard) etc.

Sometimes shortening influences the spelling of the word, e.g. «c» can be substituted by «k» before «e» to preserve pronunciation, e.g. mike (microphone), Coke (coca-cola) etc. The same rule is observed in the following cases:

fax( facsimile), teck (technical college), trank (tranquilizer) etc. The final consonants in the shortened forms are substituded by letters characteristic of native English words.

25. Compound-Shortened words, Their Structural Types.

The classification of compound words according to their structure.

Compound words — is two or more words linked together to produce a word with a new meaning:

tooth + brush = toothbrush eco + friendly = eco-friendly animal + lover = animal lover

a) compound words proper which consist of two stems:

to job-hunt, train-sick; film-star

2)compound-affixed words, where besides the stems we have affixes: ear-minded, hydro-skimmer, astrophysical;

3)compound words consisting of three or more stems:

corn-flower-blue, singer-song-writer;

4)compound-shortened words V-day, Eurodollar, Camford.

5)compounds where at least one of the constituents is a derived stem: chain-smoker;

6)compounds where at least one of the constituents is a clipped stem:

maths-mistress (in British English) and math-mistress (in American English). The subgroup will contain abbreviations like H-bag (handbag) or Xmas (Christmas), whodunit n (for mystery novels) considered substandard;

7) compounds where at least one of the constituents is a compound stem:

waste-paper-basket.

26. Sound Interchange, Stress Interchange, Sound Imitation.

Sound interchange

Sound interchange may be defined as an opposition in which words or word forms are differentiated due to an alternation in the phonemic composition of the root.

The causes of sound interchange are twofold and one should learn to differentiate them from the historical point of view. Some of them are due to ablaut or vowel gradation characteristic of Indo-European languages and consisting in a change

from one to another vowel accompanying a change of stress. However, it is also of great importance in lexicology, because ablaut furnishes distinctive features for differentiating words: abide v → abode n; bear v → burden n; bite v → bit n; ride v → road n; strike v → stroke n.

The other group of cases is due to an assimilation process conditioned by the phonemic environment. One of these is vowel mutation, otherwise called umlaut, a feature characteristic of Germanic languages, and consisting in a partial assimilation to a succeeding sound, as for example the fronting or raising of a back vowel or a low vowel caused by an [i] or [j] originally standing in the following syllable but now either altered or lost:

The consonant interchange was also caused by phonetic surroundings. Thus, the

After the loss of endings the voicedness was retained and grew into a distinctive feature:

Synchronically, it differentiated parts of speech: full a fill v; food n feed v; or to different lexico-grammatical sets within the same part of speech: fall intransitive v fell causative v; lie lay, sit set, rise raise.

Derivation often involves phonological changes of vowel or consonant: strong a

Stress interchange

Stress-interchange is another non-productive type of word-building in Modern

English.

Stress interchange can be mostly met in verbs and nouns of Romanic origin. Nouns

have the stress on the first syllable and verbs – on the last syllable. For exemple: to

conflict – conflict, to export – export, to accent – accent etc. However, this is not

regular. There are borrowed nouns and verbs with the stress on the first syllable.

For exemple: focus, exile, preface, program, triumph etc. There are also a large

group of loan words that retain the stress on the second syllable both in verbs and

nouns. For exemple: advance, escape, attack, defeat, concern, amount, research etc.

Sound imitation

The majority of motivated words in present-day language are motivated by reference to other words in the language, the morphemes that compose them & their arrangement: wage-earner + knowing the meaning of the words

wage & earn & the structural pattern N-stem + V-stem+ -er as in bread-winner, skyscraper, strike-breaker.

Sound imitating are motivated with reference to extra-linguistic reality, they are echoes of natural sounds (lullaby, twang, whiz). Sound imitation = the naming of an action / thing by a reproduction of a sound associated with it. Sounds & movement of water: babble, blob, bubble, flush, gurgle, gush, splash.

The majority of onomatopoeic words name sounds / movements. Most are Vs easily turned into nouns: bang, boom, bump, hum, rustle, smack, thud. Very expressive, difficult to tell from an interjection. Sound-imitative words form a considerable part of interjections: bang! hush! pooh!

Semantically, according to the source of sound, onomatopoeic words: 1) sounds produced by human beings in the process of communication / expressing their feelings: babble, chatter, giggle, grunt, grumble, murmur, mutter, titter, whine, whisper; 2) sounds produced by animals, birds & insects: buzz, cackle, croak, crow, hiss, honk, howl, moo, mew, neigh, purr, roar. Some birds are named after the sound they make: the crow, the cuckoo; 3) the Vs imitating the sound of water (bubble / splash), the noise of metallic things (clink, tinkle), forceful motion (clash, crash, whack, whip, whisk).

27. Blends and Back formation.

Blends is a formation that combine two words that include the letters or sounds they have in common as a connecting element. In such a word the final part of the first word may be missing and the second constituent is presented by a stem of which the initial part is missing:

motel – motor + hotel, cinemactress – cinema + actress, fruice – fruite + juice, smog – smoke + fog.

The word snob which is defined in modern dictionaries as a person who pays too much respect to social position or wealth, or who despises persons of lower social position. It originates from sine nobilitate, written after a name in the registry of fashionable English schools (Iton, Harrow, etc.) to indicate that the bearer did not belong to nobility. The word was introduced to the literary tradition by W.M. Thackeray.

There are two types of blends: the additive and the restrictive. In the first type the components are synonymous and complete each other: brunch = breakfast + lunch, tranceiver = transmitter and receiver. In the second type the first element modifies the second: positrone = positive + electrone.

The most productive is final clipping of the 1-st component:

Europlug – European plug – электровилка, применяемая во всех странах Европы; cigaretiquette – cigarette + etiquette; workaholic – work + alcoholic –

трудоголик; kidvid = kid + video – детские телевизионные программы; disohol

=diesel + alcohol – смесь дизельного топлива и этилового спирта; slimnastics

=slim + gymnastics.

Blends reflect the tendency towards univerbalization and rationalization of the language, their motivation is not always clear; they are domineering in advertising, mass media, colloquial speech, trade and marketing.

Adidas = Adi + Dassler – основатель компании dancercise = dance + exercise

jazzercise = jazz + exercise.

Back-formation (reversion) = the derivation of new words by subtracting a real / supposed affix from existing words through misinterpretation of their structure. Based on analogy. Beggar, butler, cobbler, typewriter look like agent Ns with the suffix -er/-/. Their last syllable is taken for a suffix & subtracted from the W leaving what is understood as a V- stem. The V butle ‘to act / serve as a butler’ is derived. Butler (ME buteler, boteler from OFr bouteillier ‘bottle bearer’) originally

‘the man-servant having charge of the wine’.

The very high frequency of the pattern V-stem+-er → a prominent part in backformation: burgle v<burglar n; cobble v<cobbler n; sculpt v<sculptor n.

teacher = painter = butler

teach paint x x = butle, ‘to act as butler’

Back-formation has only diachronic relevance. Synchronic

approach: butler :: butle is equivalent to painter :: paint. The present-day speaker may not feel any difference. Modern examples: lase v

from laser, escalate from escalator, the Vs aggress, automate, enthuse, obsolesce & reminisce.

Back-formation may be also based on the analogy of inflectional forms: the singular Ns pea & cherry. Pea (the plural is peas) is from MidE pese<OE pise, peose<Lat pisa, pl. of pesum. The ending -s being the most frequent mark of the