English Lexicology in Theory and Practice. Учебное пособие

The lexical meaning in derivational affixes also has its peculiarities and may be viewed at different levels:

1)the lexical meaning of a generic type proper to a set of affixes, forming a semantic subset. For example, the meaning of resemblance found in the suffixes –ish, -like, -y, -ly (spiderish, spiderlike, spidery); the meaning of abstract quality conveyed by the suffixes –ness, -ty (blindness, equality); the meaning of absence conveyed by the prefix un- and the suffix –less (unclean, unlucky, speechless, heartless);

2)an individual lexical meaning shared by no other affix. For instance, the suffixes –ish, -like, -y all have the meaning of resemblance but –like conveys an overall resemblance, -ish conveys likeness to the most typical qualities of the object; -y conveys likeness to outer shape, form, size of the object.

Derivational affixes may be monosemantic, for example, the prefix omni- meaning „all‟ (omnipresence, omniscience), and polysemantic, for example, the suffix –less meaning „lacking smth‟ (brainless, endless) and „exceeding a category‟ (timeless, countless).

4.2. SEMI-AFFIXES

There is a specific group of morphemes whose derivational function does not allow one to refer them either to derivational affixes or to bases, e.g., half- in the word half-done, half-broken; self- in the words self-made, self-interest; ill- in the word ill-dressed, ill-behaved. Such morphemes are called semi-affixes, i.e. elements which stand midway between roots and affixes. On the one hand, these morphemes retain certain lexical ties with the root-morphemes of independent words, on the other hand, they function as derivational prefixes.

5. DERIVATIONAL PATTERNS

A derivational pattern is a regular meaningful arrangement, a structure that imposes rigid rules on the order and the nature of the derivational bases and affixes that may be brought together. Patterns are usually represented in a generalised way in terms of conventional symbols: small letters v, n, a, d, num stand for the bases which coincide with the stems of the respective parts of speech: verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, numerals; ved, ving stand for the bases which are the past and present participles respectively. In words of the long-fingered or sit-inner type the derivational bases are represented by bracketed symbols of the parts of speech making up the corresponding collocations, for example (a+n)+ +-ed), (v+d) + er.

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5.1. STRUCTURAL-SEMANTIC CLASSIFICATION

OF DERIVATIONAL PATTERNS

Derivational patterns may represent derivational structure at different levels of generalisation:

1)at the level of structural types patterns are known as structural formulas. They specify only the class membership of ICs and the direction of motivation, such as a+sf → N, prf +n → V, prf + n → N, n + sf → N, n + sf → V, etc.

In terms of patterns of this type, all words may be classified into four classes:

a) suffixal derivatives: friendship, glorified, blackness, skyward, etc.; b) prefixal derivatives: rewrite, exboxer, non-smoker, un-happy, etc.; c) conversions: a cut, to parrot, to winter, etc.;

d) compound words: key-ring, music-lover, wind-driven, etc.

2)at the level of structural patterns which specify the base classes and individual affixes thus indicating the lexical-grammatical and lexical classes of derivatives within certain structural classes of words. The affixes refer derivatives to specific parts of speech and lexical subsets as, for example, DP n + ish → A signals a set of adjectives with the lexical meaning of resemblance, for example, boyish, girlish, womanish, whereas a + -ish → A signals adjectives meaning a small degree of quality, for example, pinkish, whitish, wildish, etc.

3)at the level of structural-semantic patterns the latter specify semantic peculiarities of bases and individual meanings of affixes. For example, the nominal bases in the pattern n+-ess → N are confined to nouns having in their semantic structures a component „a male animate being‟: lioness,

traitress, stewardess, etc.; the nominal bases in n+-ful2 → N are limited by nouns having a semantic component „container‟: lungful, carful, mouthful,

whereas in n+ -ful1 → A the nominal bases are confined to nouns of abstract meaning. The same is true of the pattern n + -y → A which represents different semantic sets of derivatives specified by semantic constraints imposed on both the bases and the suffix: nominal bases denoting living beings are collocated with the suffix -y meaning „resemblance‟: birdy, spidery, doggy, etc., but nominal bases denoting material, parts of the body attract another meaning of the suffix -y that of „considerable amount, size‟ resulting in the adjectives like powdery, grassy, leggy, starry, etc.

Thus derivational patterns may be classified into two types: structural pattern and structural-semantic pattern.

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QUESTIONS

1.What is word-derivation?

2.What is derivational structure?

3.What is the difference between the derivational structure and the morphemic structure of a word?

4.How do the words „unquestionable‟ and „discouragement‟ differ in accordance with morphological and derivational structure?

5.What are derivational relations?

6.What are simplexes and derivatives?

7.How do the meaning and the structure of the derivative can be understood?

8.What are basic elementary units of the derivational structure of words?

9.What is a derivational base?

10.How do derivational bases differ from morphological stems?

11.What are criteria of the structural classification of derivational bases? Characterize each type.

12.What are derivational affixes?

13.What basic functions do derivational affixes have?

14.How are derivational affixes characterized semantically?

15.What are peculiarities of the part-of-speech meaning in derivational suffixes and derivational prefixes?

16.What levels can the lexical meaning of derivational affixes be viewed at? 17.What morphemes are called semi-affixes?

18.What is a derivational pattern?

19.How may derivational patterns be classified?

20.What do structural formulas specify?

21.What do structural patterns specify?

22. What do structural-semantic pattern specify?

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1.1. MAIN TYPES OF FORMING WORDS

Two main types of word-formation are word-derivation and wordcomposition.

Word-derivation is the formation of new words with the help of affixes, or affixational word-formation. The basic ways of forming words in word-derivation are:

1.Affixation is the formation of a new word with the help of affixes, for instance, pointless (from point), to overcome (from to come).

2.Conversion is the formation of a new word by bringing a stem of this word into a different formal paradigm, for example, a fall (from to fall), a cut (from to cut).

Word-composition is the formation of a new word by combining two or more stems which occur in the language as free forms, for instance, doorbell, house-keeper.

1.2. MINOR TYPES OF FORMING WORDS

Besides principal, there are some minor types of modern wordformation:

1)shortening is the formation of a word by cutting off a part of the word. According to the part of the word that is cut off (initial, middle or final) there are the following types of shortenings:

a)initial (or aphesis): fend (v) < defend, phone < telephone;

b)medial (orsyncope): specs < spectacles, fancy < fantasy;

c)final (or apocope): lab - laboratory, exam - examination;

d)both initial and final: flu < influenza, fridge < refrigerator;

2)blending is the formation of a new word by combining parts of two words: smog – sm(oke) and (f)og; telecast – tele(vision) and (broad)cast;

3)acronymy (or graphical abbreviation) is the formation of a word from the initial letters of a word combination. There are two basic types of acronyms:

a)acronyms which are read as ordinary English words, for instance,

UNESCO – [ju:'neskəu] the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization;

b)acronyms with the alphabetic reading, for example, BBC –

[,bi:bi:'si:] the British Broadcasting Corporation;

4)sound-interchange is the formation of a word due to an alteration in the phonetic composition of its root. Sound-interchange falls into two groups:

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A suffix is a derivational morpheme following the root and forming a new derivative in a different word class (-en, -y, -less in heart-en, heart-y, heart-less).

There are suffixes which do not shift words from one part of speech into another. Such suffixes usually transfer a word into a different semantic group, for example, a concrete noun becomes an abstract one: child — childhood, friend — friendship, etc. Suffixes can be classified into different types in accordance with different principles.

1)According to the lexico-grammatical character of the base suffixes are usually added to, they may be:

a)deverbal suffixex (those added to the verbal base): -er (builder); - ing (writing); -ment (agreement); -able (noticeable);

b)denominal suffixes (those added to the nominal base): -less (timeless); -ful (hopeful); -ist (scientist); -some (troublesome);

c)deajectival suffixes (those added to the adjectival base): -en (widen); -ish (whitish); -ness (brightness).

2)According to the part of speech formed suffixes fall into several groups:

a)noun-forming suffixes: -age (breakage, bondage); -ance/-ence (assistance, reference); -dom (freedom, kingdom); -er (teacher, baker); -ess (actress, hostess); -ing (building, wasing); -hood (childhood, manhood); -ness (happiness, tenderness); -ship (relationship, partnership);

b)adjective-forming suffixes: -able/-ible/-uble (favourable, incredible, soluble); -al (formal, official); -ic (dynamic); -ant/-ent (repentant, dependent); -ed (wooded, shared); -ful (delightful, doubtful); - ish (reddish, bookish); -ive (active); -ous (courageous, serious);

c)numeral-forming suffixes: -fold (twofold); -teen (fourteen); -th

(sixth); -ty (thirty);

d)verb-forming suffixes: -ate (activate); -er (glimmer); -fy/-ify (terrify, specify); -ize (minimize); -ish (establish);

e)adverb-forming suffixes: -ly (quickly, coldly); -ward/-wards

(backward, northwards); -wise (likewise).

3)Semantically suffixes fall into:

a)monosemantic, for example, the suffix -ess has only one meaning

„female‟ – tigress, tailoress;

b)polysemantic, for example, the suffix -hood has two meanings:

1)„condition or quality‟ – falsehood, womanhood;

2)„collection or group‟ – brotherhood.

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It should be specially mentioned that the majority of prefixes function in more than one part of speech.

3)Semantically prefixes fall into:

a)monosemantic, for example, the prefix exhas only one meaning

„former‟ – ex-boxer;

b)polysemantic, for example, the prefix dis- has four meanings:

1)„not‟ (disadvantage);

2)„reversal or absence of an action or state‟ (diseconomy, disaffirm);

3)„removal of‟ (to disbranch);

4)„completeness or intensification of an unpleasant action‟ (disgruntled).

4)According to their generalizing denotational meaning prefixes fall into:

a)negative prefixes: un- (ungrateful); non- (non-political); in- (incorrect); dis- (disloyal); a- (amoral);

b)reversative prefixes: un2- (untie); de- (decentralize); dis2- (disconnect);

c)pejorative prefixes: mis- (mispronounce); mal- (maltreat); pseudo- (pseudo-scientific);

d)prefixes of time and order: fore- (foretell); pre- (pre-war); post- (post-war), ex- (ex-president);

e)prefix of repetition: re- (rebuild, rewrite);

f)locative prefixes: super- (superstructure), sub- (subway), inter- (in- ter-continental), trans- (transatlantic).

5)According to their stylistic reference prefixes fall into:

a)those characterized by neutral stylistic reference, for example, over- (oversee); under- (underestimate); un-(unknown);

b)those possessing quite a definite stylistic value, for example, pseudo- (pseudo-classical); super- (superstructure); ultra- (ultraviolet); uni- (unilateral); bi- (bifocal). These prefixes are of a liter- ary-bookish character.

3. PRODUCTIVE AND NON-PRODUCTIVE AFFIXES

The word-forming activity of affixes may change in the course of time. This raises the question of productivity of derivational affixes, i.e. the ability of being used to form new, occasional or potential words, which can be readily understood by the language-speakers. Thus, productive affixes are those used to form new words in this particular period of language development (see Table 7).

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