Lecture # 4. Theme: “Word-formation system of English language” (2 hours)

Subtheme # 1: “Major or basic, productive types of word-formation (Affixation, Conversion, Word composition)”.

Thesis:

Word-building or formation is the process of creating words from the material available in the language after certain structural and semantic patterns. There are productive (major or basic, principle) and non-productive (minor or secondary) ways of creating words in the English language. The main and productive types of word-building in English are affixation, word-compounding, conversion, shortening; the minor types of creating words are back-formation, reduplication, blending, sound-interchange, stress-interchange, sound-imitation.

Major types of word-formation.

Affixation and types of affixation.

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

The process of affixation consists in coining a new word by adding an affix or several affixes to some root morpheme. From the etymological point of view affixes are classified into the same two large groups as words: native and borrowed.

Affixes can also be classified into productive and non-productive types. By productive affixes we mean the ones, which take part in deriving new words in this particular period of language development. The best way to identify productive affixes is to look for them among neologisms and so-called nonce-words, i.e. words coined and used only for this particular occasion. Non-productive affixes which do not give any new coinages.

Some productive affixes

Noun-forming suffixes	-er, -ing, -ness, -ism, -ist, -ance
Adjective-forming suffixes	-y, -ish, -ed, -able, -less
Adverb-forming suffixes	-ly
Verb-forming suffixes	-ize, -ise, -ate
Prefixes	un-, re-, dis-

Some non-productive affixes

Noun-forming suffixes	-th, -hood
Adjective-forming suffixes	-ly, -some, -en, -ous
Verb-forming suffix	-en

Affix which is a type of morpheme, is generally defined as the smallest indivisible component of the word possessing a meaning of its own. Affixes have widely generalized meanings and refer the concept conveyed by the whole word to a certain category.

Affixation is divided into suffixation and prefixation. The main function of suffixes is to form one part of speech from another, the secondary function is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech. There are different classifications of suffixes:

1. part-of-speech classification.

2. semantic classification.

3. lexical-grammatical character of the stem.

4. origin of suffixes.

5. productivity.

Prefixation is the formation of words by means of adding a prefix to the stem. Prefixes are more independent than suffixes. Prefixes can be classified according to the nature of words in which they are used: prefixes used in notional words and prefixes used in functional words. Prefixes used in notional words are proper prefixes which are bound morphemes, e.g. un- (unhappy). Prefixes used in functional words are semi-bound morphemes because they are met in the language as words, e.g. over- (overhead, over the table).

The main function of prefixes in English is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech. Prefixes can be classified according to different principles: