2. Word-formation in oe

2.1. Word structure

The bulk of the OE vocabulary consisted of native words. In the course of the OE period the vocabulary grew; it was mainly replenished from native sources, by means of word-formation. According to their morphological structure OE words (like modern words) fell into three main types:

1. simple words ("root-words") or words with a simple stem, containing a root-morpheme and no derivational affixes, e.g. land ‘land’, sinan ‘sing’, ōd ‘good’;

2. derived words consisting of one root-morpheme and one or more affixes, e.g. be-innan ‘begin’, weorþ-un ’worthiness’, un-scyld-i 'innocent', e-met-in ‘meeting’.

3. compound words, whose stems were made up of more than one root-morpheme, e.g. mann-cynn ‘mankind’, norþe-weard ‘northward’, fēower-tiene ‘fourteen’, wall-eat ‘wall gate’, scir-e-refa ‘sheriff’.

2.2. Ways of word-formation

In OE there existed a well-developed system of word-formation. A single root could appear in many simple, derived and compound words. For instance, OE mōd ‘mood’ yielded about fifty words: derived words, such as mōdi, emōded, ofermōd ('proud', 'disposed', 'arrogance'), compound words mōd-caru, mōd-lēof, mōd-eþōht, lædmōdnis ('care', 'beloved', 'thought', 'kindness'). Scores of words contained the roots of OE dæ ‘day’, ōd ‘good’, monn ‘man’, weorþ ‘worth’, lon ‘long’. Many derivational affixes appear to have been very productive as they occurred in numerous words: a prefix wiþ- in more than fifty words, ofer- in over a hundred words.

OE employed two ways of word-formation: derivation and word-composition.

1. Word-derivation

Derived words in OE were built with the help of affixes: prefixes and suffixes; in addition to these principal means of derivation, words were distinguished with the help of sound interchanges and word stress.

2.2.1.1. Suffixation

Suffixation was by far the most productive means of word derivation in OE. Suffixes not only modified the lexical meaning of the word but could refer it to another part of speech. Suffixes were mostly applied in forming nouns and adjectives, seldom – in forming verbs.

Suffixes are usually classified according to the part of speech which they can form. In OE there were two large groups of suffixes: suffixes of nouns and suffixes of adjectives.

Substantive Suffixes

Here we find a group of suffixes which are added to substantive or verb stems to derive names of the doer. Each of them is connected with a grammatical gender.

Thus, the suffix -ere is used to derive masculine substantives: fiscere 'fisherman', fuelere 'fowler', wrītere 'writer', 'scribe', also þrōwere 'sufferer'. The suffix corresponds to the Gothic suffix –areis in laisareis 'teacher', bōkareis 'bookman', and Russian -apь in naxapь, вpaтapь. The suffix is productive.

The suffix -estre is used to derive feminine substantives: spinnestre 'spinner' bæcestre 'woman baker', also witeestre 'prophetess'.

The suffix -end (connected with the participle suffix -ende) is used to derive masculine substantives: frēond 'friend’, fēond 'hater', 'enemy', hælend 'saviour', dēmend 'judge', wealdend 'ruler'.

The suffix -in is used to derive patronymics: æðelin 'son of a nobleman', 'prince', cynin 'king', Æðelwulfin 'son of Æthelwulf', etc. It is also used to derive substantives from adjectives, as in ltlin 'baby', earmin 'poor fellow'. The suffix is productive. An enlarged variant of this suffix, -ling, serves to derive substantives with some emotional colouring (depending on the meaning of the stem): ōslin 'gosling', dēorlin 'darling', hrlin 'hireling'. It is also productive.

The suffix -en is used to derive feminine substantives from masculine stems. As its original shape was -in, it is always accompanied by mutation: yden 'goddess' (< *udin), cf. ox 'god', fyxen 'vixen' (< *fuxin), cf. fox 'fox'.

The suffix -nis, -nes is used to derive abstract substantives from adjective stems: ōdnis 'goodness', þrēnes 'trinity'. It is productive.

The suffix -þ, -uþ, -ōþ is used to derive abstract substantives; sometimes it is accompanied by mutation: trēowþ ‘truth' from treow 'true’, piefþ 'theft’ from pēof ‘thief’, eouþ 'youth' (cf. eon ‘young’), fiscoþ 'fishing', cf. fisc 'fish', huntoþ 'hunting', cf. hunta’'hunter’.

The suffix -un, -in derives feminine verbal subsfantives: leornun, leorning ‘learning’, monun 'admonishing', rædin 'reading'. It is productive.

Some suffixes originated from substantives. Thus, from the substantive dōm 'doom' came the suffix -dom, as in wīsdōm 'wisdom', frēodōm 'freedom'.

The substantive hād 'title', ‘rank’ yielded the suffix -hād, as in cildhād 'childhood, mæhad 'virginity'.

The substantive lāc 'gift' yielded the suffix -lac, as in rēoflāc 'robbery' from the stem of the verb rēafian 'bereave', wedlāc 'wedlock', scīnlāc 'fantasy'.

The substantive ræden ‘arrangement', 'agreement' yielded the suffix -ræden, as in frēondræden 'friendship' sibbræden 'relationship', mannræden 'faithfulness'.

The suffix -scipe (cf. the verb scieppan 'create’) is found in the substantives frēondscipe 'friendship', weorþscipe 'honour', ebēorscipe’feast' (from bēor 'beer').