4.10. Combining forms & hybrids

Combining forms (CF) are used as bound forms in modern languages although in Gr & Lat they were independent Ws. The question: affixes / roots? → a specific type of linguistic units.

CF are frequent in the specialised vocabularies of arts & sciences. Greek Ws frequently used in producing CF:

Astron ‘star’ – astronomy, autos ‘self’ – automatic; bios ‘life’ – biology, electron ‘amber’ – electronics; ge ‘earth’ – geology, graph-ein ‘to write’ – typography, hydor ‘water’ –hydroelectric; logos ‘speech’ – physiology, oikos ‘house’, ‘habitat’ – 1) economics, 2) ecological system’, phil-ein ‘love’ – philology, phone ‘sound’, ‘voice’ – telephone; photos ‘light’ – photograph; skop-ein ‘to view’ – microscope; tēle ‘far’ – telescope.

CF mostly occur together with other CF, not with native roots. Almost all examples are international Ws, each entering a considerable W-family.

Auto- like bio-, eco-, hydro- is mostly used initially. 1 of the 1^st English Ws with this element: automaton from late Latin, the 16^th century. OED dates the corresponding adj automatic to 1586.

Autograph was borrowed from Fr in the 17^th century: Fr autograph<late Latin autographum <Gr autographos ‘that which is written in one’s own handwriting’. The 19^th century V – ‘to write with one’s own hand’, ‘to give an autograph’.

In English, Russian & others W-coining with auto- is intense in the 19^th century & goes on in the 20^th: autobiography, autodiagnosis, autonomy, autogenic (training). Many technical terms begin with auto-, denoting devices, machines, systems, the basis of nomination ‘self-acting’, ‘automatic’: autopilot, autoloader, auto-starter.

Automobile was borrowed from Fr. It is more often used in the USA, in Britain they prefer motor-car / car. It proved productive in giving a new homonym – a free-standing auto, a clipping of automobile. This produces compounds: autobus, autocross ‘an automobile competition’, auto-drome. It is possible for a CF to be homonymous to Ws.

Hybrids are Ws made up of elements derived from 2 / more different languages. English hybrids – combinations of morphemes of Lat, Fr, Greek & native origin.

Readable: an English root, a suffix derived from the Lat -abilis borrowed through Fr. English stem+-able: answerable, eatable, likable, usable. Its variant with the native negative prefix un-: un-+English stem+-able (unanswerable, unbearable, unforeseeable, unsayable, unbelievable). Un-+Romanic stem+-able: unallowable, uncontrollable, unmoveable, unquestionable, unreasonable. Unmistakable, the ultimate constituents: un-(Engl)+mis-(Engl)+-tak-(Scand) +-able (Fr).

The suffix of personal Ns -ist derived from the Gr agent suffix -istes forms many hybrids. Sometimes (artist, dentist) it was borrowed as a hybrid (Fr dentiste<Lat dens, dentis ‘a tooth’ + -ist). In other cases the mixing process took place on English soil: fatalist (from Lat fatalis) / violinist (from It violino), / tobacconist ‘dealer in tobacco’ (from Sp tabaco).

A borrowed W becomes firmly established in English → using it as a stem combined with a native affix: in Adj with the native suffix -less: blameless, cheerless, colourless, countless, doubtless, faceless, joyless, noiseless, pitiless, senseless. The pattern had been established in OE long before the Fr loans were taken up. Adj in which -less is combined with native stems: endless, harmless, hopeless, speechless, thankless.

Prefixation & inflection: bicycle has a Lat prefix (bi-), a Gr root (cycle<kyklos ‘a wheel’), takes an Engl inflection in the pl: bicycles. There are many hybrid compounds, such as blackguard (Engl+Fr) / schoolboy (Gr+Engl).

Questions

1. Why is the morpheme defined as the minimum meaningful language unit?

2. How are the representations of the given morpheme manifesting alteration referred to?

3. What structural types of morphemes do you know?

4. What semantic types of morphemes do you know?

5. Which morpheme remains unchanged throughout the word paradigm?

6. Which morphemes are main morphemic vehicles of a given idea in a given language at a given stage of its development?

7. How is a derivational morpheme following the stem & forming a new derivative in a different part of speech / a different word class referred to?’

8. How is a derivational morpheme standing before the root & modifying meaning referred to?’

9. How is an affix placed within the word referred to?’

10. Provide examples of monomorphic words.

11. Provide examples of polymorphic words.

12. Which subtypes do monoradical words fall into?

13. What is the difference between ultimate & immediate constituents of a word?

14. Which affixes convey grammatical meaning of a word?

15. Provide definition of a derivational pattern.

16. Provide definition of a hybrid.

Literature

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