5. Productive ways of English word-formation: affixation, shortening, conversion, compounding.

Word-formation – the process of forming words by combining root and affixal morphemes according to certain patterns specific for the language (affixation, composition), or without any outward means of word formation (conversion, semantic derivation).

Word formation (словообразование)

Is a branch of science of the language, which studies the patterns on which a language forms new lexical items (new unities, new words)

It’s a process of forming words by combining root & affixal morphemes.

According to certain patterns specific for the language or without any outward means.

(Conversion) 2 major groups of word formation:

1) Words formed as grammatical syntagmas, combinations of full linguistic signs (types: compounding (словосложение), prefixation, suffixation, conversion, and back derivation)

2) Words, which are not grammatical syntagmas, which are not made up of full linguistic signs.

Ex.: expressive symbolism, blending, clipping, rhyme & some others.

Common for both groups is that a new word is based on synchronic relationship between morphemes.

Different types of word formation:

COMPOUNDING

Is joining together 2 or more stems.

Types:

1) Without a connecting element

headache, heartbreak

2) With a vowel or consonant as a linking element

speedometer, craftsman

3) With a preposition or conjunction as a linking element

down-and-out (в ужасном положении, опустошенный)

son-in-law

Compounds can be classified according to their structure:

• consisting of simple stem

• heartbreak

• compounds where at least one stem is a derived one

• football player

• where one stem is clipped

• Xmas

• H-bag (handbag)

• where one of the elements is also a compound

• wastepaper basket

• compound nouns, adjectives, verbs.

There are also the so-called reduplicative compounds:

Tick-tick, chow-chow

PREFIXATION

Prefixes are such particles that can be prefixed to full words. But are they not with independent existence.

Native prefixes have developed out of independent words; there is a small number of them.

• a-

• be-

• mid-

• fore-

• mis-

Prefixes of foreign origin have come into the language ready-made

Some scholars: the system of English word formation was entirely upset by the Norman Conquest.

Normans have paved the way for the non-Germanic trend the language has taken since that time.

From French English borrowed many words with suffixes & prefixes, they became assimilated in the language & started to be used in word building. It led to enormous cut down of the traditional word formation out of native material. Old prefixes (some of them) disappeared forever (too weak phonetically)

Æt-

Ed-

Nowadays English has no prefixed equivalents for some German prefixes

Er-

Ver-

Zer-

A lot of borrowed prefixes in English:

Auto-

Demi-

Mono-

Multi-

Semi-

Post-

SUFFIXATION

A suffix is a derivative final element, which is or was productive in forming new words.

It has semantic value, but doesn’t occur as an independent speech use.

The contact of English with foreign languages has led to the adoption of countless foreign words, which started to be used in word building.

→ we have many hybrid types of derivatives.

A hybrid is a word different element of which are of etymologically different origin.

2 groups:

1) A foreign word is combined with a native affix

- full

- less

- ness

clearness, faithless, faithful

2) Foreign affixes are added to native words

- ance

- al

- ity

- able

As for the first 3 they have never become productive in English; - able was assimilated in English very early and has became productive in many words.

Eatable

Loveable

Semi suffixes are elements, which stand midway between full words & suffixes

• like

• worthy

• way

• wise

• a Godlike creature

• trustworthy

• clockwise

• midway

6 ways of suffixing in English:

1) Derivation by native suffixes without changes in stress, vowels, consonants

Godlike

2) Derivation by borrowed suffix without changes in stress, vowels, consonants

loveable

3) Derivation by imported suffixes, which involves the change in

Japan Japanese

4) The suffix is added to a Latin stem which closely related to an English word

science – scientist

5) The suffix is added to a Latin stem, which has no English equivalent

lingua – lingual

6) Words borrowed separately but have the same patterns of word building

candidate – candidacy

president – presidency

This is called correlative derivation.

CONVERSION

(zero derivation)

A certain stem is used for the formation of a categorically different word without a derivative element being added.

Bag – to bag

Back – to back

Bottle – to bottle

This specific pattern is very productive in English

The most popular types are noun → verb or verb → noun

To take off – a take off

Conversion can be total or partial

Partial: the then president (тогдашний)

An adverb is used as an adjective, only in this particular context.

Total: work – to work

Affixation

Affixation is, thus, the linguistic process speakers use to form new words (neologisms) by adding sounds (affixes) at the beginning (prefixation), the middle (infixation) or the end (suffixation) of words.

6. Non-productive ways of word-formation in English: back-formation, blending, sound-imitation, sound & stress interchange.

Non-productive ways of word-formation:

1. Blending is forming a new word by joining two clipped stems. E. g. breakfast + lunch - brunch;

smoke +fog - smog; fruit +juice —fruice; motor + hotel - motel; boat + hotel - hotel.

2. Change of stress is used for forming verbs out of nouns. E. g. object, record.

3. Backformation is coining a word by subtracting a real or supposed suffix sometimes through misinterpretation of the morphemic structure of a linguistic unit. E. g. beggar - to beg, editor - to edit, sculptor - to sculpt.

4. Reduplication is coining a word by repeating the root, it can be full or partial, depending on whether the root is repeated with or without any changes. E. g.

- full: murmur goodie-goodie;

- partial: fulfill, giggle-gaggle, ping-pong.

5. Sound interchange used to be veiy productive in Old English and now we only have some remnants of this process. The examples can be found among words belonging to:

a) different parts of speech, e. g. speak - speech;

b) the same part of speech, e. g. rise - raise.

6. Onomatopoeia or sound imitation is a process of coining new words which reproduce natural sounds, e. g. cock-a-doodle-do.

There are four main groups of words built through this way:

a) words which imitate sounds made by people in the process of their communication. E. g. whisper;

b) words reproducing sounds made by animals. E. g. moo (cow), mew, purr (cat), hiss (snake), oink (pig);

c) words reproducing sounds made by water. E. g. bubble, splash;

d) words reproducing sounds made by metallic things. E. g. clink, clang, tinkle.

Back-formation

In etymology, back-formation refers to the process of creating a new lexeme (less precisely, a new "word") by removing actual or supposed affixes. The resulting neologism is called a back-formation, a term coined by James Murray[1] in 1897.[citation needed]

Back-formation is distinguished from clipping because they change the part of speech – clipping also creates shortened words from longer words, but does not change the part of speech.

For example, the noun resurrection was borrowed from Latin, and the verb resurrect was then backformed hundreds of years later from it by removing the -ion suffix. This segmentation of resurrection into resurrect + ion was possible because English had many examples of Latinate words that had verb and verb+-ion pairs — in these pairs the -ion suffix is added to verb forms in order to create nouns (such as, insert/insertion, project/projection, etc.).

Back formation may be similar to the reanalyses of folk etymologies when it rests on an erroneous understanding of the morphology of the longer word. For example, the singular noun asset is a back-formation from the plural assets. However, assets is originally not a plural; it is a loan-word from Anglo-Norman asetz (modern French assez). The -s was reanalyzed as a plural suffix.

Back-formation in the English language

Many words came into English by this route: Pease was once a mass noun but was reinterpreted as a plural, leading to the back-formation pea. The noun statistic was likewise a back-formation from the field of study statistics. In Britain the verb burgle came into use in the 19th century as a back-formation from burglar (which can be compared to the North America verb burglarize formed by suffixation).

Other examples are:

Verb "edit" from "editor".

Singular "syrinx", plural "syringes" (from Greek): new singular "syringe" formed

Singular "sastruga", plural "sastrugi" (from Russian): new Latin-type singular "sastrugus" has been used sometimes.

"euthanase" or "euthanize" (verb) from the noun "euthanasia".

Even though many English words are formed this way, new coinages may sound strange, and are often used for humorous effect. For example, gruntled or pervious (from disgruntled and impervious) would be considered mistakes today, and used only in humorous contexts. The comedian George Gobel regularly used original back-formations in his humorous monologues. Bill Bryson mused that the English language would be richer if we could call a tidy-haired person shevelled - as an opposite to dishevelled.[2]

Frequently back-formations begin in colloquial use and only gradually become accepted. For example, enthuse (from enthusiasm) is gaining popularity, though it is still considered substandard by some today.

The immense celebrations in Britain at the news of the relief of the Siege of Mafeking briefly created the verb to maffick, meaning to celebrate both extravagantly and publicly. "Maffick" was a back-formation from Mafeking, a place-name that was treated humorously as a gerund or participle. There are many other examples of back-formations in the English language.