Seminar № 3 The Structure of English Words and Word-building in English.

1. General problems of the theory of the word. The morphological structure of a word. (the morpheme, types of morphemes). Structural types of words (simple, derived, compound).

2. Productivity. Productive and non-productive ways of word-formation.

3. Affixation in English

1. different forms of affixes and their possible isolation;

2. various etymological sources of English affixes;

3. productive and non-productive affixes.

4. Conversion and non-affixed way of word-building in English:

1. different conceptions of the problem of conversion;

2. conversion of different parts of speech;

3. conversion and substantivisation.

Literature: [3, 5, 6, 12, 14, 17, 24, 25, 28-30, 34, 36, 37, 46, 47, 52]

Exercises

Ex 1. Analyze the following words into their immediate and ultimate constituents:

absent-mindedness, beautifully, insufficient, painfully, preoccupation, lexicological

Ex.2 Pick out the bound morphemes in the following words and say whether they are derivational (D) or inflectional (I) morphemes:

Inflectional, terrifying, hospitalised, regularises, reviewers, respectably, represents, stifles, previewed, submariners

.

Ex.3 What are the main allomorphs of each of the following morphemes:

-s (as in the verb looks); -ed (as in the verb looked); in- (as in words where the morpheme means not, e.g. in- + eligible)

Ex.4 Classify the stems of the words given below into simple, derived, compound; free, bound, semi-bound. Comment on their patterns:

babylike, bluebell, blue-eyed, book, busload, cameraman, colour-blindness, crossing, document, dusty, enrich, fashionmonger, foolishness, foresee, furnitureless, gladden, granulate, headachy, homeless, hyperslow, irresponsibility, kind-heartedness, look, old-maidish, playwright, purify, reddish, resist, rewrite, shock-proof, shoemaker, small, snow-whiteness, sunflower, take, truckload, trustworthy, unbutton, unfriendliness, unpleasantness

Ex.5 Comment on the origin and meaning of the prefixes in the following words:

1. afloat, afoot, afresh, alight, along, anew, awaken

2. amoral, anomalous, aseptic

3. befriend, behead, belittle, besiege, bewitch

4. uncomfortable, unequal, unhappy, unreal, unsafe

5. unarm, unbelt, unbind, uncap, undress, unmask, untie

6. disagree, disapprove, discomfort, disobey

7. disappear, disarrange, disband, disconnect, disjoin

Ex.6 Paraphrase the following word-combinations using the verbs with the prefix en-/em-:

to throw into a rage; to reduce to slavery; to place on a throne; to put into a cage; to hold fast with a chain; to inclose in a circle; to give power; to expose to danger; to make rich (bitter, larger, able, sure)

Ex.7 Select the words with prefixal morphemes:

access, abortive, adrift, apology, ameliorate, approximately, American, amnesia, becloud, benevolent, benefit, bethink, beseech, benzene, bipartisan, biblical, biscuit, bifold, biggish, bicycle, bitter, debris, debate, debase, debile, decent, debtee, decease, dispatch, dispute, disuse, district, dismantle, distort, distinct, enchant, encore, enclose, encase, encaprus, incomer, include, incentive, incarnate, inattention, inane, inactive, incidence, increase, mission, miscalculate, missile, mislaid, missal, mistake, mistress, misty, nonsense, nonny-nonny, non-alcoholic, nonic, nonage, nonetheless, nonce, real, react, reader, realm, rebound, rebus, reclaim, recoinage, receive, recognize, unite, unironed, unisexual, uninventive, unclad, uncle.

Ex.8 Give the corresponding words denoting living beings of the female sex:

abbot, ancestor, bachelor, boar, boy, bridegroom, bull, cock, doctor, don, duke, emperor, fox, hero, horse, king, lion, lord, monk, murderer, ox, signor, son, stag, uncle, widower

Ex.9 What is the meaning of “s”-morpheme in the following words? State weather it is a plural marker or a word-building suffix:

book-books; custom-customs, air-airs, glass-glasses, spectacle-spectacles, appointment-appointments, ice-ices, art-arts, slip-slips, wage- wages, work- works, part-parts, picture-pictures, talk-talks, development-developments, power-powers, cloth-clothes

Ex.10 State the origin of the prefixes and suffixes in the following words:

actor, afternoon, counterattack, exceed, friendship, graduate, international, strength, co-operate, government, quicken, rewrite, undertake, untie, worthless, youngster, overall

Ex.11 Find example of conversion in the sentences below:

1. Have you ever summered in the country? 2. You are not down. Nothing will down you. 3. I picture myself taking courage to make a declaration to Miss Larkins. 4. She might come and room with her. 5. The room faced the street. 6. From the first Soames had nosed out Dartie’s nature. 7. Do you think you are the man to head it? 8. She fingered the dollar. 9. At last they came into the open. 10. In the long run, anyone is bound to think that the left is right, and the right is wrong.