Substantival word formation

Word formation refers to the processes by which new words are constructed from the pool of linguistic elements (roots, prefixes, suffixes) present in the language. Thus, the English word 'formation' is made up of the verbal elem­ent '(to) form' + the suffix '-(a)tion' on the pattern of such verb-noun pairs as 'generate-generation', 'obligate-obligation', etc.; this process is not in fact originally an English one, but one adopted from Latin: formare - N.sg. for-matio, G.sg. formationis, obligare - N.sg. obligatio, G.sg. obligationis, and so on. When we refer to such processes of word formation, it is customary to specify the nature of the building blocks: thus, a 'desubstantival' noun is one 'built from a noun or nouns'; similarly, the terms 'deadjectival', 'deverbal' mean that a given form is based upon adjectival or verbal stems, respectively. A familiarization with the elements that are used in word formation, and with their general meanings, makes the process of acquiring vocabulary (especially elements of more sophisticated lexicon) easier and more systematic. How­ever, just knowing the origin of the elements of a word does not guarantee that the meaning of a derived form will equal the sum of its parts. Thus, for example, о-бач-ення could be segmented as 'look + around', but in fact means 'consideration', 'care': i.e. 'looking around' in a figurative sense; know­ing the processes of word formation therefore gives us linguistic tools which must be handled with care.

In the following sections we shall examine the major patterns of substan­tival word formation typical of the Ukrainian language: prefixation, suffix-ation, and compounding. The ultimate source of every example is not always described, as it can often have different interpretations: thus, for example, 'desubstantival' forms may be based on a substantive that is itself derived from an adjective (for example, без-ум-н-ість < ум-н-ість < -ум-н-ий < -ум-, in which the progression is one of substantive > adjective > substantive > substantive). For our purposes, forms are identified as 'deadjectival' only where the source is clearly only or originally adjectival.

Literature: 1, 3-5, 7

Lecture 2. The adjective

1. GENERAL REMARKS

2. COMPARISON

3. USING ADJECTIVES

1. GENERAL REMARKS

Adjectives are conventionally seen as words which describe or qualify nouns and subdivided into qualitative and relative adjectives, to which one might add possessive adjectives, and ordinal numerals. The last two might in certain respects be grouped with the relative adjectives - this may be seen from some of the examples of relative adjectives below. Giving adjectives in their citation form, the nominative singular mas­culine, we note that qualitative adjectives generally tell us something of the inherent features of a person or thing, for example:

червоний red слабий sick, weak

веселий happy солодкий sweet, lovely

мудрий wise високий high

Relative adjectives are derived from, and thus relate to, other things, in other words describe something in terms of something else, thus:

дерев'яний wooden, of wood (= дерево wood, tree, з дерева (made) of

wood)

ведмежий of a bear (= ведмідь bear)

сьогоднішній today's (= сьогодні today)

місцевий local (= місце place)

сотий hundredth (= сто hundred, an ordinal, but formally an adjective) сестрин sister's (= сестра sister)

See on the formation of adjectives.

Relative adjectives do not normally permit the derivation of abstract nouns, and do not have comparative and superlative forms.