3. Morphological structure of nouns

According to their morphological structure nouns can be divided into simple, derived and compound.

• Simple consists of only one root-morpheme: joy, night, war, set, trade, sea.

• Derived nouns (derivatives) are composed of one root-morpheme and one or more derivational morphemes (prefixes or suffixes).

English and Ukrainian derivatives when in their extended form have the same structure:

Prefix + root + suffix +inflexion (if any)

The main noun-forming suffixes are those forming abstract nouns and those forming concrete nouns.

Abstract nouns	Concrete nouns
-age: leakage, vicarage, storage	-(i)an: republican, American, Brazilian
-al: refusal, portrayal, betrayal, arrival	-ician: beautician, politician, physician
-ancy/-ency: vacancy, tendency, experience, difference, influence, appearance, competence	-arian: vegetarian, humanitarian
-dom: kingdom, freedom, stardom	-ee: refugee, payee, employee, interviewee
-hood: brotherhood, childhood, neighborhood	-er: driver, eye-opener, ice-breaker, screener
-ing: driving, meaning, washing	-or: tutor, advisor, visitor, conveyor
-ion/-sion/-tion/-ation: installation, admission, tension, demonstration	-ist: realist, novelist, artist
-ism: Darwinism, heroism, capitalism	-ant/-ent: assistant, immigrant, resident
-ment: agreement, commitment, payment	-let: leaflet, booklet, starlet
-ness: darkness, weakness	-ess: actress, tigress, waitress
-ship: readership, authorship, membership	-ine: heroine
-ty: equality, productivity, capacity, flexibility	-ix: proprietrix, matrix
-th: growth, strength, wealth	-ette: silhouette, usherette
-y: difficulty, honesty

• Compound nouns consist of at least two stems: seaman, airmail, pickpocket, bluebell.

From the morphological side, the noun is characterized by existence of a system of suffixes and prefixes performing, as a rule, isomorphic functions in both contrasted languages. Among them are traditionally distinguished productive and unproductive, native and borrowed (international) suffixes as well as different semantic groups of suffixes which, when added to roots or stems, may form agent nouns:

English Agent Noun Suffixes	Ukrainian Agent Noun Suffixes
-ant: servant, irritant, -ent: dependent, solvent, student, -ar: beggar, scholar, -er: weaver, teacher, interpreter, farmer, -ier: cashier -or: translator, sailor, tailor, advisor	-ник: завойовник, обвідник, -яч/-ач: глядач, перекладач, копач, наймач, -ець: їздець, кравець, співець, -тель: вихователь, учитель, -щик/-чик: гонщик, пайщик, датчик

An exception makes one suffix which is pertained only to English and denoting the recipient-of-action, namely the suffix –ee:

examinee, refugee, employee, evacuee, trainee, payee, addressee.

Completely missing in English but available in Ukrainian are augmentative suffixes: вітрило, барило, вовчище, каменюка, зміюка, дідуга, злодюга, носюра.

Diminutive suffixes are much more numerous in Ukrainian (as was already mentioned), дитятко, кошенятко, телятко.

International suffixes (-ism, -ist, -phobia, -cide, -gamy -ade, -ess, -ics: barbarism, blockade, novelist, insecticide, claustrophobia, bigamy, baroness, athletics) have their equivalents in Ukrainian.

Suffixes forming nouns designating abstract notions of state, act, art, quality, condition, etc. are mostly national by nature in both languages.

freedom, brotherhood, easiness, loneliness, being, tension.

вільність, рівність, братство, рабство, вродливість, мінливість, легкість, самотність, буття, вороття, творіння, напруження, захоплення.

Prefixal morphemes have many typological features in common as well.

Genuinely Germanic ones in English are:

Mis-: misunderstanding, misleading, misprint.

Out-: outcome, output, outcry.

With-: withdrawal, withstand.

Over-: overflow, overturn, overload, overtime.

In-: insight, insignificance.

Un-: untruth, unbeliever, uncertainty.

Under-: underground, undergraduate.

In Ukrainian genuinely Slavonic by origin are: Прадід, безмежжя, віддаль, завулок, перенапруга, надбудова, розбудова, підгрупа, співвиконавець, пасинок.

Foreign by origin nouns-and –adjective-forming prefixes are mostly identical in the contrasted languages: antithesis, ex-champion, extraordinariness, hyperbolism, illogical, impossibility, irregularity, super-profit, ultramarine, vice-consul.

Practice #1

Categories of Nouns