- •What Is Lexicology?
- •1.1 Definition of Lexicology
- •The Structure of the English Lexicon
- •2.1 Words and their Associative Fields
- •2.2 Word Families
- •2.3 Word Classes
- •2.4 Semantic, or Lexical, Fields
- •Synchronistic and Diachronistic Approaches to the Structure of the English Vocabulary
- •2.2 English Lexemes of Native Origin
- •2.3 Borrowed, or Loan, Lexemes
- •2.3.1 Borrowings from Latin
- •2.3.2 Scandinavian Borrowings
- •2.3.3 Loans from French
- •2.3.4 Spanish Loanwords
- •2.3.5 Borrowings from Italian
- •2.3.6 Loans from Dutch and German
- •2.3.7 Borrowings from Slavic, Hungarian, and Turkish
- •Classification of Borrowings according to the Degree of Assimilation
- •2.5 Etymological Doublets
- •2.6 Folk Etymology
- •The Word
- •3.1 Defining a Word
- •3.2 Morphological Structure of Words
- •3.2.1 Word Structure
- •3.2.2 Stems
- •3.2.3 Types of affixes
- •3.2.4 Derivational and Functional Affixes
- •Inflection of Derived or Compound Words
- •3.3 Cliticization
- •3.4 Internal Change/Alternation
- •3.5 Suppletion
- •3.6 Reduplication
- •Word Formation
- •4.1 Derivation
- •V ? Athe act of X’ing
- •V ? Vnot X
- •4.1.1 Types of Derivational Affixes
- •4.3.1 Classification of Compounds
- •4.3.2 Endocentric and Exocentric Compounds
- •4.4 Reduplication
- •4.5 Conversion
- •4.6 Blending
- •4.7 Backformation
- •4.8 Clipping
- •4.9 Acronyms and Abbreviations
- •Semantics
- •5.1 Types of Semantics
- •5.2 Linguistic Sign
- •5.3 Denotation
- •5.4 Connotation
- •5.5 Reference
- •5.6 Sense
- •5.7 Semantics and Change of Meaning
- •5.9 Sense Relations
- •5.9.1 Similarity of Sense
- •5.9.2 Oppositeness of Sense
- •5.9.3 Meaning Categories: Hyponymy
- •5.9.4 Meronymy
- •5.9.5 Related Meanings
- •5.9.6 Different Meanings: Homonymy
- •Homonyms
- •Homophones homographs homonyms proper
- •Phraseology
- •6.1 Definition
- •6.2 Classification of phraseologisms
- •6.3 The Origin of Phraseological Units
- •6.3.1 Native Phraseological Units
- •6.3.2 Borrowed Phraseological Units
- •6.4 Semantic Structure of Phraseological Units
- •6.5 Semantic Relations of Phraseological Units
- •6.5.1 Similarity of Sense
- •6.5.2 Oppositeness of Sense
- •Major Differences between American and British variants of the English Language
- •7.1 Differences in Vocabulary
- •7.2 Spelling Differences
- •7.3 Grammatical Differences
- •Lexicography
- •I need to add Types of Dictionaries
4.1 Derivation
Derivation creates a new word by changing the category or the meaning of the base to which it applies, e.g., teach (v)+ er (suffix) = teacher (n); beauty (n)+ful (suffix)=beautiful (adj).
Derivation is a productive means of coining new words in English; there are over sixty common derivational affixes, and there is no limit to their number.
Some English Derivational Affixes
AffixChangeSemantic EffectExamplesSuffixes-ableV ? Aable to be X’edreadable-ationV ? Nthe result of X’ingrealization-erV ? None who X’steacher-ingV ? N
V ? Athe act of X’ing
in the process of X’ingplaying
the sleeping girl-ionV ? Nthe result or act of X’inggraduation-iveV ? Ahaving the property of doing Ximpressive-mentV ? Nthe act or result of X’ingachievement-alN ? Apertaining to Xlegal-ialN ? Apertaining to X-ianN ? N
N ? Apertaining to Xpolitician
Russian-icN ? Ahaving the property of Xorganic-izeN ? Vput in Xhospitalize-lessN ? Awithout Xjobless-ousN ? Athe property of having or being Xcurious-ateA ? Vmake Xactivate-ityA ? Nthe result of being Xsimilarity-izeA ? Vmake Xmodernize-lyA ? Advin an X mannersilently-nessA ? Nthe state of being XkindnessPrefixesex-N ? Nformer Xex-wifein-A ? Anot Xincompetentun-A ? A
V ? Vnot X
reverse Xunhappy
undore-A ? AX againrevisit
Each line in this table can be considered a word-formation rule, which predicts how new words may be formed. Thus, if there is a rule whereby the suffix –ment may be added to the verb achieve, resulting in a noun, denoting the act or result of achieving, then we can predict that if the suffix –ment is added to certain verbs, the result will be a new noun.
N
V Af
achieve ment N
V Af
enjoy ment
These rules may be used to analyze words as well as to form new words. Derivation can also create multiple levels of word structure. Although it may seem complex, correctional, unkindness, and organizational have structures consistent with the rules given in the Table.
A
N Suffix
V Suffix
N Suffix
organ ize ation al
A
A Suffix
N Suffix
correct ion alN
Prefix A
A Suffix
un kind ness
In the example with the word unkindness, the observation here is that the prefix un- readily combines with adjectives before it converts to a noun. We see from these examples that complex words have structures consisting of hierarchically organized constituents.