2.2 Word Families

Another approach to grouping lexemes is creating word families. Words are grouped into the families according to their morphology. A word family “consists of a base word and all its derived and inflected forms” (Bauer & Nation, 1993, p.253). The following group of words belongs to the same word family: legal, illegal, legalize, and legalese. Bauer and Nation proposed a set of levels into which families are divided. They apply eight criteria which are used to determine the level at which a particular affix should be placed: frequency, productivity, predictability, regularity of the written form of the base, regularity of the spoken form of the base, regularity of the spelling of the affix, regularity of the spoken form of the affix, and regularity of function. “These criteria determine the level at which an affix is placed, and they also place restrictions on what particular words can be included as part of a word family at a given level” (1993, p.256). At the first level, “each form is a different word” (p.258) and does not have a morphological marking—an item has a zero ending. Some examples are bear (to have children), bear (tolerate), bear (to carry), and bear (animal). So, there is no family.

The second level deals with inflectional suffixes. Words with the same base but different inflections belong to this word family. The inflectional categories used here are plural; third person singular present tense; past tense; past participle; present participle; gerund; comparative; superlative; and possessive. The following example with the base head illustrates this level: heads (plural), heads (third person singular present tense), head’s, headed, and heading.

The third level deals with the most frequent and regular derivational affixes such as -able, -er, -ish, -less, -ly, -ness, -th, -y, non-, un- . Some examples will give the idea of their frequency. The suffix –er is the most productive agentive suffix of a noun among others. The suffix–er forms English nouns denoting persons, from a stem of verbs:

• a person occupied with that kind of works to which the derivative points: to sew – sewer, to play – player, and to sing – singer.

• a person, acting in a certain way at a certain time: to learn-- learner, and to speak--speaker.

• a person who has ability to perform an action: to swim—swimmer and to dance—dancer.

The suffix –er is used to express different tools, appliances, and instruments: to sew – sewer, and to atomize – atomizer. It is also used in informal speech: to blight-- blighter, to bound--bounder, kiss--kisser, smell--smeller, jangle--jangler. It may participate in forming compound nouns: can-opener, ice-breaker, tooth-picker, and bitter-ender. It is able to form new words: giver-up, do-gooder, and breakfaster. The suffix -er, joining the stem of a noun denotes an inhabitant of a certain locality: villager and New Yorker. This suffix expresses the meaning of typical features or signs. In this case it joins the stem of adjectives, denoting color or specific features: fresher and greener. The suffix -er indicates a person of a certain age. In this case, nouns are formed from bases of numerals: fifteener and forty-niner.

The suffix –ness forms nouns from adjectives, indicating signs, qualities, or properties inherent in human beings: adroitness, alertness, and craftiness; adjectives indicating signs, qualities, or properties in inanimate objects: darkness, calmness, and cleanliness. Additionally, the suffix -ness is combined with the adjective ending in –ful: faithful – faithfulness. The suffix –ness is considered a productive word building suffix.

When the prefix un- joins the stem of a verb, it signifies “not” and, shows the reversal of an action: to cover – to uncover.

The fourth level constitutes a word family with the following affixes such as –al (legal), -ation (collaboration), -ess (goddess), -ful (careful, joyful, and sinful), -ism (atheism), - ist (atheist), - ity (purity), -ize (generalize), -ment (achievement), -ous (curious and continuous), and in- (innovative). Here are some examples which illustrate this level. The suffix –ment was borrowed from French in the 12^th century. The suffix is of Latin origin mentum. In Modern English, -ment is added to verbs, to build abstract nouns. Nouns with –ment express act or fact: astonishment and development. When it is added to the verbs of mental or sense condition, abstract nouns are built: astonishment and encouragement. This suffix may be used to form nouns which express something concrete or material: embankment and equipment.

“From a theoretical perspective, it is clear that the suffix -ation has a number of variants” (Bauer & Nation, 1993, p.274): –ion, -sion, -ation, and -fication. Some examples are electrification, identification, authorization, fertilization, formulation, adoration, affirmation, and submission.

The suffix –ism came into English from the French language. In modern English, it is widely used with abstract nouns, denoting different studies, theories, social, political and scientific views and currents. The suffix -ism is combined with the following semantic classes:

• proper names denoting the authors of certain studies, social, political, and philosophical trends: Leninism and Platonism;

• adjectives expressing “belonging to, relationship of certain persons to different philosophical, scientific, social, and political studies and trends: Confucianism, Voltairianism, Hegelianism, and Fabianism;

• adjectives with the meaning ‘belonging to something, having the quality, peculiarity, likeness to something, inherent in something, consisting of something, connected with something’: conventionalism, formalism, cynicism, and pacifism;

• adjectives denoting the language of a nation, people, country, or certain parts of a locality: Americanism, Anglicanism, Italicism, Vulgarism, provincialism, and foreignism;

• nouns denoting the style of a writer; the suffix –ism added to the proper name of the author: Byronism and Pushkinism;

• stylistically colored words with scornful or pejorative connotation: babyism and egotism;

• terms used in medicine to denote an abnormal state: alcoholism, autism, and anomalism.

The fifth level deals with regular but infrequent affixes. It adds “a number of affixes whose behavior is fairly regular, which may be productive, but which, because they are not widely generalized, do not individually add greatly to the number of words that can be understood” (p.260). Some affixes belong to this level are –age (cellarage, flowerage, frontage, shrinkage, wreckage, and breakage), -ese (Japanese; officialese, and legalese), -esque (picturesque), -ant (consultant), -an (African), -ette (roomette), -dom (thralldom, stardom, kingdom, beggardom, and snobdom), -hood (babyhood, childhood, and girlhood), -ite (Paisleyite), fore- (forename), hyper- (hyperactive),-ling (duckling), -ory (contradictory), -ship (championship, companionship, horsemanship, penmanship, salesmanship, and chairmanship), -ward (homeward), -ways (crossways), -wise (moneywise), ante- (anteroom), anti-(anti-social), arch- (archbishop), en- (encage; enslave), and sub- (sub-classify; subnormal).

The sixth level deals with frequent but irregular affixes such as –ee (devisee, transferee, trustee, absentee, refugee, and selectee ), -ic ( terrific), -ify (purify ), -ist (geologist and educationist ), -ive ( ), -y (diplomacy, piracy, supremacy, and tyranny), pre- (preview ), and re- (re-write).

The seventh level contains classical roots and affixes. “All the classical roots which abound in English words and which occur not only as bound roots in English (as in embolism) but also as elements in neo-classical compounds (such as photography)” (Bauer & Nation, 1993, p.262) belong to this level. Common prefixes belonging to this level are ab-(abnormal), ad-, com-, de-(devalue), dis-(disappear), ex-(ex-husband), and sub-(subway).

The concept of a word family is important for “a systematic approach to vocabulary teaching” (p.253), for deciding the vocabulary load of texts, and for and compilation of dictionaries. This approach provides lexicographers a more secure basis for the treatment of affixes and derived words in the dictionaries (Jackson &Amvela, 2007, p.21).