6.6. Sound imitation

The majority of motivated Ws in present-day language are motivated by reference to other Ws in the language, the morphemes that compose them & their arrangement: wage-earner + knowing the meaning of the Ws wage & earn & the structural pattern N-stem + V-stem+ -er as in bread-winner, skyscraper, strike-breaker.

Sound imitating / onomatopoeic Ws are motivated with reference to extra-linguistic reality, they are echoes of natural sounds (lullaby, twang, whiz). Sound imitation (onomatopoeia / echoism) = the naming of an action / thing by a reproduction of a sound associated with it. Sounds & movement of water: babble, blob, bubble, flush, gurgle, gush, splash.

The majority of onomatopoeic Ws name sounds / movements. Most are Vs easily turned into Ns: bang, boom, bump, hum, rustle, smack, thud. Very expressive, difficult to tell from an interjection. Sound-imitative Ws form a considerable part of interjections: bang! hush! pooh!

Semantically, according to the source of sound, onomatopoeic Ws: 1) sounds produced by human beings in the process of communication / expressing their feelings: babble, chatter, giggle, grunt, grumble, murmur, mutter, titter, whine, whisper; 2) sounds produced by animals, birds & insects: buzz, cackle, croak, crow, hiss, honk, howl, moo, mew, neigh, purr, roar. Some birds are named after the sound they make: the crow, the cuckoo; 3) the Vs imitating the sound of water (bubble / splash), the noise of metallic things (clink, tinkle), forceful motion (clash, crash, whack, whip, whisk).

The combining possibilities of onomatopoeic Ws are limited by usage. A contented cat purrs, while a similarly sounding V whirr is used about wings. A gun bangs & a bow twangs.

Onomatopoeic Ws lend themselves easily to further W-building & semantic development, readily develop figurative meanings. Croak means ‘to make a deep harsh sound’ about frogs / ravens. Metaphorically – a hoarse human voice. A further transfer – ‘to protest dismally’, ‘to grumble dourly’, ‘to predict evil’.

6.7. Back-formation

Back-formation (reversion) = the derivation of new Ws by subtracting a real / supposed affix from existing Ws through misinterpretation of their structure. Based on analogy. Beggar, butler, cobbler, typewriter look like agent Ns with the suffix -er/-/. Their last syllable is taken for a suffix & subtracted from the W leaving what is understood as a V- stem. The V butle ‘to act / serve as a butler’ is derived. Butler (ME buteler, boteler from OFr bouteillier ‘bottle bearer’) originally ‘the man-servant having charge of the wine’.

The very high frequency of the pattern V-stem+-er → a prominent part in back-formation: burgle v<burglar n; cobble v<cobbler n; sculpt v<sculptor n.

teacher ₌ painter ₌ butler

teach paint x x = butle, ‘to act as butler’

Back-formation has only diachronic relevance. Synchronic approach: butler :: butle is equivalent to painter :: paint. The present-day speaker may not feel any difference. Modern examples: lase v from laser, escalate from escalator, the Vs aggress, automate, enthuse, obsolesce & reminisce.

Back-formation may be also based on the analogy of inflectional forms: the singular Ns pea & cherry. Pea (the plural is peas) is from MidE pese<OE pise, peose<Lat pisa, pl. of pesum. The ending -s being the most frequent mark of the plural in English, English speakers thought that sweet peas(e) was a plural & turned peas(e) soup into pea soup. Cherry is from OFr cerise, the -se was dropped for the same reason.

The most productive type of back-formation – derivation of Vs from CWs that have either -er / –ing: thought-read v<thought-reader n<thought-reading n; air-condition v<air-conditioner n < air-conditioning n; turbo-supercharge v < turbo-supercharger n. Other examples: baby-sit, beachcomb, house-break, house-clean, house-keep, red-bait, tape-record.

Semantic relationship between the prototype & derivative is regular. Baby-sit – to act as a baby-sitter.

Questions

1. What types of lexical shortening do transformations of word-groups into words involve?

2. What does substabtivisation consist in?

3. What is the substabtivisation resulted in finals accompanied by?

4. What spheres of human activity are considered to be the ideal setting for ellipsis? Why?

5. What does clipping consist in?

6. What types of clipping do you know?

7. What does blending consist in?

8. What types of blending do you know?

9. What kind of abbreviations is termed ‘acronyms’?

10. What does sound interchange as a lexical opposition consist in?

11. What motivation is characteristic of onomatopoeic words?

12. What does back-formation consist in?

Literature

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