2. The system of w-building in English

There are a lot of types of w-building, but the three main are: affixation, composition and conversion.

Affixation – is one of the types of w-building that deals with morphemes.

A morpheme—the smallest indivisible component of the w-d possessing a meaning of its own. Morph-s—constituents of w-s

A free m-me—a m-me ~ may stand alone without changing its meaning. It can form a w-d without adding other morphemes. Free m-es are homonymous to separate w-s. A great № of root-morphemes are free m-es: friendship.

A bound m-me—a m-me bound to some other m-me & it can’t stand alone (independently) : -s, -ing, -ly, -ize, -ty, dis-, de-

According to the role they play in constructing w-s, m-es ↔ roots & affixes ↔ prefixes, suffixes, infixes.

A root—the semantic nucleus of a w-d with ~ no grammatical properties of the w-d are connected.

~ m.b. also regarded as the ultimate constituent element ~ remains after the removal of all functional & derivational aff-s & doesn’t admit any further analysis. It is the common element of w-s within a w-d-family. -heart- the common root of the following series of w-s: heart, hearten, hearty, heartily, heartless, heartiness, heart-broken.

According to their function & meaning affixes ↔ derivational & functional (endings).

Derivational aff.—an aff., serving to create new w-s (lex. units of structural & semantic type, differing from the type represented in the form from ~ a new w-d was produced (the underlying & the resultant forms).

Functional aff.—an aff., serving to convey grammatical meaning (create different forms of the same w-d). 10 functional aff-es.

According to their etymology (origin) aff. ↔ native & borrowed (-able, -ous, -ist, -ism, -ise, -sh)

All fnctional afxs are native and derived afxs m.b. native as well: -er, -less, -full, -hood, -ish, -ly

Aff-s ↔ productive (take part in deriving new w-s in this particular period of language development) & non-productive.

The proof of productivity—the existence of new ws coined by these aff-s: neologisms & nonce-ws (ws coined & used only for this particular occasion; formed on the level of living sp—don’t exist in dicti-es): unputdownable book, a lungful of smoke.

Productive aff.—always frequent but not every frequent aff.— productive: -ous—frequent but not productive; the noun-forming –th & its allomorph –t which may be traced to OE & is combined with adjective stems : health, height, truth; with verbal stems : flight, frost, growth; but there are no neologisms — non-productive.

Suffixation & Prefixation—the oldest ways of w-d-building.

Suffix usually modifies the lexical meaning of the w-d & transforms it into another p/speech. But may not transform: child → childhood, friend → friendship

~ according to the formed p/sp. suffixes ↔ a) noun-forming : -er, -ation, -ness, -dom; b) adjective-forming : -able, -less, -ful, -ic; c) verb-forming : -ate, -en, -fy/-ify, -ize; d)adverb-forming : -ly, -ward ~ according to lex.-grammatical character of the initial form (base) to ~ a suffix is attached, ↔ a) deverbal : -er, -ing, -ment, -able — speaker, agreement, reading; b) denominal : -less, -ish, -ful, -ist, -ism, -some; c) deadjectival : -en, -ly, -ish, -ness ~ according to the meaning contained in the suffix : a) agent of action : -er, -ant—dancer, defendant; b) names of nationality, belonging to smth. : -an, -ian, -ese — Arabian American, Japanese; c) collectivity : -age, -ery, -dom — peasantry, officialdom

d) a special subgroup of feminine suf-s : -ess, -ine, -ette; e) the absence / presence of quality : -less, -ful; f) diminutiveness : -ie, -let, -ling — birdie, girlie, duckling, wolfling; ~ acc to the connotational charact-ics: together with the m-ing certain afxs add to the stem emotional force, mainly derogatory: OE ester : spinestre — та, что пряла, MdE : spinster; gangster, youngster -ton : simpleton; -ard : stinkard; -o : bosso; -ie : oldie; -ling : kingling; Stylistic reference : a) neutral : -able, -er, -ing; b) stylistically coloured : -oid, -form, -aceous, -tron (belong mainly to the terms) : asteroid, cyclotron, cruciform.

Prefixation

Some time ago there were linguists who treated pref-n as part of w-d-composition. The greater semantic independence of prefixes as compared with suf-s led the linguists to identify pref-s with the first component of a compound w-d (E.Kruisinga). At present : the majority of scholars regard pref-s as derivational aff-s.

H. Marchand : overdo, underestimate, income, onlooker, outhouse—compounds with locative particles as 1^st elem-s (not pfxs)

2 types of prefixes are to be distinguished :

1) those not correlated with any independent w-d (either notional or functional) :

2) those correlated with any independent w-d (prepositions or preposition-like adverbs)

out-, over-, up-, under- — are called semi-bound morphemes.

to overpass, over the river; to outline, to take smb. out;

upstairs, to look up; under the table, undercurrent

~ according to the lexico-gram. character of the base they are added to pref-s are↔ :

a) deverbal : rewrite, outstay, overdo;

b) denominal : unbutton, detrain, ex-president;

c) deadjectival : biannual, uneasy.

~ according to the denotational meaning :

a) negative : un-, non-, in-, dis-, a- (amoral, asymmetry);

b) pref. of time & order : fore-, pre-, post-, ex- —foretell, foreknowledge, pre-war, post

c) of repetition : re- — rebuild

d) locative : super-, sub-, trans-, inter- — superstructure, subway, intercontinental, transatlantic;

e) pejorative : mis-, mal- pseudo- —miscalculate, misinform, maltreat, pseudoclassical;

~ according to their stylistic reference :

a) neutral : un-, over-, re-

b) possessing stylistic value : pseudo-, super-, ultra-, uni-, bi- the literary, bookish char-r: ultraviolet, unilateral (односторонний), bifocal (двухфокусный)

Composition—1 of the most productive types of w-building, in ~ new w-s are produced by combining 2 / > stems. It was active in the OE period & now it is still productive, as > than 1/3 of all new coined w-s in MdE—compound w-s.

Structurally—3 types of compounds: neutral, morphological, syntactic.

In neutral compounds the process of compounding is realised without any linking elements, by a mere juxtaposition of two stems, as in blackbird, shop-window, sunflower, bedroom, tallboy, etc. There are three subtypes of neutral compounds depending on the structure of the constituent stems. The examples above represent the subtype which may be de-scribed as simple neutral compounds: they consist of simple affixless stems. Compounds which have affixes in their structure are called derived or derivational compounds. E. g. absent-mindedness, blue-eyed, golden-haired, broad-shouldered, lady-killer, film-goer, music-lover, honey-mooner, first-nighter, late-comer, newcomer, early-riser, evil-doer. The third subtype of neutral compounds is called contracted compounds. These words have a shortened (contracted) stem in their structure: TV-set, V-day, G-man (Government man "FBI agent"), T-shirt, etc.

Morphological compounds are few in number. This type is non-productive. It is represented by words in which two compounding stems are combined by a linking vowel or consonant, e. g. Anglo-Saxon, Franko-Prussian, handiwork, handicraft, spokesman, statesman.

Syntactic compounds are formed from segments of speech, preserving in their structure numerous traces of syntagmatic relations typical of speech: articles, prepositions, adv, as in the Ns good-for-nothing, mother-in-law, sit-at-home.

According to the degree of semantic cohesion of the constituent parts compounds ↔ idiomatic & non-idiomatic.

Idiomatic comp-s—the meaning of the whole isn’t a mere sum of its elements. Idiomatic comp-s ↔

1) comp-s whose 1/2 component has changed its meaning & it is no longer associated with the current meaning of the corresponding free form: blackbird, football, book-keeper, highway (not a way but a broad main road)

2) comp-s in ~ the process of deducing the m-ing of the whole from its constituents--impossible: chatterbox, fuss-pot, blackmail, bluebottle—not a bottle but:1) flower (василёк) 2)insect(муха трупная)3) coll. cop

Non-idiomatic comp-s—comp-s whose meaning can be described as the sum of their constituent meanings: Classroom, medium-sized, theatre-goer, pocket-book, reading-hall, sleeping-car (but in the last 2 we can observe a slight shift of meaning).

Some comp-s are made up of a determining & determined part, ~ m.b. called the determinant & determinatum.

The determinatum (the basic part)—the grammatically most important part ~ undergoes inflections.

The determinant serves to differentiate the determinatum from other determinata: sunbeam: beam — determinatum, sun — determinant (from other beams), brothers-in-law, passers-by.

Endocentric comp-s — comp-s in ~ the constituent elements are clearly the determinant & the determinatum:

maidservant (the 1^st elem restricts the wide sphere of servants), looking-glass, green-grocer (who sells veg-s, not who is green)

Exocentric comp-s — opposed to endocentric ones—their determinatum lies outside; it isn’t expressed but implied & understood: killjoy—a person who throws gloom over social enjoyment, pick-pocket—a thief; hangover—an unpleasant after-effect (пережиток, наследие, разг.похмелье)

Bahuvrihi—dessignate possessive exocentric formations in ~ a person / animal / thing are metonymically named after some striking feature they possess, chiefly a striking feature in their appearance. Its formula : Adj.stem + Noun stem. Semantically they are almost invariably characterized by a depreciative (умаляющий, унижающий) ironical emotional tone

fathead—a dull, stupid person (олух, болван), lazy-bones

Conversion—the way of w-d-forming, in ~ a w-d of 1 p/sp is formed from the form of another p/sp by changing its valency and paradigm.

Eye v & eye n—aren’t the same w-d, as they differ by their paradigm & functionally therefore they are different w-s, formed by changing of their paradigms.

2p/sp. are especially affected by conversion—nouns & verbs, N→V—the most numerous: to hand, to back, to monkey, to stage, to nose, to room, to honeymoon.

V→N: a must, a chat, a talk, a fly, a jump, a rush, a make

Adj→V: to pale, to cool, to rough, to wet, to blind, to dirty, to narrow. But he retained my hand, & I could not free it.

Converted w-s have meaning ~ differs from the meaning of the w-d, from ~ it was derived. But their meanings c.b. associated.

N→V

1) the action peculiar to that, denoted by N (to ape, to monkey, to wolf, to father);

2) to act by means of that, denoted by N (to chain, to finger, to water, to iron);

3) to supply, cover with that, denoted by N (to curtain, to dust, to shelter);

4) to deprive of that, denoted by N (to dust, to skin);

5) to place to that denoted by N (to table, to pocket, to house)

V→N

1) isolated action (a jump, a move, a look);

2) an acting object (a drill, a dig);

3) a place of action (ride, forge, drive, walk);

4) an object/result of action (find, tear, peel, burn, catch, lift)

H.Marchand—a very interesting detail: the verbal personal nouns formed by conversion & denoting the doer—mostly derogatory: bore, cheat, flirt, scold, tease.

It’s significant as it shows that the language has in store some patterned morphological ways to convey emotional meaning; these ways can form a parallel to the suffixes denoting deprecation: -ard, -ling, -ster.