Lexicology of the English Language
p> 2. Origin of prefixes: a) native (Germanic), such as: un-, over-, under- etc. b) Romanic, such as : in-, de-, ex-, re- etc. c) Greek, such as : sym-, hyper- etc.
When we analyze such words as : adverb, accompany where we can find the
root of the word (verb, company) we may treat ad-, ac- as prefixes though
they were never used as prefixes to form new words in English and were
borrowed from Romanic languages together with words. In such cases we can
treat them as derived words. But some scientists treat them as simple
words. Another group of words with a disputable structure are such as :
contain, retain, detain and conceive, receive, deceive where we can see
that re-, de-, con- act as prefixes and -tain, -ceive can be understood as
roots. But in English these combinations of sounds have no lexical meaning
and are called pseudo-morphemes. Some scientists treat such words as simple
words, others as derived ones.
There are some prefixes which can be treated as root morphemes by some
scientists, e.g. after- in the word afternoon. American lexicographers
working on Webster dictionaries treat such words as compound words. British
lexicographers treat such words as derived ones.
COMPOSITION
Composition is the way of wordbuilding when a word is formed by joining
two or more stems to form one word. The structural unity of a compound
word depends upon : a) the unity of stress, b) solid or hyphonated
spelling, c) semantic unity, d) unity of morphological and syntactical
functioning. These are charachteristic features of compound words in all
languages. For English compounds some of these factors are not very
reliable. As a rule English compounds have one uniting stress (usually on
the first component), e.g. hard-cover, best-seller. We can also have a
double stress in an English compound, with the main stress on the first
component and with a secondary stress on the second component, e.g. blood-
vessel. The third pattern of stresses is two level stresses, e.g. snow-
white,sky-blue. The third pattern is easily mixed up with word-groups
unless they have solid or hyphonated spelling.
Spelling in English compounds is not very reliable as well because they
can have different spelling even in the same text, e.g. war-ship, blood-
vessel can be spelt through a hyphen and also with a break, iinsofar,
underfoot can be spelt solidly and with a break. All the more so that there
has appeared in Modern English a special type of compound words which are
called block compounds, they have one uniting stress but are spelt with a
break, e.g. air piracy, cargo module, coin change, pinguin suit etc.
The semantic unity of a compound word is often very strong. In such cases
we have idiomatic compounds where the meaning of the whole is not a sum of
meanings of its components, e.g. to ghostwrite, skinhead, brain-drain etc.
In nonidiomatic compounds semantic unity is not strong, e. g., airbus, to
bloodtransfuse, astrodynamics etc.
English compounds have the unity of morphological and syntactical
functioning. They are used in a sentence as one part of it and only one
component changes grammatically, e.g. These girls are chatter-boxes.
«Chatter-boxes» is a predicative in the sentence and only the second
component changes grammatically.
There are two characteristic features of English compounds: a) Both components in an English compound are free stems, that is they
can be used as words with a distinctive meaning of their own. The sound
pattern will be the same except for the stresses, e.g. «a green-house» and
«a green house». Whereas for example in Russian compounds the stems are
bound morphemes, as a rule. b) English compounds have a two-stem pattern, with the exception of
compound words which have form-word stems in their structure, e.g. middle-
of-the-road, off-the-record, up-and-doing etc. The two-stem pattern
distinguishes English compounds from German ones.
WAYS OF FORMING COMPOUND WORDS.
Compound words in English can be formed not only by means of composition
but also by means of : a) reduplication, e.g. too-too, and also by means of reduplicatin
combined with sound interchange , e.g. rope-ripe, b) conversion from word-groups, e.g. to micky-mouse, can-do, makeup etc, c) back formation from compound nouns or word-groups, e.g. to
bloodtransfuse, to fingerprint etc , d) analogy, e.g. lie-in ( on the analogy with sit-in) and also phone-in,
brawn-drain (on the analogy with brain-drain) etc.
CLASSIFICATIONS OF ENGLISH COMPOUNDS
1. According to the parts of speech compounds are subdivided into: a) nouns, such as : baby-moon, globe-trotter, b) adjectives, such as : free-for-all, power-happy, c) verbs, such as : to honey-moon, to baby-sit, to henpeck, d) adverbs, such as: downdeep, headfirst, e) prepositions, such as: into, within, f) numerals, such as : fifty-five.
2. According to the way components are joined together compounds are
divided into: a) neutral, which are formed by joining together two stems without any
joining morpheme, e.g. ball-point, to windowshop, b) morphological where components are joined by a linking element :
vowels «o» or «i» or the consonant «s», e.g. {«astrospace», «handicraft»,
«sportsman»), c) syntactical where the components are joined by means of form-word
stems, e.g. here-and-now, free-for-all., do-or-die .
3. According to their structure compounds are subdivided into:
a) compound words proper which consist of two stems, e.g. to job-hunt,
train-sick, go-go, tip-top ,
b) derivational compounds, where besides the stems we have affixes, e.g.
ear-minded, hydro-skimmer,
c) compound words consisting of three or more stems, e.g. cornflower-
blue, eggshell-thin, singer-songwriter,
d) compound-shortened words, e.g. boatel, tourmobile, VJ-day, motocross,
intervision, Eurodollar, Camford.
4. According to the relations between the components compound words are
subdivided into :
a) subordinative compounds where one of the components is the semantic
and the structural centre and the second component is subordinate; these
subordinative relations can be different:
with comparative relations, e.g. honey-sweet, eggshell-thin, with
limiting relations, e.g. breast-high, knee-deep, with emphatic relations,
e.g. dog-cheap, with objective relations, e.g. gold-rich, with cause
relations, e.g. love-sick, with space relations, e.g. top-heavy, with time
relations, e.g. spring-fresh, with subjective relations, e.g. foot-sore etc
b) coordinative compounds where both components are semantically
independent. Here belong such compounds when one person (object) has two
functions, e.g. secretary-stenographer, woman-doctor, Oxbridge etc. Such
compounds are called additive. This group includes also compounds formed by
means of reduplication, e.g. fifty-fifty, no-no, and also compounds formed
with the help of rhythmic stems (reduplication combined with sound
interchange) e.g. criss-cross, walkie-talkie.
5. According to the order of the components compounds are divided into
compounds with direct order, e.g. kill-joy, and compounds with indirect
order, e.g. nuclear-free, rope-ripe .
CONVERSION
Conversion is a characteristic feature of the English word-building
system. It is also called affixless derivation or zero-suffixation. The
term «conversion» first appeared in the book by Henry Sweet «New English
Grammar» in 1891. Conversion is treated differently by different
scientists, e.g. prof. A.I. Smirntitsky treats conversion as a
morphological way of forming words when one part of speech is formed from
another part of speech by changing its paradigm, e.g. to form the verb «to
dial» from the noun «dial» we change the paradigm of the noun (a
dial,dials) for the paradigm of a regular verb (I dial, he dials, dialed,
dialing). A. Marchand in his book «The Categories and Types of Present-day
English» treats conversion as a morphological-syntactical word-building
because we have not only the change of the paradigm, but also the change of
the syntactic function, e.g. I need some good paper for my room. (The noun
«paper» is an object in the sentence). I paper my room every year. (The
verb «paper» is the predicate in the sentence).
Conversion is the main way of forming verbs in Modern English. Verbs can
be formed from nouns of different semantic groups and have different
meanings because of that, e.g. a) verbs have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denoting
parts of a human body e.g. to eye, to finger, to elbow, to shoulder etc.
They have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denoting
tools, machines, instruments, weapons, e.g. to hammer, to machine-gun, to
rifle, to nail, b) verbs can denote an action characteristic of the living being denoted
by the noun from which they have been converted, e.g. to crowd, to wolf,
to ape, c) verbs can denote acquisition, addition or deprivation if they are
formed from nouns denoting an object, e.g. to fish, to dust, to peel, to
paper, d) verbs can denote an action performed at the place denoted by the noun
from which they have been converted, e.g. to park, to garage, to bottle, to
corner, to pocket, e) verbs can denote an action performed at the time denoted by the noun
from which they have been converted e.g. to winter, to week-end .
Verbs can be also converted from adjectives, in such cases they denote
the change of the state, e.g. to tame (to become or make tame) , to clean,
to slim etc.
Nouns can also be formed by means of conversion from verbs. Converted
nouns can denote: a) instant of an action e.g. a jump, a move, b) process or state e.g. sleep, walk, c) agent of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been
converted, e.g. a help, a flirt, a scold , d) object or result of the action expressed by the verb from which the
noun has been converted, e.g. a burn, a find, a purchase, e) place of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been
converted, e.g. a drive, a stop, a walk.
Many nouns converted from verbs can be used only in the Singular form and
denote momentaneous actions. In such cases we have partial conversion. Such
deverbal nouns are often used with such verbs as : to have, to get, to take
etc., e.g. to have a try, to give a push, to take a swim .
CRITERIA OF SEMANTIC DERIVATION
In cases of conversion the problem of criteria of semantic derivation
arises : which of the converted pair is primary and which is converted from
it. The problem was first analized by prof. A.I. Smirnitsky. Later on P.A.
Soboleva developed his idea and worked out the following criteria:
1. If the lexical meaning of the root morpheme and the lexico-grammatical
meaning of the stem coincide the word is primary, e.g. in cases pen - to
pen, father - to father the nouns are names of an object and a living
being. Therefore in the nouns «pen» and «father» the lexical meaning of the
root and the lexico-grammatical meaning of the stem coincide. The verbs
«to pen» and « to father» denote an action, a process therefore the lexico-
grammatical meanings of the stems do not coincide with the lexical meanings
of the roots. The verbs have a complex semantic structure and they were
converted from nouns.
2. If we compare a converted pair with a synonymic word pair which was
formed by means of suffixation we can find out which of the pair is
primary. This criterion can be applied only to nouns converted from verbs,
e.g. «chat» n. and «chat» v. can be compared with «conversation» -
«converse».
3. The criterion based on derivational relations is of more universal
character. In this case we must take a word-cluster of relative words to
which the converted pair belongs. If the root stem of the word-cluster has
suffixes added to a noun stem the noun is primary in the converted pair and
vica versa, e.g. in the word-cluster : hand n., hand v., handy, handful the
derived words have suffixes added to a noun stem, that is why the noun is
primary and the verb is converted from it. In the word-cluster: dance n.,
dance v., dancer, dancing we see that the primary word is a verb and the
noun is converted from it.
SUBSTANTIVIZATION OF ADJECTIVES
Some scientists (Yespersen, Kruisinga ) refer substantivization of
adjectives to conversion. But most scientists disagree with them because in
cases of substantivization of adjectives we have quite different changes in
the language. Substantivization is the result of ellipsis (syntactical
shortening ) when a word combination with a semantically strong attribute
loses its semantically weak noun (man, person etc), e.g. «a grown-up
person» is shortened to «a grown-up». In cases of perfect substantivization
the attribute takes the paradigm of a countable noun , e.g. a criminal,
criminals, a criminal’s (mistake) , criminals’ (mistakes). Such words are
used in a sentence in the same function as nouns, e.g. I am fond of
musicals. (musical comedies).
There are also two types of partly substantivized adjectives: those which have only the plural form and have the meaning of collective
nouns, such as: sweets, news, empties, finals, greens, those which have only the singular form and are used with the definite
article. They also have the meaning of collective nouns and denote a
class, a nationality, a group of people, e.g. the rich, the English, the
dead .
«STONE WALL» COMBINATIONS.
The problem whether adjectives can be formed by means of conversion from
nouns is the subject of many discussions. In Modern English there are a lot
of word combinations of the type , e.g. price rise, wage freeze, steel
helmet, sand castle etc.
If the first component of such units is an adjective converted from a
noun, combinations of this type are free word-groups typical of English
(adjective + noun). This point of view is proved by O. Yespersen by the
following facts:
1. «Stone» denotes some quality of the noun «wall».
2. «Stone» stands before the word it modifies, as adjectives in the
function of an attribute do in English.
3. «Stone» is used in the Singular though its meaning in most cases is
plural,and adjectives in English have no plural form.
4. There are some cases when the first component is used in the
Comparative or the Superlative degree, e.g. the bottomest end of the scale.
5. The first component can have an adverb which characterizes it, and
adjectives are characterized by adverbs, e.g. a purely family gathering.
6. The first component can be used in the same syntactical function with
a proper adjective to characterize the same noun, e.g. lonely bare stone
houses.
7. After the first component the pronoun «one» can be used instead of a
noun, e.g. I shall not put on a silk dress, I shall put on a cotton one.
However Henry Sweet and some other scientists say that these criteria are
not characterisitc of the majority of such units.
They consider the first component of such units to be a noun in the
function of an attribute because in Modern English almost all parts of
speech and even word-groups and sentences can be used in the function of an
attribute, e.g. the then president (an adverb), out-of-the-way vilages (a
word-group), a devil-may-care speed (a sentence).
There are different semantic relations between the components of «stone
wall» combinations. E.I. Chapnik classified them into the following groups:
1. time relations, e.g. evening paper,
2. space relations, e.g. top floor,
3. relations between the object and the material of which it is made,
e.g. steel helmet,
4. cause relations, e.g. war orphan,
5. relations between a part and the whole, e.g. a crew member,
6. relations between the object and an action, e.g. arms production,
7. relations between the agent and an action e.g. government threat,
price rise,
8. relations between the object and its designation, e.g. reception hall,
9. the first component denotes the head, organizer of the characterized
object, e.g. Clinton government, Forsyte family,
10. the first component denotes the field of activity of the second
component, e.g. language teacher, psychiatry doctor,
11. comparative relations, e.g. moon face,
12. qualitative relations, e.g. winter apples.
ABBREVIATION
In the process of communication words and word-groups can be shortened.
The causes of shortening can be linguistic and extra-linguistic. By extra-
linguistic causes changes in the life of people are meant. In Modern
English many new abbreviations, acronyms , initials, blends are formed
because the tempo of life is increasing and it becomes necessary to give
more and more information in the shortest possible time.
There are also linguistic causes of abbreviating words and word-groups,
such as the demand of rhythm, which is satisfied in English by monosyllabic
words. When borrowings from other languages are assimilated in English they
are shortened. Here we have modification of form on the basis of analogy,
e.g. the Latin borrowing «fanaticus» is shortened to «fan» on the analogy
with native words: man, pan, tan etc.
There are two main types of shortenings : graphical and lexical.
Graphical abbreviations
Graphical abbreviations are the result of shortening of words and word-
groups only in written speech while orally the corresponding full forms are
used. They are used for the economy of space and effort in writing.
The oldest group of graphical abbreviations in English is of Latin
origin. In Russian this type of abbreviation is not typical. In these
abbreviations in the spelling Latin words are shortened, while orally the
corresponding English equivalents are pronounced in the full form,e.g.
for example (Latin exampli gratia), a.m. - in the morning (ante meridiem),
No - number (numero), p.a. - a year (per annum), d - penny (dinarius),
lb - pound (libra), i. e. - that is (id est) etc.
Some graphical abbreviations of Latin origin have different English
equivalents in different contexts, e.g. p.m. can be pronounced «in the
afternoon» (post meridiem) and «after death» (post mortem).
There are also graphical abbreviations of native origin, where in the
spelling we have abbreviations of words and word-groups of the
corresponding English equivalents in the full form. We have several
semantic groups of them : a) days of the week, e.g. Mon - Monday, Tue - Tuesday etc b) names of months, e.g. Apr - April, Aug - August etc. c) names of counties in UK, e.g. Yorks - Yorkshire, Berks -Berkshire etc d) names of states in USA, e.g. Ala - Alabama, Alas - Alaska etc. e) names of address, e.g. Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr. etc. f) military ranks, e.g. capt. -captain, col. - colonel, sgt - sergeant
etc. g) scientific degrees, e.g. B.A. - Bachelor of Arts, D.M. - Doctor of
Medicine . ( Sometimes in scientific degrees we have abbreviations of Latin
origin, e.g., M.B. - Medicinae Baccalaurus). h) units of time, length, weight, e.g. f. / ft -foot/feet, sec. - second,
in. -inch, mg. - milligram etc.
The reading of some graphical abbreviations depends on the context, e.g.
«m» can be read as: male, married, masculine, metre, mile, million, minute,
«l.p.» can be read as long-playing, low pressure.
Initial abbreviations
Initialisms are the bordering case between graphical and lexical
abbreviations. When they appear in the language, as a rule, to denote some
new offices they are closer to graphical abbreviations because orally full
forms are used, e.g. J.V. - joint venture. When they are used for some
duration of time they acquire the shortened form of pronouncing and become
closer to lexical abbreviations, e.g. BBC is as a rule pronounced in the
shortened form.
In some cases the translation of initialisms is next to impossible
without using special dictionaries. Initialisms are denoted in different
ways. Very often they are expressed in the way they are pronounced in the
language of their origin, e.g. ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand, United
States) is given in Russian as АНЗУС, SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation
Talks) was for a long time used in Russian as СОЛТ, now a translation
variant is used (ОСВ -Договор об ограничении стратегических вооружений).
This type of initialisms borrowed into other languages is preferable, e.g.
UFO - НЛО, CП - JV etc.
There are three types of initialisms in English: a) initialisms with alphabetical reading, such as UK, BUP, CND etc b) initialisms which are read as if they are words, e.g. UNESCO, UNO,
NATO etc. c) initialisms which coincide with English words in their sound form,
such initialisms are called acronyms, e.g. CLASS (Computor-based Laboratory
for Automated School System).
Some scientists unite groups b) and c) into one group which they call
acronyms.
Some initialisms can form new words in which they act as root morphemes
by different ways of wordbuilding: a) affixation, e.g. AWALism, ex-rafer, ex- POW, to waafize, AIDSophobia
etc. b) conversion, e.g. to raff, to fly IFR (Instrument Flight Rules), c) composition, e.g. STOLport, USAFman etc. d) there are also compound-shortened words where the first component is
an initial abbreviation with the alphabetical reading and the second one is
a complete word, e.g. A-bomb, U-pronunciation, V -day etc. In some cases
the first component is a complete word and the second component is an
initial abbreviation with the alphabetical pronunciation, e.g. Three -Ds
(Three dimensions) - стереофильм.
Abbreviations of words
Abbreviation of words consists in clipping a part of a word. As a result
we get a new lexical unit where either the lexical meaning or the style is
different form the full form of the word. In such cases as »fantasy» and
«fancy», «fence» and «defence» we have different lexical meanings. In such
cases as «laboratory» and «lab», we have different styles.
Abbreviation does not change the part-of-speech meaning, as we have it
in the case of conversion or affixation, it produces words belonging to
the same part of speech as the primary word, e.g. prof is a noun and
professor is also a noun. Mostly nouns undergo abbreviation, but we can
also meet abbreviation of verbs, such as to rev from to revolve, to tab
from to tabulate etc. But mostly abbreviated forms of verbs are formed by
means of conversion from abbreviated nouns, e.g. to taxi, to vac etc.
Adjectives can be abbreviated but they are mostly used in school slang and
are combined with suffixation, e.g. comfy, dilly, mizzy etc. As a rule
pronouns, numerals, interjections. conjunctions are not abbreviated. The
exceptions are: fif (fifteen), teen-ager, in one’s teens (apheresis from
numerals from 13 to 19).
Lexical abbreviations are classified according to the part of the word
which is clipped. Mostly the end of the word is clipped, because the
beginning of the word in most cases is the root and expresses the lexical
meaning of the word. This type of abbreviation is called apocope. Here we
can mention a group of words ending in «o», such as disco (dicotheque),
expo (exposition), intro (introduction) and many others. On the analogy
with these words there developed in Modern English a number of words where
«o» is added as a kind of a suffix to the shortened form of the word, e.g.
combo (combination) - небольшой эстрадный ансамбль, Afro (African)
-прическа под африканца etc. In other cases the beginning of the word is
clipped. In such cases we have apheresis , e.g. chute (parachute), varsity
(university), copter (helicopter) , thuse (enthuse) etc. Sometimes the
middle of the word is clipped, e.g. mart (market), fanzine (fan magazine)
maths (mathematics). Such abbreviations are called syncope. Sometimes we
have a combination of apocope with apheresis,when the beginning and the end
of the word are clipped, e.g. tec (detective), van (avanguard) etc.
Sometimes shortening influences the spelling of the word, e.g. «c» can
be substituted by «k» before «e» to preserve pronunciation, e.g. mike
(microphone), Coke (coca-cola) etc. The same rule is observed in the
following cases: fax( facsimile), teck (technical college), trank
(tranquilizer) etc. The final consonants in the shortened forms are
substituded by letters characteristic of native English words.
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