Lexicology of the English Language

Lexicology of the English Language

МOCКОВСКИЙ ПЕДАГОГИЧЕСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ

Курс лекций и планы семинарских занятий

по лексикологии английского языка

(для студентов третьего курса)

Cocтавитель : Э. М. Дубенец, к.ф.н., доц.

This course of lexicology which forms a part of the

curriculum for the English sections of linguistic departments of

teacher-training colleges is intended for students of the third

year of the day department. It includes 15 lectures and 12

seminars which cover the main themes of Modern English

lexicology: wordbuilding, semantic changes, phraseology,

borrowings, semasiology, neology, lexicography. The material for

seminars includes topics to be discussed, test questions and

lexical units to be analized. Lexical units for the analysis

were chosen mainly among neologisms. There is also a brief list

of recommended literature.

The aim of the course is to teach students to be word-conscious, to be

able to guess the meaning of words they come across from the meanings of

morphemes, to be able to recognize the origin of this or that lexical unit.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Language units

Wordbuilding

Affixation

Compound words

Conversion

Substantivization

«Stone wall» combinations

Abbreviations

Seconadary ways of wordbuilding

Semantic changes

Specialization

Generalization

Metaphor and metonymy

Phraseology

Ways of forming phraseological units

Semantic classification of phraseological units

Structural classification of phraseological units

Syntactical classification of phraseological units

Borrowings

Classification of borrowings according to the borrowed

aspect

Classification of borrowings according to the degree of

assimilation

Classification of borrowings according to the language

from which they were borrowed.

Romanic borrowings/ Latin, French, Italian, Spanish/.

Germanic borrowings /Scandinavian, German, Holland/ .

Russian borrowings.

Etymological doublets.

Semaciology.

Word - meaning.

Lexical meaning - notion.

Polysemy.

Homonyms.

Synonyms .

Antonyms .

Local varieties of English.

British and American English.

Archaisms.

Neologisms.

Lexicography.

LEXICOLOGY

The term «lexicology» is of Greek origin / from «lexis» - «word» and

«logos» - «science»/ . Lexicology is the part of linguistics which deals

with the vocabulary and characteristic features of words and word-groups.

The term «vocabulary» is used to denote the system of words and word-

groups that the language possesses.

The term «word» denotes the main lexical unit of a language resulting

from the association of a group of sounds with a meaning. This unit is used

in grammatical functions characteristic of it. It is the smallest unit of a

language which can stand alone as a complete utterance.

The term «word-group» denotes a group of words which exists in the

language as a ready-made unit, has the unity of meaning, the unity of

syntactical function, e.g. the word-group «as loose as a goose» means

«clumsy» and is used in a sentence as a predicative / He is as loose as a

goose/.

Lexicology can study the development of the vocabulary, the origin of

words and word-groups, their semantic relations and the development of

their sound form and meaning. In this case it is called historical

lexicology.

Another branch of lexicology is called descriptive and studies the

vocabulary at a definite stage of its development.

LANGUAGE UNITS

The main unit of the lexical system of a language resulting from the

association of a group of sounds with a meaning is a word. This unit is

used in grammatical functions characteristic of it. It is the smallest

language unit which can stand alone as a complete utterance.

A word, however, can be divided into smaller sense units - morphemes. The

morpheme is the smallest meaningful language unit. The morpheme consists of

a class of variants, allomorphs, which are either phonologically or

morphologically conditioned, e.g. please, pleasant, pleasure.

Morphemes are divided into two large groups: lexical morphemes and

grammatical (functional) morphemes. Both lexical and grammatical morphemes

can be free and bound. Free lexical morphemes are roots of words which

express the lexical meaning of the word, they coincide with the stem of

simple words. Free grammatical morphemes are function words: articles,

conjunctions and prepositions ( the, with, and).

Bound lexical morphemes are affixes: prefixes (dis-), suffixes (-ish) and

also blocked (unique) root morphemes (e.g. Fri-day, cran-berry). Bound

grammatical morphemes are inflexions (endings), e.g. -s for the Plural of

nouns, -ed for the Past Indefinite of regular verbs, -ing for the Present

Participle, -er for the Comparative degree of adjectives.

In the second half of the twentieth century the English wordbuilding

system was enriched by creating so called splinters which scientists

include in the affixation stock of the Modern English wordbuilding system.

Splinters are the result of clipping the end or the beginning of a word

and producing a number of new words on the analogy with the primary word-

group. For example, there are many words formed with the help of the

splinter mini- (apocopy produced by clipping the word «miniature»), such as

«miniplane», «minijet», «minicycle», «minicar», «miniradio» and many

others. All of these words denote obects of smaller than normal dimensions.

On the analogy with «mini-» there appeared the splinter «maxi»- (apocopy

produced by clipping the word «maximum»), such words as «maxi-series»,

«maxi-sculpture», «maxi-taxi» and many others appeared in the language.

When European economic community was organized quite a number of

neologisms with the splinter Euro- (apocopy produced by clipping the word

«European») were coined, such as: «Euratom» «Eurocard», «Euromarket»,

«Europlug», «Eurotunnel» and many others. These splinters are treated

sometimes as prefixes in Modern English.

There are also splinters which are formed by means of apheresis, that is

clipping the beginning of a word. The origin of such splinters can be

variable, e.g. the splinter «burger» appeared in English as the result of

clipping the German borrowing «Hamburger» where the morphological structure

was the stem «Hamburg» and the suffix -er. However in English the

beginning of the word «Hamburger» was associated with the English word

«ham», and the end of the word «burger» got the meaning «a bun cut into

two parts». On the analogy with the word «hamburger» quite a number of new

words were coined, such as: «baconburger», «beefburger», «cheeseburger»,

«fishburger» etc.

The splinter «cade» developed by clipping the beginning of the word

«cavalcade» which is of Latin origin. In Latin the verb with the meaning

«to ride a horse» is «cabalicare» and by means of the inflexion -ata the

corresponding Participle is formed. So the element «cade» is a combination

of the final letter of the stem and the inflexion. The splinter «cade»

serves to form nouns with the meaning «connected with the procession of

vehicles denoted by the first component», e.g. «aircade» - «a group of

airplanes accompanying the plane of a VIP» , «autocade» - «a group of

automobiles escorting the automobile of a VIP», «musicade» - «an orchestra

participating in a procession».

In the seventieths of the twentieth century there was a political scandal

in the hotel «Watergate» where the Democratic Party of the USA had its pre-

election headquarters. Republicans managed to install bugs there and when

they were discovered there was a scandal and the ruling American government

had to resign. The name «Watergate» acquired the meaning «a political

scandal», «corruption». On the analogy with this word quite a number of

other words were formed by using the splinter «gate» (apheresis of the

word «Watergate»), such as: «Irangate», »Westlandgate», »shuttlegate»,

»milliongate» etc. The splinter «gate» is added mainly to Proper names:

names of people with whom the scandal is connected or a geographical name

denoting the place where the scandal occurred.

The splinter «mobile» was formed by clipping the beginning of the word

«automobile» and is used to denote special types of automobiles, such as:

«artmobile», «bookmobile», «snowmobile», «tourmobile» etc.

The splinter «napper» was formed by clipping the beginning of the word

«kidnapper» and is used to denote different types of crimesters, such as :

«busnapper», «babynapper», «dognapper» etc. From such nouns the

corresponding verbs are formed by means of backformation, e.g. «to busnap»,

«to babynap», «to dognap».

The splinter «omat» was formed by clipping the beginning of the word

«automat» (a cafe in which meals are provided in slot-machines). The

meaning «self-service» is used in such words as «laundromat», «cashomat»

etc.

Another splinter «eteria» with the meaning «self-service» was formed by

clipping the beginning of the word «cafeteria». By means of the splinter

«eteria» the following words were formed: «groceteria», «booketeria»,

«booteteria» and many others.

The splinter «quake» is used to form new words with the meaning of

«shaking», «agitation». This splinter was formed by clipping the

beginning of the word «earthquake». Ther following words were formed with

the help of this splinter: «Marsquake», «Moonquake», «youthquake» etc.

The splinter «rama(ama)» is a clipping of the word «panorama» of Greek

origin where «pan» means «all» and «horama» means «view». In Modern

English the meaning «view» was lost and the splinter «rama» is used in

advertisements to denote objects of supreme quality, e.g. «autorama» means

«exhibition-sale of expensive cars», «trouserama» means «sale of trousers

of supreme quality» etc.

The splinter «scape» is a clipping of the word «landscape» and it is

used to form words denoting different types of landscapes, such as:

«moonscape», «streetscape», «townscape», «seascape» etc.

Another case of splinters is «tel» which is the result of clipping the

beginning of the word «hotel». It serves to form words denoting different

types of hotels, such as: «motel» (motor-car hotel), «boatel» (boat hotel),

«floatel» (a hotel on water, floating), «airtel» (airport hotel) etc.

The splinter «theque» is the result of clipping the beginning of the word

«apotheque» of Greek origin which means in Greek «a store house». In

Russian words: «библиотека», «картотека», «фильмотека» the element

«тека» corresponding to the English «theque» preserves the meaning of

storing something which is expressed by the first component of the word. In

English the splinter «theque» is used to denote a place for dancing, such

as: «discotheque», «jazzotheque».

The splinter «thon» is the result of clipping the beginning of the word

«marathon». «Marathon» primarily was the name of a battle-field in Greece,

forty miles from Athens, where there was a battle between the Greek and

the Persian. When the Greek won a victory a Greek runner was sent to Athens

to tell people about the victory. Later on the word «Marathon» was used

to denote long-distance competitions in running. The splinter

«thon(athon)» denotes «something continuing for a long time», «competition

in endurance» e.g. «dancathon», «telethon», «speakathon», «readathon»,

«walkathon», «moviethon», «swimathon», «talkathon», «swearthon» etc.

Splinters can be the result of clipping adjectives or substantivized

adjectives. The splinter «aholic» (holic) was formed by clipping the

beginning of the word «alcoholic» of Arabian origin where «al» denoted

«the», «koh’l» - «powder for staining lids». The splinter «(a)holic»

means «infatuated by the object expressed by the stem of the word» , e.g.

«bookaholic», «computerholic», «coffeeholic», «cheesaholic», «workaholic»

and many others.

The splinter «genic» formed by clipping the beginning of the word

«photogenic» denotes the notion «suitable for something denoted by the

stem», e.g. «allergenic», «cardiogenic», «mediagenic», «telegenic» etc.

As far as verbs are concerned it is not typical of them to be clipped

that is why there is only one splinter to be used for forming new verbs in

this way. It is the splinter «cast» formed by clipping the beginning of

the verb «broadcast». This splinter was used to form the verbs

«telecast» and «abroadcast».

Splinters can be called pseudomorphemes because they are neither roots

nor affixes, they are more or less artificial. In English there are words

which consist of two splinters, e.g. «telethon», therefore it is more

logical to call words with splinters in their structure «compound-

shortened words consisting of two clippings of words».

Splinters have only one function in English: they serve to change the

lexical meaning of the same part of speech, whereas prefixes and suffixes

can also change the part-of-speech meaning , e.g. the prefix «en-» and

its allomorph «em» can form verbs from noun and adjective stems («embody»,

«enable», «endanger»), «be-» can form verbs from noun and adjective stems

(«becloud», «benumb»), «post-» and «pre-» can form adjectives from noun

stems («pre-election campaign», «post-war events»). The main function of

suffixes is to form one part of speech from another part of speech, e.g. «-

er», «-ing», «-ment» form nouns from verbal stems («teacher», «dancing»,

«movement»), «-ness», «-ity» are used to form nouns from adjective stems

(«clannishnes», «marginality»).

According to the nature and the number of morphemes constituting a word

there are different structural types of words in English: simple,

derived, compound, compound-derived.

Simple words consist of one root morpheme and an inflexion (in many cases

the inflexion is zero), e.g. «seldom», «chairs», «longer», «asked».

Derived words consist of one root morpheme, one or several affixes and an

inlexion, e.g. «deristricted», «unemployed».

Compound words consist of two or more root morphemes and an inflexion,

e.g. «baby-moons», «wait-and-see (policy)».

Compound-derived words consist of two or more root morphemes, one or more

affixes and an inflexion, e.g. «middle-of-the-roaders», «job-hopper».

When speaking about the structure of words stems also should be

mentioned. The stem is the part of the word which remains unchanged

throughout the paradigm of the word, e.g. the stem «hop» can be found in

the words: «hop», «hops», «hopped», «hopping». The stem «hippie» can be

found in the words: «hippie», «hippies», «hippie’s», «hippies’». The stem

«job-hop» can be found in the words : «job-hop», «job-hops», «job-hopped»,

«job-hopping».

So stems, the same as words, can be simple, derived, compound and

compound-derived. Stems have not only the lexical meaning but also

grammatical (part-of-speech) meaning, they can be noun stems («girl» in the

adjective «girlish»), adjective stems («girlish» in the noun

«girlishness»), verb stems («expell» in the noun «expellee») etc. They

differ from words by the absence of inflexions in their structure, they

can be used only in the structure of words.

Sometimes it is rather difficult to distinguish between simple and

derived words, especially in the cases of phonetic borrowings from other

languages and of native words with blocked (unique) root morphemes, e.g.

«perestroika», «cranberry», «absence» etc.

As far as words with splinters are concerned it is difficult to

distinguish between derived words and compound-shortened words. If a

splinter is treated as an affix (or a semi-affix) the word can be called

derived , e.g.-, «telescreen», «maxi-taxi» , «shuttlegate», «cheeseburger».

But if the splinter is treated as a lexical shortening of one of the stems

, the word can be called compound-shortened word formed from a word

combination where one of the components was shortened, e.g. «busnapper»

was formed from « bus kidnapper», «minijet» from «miniature jet».

In the English language of the second half of the twentieth century there

developed so called block compounds, that is compound words which have a

uniting stress but a split spelling, such as «chat show», «pinguin suit»

etc. Such compound words can be easily mixed up with word-groups of the

type «stone wall», so called nominative binomials. Such linguistic units

serve to denote a notion which is more specific than the notion expressed

by the second component and consists of two nouns, the first of which is an

attribute to the second one. If we compare a nominative binomial with a

compound noun with the structure N+N we shall see that a nominative

binomial has no unity of stress. The change of the order of its components

will change its lexical meaning, e.g. «vid kid» is «a kid who is a video

fan» while «kid vid» means «a video-film for kids» or else «lamp oil»

means «oil for lamps» and «oil lamp» means «a lamp which uses oil for

burning».

Among language units we can also point out word combinations of

different structural types of idiomatic and non-idiomatic character, such

as «the first fiddle», «old salt» and «round table», «high road». There

are also sentences which are studied by grammarians.

Thus, we can draw the conclusion that in Modern English the following

language units can be mentioned: morphemes, splinters, words, nominative

binomials, non-idiomatic and idiomatic word-combinations, sentences.

WORDBUILDING

Word-building is one of the main ways of enriching vocabulary. There are

four main ways of word-building in modern English: affixation,

composition, conversion, abbreviation. There are also secondary ways of

word-building: sound interchange, stress interchange, sound imitation,

blends, back formation.

AFFIXATION

Affixation is one of the most productive ways of word-building throughout

the history of English. It consists in adding an affix to the stem of a

definite part of speech. Affixation is divided into suffixation and

prefixation.

Suffixation.

The main function of suffixes in Modern English is to form one part of

speech from another, the secondary function is to change the lexical

meaning of the same part of speech. ( e.g. «educate» is a verb, «educatee»

is a noun, and « music» is a noun, «musicdom» is also a noun) .

There are different classifications of suffixes :

1. Part-of-speech classification. Suffixes which can form different

parts of speech are given here :

a) noun-forming suffixes, such as : -er (criticizer), -dom (officialdom),

-ism (ageism),

b) adjective-forming suffixes, such as : -able (breathable), less

(symptomless), -ous (prestigious),

c) verb-forming suffixes, such as -ize (computerize) , -ify (micrify),

d) adverb-forming suffixes , such as : -ly (singly), -ward (tableward),

e) numeral-forming suffixes, such as -teen (sixteen), -ty (seventy).

2. Semantic classification . Suffixes changing the lexical meaning of

the stem can be subdivided into groups, e.g. noun-forming suffixes can

denote:

a) the agent of the action, e.g. -er (experimenter), -ist (taxist), -ent

(student),

b) nationality, e.g. -ian (Russian), -ese (Japanese), -ish (English),

c) collectivity, e.g. -dom (moviedom), -ry (peasantry, -ship

(readership), -ati ( literati),

d) diminutiveness, e.g. -ie (horsie), -let (booklet), -ling (gooseling),

-ette (kitchenette),

e) quality, e.g. -ness (copelessness), -ity (answerability).

3. Lexico-grammatical character of the stem. Suffixes which can be added

to certain groups of stems are subdivided into:

a) suffixes added to verbal stems, such as : -er (commuter), -ing

(suffering), - able (flyable), -ment (involvement), -ation

(computerization),

b) suffixes added to noun stems, such as : -less (smogless), ful

(roomful), -ism (adventurism), -ster (pollster), -nik (filmnik), -ish

(childish),

c) suffixes added to adjective stems, such as : -en (weaken), -ly

(pinkly), -ish (longish), -ness (clannishness).

4. Origin of suffixes. Here we can point out the following groups:

a) native (Germanic), such as -er,-ful, -less, -ly.

b) Romanic, such as : -tion, -ment, -able, -eer.

c) Greek, such as : -ist, -ism, -ize.

d) Russian, such as -nik.

5. Productivity. Here we can point out the following groups:

a) productive, such as : -er, -ize, --ly, -ness.

b) semi-productive, such as : -eer, -ette, -ward.

c) non-productive , such as : -ard (drunkard), -th (length).

Suffixes can be polysemantic, such as : -er can form nouns with the

following meanings : agent,doer of the action expressed by the stem

(speaker), profession, occupation (teacher), a device, a tool

(transmitter). While speaking about suffixes we should also mention

compound suffixes which are added to the stem at the same time, such as

-ably, -ibly, (terribly, reasonably), -ation (adaptation from adapt).

There are also disputable cases whether we have a suffix or a root

morpheme in the structure of a word, in such cases we call such morphemes

semi-suffixes, and words with such suffixes can be classified either as

derived words or as compound words, e.g. -gate (Irangate), -burger

(cheeseburger), -aholic (workaholic) etc.

Prefixation

Prefixation is the formation of words by means of adding a prefix to the

stem. In English it is characteristic for forming verbs. Prefixes are more

independent than suffixes. Prefixes can be classified according to the

nature of words in which they are used : prefixes used in notional words

and prefixes used in functional words. Prefixes used in notional words are

proper prefixes which are bound morphemes, e.g. un- (unhappy). Prefixes

used in functional words are semi-bound morphemes because they are met in

the language as words, e.g. over- (overhead) ( cf over the table ).

The main function of prefixes in English is to change the lexical meaning

of the same part of speech. But the recent research showed that about

twenty-five prefixes in Modern English form one part of speech from another

(bebutton, interfamily, postcollege etc).

Prefixes can be classified according to different principles :

1. Semantic classification :

a) prefixes of negative meaning, such as : in- (invaluable), non-

(nonformals), un- (unfree) etc,

b) prefixes denoting repetition or reversal actions, such as: de-

(decolonize), re- (revegetation), dis- (disconnect),

c) prefixes denoting time, space, degree relations, such as : inter-

(interplanetary) , hyper- (hypertension), ex- (ex-student), pre- (pre-

election), over- (overdrugging) etc.

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

Страницы: 1, 2, 3, 4