English lexicology chapter 4 1 Chapter 4 Word Formation (1) 4.1 Morphemes 4.2 Allomorphs 4.3 Types...

English lexicology chapter 4 1

Chapter 4 Word Formation (1)

4.1 Morphemes 4.2 Allomorphs 4.3 Types of morphemes 4.4 Stem, base and root 4.5 Three major processes of word formation – compounding

– derivation

– conversion


4.1 Morphemes The minimal meaningful units (Zhang, 1997, p. 38) The smallest functioning unit in the composition of

words (Crystal, 1985, as cited in Zhang, 1997, p. 38 ). The smallest meaningful unit in a language. It cannot

be divided without altering or destroying its meaning. E.g. the English word kind is a morpheme. If the d is removed, it changes to kin, which has a different meaning. Some words consist of one morpheme, others of more than one (Richards, Platt, & Platt, 2000, p.296).


4.1 Morphemes

One morpheme: nation Two morphemes: nation+al Three morphemes: nation+al+ize Four morphemes: de+nation+al+ize More than four morphemes:

de+nation+al+iz+ation


Compared with words

1. a word can always stand alone, but a morpheme can’t.

2. a word can be further divided, but a morpheme can’t

e.g. meaningful = mean+ing+ful


4.2 Allomorphs MorphMorph: : Morphemes are abstract units, which are re

alized in speech by discrete units known as morphs. They are actual spoken, minimal carriers of meaning.

Monomorphemic words: words standing alone and functioning freely in a sentence. Most morphemes are realized by single morphs like bird, tree, green, sad, want, desire…


4.2 Allomorphs Some morphemes are realized by more than one

morph according to their position in a word. Such alternative morphs are known as allomorphs.

any of the different forms of a morpheme (Richards, Platt, & Platt, 2000, p.16). 同一词素的不同形式 / 词素变体 .

e.g. cats, dogs, watches, classes, shapes, worked, warmed, wanted, incorrect, impossible, illegal, irregular


4.3 Types of Morphemes

Morpheme

1.1Free (Content) Morpheme

1.2Bound (Grammatical) Morpheme

Free Root

2.1Bound Root 2.2Affix

3.1Inflectional Affix

3.2Derivational Affix

Prefix

Suffix


4.3.1 Free (Content) Morpheme

One that can be uttered alone with meaning. It can exist on its own without a bound morpheme.

E.g. word, cat, work, hope, care, etc Free morpheme is a word in traditional sense. e.g. work, worker, disagreeable Also called free form. It’s a linguistic form

(morpheme) which can be used on its own (Richards, Platt, & Platt, 2000, p.51).

e.g. Betty, horse, write, drive…


4.3.2 Bound (Grammatical) Morpheme

It’s a morpheme that cannot occur as separate words, but should be bound to at least one other morphemes, either free or bound, to form words.

e.g. “un-” and “-ly” in “unfortunately”, and “-es

(plural morpheme) in “potatoes”


4.3.3 Root & Affix

RootRoot: a morpheme which is the basic part of a word and carries the main component of meaning in a word and provides the basis from which a word is derived by adding affixes or inflectional endings or by phonetic change. It cannot be further analyzed without total loss of identity.

e.g. work – works, working, worked, workable,


Free root & bound root

Root can be further divided into free root and bound root. A free root (free morpheme) can stand alone as a word, while a bound root (bound morpheme) can not, for example, “sui- (self) ” and “-cide(kill)” in “suicide” are two bound roots, each of which has to combine with other morphemes to make words.

E.g. workbook, bookish, workshop, shopping bio = life: biology, biography, biocide duce/duct = lead; take: introduce, induce, conduct


4.3.3 Root & Affix Affix is a type of bound morpheme that is attached t

o words or word elements to modify meaning or function. It includes inflectional affixes (grammatical M) and derivational affixes (lexical M). An inflectional affix is attached to the end of word

s to indicate grammatical relationships, such as plurality, tense, and the comparative or superlative degree. (Modern English is an analytic language and leaves us only a few inflectional affixes.)

E.g. “-es” in “teaches”, “-s” in “words”.


8 inflectional affixes in English

1. Third Person Singular: "She plays the piano" 2. Past Tense: "She played the piano" 3. Progressive: "She is playing the piano now" 4. Past participle: "She has/had eaten the cookies" 5. Plural: "She has two pianos" 6. Possessive: "Mary's piano needs to be repaired" 7. Comparative: "Mary runs faster than Jack" 8. Superlative: "Mary is the fastest of all"


A derivational affix is added to other morphemes to create new words. It includes prefixes and suffixes.

E.g. “dis-”in “discover”, “-ful” in “useful”.

rewrite Many derivational affixes have a specific lexical mean

ing, and quite a number of them have more than one meaning.

e. g. –ism: doctrine or point of view (socialism)

dis-: not or the converse of (dishonest, disloyal, disorder

de – p. 26


4.4 Stem, base and root

Stem (base form)Stem (base form): The part of a word to which an inflectional affix is or can be added.

e.g. works --- work

undesirables– undesirable

Root vs stem: e. g. workers

taller

worked


Stem

The stem of a word may be: A simple stem consisting of only one morpheme

(root). E.g. work A root plus a derivational affix. “work + er” =

“worker” Two or more roots. E.g. work + shop = workshop

Thus we can have work+s, worker +s, or workshop+s


Base

Some linguists consider it to be equivalent to the term root.

e.g. truth– truthful, truthfulness, truthfully, untruth, untruthful, untruthfulness, untruthfully

Other linguists maintain that the base is any part of a word when an affix is added to a root or stem.

e.g. unhappy – happy, unhappiness-- unhappy


root, stem vs base Root is not further analyzable. e.g. undoubtedly Stem mainly deals with inflectional affixation. e. g. works, workers, workshops Base is any form to which affixes of any kind can

be added. So it is further analyzable. e.g. desire (root, stem, base) desirable adj. (base) --- undesirable adj. undesirable n. (base, stem) --- undesirablesAnalyze: impersonality


De nation al ize d


Nation (root, base)

National (base)

Nationalize (base, stem) nationalized

Denationalize (stem, base)

Denationalized


4.5 Three major processes of word formation

3.5.1 Compounding/composition 27% ( 张韵菲， 2005) 28%-30% （张维友， 1997 ）

3.5.2 Derivation /affixation 17.5% ( 张韵菲， 2005) 30%-40% （张维友， 1997 ）

3.5.3 Conversion 10.5% ( 张韵菲， 2005) 26% （张维友， 1997 ）


4.5.1 Compounding Compounding or composition is a word-formation

process consisting of joining two or more bases to form a new unit, a compound word (Zhang, 2005, p.35).

Compounding is a combination of two or more words which functions as a single word. Compound words are written either as a single word (e.g. headache), as hyphenated words (e.g. self-government), or as two words (e.g. police station) (Richards, Platt, & Platt, 2000, p.89).


General Features of Compounding

1. Phonetic features In compounds, the word stress occurs on the first el

ement. In free phrases, on the second element (a ‘dark horse --- a dark ‘horse) ； or a main stress on the first element and a secondar

y stress on the second element (‘black ,list), whereas a secondary stress on the first element and the main stress on the second element (a ,blue ‘pencil)

But stress does not always follow the rules for compounds. E.g. minced ‘meat, inverted ‘comma always have phrase stress. ‘Short ‘sighted (two leveled stress)


2. Semantic features Every compound should express a single idea,

which may be related to but cannot always be inferred from the meaning of its component parts.

e.g. backdoor, workday, sunset, homemade blackmail, hotdog, blueblood, dog days


3. Grammatical features A compound tends to play a single grammati

cal role in a sentence / function as a separate lexical unit, for example, a verb, a noun, or an adjective. (bad-mouth used as a verb: He bad-mouthed me.)

In adjective-noun compounds, the adjective element cannot take inflectional suffixes. (red tape ( 官样文章 ) – reddest tape （最红的带子 )


Classification of compounds

According to part of speech of compounds Noun compounds Adjective compounds Verb compounds


Noun compounds

1. Subject and verb sunrise (the sun rises). N.+v earthquake, sound change, catcall, nightfall crybaby (the baby likes to cry/cries) v.+n. glowworm, playboy, watchdog, turntable, hangman

dancing girl (the girl dances) -ing+n. cleaning woman, washing machine, investigating

committee,


2. Verb and object

pickpocket (to pick pockets) v.+n.

birth control (to control birth) n.+v.

housekeeping (to keep house) n.+-ing

3. Verb and adverbial

drinking water ( water for drinking) –ing+n.

diving board, freezing point, writing desk,

walking stick, handwriting


4. Subject and object steamboat (steam powers the boat) n.+n. gaslight, windmill, cable car, hydrogen bomb, air-brake, silkworm, tear gas 5. Restrictive relation: the first element restricts the

meaning of the second e.g. raindrop (a drop of rain) n. +n. moonwalk, evening school, tablecloth 6. Appositive relation: the first element is in apposition

to the second one, n.+n. e.g. peasant girl (the girl is a peasant) pine tree,


Adjective compounds

1. Subject and verb: the verb is in the form of past participle n + -ed.

e.g. thunder-struck (houses), suntanned (skin), weather –beaten (rocks)

2. Verb and object: the verb is in the form of present participle, n.+-ing.

E.g fault-finding, peaceloving 3. Verb and adverbial: the verb is in the form of pres

ent participle or past participle, n/adv. +-ed/-ing e.g. ocean-going, well-behaved, new-laid (eggs)


4. Noun and adjective:

(1) the noun denoting the respect, n.+adj. E.g. tax-free, seasick, watertight, war-weary, dust-proof

(2) the noun denoting the thing with which the adj. is compared, n.+adj. E.g. ocean green, crystal clear, knee-deep, shoulder high, rock-hard, jet-black

5. Coordinating relationship: the two adj.s are in a coordinating relationship, adj.+adj.

E.g. bittersweet (sweet but bitter), Anglo-French relations (relation between the English and the French), deaf-mute, Sino-Italian, socio-economic


5. phrases –

phrasal verbs: made-up stories

adverbial phrases: a round-the-clock watch

a cards-on-the-table conference

attributive clause: a machine-independent tool


Verb compounds Verb compounds are compounds formed by ba

ck-formation and conversion

e.g. house-keep housekeeper, housekeeping

baby-sit babysitting, babysitter

windowshop windowshopping

to nickname nickname n.

to outline outline n.


4.5.2 Derivation

Derivation is also called affixation. It is the formation of new words by adding affixes to other words or morphemes (Richards, Platt, & Platt, 2000, p.129).

Derivation can be defined as a process of forming new words by the addition of a word element, such as a prefix, suffix or combining form, to an already existing word (SBDONE, 1980, as cited in Zhang, Y. 2005, pp. 42-43).


PrefixationPrefixation is the formation of new words by adding a prefix

or combining form to the base. Prefixes modify the lexical meaning of the base. They do not generally change the word-class of the base. However, it has been found that there are quite a number of prefixes in current English which do convert words to a different word word-class.

e.g. be- adj →v. becalm, belittle de- n. →v. deform, debug en- n. →v. enslave, endanger, encourage un- n. →v. unleash, unearth anti- n. →adj. anti-war, anti-aircraft inter- n. →adj. interstate, inter-laboratory, post- n. →adj. post-war, postliberation pre- n. →adj. precalculus, preplant, prewar, preschool


Classification of prefixes

Prefixes can be classified on a semantic basis into 9 groups.

1. Negative prefixes (apolitical, disobey, injustice (illegal, irresistible, immature), non-smoker, unwilling)

2. Reversative/privative prefixes ( 逆反前缀 ) (decentralize, disunite, unhorse)


3. Pejorative prefixes （贬义前缀） (maltreat, mistrust, pseudo-friend)

4. Prefixes of degree or size (archbishop, extra-strong, hyperactive, macrocosm, microcomputer, miniskirt, outlive, overweight, subcontinent, subheading, superfreeze, surtax, ultra-conservative, underdeveloped, underestimate, overestimate)


5. Prefixes of orientation and attitude (anti-nuclear, contra-flow, counterattack, pro-democracy)

6. locative prefixes (extramarital, extracurricular, forehead, internet, intra-party, trans-world, subconscious)

7. Prefixes of time and order (ex-wife, foretell, postwar, pre-prepare, reconsider)


8. number (bicycle, multimedia, polysyllable, semi-naked, hemisphere, tricycle, uniform, monorail, monolog, dialog, triangle, quadruple, centimeter, kilogram, ambidextrous)

9. miscellaneous (autobiography, neo-Nazi, pan-European, vice-chairman, semivowel , telecommunication)


suffixation

Suffixation is the formation of a new word by adding a suffix or a combining form to the base and usually changing the word-class of the base,

e.g. boy → boyish Classification of suffixes suffixes can be classified not only according to

the word-class of the word they form, but also according to the kind of base to which they are typically added.


Classification of suffixes

Noun suffixes v. → n. (Deverbal noun suffixes)

1. To be people (assist – assistant, employ –employee, respond – respondent, teach –teacher, visit – visitor)

2. To be abstract nouns of action, result, process, state (marry – marriage, coinage, refuse – refusal, accept – acceptance, compose – composition, pronounce – pronunciation, decide – decision, operate – operation, exist – existence, build – building, state – statement.)


n. → n. suffixes (Denominal noun suffixes)1. To be concrete nouns (profit – profiteer, teenage – tee

nager , host –hostess, cigar –cigarette, book –booklet )2. To be abstract nouns (mileage, baggage, kingdom, off

icialdom, slavery, machinery, adulthood, farming, terror – terrorism, friend – friendship, membership, handful, plateful)

Adj. → n. Deadjective noun suffixes popularity, diversity, largeness, selfishness, possibility, h

onesty, falsehood, accuracy, importance Both nouns and adjectives

Chinese, republican, American, artist, specialist


Verb (-forming) suffixes only a few in English, among which –ize is very prod

uctive, added to n. or adj. bases to form transitive verbs.

e.g. origin – originate, hyphenate, formula – formulate, short –shorten, black – blacken, simple – simplify, solid – solidify, symbol – symbolize, modern – modernize, popular – popularize


Adjective suffixes n. → adj. (Denominal adj. suffixes)

(wooded, successful, childish, priceless, dreamlike, friendly, smoky, cultural, essential, periodical, snowy picturesque, economic, vigorous, rebellious, courteous)

classic example, classical music comic opera, comical looking historic city, historical book economic crisis, economical stove electric light, electrical engineer


v. → adj. (Deverbal adj. suffixes ) washable, permissible, active, talkative, conclusive,

tiresome, troublesome

Adverb (-forming) suffixes clearly, accidentally, partly, namely, homeward, down

wards, eastward, clockwise,


4.5.3 Conversion ConversionConversion means the formation of new words by

converting words of one class to another class. E.g. visit v. – pay a visit n. x-ray n. – to x-ray v. empty adj. – empty the bottle v. poor adj. – the poor n. Words produced by conversion are primarily nouns,

adjectives and verbs. And the most productive are taking place between noun and verb.

e.g. pp.58- 62


Other names Functional shift: This is a method of turning words of

one part of speech to those of a different part of speech. The words do not change in morphological structure. They are new only in a grammatical sense.

e.g. He was knocked out in the first round. Any round plate will do. Some drivers round corners too rapidly. The sound goes round and round. He lives round the corner. Zero-derivation: no addition of an affix when

conversion. E.g. single, simple


Conversion to verbs Noun to verb: one of the most productive.

◎◎a tendency of preponderance of nouns over verbs, and it’s not enough to express the ideas.

◎◎only a few verb-forming affixes in English. 1. to put in or on N: the nouns are usually

locative Ns denoting a place, a container or a specified location. to pocket the money (can, bottle, corner, cage)

2. to give N or to provide with N: to shelter the refugees (coat, label, wax, grease, plaster, oil)


3. to remove N from: to skin the lamb (dust, peel, weed, juice, core, gut)

4. to do… with N: to knife the steak (brake, screw, glue, nail, x-ray, finger, elbow, pump)

5. to be or act as N: to nurse the baby (mother, boss, referee, pilot, captain, tutor, parrot, monkey, shadow)

6. to make or change into N: to orphan the boy ( cash, cripple, fool, widow, group )

7. to send or go by N: to mail the letter (ski, bicycle/helicopter/boat/motor)

8. To spend the period of time denoted by N.: We summered in Qingdao. (holiday, vocation, honeymoon, weekend)


Adjective to verb They can be used either transitively to mean “to

make/cause … adjective (to empty the bottle)” or intransitively “to become adjective (the bottle began to empty)”.

More words: yellow, wet, empty, dim, dirty, warm, cool, slow, clear, dry, narrow.

Transitive verbs: still, forward, free, bare, blind; Intransitive verbs: sour, slim, pale,idle


Conversion to nouns Verb to noun

1. State of mind or sensation (doubt, desire, want, surprise, love, taste)

2. Event or activity (search); Usually they can be used with have, take,

make, give, and preceded by the indefinite article to form phrases to replace the verb or denote a brief action.

E. g. give a cry Such expressions are informal and colloquial. e.g. p. 61


3. Object or Result of the action (e.g. This little restaurant is quite a find. catch, answer, import, cough)

4. Agent /Doer of the action (He is a great bore. help, spy, coach, rebel);

5. Tool or instrument to do the action with (the cloth is a good cover for the table. wrap, cure, polish);

6. Place of the action ( This is the divide between the two rivers. walk, turn, rise, retreat, dump).


phrasal verbs into nouns: the commonest of recent conversions.

E.g. breakdown, dropout, hand-out, hand-over, stand-alone, stand-in, stand-by, teach-in, shut-down, walk-on, walk-in, walk-out, walk-through, walk-up, take-in, take-off, take-over, take-up, carry-over, carry-on.


Adjective to noun Words partially converted: the poor (a group of

the kind); the deceased (a single person) Words fully converted: 1. Common adjectives (a

white, a native) 2. Participles and others (a given, newly-weds)

Miscellaneous conversion: a with, a without, an also-ran, a never-was, a must, isms, ifs, buts, ups and downs, ins and outs, pros and cons.


Date post:	28-Dec-2015
Category:	Documents
Upload:	miles-horace-osborne
View:	231 times
Download:	0 times

English lexicology chapter 4 1 Chapter 4 Word Formation (1) 4.1 Morphemes 4.2 Allomorphs 4.3 Types...

Documents