Chapter Three Lexicon

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Chapter Three Lexicon
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1. What is word?

• A unit of expression that has universal intuitive
  recognition by native speakers, whether it is
  expressed in spoken or written form. A vague
  definition.
• Three senses are involved in defining word,
  none of which is satisfactory to cope with all
  the situations.

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1.1 Three senses of word

• A physical unit a cluster of sound segments or
  letters between two pauses or blanks, eg
• Phonological
• Orthographic It is wonderful.
• Three words are recognized.

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• However, in casual speech or writing, it often
  becomes
• Phonological
• Orthographic Its wonderful.
• Are they two words or three?

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• A set of forms walk, walks, walking, walked
• How many words are there?
• I usually have dinner at 6 but yesterday I had it
  at seven.
• How many times did the word have occur?

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A lexical item or a lexeme

• A lexical item is an entry in a dictionary. A
  lexeme WRITE includes all of its grammatical
  forms
• write, writes, writing, wrote, written

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• A grammatical unit
• sentence
• clause
• phrase
• word
• morpheme
• Problem blackboard

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1.2 Identification of words

• Stability stable linguistic units.
• chairman, but not manchair
• Relative uninterruptibility though we recognize
  three components in the word disappointment, we
  cannot pause and add another component in
  between, as in disinterestappointment.
• But we can add another word between words Paul,
  (John) and Mary ...

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• A minimum free form the smallest unit that can
  constitute a complete utterance by itself, eg
• Is Jane coming tonight?
• Possibly.
• Hi.
• Wonderful.

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1.3 Classification of words

• Variable vs. Invariable Words
• Variable words write, writes, writing, wrote,
  written cat, cats.
• Invariable words since, when, seldom, through,
  etc.

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• Grammatical vs. Lexical Words
• Grammatical/Function words conjunctions,
  prepositions, articles, pronouns.
• Lexical/Content words nouns, verbs, adjectives,
  adverbs.
• Closed-class vs. Open-class Words
• Closed-class words New members cannot normally
  be added, eg pronouns, prepositions,
  conjunctions, articles, auxiliaries.
• Open-class words New members can be added, eg
  nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

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• Word class known as Parts of Speech in
  traditional grammar.
• Noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition,
  pronoun, conjunction, interjection, article, etc.
• Some new terms in word class
• Particle infinitive to, negative not,
  subordinate units in phrasal verbs get by,
  look back, etc.
• Auxiliary do, have
• Modal verbs can, will, may, must, etc.

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• Pro-forms substitutes for other terms.
• Pronoun he, she, I, they, everyone
• Pro-adjective Your car is red. So is his.
• Pro-verb He speaks English better than he did.
• Pro-adverb He hopes to win and I hope so too.
• Pro-locative He went there.

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• Determiner all the articles, demonstratives, and
  quantifiers that appear before the noun and its
  modifiers.
• As many as three determiners may be used in each
  case and there is a fixed order when there is
  more than one.

Determiner
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• Predeterminers all, both half, one-third,
  three-quarters double, twice, three times
  such, what (exclamative)
• Central determiners the this, these, that,
  those PossP we, us you which, what
  (relative), what (interrogative) a, another,
  some, any, no, either, neither each, enough,
  much, more, most, less a few, a little
• Postdeterminers every many, several, few,
  little one, two, three (a) dozen

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• their all trouble
• five the all boys
• all this boy
• all both girls

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2. Morphology

• Morphology the study of word-formation, or the
  internal structure of words, or the rules by
  which words are formed from smaller components
  morphemes.

The Grammar of Words
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2.1 Morphemes

• The smallest unit of language in terms of
  relationship between expression and content, a
  unit that cannot be further divided into smaller
  units without destroying or drastically altering
  the meaning, whether it is lexical or grammatical.

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2.2 Types of morphemes

• Free vs. Bound morphemes
• Free morphemes those that may constitute words
  by themselves, eg boy, girl, table, nation.
• Bound morphemes those that cannot occur alone,
  eg -s, -ed, dis-, un-.

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• Root the base form of a word that cannot be
  further analyzed without total loss of identity,
  eg friend as in unfriendliness.
• Roots may be
• free those that can stand by themselves, eg
  blackboard nation-al or
• bound those that cannot stand by themselves, eg
  -ceive in receive, perceive, conceive.

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• Affix the type of formative that can be used
  only when added to another morpheme. Normally
  divided into
• prefix (dis-, un-) and
• suffix (-en, -ify).

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• Base a morpheme to which an affix is added, eg
• friend root gt base
• friendly root/base suffix gt base
• unfriendly prefix base gt base
• unfriendliness base suffix gt base?

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• Stem a morpheme or combination of morphemes to
  which an inflectional affix may be added, eg
  friend-s write-ing, possibility-es.
• Inflection grammatical endings, eg plural,
  tense, comparative, etc.
• Derivation combination of a base and an affix to
  form a new word, eg friend-ly gt friendly.

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2.3 Word-formation
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Inflection

• Nominal forms boys, boys
• Verb forms wants, wanted, wanting
• Adjective/adverb forms smaller, smallest

Inflection
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Compounding

• Two or more free roots combine to make a new
  word.
• Noun compounds daybreak, playboy, haircut,
  windmill
• Verb compounds brainstorm, lipread, babysit
• Adjective compounds gray-haired, insect-eating,
  dutyfree
• Preposition compounds into, throughout

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• Endocentric exocentric
• Endocentric one element serves as the head, the
  relationship of a kind of eg
• self-control a kind of control
• armchair a kind of chair
• Exocentric there is no head, so not a
  relationship of a kind of something, eg
• scarecrow not a kind of crow
• breakneck not a kind of neck

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• Written forms of compounds
• Solid blackboard, teapot, bodyguard
• Hyphenated wedding-ring, wave-length
• Open coffee table, washing machine
• Free variation
• businessman, business-man, business man
• winebottle, wine-bottle, wine bottle
• no one, no-one, noone

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Derivation

• Class-changing
• NgtV lengthen, hospitalize, discard
• NgtA friendly, delightful, speechless
• VgtN worker, employee, inhabitant
• VgtA acceptable, adorable
• AgtN rapidness, rapidity
• AgtV deafen, sweeten
• AdjgtAdv exactly, quickly

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• Class-preserving
• NgtN nonsmoker, ex-wife, booklet
• VgtV disobey, unfasten
• AgtA grayish, irrelevant

Class preserving
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3. Lexical change

• Formation of new words
• Phonological change
• Morphosyntactic change
• Semantic change
• Orthographic change

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3.1 Word-formation through lexical change

• Invention/Coinage
• Mostly brand names
• Kodak, Coke, nylon, Band-aid, Xerox, Lycra

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• Blending
• transferresistorgttransistor
• smokefoggtsmog
• motoristhotelgtmotel
• breakfastlunchgtbrunch
• modulatordemodulatorgtmodem
• danceexercisegtdancercise
• advertisementeditorialgtadvertorial
• educationentertainmentgtedutainment
• informationcommercialgtinfomercial

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• Back-formation
• diagnose lt diagnosis
• enthuse lt enthusiasm
• laze lt lazy
• liaise lt liaison
• reminisce lt reminiscence
• statistic lt statistics
• televise lt television

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• burgle, commentate, edit, peddle, scavenge,
  sculpt, swindle
• air-condition, babysit, brainstorm, brainwash,
  browbeat, dry-clean, house-hunt, housekeep,
  sightsee, tape-record
• articulate, assassinate, coeducate, demarcate,
  emote, intuit, legislate,marinate, orate,
  vaccinate, valuate

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Abbreviations

• Clipping
• Back-clippings ad(vertisement), chimp(anzee),
  deli(catessen), exam(ination), hippo(potamus),
  lab(oratory), piano(forte), reg(ulation)s
• Fore-clippings (ham)burger, (omni)bus,
  (violin)cello, (heli)copter, (alli)gator,
  (tele)phone, (earth)quake
• Fore-and-aft clippings (in)flu(enza),
  (de)tec(tive)

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• Acronym
• AIDS, Aids Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
• ASAP as soon as possible
• CD-ROM compact disc read-only memory
• WASP white Anglo-Saxon protestant
• dink(y) double income, no kids
• nilk(y) no income, lots of kids

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• Initialism
• AI artificial intelligence
• a.s.a.p. as soon as possible
• ECU European Currency Unit
• HIV human immunodeficiency virus
• PC personal computer
• PS postscript
• RSVP répondez sil vous plait (please reply in
  French)

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Analogical creation

• From irregular to regular
• work wrought gt worked
• beseech besought gt beseeched
• slay slew gt slayed?
• go went gt goed???

He goed there
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Borrowing

• French administration, parliament, public,
  court, crime, judge, army, enemy, officer, peace,
  soldier, war, faith, religion, coat, costume,
  dress, fashion, jewel, dinner, feast, fry, roast,
  supper, toast, customer, money, price, art,
  college, music, poet, prose, story, study

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• Latin admit, client, conviction, discuss, equal,
  index, library, medicine, minor
• Greek catastrophe, cosmos, criterion,
  idiosyncrasy
• Spanish and Portuguese banana, barbecue,
  cafeteria, cargo, chocolate, cigar, cocaine,
  cockroach, cocoa, guitar, mosquito, negro,
  potato, tank, tobacco, tomato, vanilla

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• Italian aria, bandit, broccoli, casino,
  concerto, duet, finale, influenza, mafia,
  malaria, paparazzi (singular paparazzo), piano,
  pizza, solo, soprano, spaghetti, studio,
  umbrella, volcano
• Dutch boss, brandy, cookie, cruise, deck, dock,
  dollar, freight, gin, kit, knapsack, landscape,
  luck, sketch, slim, smuggle, snap, trek, yacht

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• Arabic admiral, alchemy, alcohol, algebra,
  alkali, almanac, assassin, candy, hazard, lemon,
  magazine, safari, sofa, zero
• Indian bungalow, cashmere, curry, ginger,
  jungle, mango, polo, pyjamas (or pajamas),
  shampoo, swastika, thug, yoga
• Chinese chop suey, chow, chow mein, ginseng,
  gung-ho, ketchup (or catchup or catsup), kung fu,
  tea, tofu (via Japanese), typhoon

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Types of loan words

• Loanwords
• au pair, encore, coup detat, kungfu, sputnik
• Loanblend
• coconut coco (Spanish) nut (English)
• Chinatown China (Chinese) town (English)
• Loanshift
• bridge meaning as a card game borrowed from
  Italian ponte

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• Loan translation, or calque
• free verse lt L verse libre
• black humor lt Fr humour noir
• found object lt Fr objet trouvé

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3.2 Phonological change

• Loss of sound
• loss of the velar fricative /x/ which existed in
  O.E.
• loss of sound in fast speech,
• eg library, laboratory
• and gt n in connected speech,
• eg rock-n-roll

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• Addition of sound
• L. studium gt O.F. estudie, Sp. estudio, Port.
  estudo
• English rascal gt rapscallion
• Metathesis changing the sequence of sound
• O.E. brid gt bird, O.E. ox/ax gt ask
• Assimilation
• impossible, immovable
• irregular, irresponsible
• illogical, illegal

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3.3 Morphosyntactic change

• Morphological change
• third person singular present tense
• -(e)th do(e)th, goeth, hath, findeth gt
• -(e)s does, goes, has, finds
• the campus of the university gt
• the universitys campus

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• Syntactic change
• He saw you not. gt He didnt see you.
• I know not where to hide my head. gt I dont know
  where to hide my head.
• Fusion/blending
• equally good just as good gt equally as good
• Its no use getting there before nine Theres
  no use in getting there before nine gt Theres no
  use getting there before nine.

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3.4 Semantic change

• Broadening
• holiday holy day (religion) gt day for rest
• bird young bird gt any kind
• task tax gt work
• Narrowing
• meat food gt
• girl young person gt young woman
• deer beast gt a special kind of animal

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• Meaning shift
• bead prayer gt the prayer bead gt small,
  ball-shaped piece of glass, metal or wood
• Class shift conversion to other word classes
• engineer person trained in engineering gt to act
  as an engineer (NgtV)

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• Folk etymology a popular but mistaken account of
  the origin of a word or phrase .
• history Old French lt Latin lt Greek historia,
  meaning 'knowledge through inquiry, record, or
  narrative'.
• his story gt herstory

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• Fake etymology a kind of folk etymology
• Manhattan man with hat on
• MBA married but available
• PhD perhaps have divorced
• golf Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden

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3.5 Orthographic change

• Change of spelling
• Iesus gt Jesus
• sate gt sat
• Sunne gt Sun