Word Structure and Word Formation (Word Building) Word

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Word Structure and Word Formation (Word
Building)

• Word formation is the branch of lexicology that
  studies the structure of existing words and the
  patterns on which a language builds new words.

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Morphemes

• The morpheme (Gr. morphe form -eme the
  smallest distinctive unit) is the smallest
  meaningful unit of language.
• Morphemes do not occur as free forms but only as
  constituents of words.
• They possess meanings of their own.

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Classes of morphemes

• Roots (or radicals)
• Affixes
• The root is the morpheme that expresses the
  lexical meaning of the word, e.g. teach teacher
  teaching.
• Affixes are morphemes that modify the meaning of
  the root. An affix added before the root is
  called a prefix (e.g. unsafe, mispronounce) and
  an affix added after the root is called a suffix
  (e.g. heartless, kindness).

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Suffixes and inflexions

• Inflexions are morphemes used to change
  grammatical forms of the word e.g. to work
  works worked working. Inflexions carry
  grammatical meaning of the word.

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Types of word-forming (word-building) in the
English language

• Affixation
• Conversion
• Word-composition

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Affixation

• The process of affixation consists in coining a
  new word by adding an affix or several affixes to
  a base.
• A base (stem) is the form to which an affix is
  added. E.g. blacken unmanageable
• Words produced by the process of affixation are
  called derived words or derivatives (???????????
  ?????, ???????).

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Affixation

• Prefixation usual (adj.) unusual (adj.)
• Suffixation care (n.) careless (adj.)

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Classification of suffixes

• Origin Native (-er, -dom, -ship, -ness), French
  (-ance, -ment, -age), Latin (-tion, -ate, -ute),
  Greek (-ism, -ize), etc.
• Meaning, e.g. er the agent of the action
  (worker, driver) -ess feminine gender (lioness,
  governess) -ry and dom collectivity
  (peasantry, officialdom) -ish insufficiency of
  quality (greenish ???????????, youngish
  ?????????).

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Classification of suffixes (continued)

• Part of speech, e.g. noun-forming suffixes er,
  -ness, -ment (teacher, tenderness, government)
  adjective-forming suffixes ish, -ful, -ess, -y
  (bookish, meaningful, careless, cloudy)
  verb-forming suffixes -ate, -fy, -ize
  (facilitate, terrify, socialize), adverb-forming
  suffixes -ly, -ward, -wise (quickly, upward,
  likewise), etc.

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Classification of suffixes (continued)

• Productivity, i.e. the ability to make new words.
  Productive affixes are ones, which take part in
  deriving new words in this particular period of
  language development, e.g. er, -ing, -ness, -y,
  -ish, -able, -ate, etc. Non-productive suffixes
  are those which are not able to form new words in
  the period in question, -th (truth), -hood
  (childhood), -ship (scholarship).
• NB! Productivity ? frequency of occurrence. E.g.
  suffixes ful, -ly, -ant, -ent, -al are frequent
  but non-productive.

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Classification of prefixes

• Origin Native (un-), Latin (ab-, bi-, de-,
  super-)
• Meaning, e.g. negative prefixes un-
  (ungrateful), non- (nonpolitical), in-
  (incorrect), dis- (disloyal), a- (amoral)
  prefixes of time and order fore- (foretell),
  pre- (pre-war), post- (post-war), ex-
  (ex-president) prefixes of size and degree
  hyper- (hyperactive), mega- (mega-mall), mini-
  (minivan), super- (superman), ultra- (ultrathin)
  prefix of repetition re- (rebuild, rewrite),
  etc.

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Classification of prefixes (continued)

• Productivity, i.e. the ability to make new words,
  e.g. un-, re-, dis- are productive.

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Conversion

• Conversion consists in making a new word from
  some existing word by changing the category of a
  part of speech, while the morphemic shape of the
  original word remains unchanged, e.g. work to
  work, paper to paper.

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Properties of the converted words

• The new word acquires a meaning, which differs
  from that of the original one though it can be
  easily associated with it, e.g. yellow - to
  yellow
• The converted word also acquires a new paradigm
  and a new syntactic functions, which are peculiar
  to its new category as a part of speech.

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Properties of the converted words
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The most common types of conversion in English

• Verbs derived from nouns to ship, to dog
  (????????????), to wolf (????? ????)
• Nouns derived from verbs a try (???????), a
  catch (????), a find (???????), a cut (?????)
• Verbs derived from adjectives to pale
  (????????), to empty (??????????), to grey
  (??????), to tidy (???????? ? ???????)

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Less common types of conversion in English

• nouns derived from adjectives a bitter (??????),
  the poor, a final
• verbs/nouns derived from prepositions out (e.g.
  diplomats were outed from the country ins and
  outs ????? ? ??????).

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Types of semantic relations between the converted
word and the original word

• The name of tool an action performed by this
  tool hammer to hammer, brush to brush, nail
  to nail
• The animal name action typical to this animal
  monkey to monkey (?????????????), wolf to
  wolf (????? ????)
• Part of body action performed by it back to
  back, hand to hand, shoulder to shoulder
• Name of occupation an action typical of it
  cook to cook, nurse to nurse
• The name of a place the process of occupying
  the place room to room, place to place, etc.