Collectivity

1. hood

brotherhood

neighborhood

2. dom

kingdom

princedom

earldom

8) The functional aspect of word-building system. Productivity and activity. The main means of word-building in English.

Some of the ways of forming words in present-day English can be resorted to for the creation of new words whenever the occasion demands — these are called prоduсtive ways of forming words, other ways of forming words cannot now produce new words, and these are commonly termed non-productive or unproductive.

For instance, affixation has been a productive way of forming words ever since the Old English period; on the other hand, sound-interchange must have been at one time a word-building means but in Modern English, as has been mentioned above, its function is actually only to distinguish between different classes and forms of words.

It follows that productivity of word-building ways, individual derivational patterns and derivational affixes is understood as their ability of making new words which all who speak English find no difficulty in understanding, in particular their ability to create what are called occasional words or nonce-wоrds.

The term suggests that a speaker coins such words when he needs them; if on another occasion the same word is needed again, he coins it afresh. Nonce-words are built from familiar language material after familiar patterns. Needless to say dictionaries do not as a rule record occasional words.

Ex. (his) collarless (appearance), a lungful (of smoke), a Dickensish (office), to unlearn (the rules)

Some linguists hold the view that productive ways and means of word-formation are only those that can be used for the formation of an unlimited number of new words in the modern language, i.e. such means that “know no bounds" and easily form occasional words.

All derivational patterns experience both structural and semantic constraints. The fewer are the constraints the higher is the degree of productivity, the greater is the number of new words built on it. The two general constraints imposed on all derivational patterns are — the part of speech in which the pattern functions and the meaning attached to it which conveys the regular semantic correlation between the two classes of words. It follows that each part of speech is characterised by a set of productive derivational patterns peculiar to it.

Three degrees of productivity are distinguished for derivational patterns and individual derivational affixes:

l) highly-productive (affix ful, conversion, abbreviation)

2) productive or semi-productive (artificial creations,aff:ic,ian)

3) non-productive (interchange, aff: dom, hood).

Another approach - a quantitative approach

A derivational pattern or a derivational affix are qualified as productive provided there are in the word-stock dozens and hundreds of derived words built on the pattern or with the help of the suffix in question.

Word-formation activity - the ability of an affix to produce new words, in particular occasional words or nonce-words.

Productive affixes have already served the language and there are a lot of words with them (-er, -ful, -tion).

Active affixes work now, they are used now, they are likely to turn into productive patterns, some of them die out.

Bnum +Sadj >N (one-offs)

The agent suffix -er is to be qualified both as a productive and as an active suffix: on the one hand, the English word-stock possesses hundreds of nouns containing this suffix (e.g. driver, reaper, teacher, speaker, etc.), on the other hand, the suffix -er in the pattern v+-er -> N is freely used to coin an unlimited number of nonce-words denoting active agents (e.g., interrupter, respecter, laugher, breakfaster, etc.).

The adjective suffix -ful is described as a productive but not as an active one, for there are hundreds of adjectives with this suffix (e.g. beautiful, hopeful, useful, etc.), but no new words seem to be built with its help.

For obvious reasons, the noun-suffix -th in terms of this approach is to be regarded both as a non-productive and a non-active one.

Бондарчук:

What can be productive:

1. a means of word formation

2. some pattern

3. some affix

Productivity – the ability to make words it is necessary for the language, this word should be understood by everybody who speaks E.

Activity – number of ws

Means of word formation:

I. main/major/patterned means

1. word derivation (словопроизводство): affixation, conversion (N>V)

2. word composition/compounding (словосложение)

a trouser suit – брючной костюм (a new consept)

II. secondary/minor/non-patterned means

1. sound interchange (man-men, live-life) Historical means

2. stress interchange (‘input – to in’put, ‘progress – to pro’gress)

3. Back-formation (it is still used) – against the logics of the language/ but not against the logics of life.

peas>pea

a babysitter > to baby-sit (logically V > N)

4. Shortening/ abbreviation (lab, exam, Euratom, V-day)

5. Artificial creation of ws (trade marks are made)

nylon

adidas (Adi Dassler)

9) Affixation in contemporary English.

Affixation (prefixation and suffixation) is the formation of words by adding derivational affixes (prefixes and suffixes) to bases. Affixation is one of the most productive ways.

One distinguishes between derived words of different degrees of derivation.

Ex. The zero degree of derivation -simple words, i.e. words whose stem is homonymous with a word-form and often with a root-morpheme, e.g. atom, haste, devote, anxious, horror, etc. Derived words whose bases are built on simple stems and thus are formed by the application of one derivational affix are described as having the first degree of derivation, e.g. atomic, hasty, devotion, etc. Derived words formed by two consecutive stages of coining possess the second degree of derivation, etc., e.g. atomical, hastily, devotional

In conformity with the division of derivational affixes into suffixes and prefixes affixation is subdivided into suffixation and prefixation.

In Modern English suffixation is mostly characteristic of noun and adjective formation, while prefixation is mostly typical of verb formation.

The distinction also rests on the role different types of meaning play in the semantic structure of the suffix and the prefix. The part-of-speech meaning has a much greater significance in suffixes as compared to prefixes which possess it in a lesser degree.

Due to it a prefix may be confined to one part of speech as, e.g., enslave, encage, unbutton or may function in more than one part of speech as, e.g., over- in overkind a, to overfeed v, overestimation n; unlike prefixes, suffixes as a rule function in any one part of speech often forming a derived stem of a different part of speech as compared with that of the base, e.g. careless a — cf. care n; suitable a — cf. suit v, etc. Furthermore, it is necessary to point out that a suffix closely knit together with a base forms a fusion retaining less of its independence than a prefix which is as a general rule more independent semantically, cf. reading — ‘the act of one who reads’; ‘ability to read’; and to re-read — ‘to read again.'

Prefixation is the formation of words with the help of prefixes.

There are about 51 prefixes in the system of Modern English word-formation.

According to the available word-counts of prefixal derivatives the greatest number are verbs — 42.4%, adjectives comprise 33,5% and nouns make up 22.4%. To give some examples.-

prefixal verbs: to enrich, to coexist, to disagree, to undergo, etc.;

prefixal adjectives: anti-war, biannual, uneasy, super-human, etc.;

prefixal nouns: ex-champion, co-author, disharmony, subcommittee,

Two types of prefixes are to be distinguished:

1) those not correlated with any independent word (either notional or functional), e.g. un-, dis-, re-, pre-, post-, etc.; and

2) those correlated with functional words (prepositions or preposition like adverbs), e.g. out-, over-, up-, under-, etc. semibound morphemes, which implies that they occur in speech in various utterances both as independent words and as derivational affixes, e.g. ‘ over one’s head’, ‘ over the river’ (cf. to over lap, to over pass); ‘to run out ’, ‘to take smb out ’ (cf. to out grow, to out line).

It should be mentioned that English prefixes of the second type essentially differ from the functional words they are correlated with:

a) like any other derivational affixes they have a more generalised meaning in comparison with the more concrete meanings of the correlated words; they are characterised by a unity of different denotational components of meaning — a generalised component common to a set of prefixes and individual semantic component distinguishing the given prefix within the set.

b) they are deprived of all grammatical features peculiar to the independent words they are correlated with;

c) they tend to develop a meaning not found in the correlated words;

d) they form regular sets of words of the same semantic type.

The conversive ability of prefixes: to begulf (cf. gulf n), to debus (cf. bus n)

Поиск по сайту: