High-productive (er, -ish, -less, re)

semi=productive (eer, ette, ward)

non-productive (ard, -cy, -ive) drunkard

6) Origin

- native (ness, -ish, -dom and the prefixes be-, mis-, un-)

- foreign (ation, -ment, -able and prefixes like dis-, ex-, re- are of foreign origin).

The adoption of countless foreign words exercised a great influence upon the system of English word-formation, one of the result being the appearance of many hybrid words in the English vocabulary. The term hybrid words is of diachronic relevance only. Here distinction should be made between two basic groups:

1) Cases when a foreign stem is combined with a native affix, as in colourless, uncertain. After complete adoption the foreign stem is subject to the same treatment as native stems and new words are derived from it at a very early stage. For instance, such suffixes as -ful, -less, -ness were used with French words as early as 1300;

2) Cases when native stems are combined with foreign affixes, such as drinkable, joyous, shepherdess. Here the assimilation of a structural pattern is involved, therefore some time must pass before a foreign affix comes to be recognised by speakers as a derivational morpheme that can be tacked on to native words.

Many commonly used derivational affixes are polysemantic in Modern English.

Ex. The noun-suffix -er is used to coin words denoting 1) persons following some special trade or profession, e.g. baker, driver, hunter, etc.; 2) persons doing a certain action at the moment in question, e.g. packer, chooser, giver, etc.; 3) a device, tool, implement, e.g. blotter, atomiser, boiler, eraser, transmitter, trailer

Many homonymic derivational affixes can be found among those forming both different parts of speech and different semantic groupings within the same part of speech.

Ex. the adverb-suffix -ly added to adjectival bases is homonymous to the adjective-suffix -ly affixed to noun-bases, cf. quickly, slowly and lovely, friendly.

There is also a considerable number of synonymous suffixes in the English language.

Ex. The suffix -er of native origin denoting the agent is synonymous to the suffix -ist of Greek origin which came into the English language through Latin in the 16th century. Both suffixes occur in nouns denoting the agent, e.g. teacher, driller; journalist, botanist, economist, etc. Being synonymous these suffixes naturally differ from each other in some respects. Unlike the suffix -er, the suffix -ist is:

1) mostly combined with noun-bases, e.g. violinist, receptionist, etc.;

2) as a rule, added to bases of non-Germanic origin and very seldom to bases of Germanic origin, e.g. walkist, rightist;

3) used to form nouns denoting those who adhere to a doctrine or system, a political party, an ideology or the like, e.g. communist, Leninist, Marxist, chartist, Darwinist, etc. Words in -ist denoting 'the upholder of a principle' are usually matched by an abstract noun in -ism denoting 'the respective theory' (e.g. Communism, Socialism, etc.).

10) Conversion as a means of word-building. Basic criteria of semantic derivation.

Conversiton is an affixless means of word-formation as a result there appears a new part of speech.

The paradigm is used as a word building means in this case. The system showing a word in all its word-forms is called its paradigm.

The term “conversion” first appeared in the book by Henry Sweet “New English Grammar” in 1891.

Conversion, one of the principal ways of forming words in Modern English is highly productive in replenishing the English word-stock with new words.

The term conversion refers to the numerous cases of phonetic identity of word-forms, primarily the so-called initial forms, of two words belonging to different parts of speech. This may be illustrated by the following cases: work — to work; love — to love; paper — to paper; brief — to brief, etc. As a rule we deal with simple words, although there are a few exceptions, e.g. wireless — to wireless (передавать по радио).

Conversion is the formation of a new word through changes in its paradigm.

As a paradigm is a morphological category conversion can be described as a morphological way of forming words. The following indisputable cases of conversion have bееn discussed in linguistic literature:

1) formation of verbs from nouns and more rarely from other parts of speech

2) formation of nouns from verbs and rarely from other parts of speech.

Conversion is treated differently by different scientists:

Prof A.I. Smirnitsky treats of conversion as a morphological way of forming words when one part of speech is formed from another by changing its paradigm:

dial > to dial

Other linguists sharing, on the whole, the conception of conversion as a morphological way of forming words disagree, however, as to what serves here as a word-building means.

Some of them define conversion as a non-affixal way of forming words pointing out that the characteristic feature is that a certain stem is used for the formation of a different word of a different part of speech without a derivational affix being added. Others hold the view that conversion is the formation of new words with the help of a zero-morpheme.

action — result of the action:

to agree — agreement (affixation),

to find — a find (conversion)

There is also a point of view on conversion as a morphological-syntactic word-building means, for it involves both a change of the paradigm and a change of the syntactic function of the word, e.g. I need some good paper for my rooms and He is papering his room.

Conversion pairs are distinguished by the structural identity of the root and phonetic identity of the stem of each of the two words. Synchronically we deal with pairs of words related through conversion that coexist in contemporary English.

There are 4 main types of conversion:

1. Verbalization (вербализация)

N → V

Adv →V (to up sb – поддержать)

to down sd - подвести

prep → V (she rounded the corner)

2. Substantivation (образование существительного)

V → N

Converted nouns are depended on verbs.

to ring – to give smb a ring

to look – to take a look

to smile – to give a smile

Adj →N

Ex. blind – the blind

rich – the rich

3. Adjectivilization (адьективизация)

Part I → Adj (обозначают разные признаки)

Part I denotes a temporal feature closely connected with the action.

Adj – denotes permanent feature which has nothing to do with any action.

Ex. running water – водопровод

4. Adverbalization (адвербализация)

fast → fast

high - high late - late hard - hard

↓ ↓ ↓

highly lately hardly

Prep →Adv

to call on sb

From a synchronic point of view the biggest problem concerning conversion is establishing derivational relations within a conversion pair, that is establishing the direction of derivation and setting up a simple and a derived word there.

to call → a call

There are some criteria.

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