Productive Types of Compound Adjectives 7 страница
В lendings are the result of conscious creation of words by merging irregular fragments of several words which are aptly called “splinters.” 1 Splinters assume different shapes — they may be severed from the source word at a morpheme boundary as in transceiver (=transmitter and receiver), transistor (= transfer and resistor) or at a syllable boundary like cute (from execute) in electrocute, medicare (from medical care), polutician (from pollute and politician) or boundaries of both kinds may be disregarded as in brunch (from breakfast and lunch), smog (from smoke and fog), ballute (from baloon and parachute), etc. Many blends show some degree of overlapping of vowels, consonants and syllables or echo the word or word fragment it replaces. This device is often used to attain punning effect, as in foolosopher echoing philosopher; icecapade (= spectacular shows on ice) echoing escapade; baloonatic (= baloon and lunatic).
Blends are coined not infrequently in scientific and technical language as a means of naming new things, as trade names in advertisements. Since blends break the rules of morphology they result in original combinations which catch quickly. Most of the blends have a colloquial flavour.
2. Clipping refers to the creation of new words by shortening a word of two or more syllables (usually nouns and adjectives) without changing its class membership. Clipped words, though they often exist together with the longer original source word function as independent lexical units with a certain phonetic shape and lexical meaning of their own. The lexical meanings of the clipped word and its source do not as a rule coincide, for instance, doc refers only to ‘one who practices medicine’, whereas doctor denotes also ‘the higher degree given by a university and a person who has received it’, e.g. Doctor of Law, Doctor of Philosophy. Clipped words always differ from the non-clipped words in the emotive charge and stylistic reference. Clippings indicate an attitude of familiarity on the part of the user either towards the object denoted or towards the audience, thus clipped words are characteristic of
1 See V. Adams. An Introduction to Modern English Word-Formation, L., 1973. 190
colloquial speech. In the course of time, though, many clipped words find their way into the literary language losing some of their colloquial colouring. Clippings show various degrees of semantic dissociation from their full forms. Some are no longer felt to be clippings, e.g. pants (cf. pantaloons), bus (cf. omnibus), bike (cf. bicycle), etc. Some of them retain rather close semantic ties with the original word. This gives ground to doubt whether the clipped words should be considered separate words. Some linguists hold the view that in case semantic dissociation is slight and the major difference lies in the emotive charge and stylistic application the two units should be regarded as word-variants (e.g. exam and examination, lab and laboratory, etc.).1
|
|
|
Clipping often accompanies other ways of shortening such as substantivisation, e.g. perm (from permanent wave), op (from optical art), pop (from popular music, art, singer, etc.), etc.
As independent vocabulary units clippings serve as derivational bases for suffixal derivations collocating with highly productive neutral and stylistically non-neutral suffixes -ie, -er, e.g. nightie (cf. nightdress), panties, hanky (cf. handkerchief). Cases of conversion are not infrequent, e.g. to taxi, to perm, etc.
There do not seem to be any clear rules by means of which we might predict where a word will be cut though there are several types into which clippings are traditionally classified according to the part of the word that is clipped:
1) Words that have been shortened at the end—the so-called apocope, e.g. ad (from advertisement), lab (from laboratory), mike (from microphone), etc.
2) Words that have been shortened at the beginning—the so-called aphaeresis, e.g. car (from motor-car), phone (from telephone), copter (from helicopter), etc.
3) Words in which some syllables or sounds have been omitted from the middle—the so-called syncope, e.g. maths (from mathematics), pants (from pantaloons), specs (from spectacles), etc.
4) Words that have been clipped both at the beginning and at the end, e.g. flu (from influenza), tec (from detective), fridge (from refrigerator), etc.
It must be stressed that acronyms and clipping are the main ways of word-creation most active in present-day English. The peculiarity of both types of words is that they are structurally simple, semantically non-motivated and give rise to new root-morphemes.
| § 10. Borrowing
|
Borrowing as a means of replenishing the vocabulary of present-day English is of much lesser importance and is active mainly in the field of scientific -terminology. It should be noted that many terms are often made up of borrowed morphemes, mostly morphemes from classical languages.2
1) The present-day English vocabulary, especially its terminological layers, is constantly enriched by words made up of morphemes of Latin
1 See 'Introduction', § 5, p. 10; 'Various Aspects ...', § 12, p. 196.
2 See 'Etymological Survey', § 5, p. 164.
191
and Greek origin such as words with the morphemes -tron used chiefly in the field of electronics, e.g. mesotron, cyclotron, etc.; tele-, e.g. telecast, telelecture, telediagnosis, -in, e.g. protein, penicillin; -scope, e.g. iconoscope, oscilloscope; meta-, e.g. meta-culture, metaprogram; para- meaning ‘related to, near’, e.g. paralinguistic, parabiospheric; video-, e.g. videodisk, videophone, etc.
But though these words consist of borrowed morphemes they cannot be regarded as true borrowings because these words did not exist either in the Greek or in the Latin word-stock. All of them are actually formed according to patterns of English word-formation, and many function in Modern English as new affixes and semi-affixes.1 Words with some of them can be found in the vocabulary of various languages and reflect as a rule the general progress in science and technology.
It is noteworthy that a number of new affixes appeared in Modern English through different types of borrowing. This can be exemplified by the Russian suffix -nik which came within the words sputnik, lunnik and acquired the meaning of ‘one who is connected with something’, but which under the influence of beatnik2 acquired a derogatory flavour and is now a slang suffix. It is used to denote ‘person who rejects standard social values and becomes a devotee of some fact or idea’, e.g. FOLK-NIK, protestnik, filmnik, etc. The prefix mini- is now currently used with two meanings: a) ‘of very small size’, e.g. minicomputer, minicar, mini war, ministate, and b) ‘very short’, as in minidress, minicoat, miniskirt, etc.; the prefix maxi- was borrowed on the analogy of mini- also in two meanings: a)'very large’, e.g. maxi-order, maxi-taxi, and b) ‘long, reaching down to the ankle’, e.g. maxicoat, maxi-dress, maxilength. The suffix -naut is found in, e.g., astronaut, aquanaut, lunarnaut, etc.
|
|
|
Numerous borrowed root-morphemes remain bound in the vocabulary of Modern English but acquire a considerable derivative force and function as components of a specific group of compounds productive mainly in specialised spheres, e.g. acoust(o) — acousto-optic, acousto-electronics; ge(o)-, e.g. geowarfare, geoscientist, multi- e.g. multi-cultural, multi- directional, multispectral, etc.; cosm(o)-, e.g. cosmodrome, cosmonautics, cosmonaut, etc.
2) There are true borrowings from different languages as well. They, as a rule, reflect the way of life, the peculiarities of development of the speech communities from which they come. From the Russian language there came words like kolkhoz, Gosplan, Komsomol, udarnik, sputnik, jak, etc.
The words borrowed from the German language at the time of war reflect the aggressive nature of German fascism, e.g. Blitzkrieg 3, Wehr macht4, Luftwaffe 5.
1 See C. Barnhart. A Dictionary of New English, 1963 — 1972. Longman, 1973. p, 316; see also Э. М. Медникова, Т. Ю. Каравкина, op. cit.
2 See ‘Word-Structure’, § 3, p. 92.
3 ‘aggressive war conducted with lightning-like speed and force'
4 ‘Germany’s armed forces'
5 ‘the air force of the Third Reich'
192
As most of these words remain unassimilated in present-day English, they are all the time felt as foreign words and tend to drop out from the language.
3) Loan-translations also reflect the peculiarities of the way of life of the countries they come from, and they easily become stable units of the vocabulary, e.g. fellow-traveller, self-criticism, Socialist democracy, Worker’s Faculty, etc. which all come from the Russian language.
| § 11. Semantic Extension |
Semantic extension of words already available in the language is a powerful
source of qualitative growth and development of the vocabulary though it does not necessarily add to its numerical growth; it is only the split of polysemy that results in the appearance of new vocabulary units thus increasing the number of words.1 In this connection it should be remembered that the border-line between a new meaning of the word and its lexical homonym is in many cases so vague that it is often difficult to state with any degree of certainty whether we have another meaning of the original word or its homonym — a new self-contained word,2 e.g. in the verb to sit-in — ‘to join a group in playing cards’ and a newly recorded use of to sit-in — ‘to remain unserved in the available seats in a cafe in protest against Jimcrowism’, or ‘to demonstrate by occupying a building and staying there until their grievances are considered or until the demonstrators themselves are ejected' — the meanings are so widely apart that they are definitely felt as homonyms. The same may be said about the word heel (sl.) — ‘a traitor, double-crosser’ and heel — ‘the back part of a human foot’. On the other hand, the meaning of the verb freeze — ‘to immobilise (foreign-owned credits) by legislative measures’ and its further penetration into a more general sphere seen in to freeze wages and the correlated compound wage-freeze is definitely felt as a mere development of the semantic structure of the verb (to) freeze. The semantic connection is felt between the meanings of such words as hot: 1) (mus.) ‘having an elaborate and stimulating jazz rhythm’ 2) (financ.) ‘just isued’ and 3) (sl.) ‘dangerous because connected with some crime’ as in the phrase hot money; to screen — ‘to classify by means of standardised test, to select methodically’ (cf. the original meaning of the verb (to) screen — ‘to separate coal into different sizes’, ‘to pass through a sieve or screen’). All these meanings may serve as further examples of qualitative growth of Modern English vocabulary.
|
|
|
A great number of new meanings develop in simple words which belong to different spheres of human activity. New meanings appear mostly in everyday general vocabulary, for example a beehive — ‘a woman’s hair style’; lungs (n pl.) — ‘breathing spaces, such as small parks that might be placed in overpopulated or traffic-congested areas’; a bird — ‘any flying craft’; a vegetable — ‘a lifeless, inert person’; clean (sl.) — free from the use of narcotic drugs’; to uncap (sl.) — ‘to disclose, to re-
1 The above cited counts show that new meanings of the words already existing in the language and new homonyms account for 1/4 of the total number of new items.
2 See ‘Semasiology’, § 4, p. 47 ; ‘Various Aspects...’, § 12, p. 195 — 196.
7 № 2776 193
veal’. There is a strong tendency in words of specialised and terminological type to develop non-specialised, non-terminological meanings as, for example, the technical term feedback that developed a non-terminological meaning ‘a reciprocal effect of one person or thing upon another’, parameter that developed a new meaning ‘any defining or characteristic factor’, scenario — ‘any projected course or plan of action’. It is of interest to note that many new meanings in the sphere of general vocabulary are stylistically and emotively non-neutral and marked as colloquial and slang, for example juice (US sl.) — ‘position, power, influence; favourable standing’; bread (sl.) — ‘money’; straight (sl.) — ‘not deviating from the norm in politics, habits; conventional, orthodox’, etc.
On the other hand scientific and technical terminological meanings appear as a result of specialisation as in, e.g., read (genetic) — ‘to decode’; messenger — ‘a chemical substance which carries or transmits genetic information’.
New terminological meanings also appear as a result of expansion of the sphere of application, i.e. when terms of one branch of science develop new meanings and pass over to other branches, e.g. a general scientific term system (n) in cybernetics developed the meaning ‘anything consisting of at least two interrelated parts’; logic acquired in electronics the meaning ‘the logical operations performed by a computer by means of electronic circuitry’; perturbance in astronomy — ‘disturbances in the motions of planets’, etc.
It should be noted that new meanings appear not only as a result of semantic development of words but also as a result of semantic development of affixes. Thus, the adjectival prefix a- in such adjectives as awhir = whirring; aswivel = swivelling; aclutter = cluttered; aglaze = glazed developed a new meaning similar to the meanings of the participles but giving a more vivid effect of the process than the corresponding non-prefixal participles in -ing and -ed.
The prefix anti- developed two new meanings: 1) ‘belongng to the hypothetical world consisting of the counterpart of ordinary matter’, e.g. anti-matter, anti-world, anti-nucleus, etc.; 2) ‘that which rejects or reverses the traditional characteristics’, e.g. anti-novel, anti-hero, anti-electron, etc.; the prefix non- developed a new meaning ’sham, pretended, pseudo’, e.g. non-book, non-actor, non-policy, etc.1
It follows from the foregoing discussion that the principal ways of enriching the vocabulary of present-day English with new words are various ways of productive word-formation and word-creation. The most active ways of word creation are clippings and acronyms. The semantic development of words already available in the language is the main source of the qualitative growth of the vocabulary but does not essentially change the vocabulary quantitatively.
1 See С Barnhart, op. cit. 194
NUMBER OF VOCABULARY UNITS IN MODERN ENGLISH
Linguists call the total word-stock of a language its lexicon or vocabulary. There is a notion that a so-called unabridged dictionary records the unabridged lexicon, that is all the words of the language. But the lexicon of English is open-ended. It is not even theoretically possible to record it all as a closed system. The exact number of vocabulary units in Modern English cannot be stated with any degree of certainty for a number of reasons, the most obvious of them being the constant growth of Modern English word-stock especially technical terms of the sciences which have come to influence our modern society. As one of the American lexicographers aptly puts it we could fill a dictionary the size of the largest unabridged with names of compounds of carbon alone.1 There are many points of interest closely connected with the problem of the number of vocabulary units in English, but we shall confine ourselves to setting down in outline a few of the major issues:
1) divergent views concerning the nature of vocabulary units and
2) intrinsic heterogeneity of modern English vocabulary.
| § 12. Some Debatable Problems of Lexicology |
Counting up vocabulary units we usually proceed from the assumption that the English lexicon comprises not only words but also phraseological units. The term “phraseological unit” however allows of different interpretation.2 If the term is to be taken as including all types of set expressions, then various lexical items ranging from two-word groups the meaning of which is directly inferred from the meaning of its components, e.g. to win a victory, to lose one’s balance, etc. to proverbs and sayings, e.g. It Is the early bird that catches the worm, That is where the shoe pinches, etc. have to be counted as separate lexical units on a par with individual words. Thus in the case of to win a victory we must record three vocabulary units: the verb to win, the noun victory and the phraseological unit to win a victory. If however we hold that it is only the set expressions functioning as word-equivalents are to be treated as phraseological units, to win a victory is viewed as a variable, (free) word-group and consequently must not be counted as a separate lexical item. The results of vocabulary counts will evidently be different.
Дата добавления: 2019-01-14; просмотров: 329; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!