Affixation as a means of form-building in ME
Form building forms serve to build up grammatical forms of words, they are treated in grammar (unlike word-building forms, which are treated in lexicology, express new notions): e.g: speak-speaks-spoke.
-productive and non-productive suffixes
-polysemantic suffixes
FB means: 1) synthetic - a change in a word itself 2) analytical – a combination of at least 2 words: an auxiliary and a notional word.
Types of synthetic FB:
1) affixation (outer inflexion): e.g:-s, -ed,-ing,-er,-est,-en,-m (him, them, whom) – productive, express different morphological categories.
Affixes unambiguously showing to what part of speech a word belongs are very few. Among them is the suffix -ity for nouns. In such cases as scarcity, necessity, peculiarity, monstrosity, etc., there is no doubt that the word is a noun. In the sphere of adjectives there is the suffix -less and the suffix -ous. For instance, useless, harmless, fatherless, meaningless can be identified as adjectives by the mere fact of their having this suffix, and so can the words copious, hazardous, luminous, callous, ubiquitous, and so forth.
Prefixes are only rarely found to distinguish one part of speech from another.1 Here are some well-known examples: endear v. vs. dear adj., enlarge v. vs. large adj., enmesh v. vs. mesh n., behead v. vs. head n., 2 belittle v. vs. little adj.
The meanings of the indefinite and definite articles.
The semantic purpose of the article is to specify the nounal referent, achieved by their correlative functioning, namely: one rendered by the definite article, one rendered by the indefinite article, and one rendered by the absence (or non-use) of the article. (Blokh).
The number of articles:
The definite article – expresses the functions of identification – an object possesses individual concrete qualities
The indefinite article expresses the function of generation – quality of general sense.
The zero article expresses the function of generalization again, most general ideas.
The definite article expresses the identification or individualisation of the referent of the noun: the use of this article shows that the object denoted is taken in its concrete, individual quality.
The indefinite article, as different from the definite article, is commonly interpreted as referring the object denoted by the noun to a certain class of similar objects; in other words, the indefinite article expresses a classifying generalisation of the nounal referent, or takes it in a relatively general sense.
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As for the various uses of nouns without an article, from the semantic point of view they all should be divided into two types. In the first place, there are uses where the articles are deliberately omitted out of stylistic considerations: in telegraphic speech, in titles and headlines, in various notices (the omitted articles may easily be restored in the constructions).
There are cases of the semantically unspecified non-use of the article in various combinations of fixed type, such as prepositional phrases (on fire, at hand, in debt, etc.), fixed verbal collocations (take place, make use, cast anchor, etc.), descriptive coordinative groups and repetition groups (man and wife, dog and gun, day by day, etc.)
The meaningful absence of the article before the countable noun in the singular signifies that the noun is taken in an abstract sense, expressing the most general idea of the object denoted. E.g.: Law (in general) begins with the beginning of human society. Steam-engine (in general) introduced for locomotion a couple of centuries ago has now become obsolete.
The absence of the article before the uncountable noun corresponds to the two kinds of generalisation: both relative and absolute. E.g.: Coffee (a kind of beverage served at the table: relative generalisation) or tea, please? Coffee (in general: absolute generalisation) stimulates the function of the heart.
The absence of the article before the countable noun in the plural, likewise, corresponds to both kinds of generalization. E.g.: Stars, planets and comets (these kinds of objects: relative generalisation) are different celestial bodies (not terrestrial bodies: relative generalisation). Wars (in general: absolute generalisation) should be eliminated as means of deciding international disputes.
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