Main types of word-building. Affixation. Negative affixes.
To begin with, it should be pointed out that Morphology as a branch
of Lx deals with word formation but not with word change.
Structurally words are divided into smaller units called MORPHEMES. Morphemes do not occur as free forms but only as constituents of words (the exception is root morphemes like map). Yet they possess meanings of their own. All morphemes are subdivided into roots and affixes. The latter, in their turn, fall into prefixes preceding the root (as in re-read, mis-pronounce, un-well) and suffixes following the root (as in teach-er, cur-able).
Words consisting of a root and an affix (or several affixes) are called DERIVED words or DERIVATIVES and are produced in the process of word-building known as AFFIXATION (DERIVATION).
Another frequent structural type is the ROOT word. Many of these words belong to the original English stock or to earlier borrowings. In Modern English this class of words has been enlarged by the type of word-building known as CONVERSION. e.g. hand – to hand, can – to can, pale – to pale, to find – a find.
Another widely spread word-structure is a COMPOUND word consisting of two or more stems (roots): dining-room, cell phone, mother-in-law. Words of this structural type are produced in the word-building process called COMPOSITION.
AFFIXATION.
This process consists in coining a new word by adding an affix or several affixes to some root morpheme. From the etymological point of view affixes are classified into native and borrowed. Consider examples of some native affixes. Noun-forming a.: -er, -ness, -ing, -dom, -hood, -ship, - th; adjective-forming a.: -ful, -less, -y, -ish, --ly, -en, -some; adverb/verb-forming: en, -ly. Cf. borrowed affixes: -um, -us, -ct – Latin; ism/ist – Greek; -ous, -able – French, etc.
Affixes can be also classified into productive and non-productive. We find productive affixes in NEOLOGISMS and NONCE-WORD: a lookER, a bed-sittER, a worriER, carpetING, partyING, comfY, boyISH, youngISH, stylISH, promotABLE, spreadABLE, achievABLE, strollABLE, activIST, situationIST, readerSHIP, etc.
Productive affixes should not be mixed up with frequents affixes, like –ful (beautiful).
It should be noted that NEGATIVE AFFIXES, PREFIXES, in particular, play a special role in English word-building. Some of them are native productive: -less, un-, in-(-il, -im,-ir), mis; others are borrowed: dis-, de-, anti-, counter-, etc.
UN- and IN- and how not to mix them up: un- is added to adjectives and adjectivised verbs ending in -able (unreadable), -ed (unabridged), -ing (unwilling, unpaying), -like (unmanlike), etc. While IN- will be typically added to words of foreign origin: curable - incurable, justice, injustice (but unjust), correct - incorrect, credible - incredible, etc.
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The most productive SEMI-AFFIXES are: -proof, -wise-, -like (desert-like, prison-like), -man, man- (barman, computer-man; man-destroying, man-devised), conscious, mania (Obama-mania), phobia (technophobia), etc.
Card Eight
Minor types of word-building .
Although considered to be a minor type of word-building, SHORTENING/ABBREVIATING is very productive in modern English.
Morphological shortening (clipping) - new words are produced from words by omitting part of their phonemic framing: story (history), fence (defence), fancy (fantasy). They are marked as colloquial and slangy .: lab, exam, prep, group rep, lino, prof, lit, specs, teach, info, hi-fi (high fidelity), pro (professional), etc.
Abbreviating of words: bldg. for building, doz. for dozen, govt. for government;
Abbreviating of phrases/sentences: the UNO, WTO, GMT, the EU, DST, C.O.D. - cash on delivery, etc.
Acronymy (resulting in abbreviations of phrases/sentences functioning as
independent words): the NATO, NA( э )SA (The National Aeronautical Space Administration), UNESCO(The United Nations Edu, Scientific, & Cultural Organization), scu(u)ba diving, yuppies, etc.
Shortening-making the w-s shorter-@ pro-professional, hi-fi-high fidelity, doc-doctor-morphological shortening; another type is syntactical shortening-@ yuppie- young career-minded people; druggie-who addicted to drugs, PC-personal computer, peace corps
Reduplication-1 stem is repeated twice exactly or with a slight change in spelling @ bye-bye; walkie-talkie=radio; mish-mash=mess
Blending-telescopic w-s, 1 morpheme partially entered the other @ workaholic=work+alcoholic; Dictaphone=dictate+grammaphone; recomember=recommend+remember
Sound imitation-imitation of sounds produced by animals, objects etc @ cock-a-doodle-doo=ку-ка-ре-ку/ meow, miaow = мяу ; by objects-clatter, bang-стучать, rattle-snake
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?Card Nine
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