CONVERSION. TYPICAL SEMANTIC RELATIONS IN CONVERSION
Shortening (clipping)
· In the formation of a word by cutting off a part of the word.
1) Initial, e.g. fend (v) < defend, phone < telephone;
2) Medial, e.g. specs < spectacles, fancy < fantasy;
3) Final, e.g. ad, advert < advertisement, veg < vegetables;
4) Both initial and final, e.g. flu < influenza, fridge < refrigerator.
Blending
o Is the formation of a new word by combining parts of 2 words:
1) Additive type may be transformed into a phrase consisting of complete stems combined by the conjunction and, e.g. smog – sm (oke) and (f) og;
2) Restrictive type that can be transformed into a phrase, the 1st element of which serves as a modifier for the 2nd, e.g.: telecast – television broadcast.
Acronymy
§ (or graphical abbreviation) is the formation of a word from the initial letters of a word combination.
§ The words thus formed are called acronym. There are 2 basic types of acronyms:
1) Acronyms which are read as ordinary English words, e.g. UNESCO [ju: ‘neskou] – the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization;
2) Acronyms (abbreviation) with the alphabetic reading, e.g. BBC’ [‘bi:’bi:’si:] – the British Broadcast Corporation.
Sound-interchange
Is the formation of a word due to change in the phonemic composition of its root:
1) Vowel-interchange (or ablaut): food – to feed. In some cases vowel-interchange is combined with suffixation: strong – strength;
2) Consonant-interchange: advice – to advise.
Consonant-interchange and vowel-interchange may be combined together: life – to live.
Sound imitation
(or onomatopoeia)
v Is the naming of an action or a thing by a more or less exact reproduction of the sound associated with it:
v Cock-a-doodle-do (English) – ку - ка - ре - ку (Russian). Semantically, onomatopoeic words fall into a few very definite groups:
1) Words denoting sounds produced by human beings in the process of communication or expressing their feelings, e.g. chatter, babble;
2) Words denoting sounds produces by animals, birds, insects, e.g. moo, croak, buzz’,
3) Other sounds e.g. splash, clink, whip, swing.
Back-formation (reversion)
Ø Is the formation of a new word by cutting a suffix from the words. The process is based on analogy.
Ø E.g., the word to butle ‘to serve as a butler’ is derived by subtraction of -er from a verbal stem in the noun butler.
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Distinctive stress
ü Is the formation of a word by means of the shift of the stress in the source word, e.g.: ‘increase (n) – increase (v), ‘absent (adj) – ab’sent (v).
Reduplicative compounds
Å That fall into 3 main subgroups: reduplicative compounds proper, ablaut combinations and rhyme combinations: hush-hush ‘secret’, murmur (from French), pooh-pooh (contempt). In blah-blah ‘nonsense’, idle talk’, pretty-pretty ‘affectedly pretty’, goody-goody ‘sentimentally and affectedly good’. Occur only in colloquial speech.
Ablaut combinations
are twin consisting of 1 basic morpheme which is repeated in the other constituent with a different vowel.
Å The typical changes are [i] – [ae]: chit-chat ‘gossip’, dilly-dally ‘loiter’, knick-knack ‘small cheap obj’, riff-raff ‘the mob’, shilly-shally ‘hesitate’, zigzag (from French), and [i] – [o]: ding-dong, ping-pong ‘table-tennis’, sing-song ‘monotonous voice’, tiptop ‘1st-rate’.
Rhyme combinations
Å Are twin forms consisting of 2 elements which are joined to rhyme: boogie-woogie, flibberty-gibberty ‘frivolous’, harum-scarum ‘uncontrolled’, helter-skelter ‘in disordered haste’, hoity-toity ‘snobbish’, humdrum ‘boring’, hurry-scurry ‘great hurry’, hurdy-gurdy ‘a small organ’, lovey-dovey ‘darling’, mumbo-jumbo ‘deliberate mystification, fetish’.
PSEUDO-COMPOUNDS
Æ The word like May-day not compound, this is a case of false-etymology, an attempt to find motivation for a borrowed word:
Æ May-day is a radio signal to call for help from a ship-plane, and it has nothing to do with May, but is a distortion of the French m’aidez ‘help me’.
CONVERSION. TYPICAL SEMANTIC RELATIONS IN CONVERSION
Ç Conversion is making a new word from an existing one by changing a part of speech: the morphemic shape remains unchanged, e.g.
Ç Work – to work, paper – to paper.
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Ç The converted word acquires a new paradigm and syntactic function which are peculiar to its new category as a part of speech, e.g. garden – to garden.
Main types
1) Verbalizations (the formation of verbs), e.g. to ape (from ape n.);
2) Substantivation (the formation of n.), e.g. a private (from private adj.);
3) Adjectivation, e.g. down (adj) (from down adv.)
4) Advertbalization e.g. home (adv) from home (n).
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