LEXICOLOGY COURSE

LECTURE 4
WORD STRUCTURE AND
WORD FORMATION
www.philology.bsu.by/кафедры/кафедра английского
языкознания/учебные материалы/кафедра английского
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The questions under
consideration
1. Morpheme. Allomorph
2. Word Structure
3. Immediate Constituents Analysis
4. Affixation
5. Conversion
6. Word-Composition
6.1. Properties of compounds
7. Other Types of Word Formation
Word-formation (definition)
Word-formation is the branch of
lexicology that studies
the derivative structure of existing words
and
the patterns on which a language builds
new words.
It is a certain principle of classification of
lexicon and
one of the main ways of enriching the
vocabulary.
Word-formation is studied
synchronically Diachronically

Scholars investigate Scholars investigate

the existing system the history of word-
of the types of word- formation
formation
1. Morpheme. Allomorph
The smallest unit of language that carries
information about meaning or function is
the morpheme.
(Greek morphe "form"
+ -eme "the smallest distinctive unit")
 Examples of morphemes
BUILD+ER
build (with the meaning of "construct")
-er (which indicates that the entire word
functions as a noun with the meaning
"one who builds").
HOUSE+S
house (with the meaning of "dwelling")
-s (with the meaning "more than one")
simple words vs complex words
and
boy — boy-s
hunt — hunt-er —hunt-er-s
act act-ive — act-iv-ate ––re-act-iv-ate

Simple words cannot be divided into

smaller parts. Complex words contain
two or more morphemes.
morphemes are two-facet language
units
A morpheme is a meaning and a stretch
of sound joined together.

It is the minimum meaningful language

unit.
 Structure of morphemes
free morpheme bound morpheme

(can be a word by (must be attached to

itself, another element,
coincides with the only can be a part of
stem or a word-form) a word )
 allomorphs (from Greek allos
"other")
All the representatives of the given
morpheme are called allomorphs of that
morpheme.
An allomorph is a positional variant of
that or this morpheme occurring in a
specific environment.
Examples of allomorphs
an orange, an accent, a car
cats, dogs, judges (the plural morpheme –
s)
assert /assert-ion, permit/permiss-ive,
include/inclus-ive, electric/electric-ity,
impress/impress-ion
 2. Word Structure
Words that can be divided have two or
more parts:
• a root
• affixes (a prefix, a suffix )
• inflection
 Word Structure
A root constitutes the core of the word
and carries the major component of its
meaning. It has more specific and
definite meaning
Affixes are morphemes that modify the
meaning of the root. An affix added
before the root is called a prefix (un-
ending); an affix added after the root is
called a suffix (kind-ness).
Examples of word structure
un-work-able
govern-ment
fright-en-ing
re-play

A word may have one or more affixes of

either kind, or several of both kinds.
 A base
A base is the form to which an affix is
added. In many cases, the base is also the
root. In other cases, however, the base
can be larger than a root.
Blackened
Blacken (verbal base) +ed
Blacken
Black (not only the root for the entire word
but also the base for) +en
 suffixes vs inflections
Suffixes can form a new part of speech,
e.g.: beauty — beautiful. They can also
change the meaning of the root, e.g.:
black — blackish.
Inflections are morphemes used to
change grammar forms of the word, e.g.:
work — works — worked—working.
English is not a highly inflected language.
Four structural types of words in
English
 simple (root) words consist of one root
morpheme and an inflexion (boy, warm, law,
tables, tenth);
 derived words consist of one root
morpheme, one or several affixes and an
inflexion (unmanageable, lawful);
 compound words consist of two or more root
morphemes and an inflexion (boyfriend,
outlaw);
 compound-derived words consist of two or
more root morphemes, one or more affixes
and an inflexion (left-handed, warm-hearted,
blue-eyed).
Two main types of word-formation
word-derivation word-composition
(encouragement, (blackboard,
irresistible, worker) daydream, weekend)

Subdivided into Subdivided into

 Affixation • Derivational
Conversion Composition
Derivational
Composition
 3. Immediate Constituents
Analysis (L. Bloomfield)
Why is it used? (to discover the
derivational structure of lexical units).
How? First we separate a free and a
bound forms. At any level we obtain only
two ICs.
 Ungentlemanly

1.un— + gentlemanly
2. gentleman + -ly
3. gentle + man
4. as a result, un + (gentle + man) + ly
eatable uneatable
The adjective eatable the adjective
consists of two ICs uneatable is a
eat + able and may prefixal derivative
be described as a (the two ICs are un +
suffixal derivative eatable)
 4. Affixation
is a basic means of forming words
suffixation prefixation
• is characteristic of • is typical of verb
noun and adjective formation
formation
• does not only modify • modifies the lexical
the lexical meaning meaning of stems
of the stem, • joins the part of
• but transfers the speech the
word to another part unprefixed word
of speech care (n) / belongs to, e.g. usual
care — less (adj). /un — usual.
 classification of suffixes
their origin
meaning
part of speech they form
productivity
according to their origin:
Romanic (e.g. -age, -ment, -tion),
Native (-er, -dom, -ship),
Greek (-ism, -ize), etc
according to their meaning :
 -er denotes the agent of the action,
 -ess denotes feminine gender,
 -ence/ance has abstract meaning,
 -age, -dom — collectivity
according to their part of speech
they form :
noun suffixes -er, -ness, -ment;
adjective-forming suffixes -ish, -ful, -less,
-y;
verb-suffixes -en, -fy,
according to their productivity :
What is productivity? It is the relative
freedom with which they can combine
with bases of the appropriate category
 productive suffixes are -er, -ly, -ness, -
ie, -let,
 non-productive (-dom, -th)
 semi-productive (-eer, -ward).
 Classification of Prefixes
their origin
meaning
productivity
according to their origin:
 Native, e.g. un-;
 Romanic, e.g. in-;
 Greek, e.g. sym-;
 according to meaning
negative prefixes in-, un-, поп-, a-, dis-;
prefixes of time and order ex-, neo-,
after-, fore-, post-, proto-;
 prefix of repetition re-;
size and degree: hyper-, mega-, mini-,
super-, sur-, ultra-, vice-, etc
according to productivity
What is productivity? It is the ability to
make new words:

e.g. un- is highly productive.

 5. Conversion (definition)
• It is a kind of word formation.
• The process of making new parts of
speech without the addition of an affix.
• It is a productive way of forming words
in English.
• It is sometimes called zero derivation.
Examples of coversion
He was knocked out in the first round.
Round the number off to the nearest
tenth.
The neighbors gathered round our
barbecue.
The moon was bright and round.
People came from all the country round.
 Conversion
Prof. Smirnitsky A. I. in his works on the
English language treats conversion as a
morphological way of forming words.
Other linguists (H. Marchand, V.N.
Yartseva, Yu.A. Zhluktenko, A.Y.
Zagoruiko, I.V. Arnold) treat conversion
as a combined morphological and
syntactic way of word-building, as a new
word appears not in isolation but in a
definite environment of other words.
The three most common types of
conversion
verbs derived from nouns (to butter, to
ship),
nouns derived from verbs (a survey, a
call),
verbs derived from adjectives (to empty).
Less common types of conversion
nouns from:
adjectives (a bitter, the poor, a final),
from phrases, e.g. a down-and-out,
verbs from prepositions (up the price, out
e.g. diplomats were outed from the
country; Truth will out. - Истина станет
известной)
Verbs converted from nouns
 instrumental use of the object, e.g.
screw — to screw, eye — to eye;
 action characteristic of the object, e.g.
ape — to ape;
 acquisition: fish — to fish;
 deprivation of the object, e.g. dust — to
dust
Nouns converted from verbs
 instance of an action, e.g. to move — a
move;
 word — agent of an action, e.g. to bore
— a bore;
 place of an action, e.g. to walk — a
walk;
 result of the action, e.g. to cut — a cut
 6.Word-Composition
Word-composition is the combination of
two or more existing words to create a
new word
e.g. campsite (N+N), bluebird (A+N),
whitewash (A+V), in-laws (P+N), jumpsuit
(V+N).
 Word-Composition
In most compounds the rightmost
morpheme determines the category of
the entire word,
e.g. greenhouse is a noun because its
rightmost component is a noun,
spoonfeed is a verb because feed also
belongs to this category, and
nationwide is an adjective just as wide is.
6.1. Properties of compounds
How can compounds in English be
written? - Differently:
as single words,
with an intervening hyphen,
as separate words.
 endocentric compounds
If a compound denotes a subtype of the
concept denoted by its head it is called
endocentric.
Thus, cat food is a type of food, sky blue is a
type of blue
airplane, steamboat, policeman, bathtowel
 exocentric compounds
If the meaning of the compound does not
follow from the meanings of its parts it is
said to be exocentric
e.g. redneck is a person and not a type of
neck;
walkman is a type of portable radio.
Classification of compounds according to
the principle
1) of the parts of speech compound words
represent:
nouns: night-gown, waterfall, looking-glass;
verbs: to honeymoon, to outgrow;
adjectives: peace-loving, hard-working,
pennywise;
adverbs: downstairs, lip-deep;
prepositions: within, into, onto;
numerals: thirty-seven;
Classification of compounds according to
the principle
2.of the means of composition used to link the
two ICs together:
neutral — formed by joining together two
stems without connecting elements
(juxtaposition), e.g. scarecrow, goldfish,
crybaby;
morphological — components are joined by a
linking element, i.e. vowels ‘o’ and ‘i’ or the
consonant ‘s’, e.g. videophone, tragicomic,
handicraft, craftsman, microchip;
syntactical — the components are joined by
means of form-word stems, e.g. man-of-war,
forget-me-not, bread-and-butter, face-to-face;
7. Other Types of Word Formation
back-formation or disaffixation (baby-sitter —
to baby-sit). Back-formation is a process that
creates a new word by removing a real or
supposed affix from another word in the
language.
sound interchange (speak — speech, blood —
bleed), and sound imitation (walkie-talkie, brag
rags, to giggle);
distinctive change ('conduct — to con 'duct,
'increase — to in crease, 'subject — to subject);
Other Types of Word Formation
blending: these are words that are created
from parts of two already existing items,
usually the first part of one and the final
part of the other:
brunch from breakfast and lunch,
smog from smoke and fog
clipping is a process that shortens a
polysyllabic word by deleting one or
more syllables: prof for professor, burger
for hamburger.
Other Types of Word Formation
acronymy: NATO, NASA, WAC, UNESCO.
Acronyms are formed by taking the initial
letters of the words in a phrase and
pronouncing them as a word. (names of
organizations and in terminology).
NASA stands for National Aeronautics
and Space Administration, NA TO —
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Other Types of Word Formation
onomatopoeia, i.e. formations of words
from sounds that resemble those
associated with the object or action to be
named, or that seem suggestive of its
qualities.
e.g. hiss, buzz, meow, cock-a-doodle-doo,
and cuckoo