Ivan Franko National University
of Lviv
Lexicology
Hryhoriy Kochur Department of translation
studies and contrastive linguistics
Nadiia Andreichuk, professor
[email protected] Lecture 3
Categories and types of
present-day English
and Ukrainian
word-formation (part 1)
Contrast is the occurrence
of different elements
to create interest
A person’s tongue is a twisty
thing, there are plenty of
words there of every kind, and the
range of words is wide and their
variation.
Homer, The Illiad, 20
Plan
1. Definition of the field of word-formation.
2. Classification of the principal types of
word-formation.
3. Word-formation rules.
4. Productivity.
5. Contrastive analysis of affixation in
English and Ukrainian.
Ф
DEFINITION
the part of lexicology which studies the
patterns on which a language forms
new lexical units i.e. words.
word-formation is said to treat of
composites which are analyzable both
formally and semantically.
morphology vs word-formation
inflection produces from the stem (or
stems) of a given language all the word-
forms of that lexeme,
derivation results in the formation of what
is traditionally considered to be a different
word
Importance
the ability to make and understand new
words is admittedly as much of our linguistic
competence as the ability to make and
understand new sentences
fundamental assumptions
All types of word-formation may be viewed
from two angles:
- word-creation as a historical process;
- the relation of new words to the other
words in the language
principles of classification of the types
of word-formation
I.
Based upon the semantic structure of
word or words. Proceding from this principle we
may distinguish:
A.Derivation - the type where the
word has only one semantic centre, the other
morphemes being affixes, e.g. brotherhood.
B. Compounding - the type where
the word has at least two semantic centres,e.g.
red-hot, navy-blue walking-stick, newspaper, to
whitewash.
principles of classification of the types
of word-formation
II. Based on the relationship of components
to the new word. According to this principle
we have the following types:
A.Morphological word-building - creating
new words using morphemes and changing the
structure of the existing words after certain
linguistic patterns:
- derivation - suffixation and prefixation, zero-
derivation,
A.Morphological word-building
- compounding
- shortening
- sound-interchange
- stress-interchange
- back – formation
- lexicalization of grammatical form
back-formation
History provides quite a number of examples
where a derived form has preceded the word from
which (formally speaking) it is derived.
Thus editor entered the language before edit, lazy
before laze, and television before televize. The
process by which the shorter word is created by the
deletion of a supposed affix is known as back-
formation, since it reverses the normal trend of
word-formation, which is to add rather than to
subtract constituents.
back-formation
is a purely historical concept, however of
little relevance to the contemporary study of
word-formation.
To the present-day speaker of English, the
relationship between laze and lazy need be no
different from that between sleep and sleepy.
The process is particularly fruitful in
creating denominal verbs.
back-formation
It should be noted that new formations tend to be
used with some hesitation, especially in respect of
the full range of verbal inflections.
We had the agential baby-sitter before the verb
baby-sit and the form “Will you baby-sit for me?”
before inflected forms “He baby-sat for them”.
Other back-formations continue to display their
lack of established acceptability:
*They sight-saw, *She housekept.
Sound-interchange
includes vowel and consonant inerchange. Both are
nonproductive and offer no model to form new
words after, e.g.:
food - to feed a house - to house
gold - to gild to speak - speech
blood - to bleed defence - defend
present – presence
Stress-interchange formally served as word-
formation means and produced pairs like conflict -
to conflict.
lexicalization of grammatical form
a term used to denote the creation of an independent
word from one of word-forms
a number of English nouns in the plural form
underwent lexicalization and acquired independent
forms and meaning:
bead - коралик, beads - вервечка;
colour - колiр, colours – прапор
Synchronically -s in such words is regarded not as a
grammatical inflexion expressing plurality but as a
special case of affixation. It is not used in modern
English to coin new words.
B. Morphological-syntactic word-
building
- new words appear through transference from
one part of speech into another which implies both
a change in morphological and syntactic
peculiarities of a word
e.g. the unemployed, the poor, молода тополя i
молода запрошувала гостей на весiлля.
C. Lexico-syntactic word-building
the formation of new units by the process of
isolation from free word-combinations
e.g. forget-me-not,
marry-go-round,
stay-at-home,
happy-go-lucky,
kill- me-quick,
for-eyes-only,
pie-in-the-sky,
добранiч, нiсенiтниця
lexico-semantic word-building ?
Some scientists (М.А. Жовтобрюх and
Б.М.Кулик, М.Я. Плющ) are inclined to include
into this classification lexical-semantic word-
building i.e. any change in the meaning of word
that comes out as the result of the historical
development of the language
to move механізм
to run машина
to
manage автомобіль
critical remark
But if a word aquires a new meaning its just its
semantic system that is broadened. It becomes
polysemantic but no new word appears.
A new word appears when the limit of semantic
variation is reached and a homonym is created. But
it still doesn`t mean that semantic change is a
means of creating new words. Homonyms retain
no semantic connection with the initial word
Board — a long and thin piece of timber
Board — daily meals especially provided
for pay.
Board — an official group of persons who
direct or supervise some activity. A board of
directors
All the meanings developed from the
meaning “a table”.
rules of word-formation
usually differ from a syntactic rules in one
important respect: they are of limited
productivity: not all words which result from
the application of the rule are acceptable.
new words are freely acceptable only when
they have gained an institutional currency in
the language
rules of word-formation
there is a line to be drawn between “actual
words” (sandstone, unwise), and “potential
words” (*lemonstone, *unexcellent)
both of these being distinct from “non-
English words”:
*selfishless - the suffix -less added to an
adjective and not to a noun, does not obey
the rules of word-formation
rules of word-formation
1) are at the intersection of the historical
and contemporary (synchronic) study of
the language, providing a constant set of
“models” from which new words,
ephemeral or permanent, are created from
day to day
rules of word-formation
2) on a larger scale, the rules themselves
(like grammatical rules) undergo change:
affixes and compounding processes can
become productive or lose their
productivity; can increase or decrease their
range of meaning or grammatical
applicability
productive rules and “dead’’ processes
E.g. the Old Englsh suffix -th, no longer used to
form new words, survives in such nouns as
warmth, length, depth, width, breadth.
A corollary of this approach is that the historical
study of a word is irrelevant to its status as an
illustration of present-day rules: the fact that the
word unripe has existed in the English language
since Anglo-Saxon times does not prevent us
from using it as an example of a regular process
of word-formation still available in the language.
nonce formations
New formations, invented casually for a
particular occasion
E.g. She needs guidance, and the poor child
is as guidanceless as she is parentless
normally comprehensible, but used at a
certain cost to acceptability
referred to as nonce formations and are
liable to be criticized if too many are used
The term nonce word
was apparently the creation
of James Murray, the
influential editor of the
Oxford English Dictionary
A pseudoword or non-word
isa unit of speech or text that appears to be
an actual word in a certain language, while
in fact it has no meaning in the lexicon
Glokaya kuzdra (Глокая куздра)
a reference to a Russian language phrase
constructed from non-existent words in a
grammatically proper way
It was suggested by Lev Scherba
the full phrase is: "Глокая куздра штеко будланула
бокра и курдячит бокрёнка" (Glokaya kuzdra
shteko budlanula bokra i kurdyachit bokryonka)
All stems (glok-, kuzdr-, shtek-, budl-, bokr-, kurd-)
are meaningless, but all affixes are real, used in a
grammatically correct way
productivity
Any description of word-formation should
obviously be concerned with processes that
are productive at the present time.
The fact that words have resulted from the
past operation of word-formation processes
is in itself irrelevant from a synchronic point
of view
E.g. the word gospel cannot be seen as a modern
English word-formation, though formed in earlier
English from the words good and spell (in the
obsolete sense “news”) . Nor, as an English word, can
karate be seen as a ‘formation’, though in Japanese
it is clearly a junction of cara ‘empty’ and te ‘hand’.
productivity
On the other hand, words like ice-cream,
conceptualize, psychosomatic, workaholic,
motel, bionic have all been formed within
English not sufficiently recently as to be
representative of
currently productive
processes.
productivity
The native speaker operates daily in the
implicit knowledge that the meaning of most
adjectives can be negated by prefixing un-
and that most adjectives will permit the
formation of abstract nouns by suffixing –
ness
the distinction between productive and
nonproductive is by no means
straightforward. There is no simple parallel
to the use and non-use of forms
productivity
* fulgrace-dis [ on syntagmatic grounds:
dis- can only prefix]
* emptyless [ on semantic and grammatical
grounds: -less cannot be added to adjectives]
* thinkledge [-ledge is obsolete]
* doorleg [pragmatically excluded in
present world]
* snow-cream [a possible but unused
compound] etc.
Just have a look
https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com
productivity
There exists a point of view that productive means
are not merely those with the aid of which we can
form new words at a given stage of the development
of the language but those that can be used for the
formation of unlimited number of new words.
Therefore we can speak of limited productivity
and absolute productivity. There are means of
word-formation that cannot be used n o w for word-
formation e.g. lexicalization of grammatical forms,
sound-interchange, stress-interchange.
Most productive: Affixation
Is defined as the formation of words by adding
derivational affixes to stems. Once formed derived
words become independent lexical items that recieve
their own entry in a speaker’s mental dictionary.
Prefixes and suffixes differ significantly in their
linguistic status. Prefixes primarily effect a
semantic modification of the stem
primary function of suffixes being, by contrast, to
change the grammatical function (for example the
word class) of the stem.
Classification of derived words
1) according to the root-morpheme (e.g. woman,
womanly, womanish, womanized; добро, добрий,
доброта, добряга),
2) according to the affix morpheme(e.g. swimmer,
speaker, drinker; погонич, пiдпасич, керманич)
The first classification would put derived words into
a large number of small groups, while the second
would produce a limited number of very large
groups.
We should also note that there are often significant
relations between affixes: especially antonymy as
with pre- and post-, -full and -less.
suffixes
In order to make a comparative analysis of
suffixation in English and Ukrainian we will group
affixes according to the word class that results when
they are added to a base. We therefore will speak of
noun suffixes, verb suffixes etc.
In addition, since particular suffixes are frequently
associated with attachment to stems of particular
word classes, it is also convinient to speak of them as
denominal suffixes, de-adjectival suffixes, etc.
Suffixation
can be substabtialized and zero-suffixation.
This word-building type is the leading one in Indo-
European languages. The characteristic feature of
suffixation is its ability to combine with other means
of word-building:
prefixation, e.g. un-predict-able, по-дорож-ник;
compounding, e.g. blue-eye-ed, ясновид-ець,
postfixation, e.g. гурт-ув-а-ти-ся
Suffixation
can be used to create all principal parts of speech:
nouns: teacher, kingdom, difference, вмикач,
переселенець, танцюрист;
numerals: seventh, семеро;
adjectives: readable, денний, капроновий;
verbs: threaten, страхати, гикати;
adverbs: quickly, швидко, пішки, тричі
suffixation
Suffixes can be added to stems of all parts of speech:
noun : man-ly, україн-ець, хат-инк-а
adjective: black-ish, нов-ин-а
numeral: тр-ійк-а
pronoun: ти-ка-ти, сам-ець
verb: чита-льн-я, спів-ець,promot-er
adverb: вчора-шн-ій, тут-ешн-ій
conjunction: але-ка-ти
exclamation: ох-а-ти, му-ка-ти, ну-ка-ти
English and Ukrainian suffixes
English denominal nouns:
1.-age - measure of, collection of :
baggage, frontage, mileage
2.-dom - not very productive, tends to convey
pejorative [pɪ'ʤɒrətɪv] overtones : officialdom but
not in stardom or kingdom)
3.-ery, -ry -(a) the condition of behaviour
associated with: drudgery, slavery, (b) location of:
nursery, refinery,bakery, (c)
concrete aggragate : machinery, rocketry, d)
nouns rather freely formed: gadgetry
English denominal nouns
4.- ful - the amount contained in: spoonful, glassful
( freely formed)
5.- hood –state (only midely productive) :
boyhood, brotherhood, widowhood
7.- ing - (a) noncount concrete aggregates
( fairly freely formed with reference to the
material): tubing, panelling carpeting; (b) activity
connected with: cricketing, farming, blackberrying
( fairly freely made)
English denominal nouns
8.- ism - doctrine of, practice of : Calvinism,
idealism
9.- ocracy - government by: democracy,
aristocracy
10.- ship
limitedly productive : membership,dictatorship
Ukrainian denominal nouns
1.-ств(о), цтв(о) - властивiсть, стан:
геройство, молодецтво,
материнство, дитинство, скотарство,
бджiльництво
2.- iзм, изм - вчення, iдеологiчнi напрями:
реалiзм, натуралiзм
3.- чина, щина- часовi вiдтiнки, iсторичнi
рухи: бувальщина, панщина,
4.- няк - гаї, сади за породою дерев i кущiв
дубняк, вишняк
Ukrainian denominal nouns
• 5.- В(А) - ПОНЯТТЯ ЗБIРНОСТI : МОШВА
7.- н(я) - (pejorative): комашня
8.- ор(а) - дiтвора
9. - ин(а) - agricultural products:
садовина, городина
English deverbal nouns
1.- age - action of, instance of:
breakage, coverage
2.- ation - the process or state of:
exploration, starvation
3.- al - the action or result of: refusal, revival
dismissal
4.- ing - results from the action:
building, opening
5.- ment - the result of: arrangement,
management,amazement
Ukrainian deverbal nouns
1.- анн(я), енн(я), iнн(я) - широке
узагальнення процесу дii чи стану:
споживання, благання, зазiхання, терпiння
2.- к(а) опредмечена дiя, результат процесу :
розробка, перевозка
3.- б(а), -от(а) процес, стан: боротьба,
слiпота, турбота
4.- ин(а) - метушливi, безладнi дiї
бiганина, мiшанина
5.- тв(а) – (nonproductive): битва, клятва,
6.- iзацi(я), изацi(я) - заходи:
