Презентація на тему «Modern English Word Formation»

content: ModernEnglishWordFormation

content: The aim of this work is to teach students to be word-conscious, to be able to guessthe meaning of words they come across from the meaning of morphemes, to beable to recognize the origin of this or that lexical unit. The task of the work is to show the ways of word building, i.e. affixation,suffixation, compounds, statives, vowel and consonant alternations and conversion.Topical interest. This work is of topical interest because English is a livinggrowing language. The system of its sounds is subjected to various changes, thewords and word combinations undergo changes. The most noticible and mostappreciable transformations occur in words that form part of English, that is in itsvocabulary.

content: It is a matter of common knowledge that the vocabulary of any language is never stable, but is constantly changing, growing and decaying. The changes in the vocabulary of the language are due both to linguistic and extra-linguistic causes, which are determined by the social nature of the language.The intense development of science and technology has lately given birth to a great number of new words such as ‘computer', ‘cyclotron','radar', ‘psycholinguistics', etc.; the conquest and research of outer spacestarted by the Soviet people contributed words like ‘sputnik',‘lunokhod','babymoon','moon-car','spaceship'. It is significant that the suffix –nik occurring in the noun‘sputnik' is freely applied to new words of various kinds, e.g. ‘flopnik','mousenik', ‘woofnik',etc.

content: The ways in which new words are formed, and the factors which govern their acceptance into the language, are generally taken very much for granted by the average speaker to understand a word, it is necessary to know how it is constructed, whether it is simple or complex, that is whether ornot it can be broken down into two or more parts.We are able to use a word which is new to us when we find out what object or notion it denotes. Somewords, of course, are more understandable than others.

content: Unfathomable =negative prefix + adjective forming suffix =cannot be fathomed.Knowing the pattern, we can easily guess the meaning of a word although there are lots of other words which look similar, for instance, unfashionable and unfavourable for which this analysis will not work. We accept as quite natural the fact that although we can use the verbs ‘to pipe', ‘to drum' and ‘to trumpet', we cannot use the verbs ‘to piano' and ‘to violin'.

content: An unabridged English dictionary contains about 600 000 wordsThe bad news is that even if you have anexcellent vocabulary, you know only asmall percentage of those words. The goodnews, however, is that you can increaseyour vocabulary throughout your life. Theeven better news is that once you havelearnt a new word, it is yours for life. It willalways be stored away, ready to be recalledthe next time you have a conversation orwrite a letter or composition.

content: Some words have many different meanings.Let's take, for example, theword ‘titanic' in the followingsentences. 1. The Titanic sank inthe North Atlantic on an Aprilnight in 1912 after hitting aniceberg. 2. The enemies werelocked in a titanic struggle. Youcan tell from the first sentencethat Titanic is a ship and from thesecond sentence that ‘titanic'means “having great size, forceor power.

content: Context clues can help us learn the meaning of a word. The context of a word is the sentence, the surrounding words, or the situation in whichthe word appears.There are several types of them.1. Definition or restatement is defined in the sentence ,e.g.We read a collection of fables, short stories that teach a lesson.2. The meaning of the word is made clear by the example, e.g.Bombay is a populous city; one way the Indian government hastried to ease the overcrowding there is to build a second Bombay.3. Comparison. e.g. Joseph has always been amiable – almost as friendly as his older brother Mark.( As introduces a comparison between Joseph's disposition and that of his older brother.)4. Contrast. e.g. The mayor's popularity, soared to its highest point,but the city council's dropped to its nadir. ( A contrast is drawnbetween the highest point of the mayor's popularity and the lowest point, the nadir, of the city council's.

content: Means of word-formingEnglish is a living, growing language; new words areconstantly being added. English words come from manysources. Some come from the dead language Latin, andothers come from ancient Greek. Knowing the words andparts of words borrowed from Latin and Greek can help usunderstand the meaning of many English words. In general,English words are of two kinds:those that can beanalysed into smallerparts:untimelythose that cannottime, face, feel

content: The words of the first kind, which can be divided, are made up of parts calledprefixesrootssuffixesThey offer cluesto the meaning of the words.A rootis the part of a wordthat carries the basic meaning.A prefixis one or more syllablesplaced in frontof the root to modify the meaning of the rootor to form a new word.

content: PREFIXES HAVE BROAD GENERAL MEANINGS LIKE‘NOT', ‘UNDER', ‘AGAINST' AND ANY OF THEM MAY APPEARIN HUNDREDS OF DIFFERENT WORDS. BECAUSE PREFIXESOFTEN HAVE MORE THAN ONE MEANING, THEY CAN BE HARD TO INTERPRET.The main function of prefixesis to changethe lexical meaning of the same part of speech.There are 51 prefixes in the system of Modern English word formation.Prefixation

content: SuffixationIn Modern English, suffixation is mostly characteristic of noun and adjectiveformation, while prefixation is mostly typical of verb formation. The distinction alsorests on the role different types of meaning play in the semantic structure of thesuffix and the prefix. The part-of -speech meaning has a much greater significancein suffixes as compared to prefixes which possess it in a lesser degree.Due to it, a prefix may be confined to one part of speech as, for example, enslave,encage, unbutton ,or may function in more than one part of speech as over- inover kind, overfeed, overestimation.Unlike prefixes, suffixes as a rule function in any one part of speech often forminga derived stem of a different part of speech as compared with that of the base,e.g. careless - care; suitable - suit, etc. Furthermore, it is necessary to point outthat a suffix closely knit together with a base forms a fusion retaining less of itsindependence that a prefix which is as a general rule more independent semantically,e.g. reading- 'the act of one who reads'; 'ability to read'; andre-read — 'to read again'.

content: There are two kinds of suffixes:Grammatical Derivational-s, -ed, -ing-ly,-ence,ize,-hoodgrammatical provide a grammatical signal of some kind but don't greatlyalter the basic meaning of the word and those that, by being added, createnew words. The endingsare suffixesof the first kind. Grammatical suffixes are important in grammar, but in vocabulary we are more concerned with the second kind of suffixes –those that make new words – derivational suffixes.

content: Derivational suffixes can be classified according to the parts of speech.Old EnglishMEANINGEXAMPLES- DOMSTATE, RANK, CONDITIONSERFDOM,WISDOM, KINGDOM- NESSQUALITY, STATEGREATNESS, TALLNESS- thACT, STATE, QUALITYWARMTH, WIDTH, GROWTH- ERDOER, MAKERHUNTER, DANCER, READERForeign suffixes (Latin, French, Greek)- AGEPROCESS, STATE, RANKPASSAGE, BONDAGE- ANCE (ENCE)ACT, CONDITION, FACTACCEPTANCE, DIFFERENCEClassification of suffixes

content: - ARDONE THAT DOESDRANCARD, WIZARD- ATIONACTION, STATE, RESULTOCCUPATION, STARVATION- CYSTATE, CONDITIONACCURACY, CAPTAINCY- ESSFEMININEWAITRESS, LIONESS, TIGRESS- ISTDOER, BELIEVERMONOPOLIST, SOCIALIST- ITYSTATE, QUALITY, CONDITIONACIDITY, CIVILITY- ORDOER, OFFICE, ACTIONDIRECTOR, ELEVATOR- TUDEQUALITY, STATE, RESULTMAGNITUDE, FORTITUDE- TYQUALITY, STATEENMITY, ACTIVITY- SHIPSTATE OF BEINGFRIENDSHIP, MEMBERSHIPNoun suffixes

content: - FULFULL OF, MARKED BYTHANKFUL, ZESTFUL- ISHSUGGESTING LIKECHILDISH, BOYISH- LESSLACKING, WITHOUTHOPELESS, MOTHERLESS- LIKELIKE, SIMILARCHILDLIKE, DREAMLIKE- LYLIKE, OF THE NATURE OFFRIENDLY, QUEENLY- SOMEAPT TO, SHOWINGTIRESOME, LONESOME- ABLEABLE, LIKELYCAPABLE, TOLERABLE- ESQUEIN THE STYLE OF, LIKEPICTURESQUE, GROTESQUE- FICMAKING, CAUSINGTERRIFIC, BEATIFICAdjective suffixes

content: OLD ENGLISH SUFFIXES- ENCAUSE TO BEDEEPEN, STRENGTHENFOREIGN SUFFIXES- ATEBECOME, FORM, TREATANIMATE, SUBLIMATE- ESCEBECOME, GROW, CONTINUECONVALESCE, ACQUIESCE- FYMAKE, CAUSE, CAUSE TOGLORIFY, FORTIFY- ISHDO, MAKE, PERFORMPUNISH, FINISH- IZEMAKE, CAUSE TO BE, TREAT WITHCRITICIZEVerb suffixes

content: SUFFIXMEANINGEXAMPLE-IESMALL, FAMILIARBIRDIE, GIRLIE,NIGHTIE, AUNTIE- LETSMALL, UNIMPORTANTPIGLET, LEAFLET, SRARLET, BRACELET, STREAMLET- LINGUNIMPORTANT,DEROGATORYDUCKLING, DARLING,SQUIRRELING- ETTE, - ETFEMININE FORM,IMITATIONUSHERETTE, ROOMETTE,KITCHENETTE, CORONET- YFAMILIAR FORM (USED INFAMILY, WITH CHILDREN)Daddy, Billy, doggy- OCKSMALLHILLOCK, BULLOCK- ENSMALLKITCHEN, CHICKEN- CLE, CULELESSENINGARTICLE, PARTICLE, GLOBULESuffixes indicating smallness or lessening

content: When speaking about the structure of words stems shouldalso be mentioned. The stem is the part of the wordwhich remains unchanged throughout the paradigmof the word. Stems have not only the lexical meaning butalso grammatical meaning. They can be noun stems, adjectivestems and verb stems. Sometimes it is rather difficult todistinguish between simple and derived words, especially inthe cases of phonetic borrowings from other languages andof native languages with blocked morphemes, e.g. “cranberry”,“absence”,etc.Roots

content: Compound nouns are nouns built from two or more roots.They often have one stress. The meaning of a compoundoften differs from the meaning of its elements.Compounding- is one of the productive types of word-formation in Modern English.Compound words are inseparable vocabulary units.They are formally and semantically dependent on theconstituent bases and the semantic relations between themwhich mirror the relations between the motivating units.The main types of compound nouns are as follows:Compoundsnoun-stem+noun -stemapple-tree, snowball, newspaperadjective stem+ noun stemblackbird, whitehorn, blackleg

content: Stonewall combinationsIn Modern English there are lots of word combinations of the type price rise, wage freeze, steel helmet, sand castle.Grammarians can't come to the conclusion whether adjectives can be formed by means of conversion from nouns.

content: AbbreviationsThe causes of shortening can be linguistic and extra-linguistic. Abbreviation doesn't change the part-of-speech meaning.Examples: prof=professor, to rev=to revolve, comfy=comfortable.

content: Such words as asleep, abed, ablaze, afraid, akin, alive havebeen named adjectives, though they can'tbe attributes in a sentence, and though their meaningdoesn't seem to be that of property. The a- means on,in or at. Statives are invariable. They often show atemporary state rather than a permanent one. Theymost usually follow a link-verb (was asleep) or theycan be used like a participle, but they can't go beforethe noun they modify. In the sentence a stative is mostusually a predicative (he fell asleep).The statives

content: Conversion, one of the principal ways of forming words in ModernEnglish is highly productive in replenishing the English word-stockwith new words. This term refers to the numerous cases of wordsbelonging to different parts of speech. This may be illustrated bythe following cases: work – to work; love – to love; paper –to paper. As a rule we deal with simple words. There is a certaindifference on the morphological level between various parts ofspeech, mostly between nouns and verbs. What serves a word-building means? The answer is a paradigm. As it is a morphologi-cal category, conversion can be described as a morphologicalway of forming words.Conversion

content: Blends are words formed from a word-group or two synonyms.In blends two ways of word-building are combined: abbreviationand composition. To form a blend we clip the end of the firstcomponent and the beginning of the second component. As aresult we have a compound –shortened word. One of the firstblends in English was the word “smog” from two synonyms:smoke and fog. Mostly blends are formed from a word-group:cinemadictinformecialslimnasticsslanguistdramedyfactionmedicaresocialiteacromaniachunnelmegalogBlends

content: Cinemadict – cinema addict,informecial – informational commercialslimnastics – slimming gymnasticsslanguist – slang linguistacromania – acronym maniachunnel – channel, canalmegalog – magazine cataloguedramedy – drama comedyfaction – fact fiction – fiction based on real factsmedicare – medical caresocialite – social elite