The morphological structure of English words.

The morpheme. Types of morphemes in English: roots and affixes: prefixes and suffixes. Grammatical and derivational affixes. Free and bound morphemes. Semi-affixes. Combining forms. Allomorphs as positional variants of morphemes

All words consist of morphemes. A morpheme is the smallest invisible meaningful language unit within the structure of the word. Like a word, a morpheme is a two-faced language unit (every morpheme has a certain sound form & a certain meaning).

E.g. builder (build – root morpheme, er – suffix)

But unlike a word, a morpheme is not independent, it can occur in speech only as a constituent part of a word. Morphemes may have different phonetic or gr. forms.

E.g. pleasing, pleasant, pleasure (one root morpheme is represented by different phonetic shapes: плиз, плэз, плэж)

All the representations of a given morpheme are called allomorphs. Allomorphs (or morpheme variants) are positional variants (phonetic & graphical) of a given language.

There are different types of morphemes in English:

1) Acc. to their meaning & the role in word-building all morphemes are divided into 2 groups: root-morphemes (roots) & affixational morphemes (affixes).

The root morpheme is the lexical nucleus, the semantic centre of the word. The root-morpheme is a common part of a word-building means.

E.g. work, worker, workable, workday

Affixational morphemes can in their turn be subdivided into 2 groups:

1. Acc. to their position affixes can be subdivided into:

-prefixes (morphemes which precede the root) E.g. ab normal, ir relevant

-suffixes (morphemes which follow the root)

-infixes (morphemes which are placed within the root) E.g. sta n d

2. Acc. to their function & meaning all affixes may be divided into:

-grammatical affixes (functional affixes: endings, inflexions) are used to form ne gr. forms of the same word. There are 8 gr. affixes in English: -s, -ed, -ing, -er, -est – verbs; -s, -s’ – nouns; -th – numerals.

-derivational affixes serve to build new words. There are about 200 derivational affixes in English

2) Acc. to their structure morphemes may be divided into 3 groups:

-free-morphemes (coincide with separate word) E.g. heart less, dis agree, friend ly

-bound-morphemes (do not occur separately) E.g. horror (horr + bound affixal morpheme) horr – не существует

Free morphemes are always root morphemes. All affixes are bound morphemes.

-semi-affixes can function both as affixes & root morphemes. Semi-affixes: -man, -free, -phobia, -mania, -like, -proof, -oriented, half-, ill-, etc. E.g. lady like, water proof, half -sister, gentle man

Affixes should not be confused with combining forms. Combining forms are bound root morphemes of Greek or Latin origin (occur in cimpounds & derivatives): tele -, poly-, auto-, moto-, graph-, micro, -logy. E.g. tele vision, auto matic

There are also pseudo-morphemes. It occur in such words as: retain, detain/ receive, deceive - the sound clusters (‘re’ & ‘de’) can be easily signed out because they occur in a number of words. And they look like prefixes (re write) but they have nothing in common with these prefixes ‘re’ & ‘de. Theyare called quasi-morphemes. These are morphemes which make up words of conditional segmentability & do not possess the status of full morphemes for semantic reasons.

Besides, there are unique morphemes. They are morphemes which are occur only in some particular environment. That means that they are used in some combinations with other morphemes. E.g. streamlet, booklet, hamlet/ strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, cranberry

The morphological analysis of words. Levels of the morphological analysis: morphemic and derivational. The aim of the morphemic analysis. The method of immediate and ultimate constituents. Morphemic segmentability of English words. The derivational analyses, its aim. The derivative structure of the word, derivational bases, derivational affixes, derivational patterns

There are 2 levels of morphological analyses: morphemic & derivational.

1) The morphological analysis aims at breaking the word into constituent morphemes determining their number & type.

The method of Immediate (IC) & Ultimate (UC) Constituents is used. This method was first suggested by Bloomfield & later developed by many linguists.

At each stage the word is broken into 2 parts which are called IC. It is done on the basis of the procedures of the identification of the root & identification of the affix. The analysis is completed when we arrive at the constituency incapable of further division that is morphemes. They are called UC.

E.g. uncomfortable

Stage 1: we segment the word into 2 parts (ICs): un + comfortable. As a result we distinguish 2 different constituents. The IC un- is UC (incapable of further division).

Stage 2: we segment IC comfortable into to ICs: comfort + able. The ICs comfort- & -able are UCs.

The morphemic analysis doesn’t reveal the way a word is build. E.g. unmistakable, discouraging. Morphemically they refer to the same type. But they belong to different derivational types because they were built in 2 different ways. The way the word is built is related on the derivational level of the analysis un + mistakable (preffixal derivative)/ discourage + ing (suffixal derivative).

2) The derivational analyses aims at establishing correlations b/w different types of words, the structural & semantic patterns the words are build on. So, the derivational analysis shows the way word is built.

The derivational analysis deals with the derivational structure of the word. The nature, types & arrangement of the ICs of the word are known as the derivative structure.

The basic units of the derivative structure of words are: derivational bases, derivational affixes, derivational patterns.

-a derivational base is the constituent of the word to which a rule of word-building is applied

-a derivational affix is a morpheme which is used to build a new word

-a derivational pattern is a regular meaningful arrangement, structure that imposes fixed rules on the order & the nature of the derivational bases & affixes that may brought together. It shows the type of ICs, their order & arrangement. So, it shows how the word is built.

E.g. unmistakable: un + adj – a new adj is built/ discouraging: v + ing – a new adj is built

 

The main structural types of English words

Acc. to morphological structure words are divided into:

1. Root-words (consist of only 1 morpheme – the root)

2. Derivatives (consist of 2 or more morphemes – roots & affixes) E.g. unfortunately

3. Compounds (consist of 2 or more stems) E.g. bedroom, football

4. Compound derivatives (consist of 2 or more stems with a derivational affix) E.g. long-legged, honey-mooner

 

4. Word-building in English.

Word-building as the process of creating new words in a language with the help of its inner sources. Major, most productive means of word-building in English: affixation, conversion, composition

The vocabulary of the English language is of constant change & growth that means that new words constantly appear in the language. Some words are borrowed from foreign languages, some are built in the language as a result of word building. Word-building is a process of creating new words in a language with the help of its inner sources. Acc. to their productivity all word-building means are divided into major & minor. Productivity is the ability to built new words at a present time.

Major types of word-building in English: affixation, conversion & composition. They are the most productive means.

1) Affixation is the formation of new words by adding a derivational affix to a derivational base.

Affixation is divided into: suffixation & prefixation

1. Usually suffixes are classified according to the part of speech they form. They are:

-noun forming suffixes: to read - read er / free - free dom / dark - dark ness

-adjective forming suffixes: sun - sunn y / rock - rock y/ power -power ful

-verb forming suffixes: pure - to pur ify/ origin - to origin ate/ wide - to wid en

-adverb forming suffixes: quick - quick ly/ slow - slow ly

-numeral forming suffixes: four teen

2. Prefixes are classified acc. to their meaning. They are:

-negative prefixes: un grateful, in correct, dis loyal

-reversative prefixes un-, de-, dis-: dis connect

-pejorative prefixes mis-, mal-, pseudo-: mis pronounce, mal treat

-prefixes of time & order fore-, pre-, post-, ex-: fore tell, pre -war, post -war, ex -wife

-prefixes of repetition: re write

-locative prefixes super-, sub-, inter-, trans-: sub way, trans planted

-prefixes expressing number bi-, tri-, mono-, multi-

Both suffixes & prefixes may be classified acc. to their origin into native & borrowed. Acc. to their productivity both suffixes & prefixes are classified as productive & nonproductive.

Native Productive: -er, -ness, -less, -ful, -ster, -ed, -ing, -ish, -y, -ly, un-, under, over-, out-, mis-, fore-

Native Nonproductive: -th, -hood, -dom, -some, -ship

Foreign Productive: -ee, -ism, -al, -ic, -tion, -ist, -able, dis-, re-, pre-, anti-, en-, super-, non-

Foreign Nonproductive: -ant, -ent, -ous

There are 2 types of semantic relations: homonymy & synonymy.

Homonyms are words which are identical in sound form & spelling, but different in meaning.

E.g. homonymous affixes: - ful (1) – adjective forming – hope ful

- ful (2) – noun forming – spoon ful

Some affixes make a chain of synonyms.

E.g. synonymous affixes: read er, act or, music ian, engine er

Besides, some affixes are polysemantic (they have more than one meaning).

E.g. -er: 1) bak er, driv er, hunt er (occupations)

2) choos er, giv er, winn er (a doer of the action)

3) eras er, boil er, spray er (denote an instrument)

2) Conversion is a process of coining a new word in a different part of speech without adding any derivative elements so that the basic forms of the original word & the basic form of derived words are identical. There 2 main groups of formed by means of conversion derivatives:

1. de-nominal words (when verbs are built out of nouns)

E.g. fish – to fish, elbow – to elbow, honeymoon – to honeymoon

2. deverbal substantives (when nouns are built out of verbs)

E.g. to move – a move, to walk – a walk, to find – a find

3) Composition is a production of a new word by means of uniting 2 or more stems which exist in the language as free forms. Acc. to the type of composition & the linking element, there are following types of compounds:

1. Neutral compounds are built by means of steam junction without any morpheme as a link. They are subdivided into:

-simple neutral compound (consist of 2 simple stems) E.g. sky-blue, film-star

-derived compounds (include at least 1 derived steam) E.g. music-lover

-compound derivatives (consist of 2 pr more stems & an affix) E.g. honey-moon

-contacted compounds (have a shortened stem or a simple stem in their structure) E.g. v-day

2. Morphological compounds are compounds with a linking element. E.g. Anglo-Saxon, speedometer, handicraft

3. Syntactical compounds are formed from segments of speech by way of isolating speech sintagmas. E.g. brother-in-law, forget-me-not

Shortening in English: clipping and abbreviation

Shortening occupies an intermediate position b/w major &minor word-building means, because it is very productive only in colloquial speech and American English. Shortening is the formation of a word by cutting off a part of the word. Shortening include: clipping, ellipses, abbreviation.

1) Clipping is the word-formation process which consists in the reduction of the word to one of its parts. There are 4 types of klipping:

-initial (or aphesis) retains the final part. E.g. phone- telephone

-medial (or syncope) – the middle of the word is retained. E.g. specs- spectacles

-final (or apocope) – the beginning of the word is retained. E.g. advert- advertisement, veg-vegetables

-both initial & final. E.g. flue- influenza, fridge- refrigerator

2) Ellipses is defined as the omission of a word or words considered essential for gr. completeness but not for the conveyance of the intended lexical meaning.

E.g. The big sit down was planned for September 17 (where ‘ sitdown ’ stands for sit down demonstration).

3) Abbreviation is a word formation process when new words are made from the initial letters of a word or word group.

E.g. BBC- British Broadcasting Corporation / MP- Member of Parliament

Minor, less productive means of word-building in English: back-formation or reversion, blending or telescoping, reduplication, sound imitation. Mixed or synthetic word-building in Modern English

1) Back formation (also called back-derivation or reversion) is a way of word building by subtracting a real or supposed affix from existing words through misinterpretation of their structure.

Back formation is based on analogy. E.g. the existence of the agent nouns formed from verbs with the help of suffix -er / -or (painter- to paint, teacher- to teach) gave rise to the formation of verbs from nouns misinterpreted as their derivatives. E.g: to beg – from beggar, to baby-sit – from baby-sitter

2) Blending (or telescoping) is a way of word-building by combining 2 subtracted or contracted words into one acquiring the meaning of both. Words formed by blending are called blendings, blends or fusions.

E.g. smog – smoke + fog/ brunch – breakfast + lunch

3) Sound imitation (onomatopoeia or echoism) is the naming of an action of thing by a more or less exact reproduction of a sound associated with it. There are words naming:

-sounds & movements produced by water: splash, flash, bubble, blob

-sounds produced by animals, birds & insects: mew, hiss, buzz, moo

-sounds of human speech: grumble, murmur, mutter

-sounds produced by metallic things: clink, tinkle, giggle

4) Reduplication may be treated as a specific type of composition & words built by means of reduplication are called reduplicative compounds. They are made by doubling a stem:

-either without any phonetic changes (reduplicative pronounce proper) E.g. blah-blah – ‘nonsense’/ quack-quack – ‘duck’

-or with the variation of the root vowel (ablaut combinations) E.g. shilly-shally – ‘hesitate’/ tip-top – ‘first-rate’

-or with the variation of the consonant (rhyme combinations) E.g. boogie-woogie/ hurry-scurry ‘great hurry’

 

Mixed or synthetic word-building in Modern English

Synthetic (or mixed) ways of word-building combining 2 or more word-building means are very popular in modern English:

1. Composition + Suffixation: blue-eyed, straw-haired

2. Prefixation + Suffixation: unbelievable, unforgettable

3. Shortening + Affixation: baccy (tobacco + -y)

4. Composition + Conversion: to set up – a set up / to hang over – a hangover

All the major & minor means of word-building serve to develop the wealth of the English vocabulary forming new words.