Morphemic Repetition. Extension of Morphemic Valency

 

The basic unit of this level being a morpheme we shall concentrate on examining the ways of foregrounding a morpheme so that the latter, apart from its internet meaning, becomes vehicle of additional information - logical, emotive, expressive.

One important way of promoting a morpheme is its repetition. Both root and affixational morphemes can be emphasized through repetition. Especially vividly it is observed in the repetition of affixational morphemes which normally carry the main weight of the structural and not of the denotational significance. When repeated, they come into the focus of attention and stress either their logical meaning (e.g. that of contrast, negation, absence of quality as in prefixes a-, anti-, mis-; or of smallness as in suffixes -ling and -ette); their emotive and evaluative meaning, as in suffixes forming degrees of comparison; or else they add to the rhythmical effect and text unity.

The second, even more effective way of using a morpheme for the creation of additional information is extension of its normative valency which results in the formation of new words. They are not neologisms in the true sense for they are created for special communicative situations only, and are not used beyond these occasions. This is why they are called occasional words and are characterized by freshness, originality, lucidity of their inner form and morphemic structure.

Very often occasional words are the result of morphemic repetition. Cf.: "I am an undersecretary in an underbureau." The stress on the insignificance of the occupation of I. Shaw's heroine brings forth both-the repetition of the prefix under- and the appearance, due to it, of the occasional word "underbureau".

In case of repetition a morpheme gains much independence and bears major responsibility for the creation of additional information and stylistic effect. In case of occasional coinages an individual morpheme is only instrumental in bringing forth the impact of their combination, i.e. of new individual lexical unit.

ASSIGNMENTS FOR SELF-CONTROL

1. What are the main cases of morphemic foregrounding?

2. What are the functions of morphemic repetition?

3. How are morphemes foregrounded in occasional words?

4. What is the difference between occasional words and neologisms?

EXERCISES

I. State the function of the following cases of morphemic repetition:

1. She unchained, unbolted and unlocked the door. (A.B.)

2. It was there again, more clearly than before: the terrible expression of pain in her eyes; unblinking, unaccepting, unbelieving pain. (D.U.)

3. We were sitting in the cheapest of all the cheap restaurants that cheapen that very cheap and noisy street, the Rue des Petites Champs in Paris. (H.)

4. Young Blight made a great show of fetching from his desk a long thin manuscript volume with a brown paper cover, and running his finger down the day's appointments, murmuring: "Mr. Aggs, Mr. Baggs, Mr. Caggs, Mr. Daggs, Mr. Faggs, Mr. Gaggs, Mr. Boffin. Yes, sir, quite right. You are a little before your time, sir." (D.)

5. Young Blight made another great show of changing the volume, taking up a pen, sucking it, dipping it, and running over previous entries before he wrote. As, "Mr. Alley, Mr. Bailey, Mr. Galley, Mr. Dalley, Mr. Falley, Mr. Galley, Mr. Halley, Mr. Lalley, 'Mr. Malley. And Mr. Boffin." (D.)

6. New scum, of course, has risen to take the place of the old, but the oldest scum, the thickest scum, and the scummiest scum has come from across the ocean. (H.)

7. At the time light rain or storm darked the fortress I watched the coming of dark from the high tower. The fortress with its rocky view showed its temporary darkling life of lanterns. (Jn. H.)

8. Laughing, crying, cheering, chaffing, singing, David Rossi's people brought him home in triumph. (H.C.)

9. In a sudden burst of slipping, climbing, jingling, clinking and talking, they arrived at the convent door. (D.)

10. The procession then re-formed; the chairmen resumed their stations, and the march was re-commenced. (D.)

11. The precious twins - untried, unnoticed, undirected - and I say it quiet with my hands down - undiscovered. (S.)

12. We are overbrave and overfearful, overfriendly and at the same time frightened of strangers, we're oversentimental and realistic. (P.St.)

13. There was then a calling over of names, and great work of singeing, sealing, stamping, inking, and sanding, with exceedingly blurred, gritty and undecipherable results. (D.)

14. The Major and the two Sportsmen form a silent group as Henderson, on the floor, goes through a protracted death agony, moaning and gasping, shrieking, muttering, shivering, babbling, reaching upward toward nothing once or twice for help, turning, writhing, struggling, giving up at last, sinking flat, and finally, after a waning gasp lying absolutely still. (Js.H.)

15. She was a lone spectator, but never a lonely one, because the warmth of company was unnecessary to her. (P. Ch.)

16. "Gentlemen, I put it to you"that this band is a swindle. This band is an abandoned band. It cannot play a good godly tune, gentlemen." (W.D.)

17. He wished she would not look at him in this new way. For things were changing, something was changing now, this minute, just when he thought they would never change again, just when he found a way to live in that changelessness. (R.W.)

18. Three million years ago something had passed this way, had left this unknown and perhaps unknowable symbol of its purpose, and had returned to the planets - or to the stars. (A. C.)

19. "Sit down, you dancing, prancing, shambling, scrambling fool parrot! Sit down!" (D.)

II. Analyze the morphemic structure and the purpose of creating the occasional words in the following examples:

1. The girls could not take off their panama hats because this was not far from the school gates and hatlessness was an offence. (M. Sp.)

2. David, in his new grown-upness, had already a sort of authority.(І.М.)

3. That fact had all the unbelievableness of the sudden wound. (R.W.)

4. Suddenly he felt a horror of her otherness. (J.B.)

5. Lucy wasn't Willie's luck. Or his unluck either. (R.W.)

6. She was waiting for something to happen or for everything to un-happen. (Т. Н.)

7. He didn't seem to think that that was very funny. But he didn't seem to think it was especially unfunny. (R.W.)

8. "You asked him."

"I'm un-asking him," the Boss replied. (R.W.)

9. He looked pretty good for a fifty-four-year-old former college athlete who for years had overindulged and underexercized. (D.U.)

10. She was a young and unbeautiful woman. (I.Sh.)

11. The descriptions were of two unextraordinary boys: three and a half and six years old. (D.U.)

12. The girl began to intuit what was required of her. (Jn. H.)

13. "Mr. Hamilton, you haven't any children, have you?"

"Well, no. And I'm sorry about that, I guess. I am sorriest about that." (J. St.)

14. "To think that I should have lived to be good-morninged by Belladonna look's son!"(A.T.)

15. There were ladies too, en cheveux, in caps and bonnets, some of whom knew Trilby, and thee'd and thou'd with familiar and friendly affection, while others mademoiselle'd her with distant politeness and were mademoiselle's and madame'd back again. (D. du M.)

16. Parritt turns startledly. (O'N.)

17. The chairs are very close together - so close that the advisee almost touches knees with the adviser. (Jn.B.)

III. Discuss the following cases of morphemic foregrounding:

1. The District Attorney's office was not only panelled, draped and carpeted, it was also chandeliered with a huge brass affair hanging from the center of the ceiling. (D.U.)

2. He's no public offender, bless you, now! He's medalled and ribboned, and starred, and crossed, and I don't know what all'd, like a born nobleman. (D.)

3. I gave myself the once-over in the bathroom mirror: freshly shaved, clean-shirted, dark-suited and neck-tied. (D.U.)

4. Well, a kept woman is somebody who is perfumed, and clothed, and wined, and dined, and sometimes romanced heavily. (Jn. C.)

5. It's the knowledge of the unendingness and of the repetitious uselessness that makes Fatigue fatigue. (J.)

6. The loneliness would suddenly overcome you like lostness and too-lateness, and a grief you had no name for. (R.W.)

7. I came here determined not to be angry, or weepy, or preachy. (U.)

8. Militant feminists grumble that history is exactly what it says -His-story - and not Her story at all. (D.B.)

9. This dree to-ing and fro-ing persisted throughout the night and the next day. (D. B.)

10. "I love you mucher."

"Plently mucher? Me tooer." (J.Br.)

11. "I'm going to build me the God-damnedest, biggest, chromium-platedest, formaldehyde-stinkingest free hospital and health center." (R.W.)

12. So: I'm not just talented. I'm geniused. (Sh. D.)

13. Chickens - the tiny balls of fluff passed on into semi-naked pullethood and from that into dead henhood. (Sh. A.)

14. I'll disown you, I'll disinherit you, I'll unget you. (R. Sh.)

15. "Ready?" said the old gentleman, inquiringly, when his guests had been washed, mended, brushed, and brandied. (D.)

16. But it is impossible that I should give myself. My being, my me-ness, is unique and indivisible. (An.C.)

CHAPTER II. LEXICAL LEVEL

Word and its Semantic Structure.

Connotational Meanings of a Word.

The Role of the Context in the Actualization of Meaning.

 

The idea of previous chapters was to illustrate potential possibilities of linguistic units more primitive than the word, found at lower levels of language structure and yet capable of conveying additional information when foregrounded in a specially organized context.

The forthcoming chapter is going to be one of the longest and most important in this book, for it is devoted to a linguistic unit of major significance - the word, which'names, qualifies and evaluates the micro-and marcrocosm of the surrounding world. The most essential feature of a word is that it expresses the concept of a thing, process, phenomenon, naming (denoting) them. Concept is a logical category, its linguistic counterpart is meaning. Meaning, as the outstanding scholar L. Vygotsky put it, is the unity of generalization, communication and thinking. An entity of extreme complexity, the meaning of a word is liable to historical changes, of which you know from the course of lexicology and which are responsible for the formation of an expanded semantic structure of a word. This structure is constituted of various types of lexical meanings, the major one being denotational, which informs of the subject of communication; and also including connotational, which informs about the participants and conditions of communication.

The list and specifications of connotational meanings vary with different linguistic schools and individual scholars and include such entries as pragmatic (directed at the perlocutionary effect of utterance), associative (connected, through individual psychological or linguistic associations, with related and nonrelated notions), ideological, or conceptual (revealing political, social, ideological preferences of the user), evaluative (stating the value of the indicated notion), emotive (revealing the emotional layer of cognition and perception), expressive (aiming at creating the image of the object in question), stylistic (indicating "the register", or the situation of the communication).

The above-mentioned meanings are classified as connotational not only because they supply additional (and not the logical/denotational) information, but also because, for the most part, they are observed not all at once and not in all words either. Some of them are more important for the act of communication than the others. Very often they qverlap.

So, all words possessing an emotive meaning are also evaluative (e.g. "rascal", "ducky"), though this rule is not reversed, as we can find non-emotive, intellectual evaiuation (e.g. "good", "bad"). Again, all emotive words (or practically all, for that matter) are also expressive, while there are hundreds of expressive words which cannot be treated as emotive (take, for example the so-called expressive verbs, which not only denote some action or process but also create their image, as in "to gulp" = to swallow in big lumps, in a hurry; or "to sprint" = to run fast).

The number, importance and the overlapping character of connotational meanings incorporated into the semantic structure of a word, are brought forth by the context, i.e. a concrete speech act that identifies and actualizes each one. More than that: each context does not only specify the existing semantic (both denotational and connotational) possibilities of a word, but also is capable of adding new ones, or deviating rather considerably from what is registered in the dictionary. Because of that all contextual meanings of a word can never be exhausted or comprehensively enumerated. Compare the following cases of contextual use of the verb "to pop" in Stan Barstow's novel "Ask Me Tomorrow":

1. His face is red at first and then it goes white and his eyes stare as if they'll pop out of his head.

2. "Just pop into the scullery and get me something to stand this on."

3. "There is a fish and chip shop up on the main road. I thought you might show your gratitude by popping up for some."

4. "I've no need to change or anything then." "No, just pop your coat on and you're fine."

5. "Actually Mrs. Swallow is out. But she won't be long. She's popped up the road to the shops."

6. "Would you like me to pop downstairs and make you a cup of cocoa?"

In the semantic actualization of a word the context plays a dual role: on one hand, it cuts off all meanings irrelevant for the given communicative situation. On the other, it foregrounds one of the meaningful options of a word, focusing the communicators' attention on one of the denotational or connonational components of its semantic structure.

The significance of the context is comparatively small in the field of stylistic connotations, because the word is labelled stylistically before it enters some context, i.e. in the dictionary: recollect the well-known contractions -vulg., arch., si., etc., which make an indispensable part of a dictionary entry. So there is sense to start the survey of connotational meanings with the stylistic differentiation of the vocabulary.

Stylistic Differentiation of the Vocabulary: