English lexicology

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1. Lexicology as a science

The term Lexicology is composed of two Greek morphemes: lexis meaning `word, phrase' (hence lexicos `having to do with words') and logos which denotes `learning, a department of knowledge'. Lexicology, a branch of linguistics, is the study of words.

Lexicology as a branch of linguistics has its own aims and methods of scientific research, its basic task being a study and systematic description of vocabulary in respect to its origin, development and current use. Lexicology is concerned with words, variable word-groups, phraseological units, and with morphemes which make up words.

Distinction is naturally made between General Lexicology and Special Lexicology. General Lexicology is part of General Linguistics; it is concerned with the study of vocabulary irrespective of the specific features of any particular language. Special Lexicology is the Lexicology of a particular language (e.g. English, Russian, etc.), i.e. the study and description of its vocabulary and vocabulary units. Special Lexicology is based on the principles worked out and laid down by General Lexicology, a general theory of vocabulary.

Historical - studies the origin, change and development of the words; Descriptive - studies the vocabulary of a given language at a given stage of its development.

There is also a close relationship between Lexicology and Stylistics or, to be more exact, Linguo-Stylistics. Linguo-Stylistics is concerned with the study of the nature, functions and structure of stylistic devices, on the one hand, and with the investigation of each style of language, on the other, i.e. with its aim, its structure, its characteristic features and the effect it produces as well as its interrelation with the other styles of language.

Lexicology is connected with other sciences which also study words, though, from different sides:

general linguistics ,

the history of the language (etymology of words) ,

phonetics (acoustic level of the words) ,

grammar (morphemes as parts of words and grammatical rules of their combining) ,

stylistics (words as stylistic devices).

There are two principal approaches in linguistic science to the study of language material, namely the synchronic (Gr. syn -- `together, with' and chronos -- `time') and the diachronic (Gr. dia -- `through') approach.

The synchronic approach is concerned with the vocabulary of a language as it exists at a given time, for instance, at the present time. It is special Descriptive Lixicology that deals with the vocabulary and vocabulary units of a particular language at a certain time.

The diachronic approach deals with the changes and the development of vocabulary in the course of time. It is special Historical Lexicology that deals with the evolution of the vocabulary units of a language as time goes by. An English Historical Lexicology would be concerned, therefore, with the origin of English vocabulary units, their change and development, the linguistic and extralinguistic factors modifying their structure, meaning and usage within the history of the English language.

The two approaches should not be contrasted, or set one against the other; in fact, they are intrinsically interconnected and interdependent: every linguistic structure and system actually exists in a state of constant development so that the synchronic state of a language system is a result of a long process of linguistic evolution, of its historical development.

Closely connected with Historical Lexicology is Contrastive and Comparative Lexicology whose aims are to study the correlation between the vocabularies of two or more languages, and find out the correspondences between the vocabulary units of the languages under comparison. Of primary importance in this respect is the comparison of the foreign language with the mother tongue. Comparative Lexicology is closely connected with Cognitive Lexicology, which is based on the assumption that words of the language represent our knowledge of the world which is the result of cognitive process. It studies the way human knowledge is represented in vocabulary and also studies the laws of vocabulary acquisition.

Branches:

? Semantics - studies meanings of words

? Etymology - origin of words

? Phraseology - special lexical units (idioms, set-phrases, etc.)

? Lexicography - an applied branch - deals with science of compiling dictionaries.

2. Branches of lexicology

Lexicology consists of the following parts, or branches:

1. Etymology, which studies the origin of words and the connections of the vocabulary of the given language with the vocabularies of other languages.

2. Word-structure (word-building), which studies the elements the word consists of (morphemes: roots, affixes) and the patterns according to which words are built: affixation, composition, conversion, shortening, sound imitation, etc.

3. Semasiology [meisi], which studies the meaning of words, its types, paradigmatic classifications of words according to meaning (into homonyms, synonyms, antonyms) and types of the change of meaning.

4. Phraseology, which studies phraseological units (set expressions) and their classifications.

5. Lexicography, which deals with creation of dictionaries, their types and application.

3. Etymological characteristics of the Modern English vocabulary

Etymology is a branch of lexicology studying the origin of words. Etymologically, the English vocabulary is divided into native and loan words, or borrowed words. A native word is a word which belongs to the original English word stock and is known from the earliest available manuscripts of the Old English period. A borrowed word is a word taken over from another language and modified according to the standards of the English language.

Etymological structure of the English vocabulary.

- Native word-stems (man, pan).

- Borrowings from latin (fanaticus -- fan).

- Scandinavian borrowings (sky) -- 9-10century.

- Borrowings from French (beggar, fiance) -- Norman Conquest, 11century.

- Borrowings from other languages (European, Oriental - feng shui, American Indians).

4. Words of native origin

The origin of English words.

The most characteristic feature of English is its mixed character. While it is wrong to speak of the mixed character of the language as a whole, the com-posite nature of the English vocabulary cannot be denied.

Native words - words of Anglo-Saxon origin brought to the British Isles from the continent in the 5th century by the Germanic tribes - the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes.

Native words are subdivided into two groups:

1) words of the Common Indo-European word stock

2) words of the Common Germanic origin

Words of the Indo-European stock have cognates (parallels) in different Indo-European languages: Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Polish, Russian and others: father (OE fжder, Gothic fadar, Swedish fader, German Vater, Greek patйr, Latin pбter, French pere, Persian pedжr, Sanscrit pitr)

Words of the Common Germanic stock have cognates only in the Germanic group: in German, Norwegian, Dutch, Icelandic, etc.: to sing (OE singan, Gothic siggwan, German singen)

Numerically the Germanic group is larger. Thematically these two groups do not differ very much. Words of both groups denote parts of the human body, animals, plants, phenomena of nature, physical properties, basic actions, etc. Terms of kinship, the most frequent verbs and the majority of numerals belong to the Common Indo-European word stock. Many adverbs and pronouns are of Germanic origin.

Native words constitute about 25 percent of the English vocabulary, but they make up 80 percent of the 500 most frequent words. Almost all native words belong to very important semantic groups. They include most of the auxiliary and modal verbs (shall, will, should, would, must, can, may), pronouns (I, you, he, my, your, his, who, whose), prepositions (in, out, on, under), numerals (one, two, three, four, etc), conjunctions (and, but, till, as), articles.

Besides high frequency value words of the native word stock are characterised by the following features:

- simple structure (they are often monosyllabic)

- developed polysemy

- great word-building power

- an ability to enter a great number of phraseological units

- a wide range of lexical and grammatical valency

- stability

Notional words of Anglo-Saxon origin:

- parts of the body: head, hand, arm, back;

- members of the family and closest relatives: father, mother, brother, son, wife;

- natural phenomena and planets: snow, rain, wind, frost, sun, moon, star;

- animals: horse, cow, sheep, cat;

- qualities and properties: old, young, cold, hot, heavy, light, dark, white, long;

- common actions: do, make, go, come, see, hear, eat.

Native words are highly polysemantic, stylistically neutral, enter a number of phraseological units.

5. Borrowings in English

In its 15 century long history the English language has come in long and close contact with several other languages, mainly Latin, French and Old Norse (or Scandinavian). The great influx of borrowings from these sources can be accounted for by a number of historical causes.

Borrowing - the process of adopting words from other languages and the result of this process. Not only words, but also word-building affixes were borrowed into English (-able, -ment, -ity). Some word-groups, too, were borrowed in their foreign form (coup-d'etat, vis-a-vis).

Borrowings may be direct and indirect (via an intermediary language). The main intermediary languages for English are Latin and French. So it is necessary to distinguish between the “sourse of borrowing” and “origin of borrowing” - the language from which the word is taken and the language to which it may be traced (table < la table (Fr) < tabula (Lat)).

There are two channels of borrowing: oral and written. Oral borrowings are the result of live communication of different nations. Written borrowings are words borrowed from foreign texts when they are translated into the target [ta:git] ]language.

Alongside there are translation and semantic loans (кальки). Translation loans are words and word combinations formed from native elements according to foreign patterns, by way of literal morpheme-for-morpheme or word-for-word translation (wonderchild < Wunderkind (Germ), it goes without saying < cela va sans dire (Fr)). The term “semantic loan” denotes the process when native words develop new meanings under the influence of foreign languages (in OE the word bread meant “a piece” ; under the influence of the Scandinavian brand it acquired its modern meaning).

About 75 percent of the English vocabulary are borrowed words. Words were borrowed, first of all, from Latin, Scandinavian and French.

There are three layers of Latin borrowings in English. The first layer goes back to the time of the Roman Conquest of the British Isles. The Romans brought with them some names of objects that were new to the population of Britain: names of food (wine, butter, cheese, pepper, pear, plum, etc.), words, naming objects of material culture such as household articles (kitchen, kettle, cup, dish), measures (pound, inch), civil and military constructions (mill, street, camp, port). The borrowings of the first layer are known as spoken Latin borrowings. The second layer of Latin borrowings is connected with Christianity. Latin was the language of the Catholic Church and contained a great number of words connected with religion: abbot, altar, angel, anthem, candle, canon, deacon, devil, martyr, mass, nun, pope, priest, psalm, rule, shrine, temple. Some of these words are actually Greek by their origin, but they came to English through the medium of Latin (devil, church). Many Latin borrowings were related to education as churches and monasteries were the centre of education: school (Gk), verse, master, circle, grammatical, meter, etc. The second layer of Latin borrowings is known as Church Latin borrowings. The third layer of Latin borrowings dates back to the Renaissance period. A lot of words with abstract meaning and of scientific character appeared in the English language. They were borrowed from written sourses and preserved their Latin form: accent, idea, effect, fate, history, memory, to adopt, to celebrate, to describe, to collect, to decorate, absent, accurate, direct, equal, fatal, future, humane, literary, neutral, solar, etc. These are the Renaissance Latin borrowings. In modern times Latin continues to influence English in the sphere of scientific, technical, political and art terminology. New terms are often built on the basis of Latin morphemes: humanoid, multinational, microwave, transatlantic, etc. The fourth layer of Latin borrowings is never ending.

As for Greek borrowings, the majority of them came into English through Latin. Many Greek words were borrowed in the epoch of the Renaissance. They are mostly bookish words such as: athlete, lexicon, idiom, scene, catastrophe, catalogue, myth, rhyme, theatre, drama, tragedy, geography, psychology, philosophy. Of Greek origin are also such indispensable personal names as Alexander, Catharine, Christopher, Dorothea, Eugene, George, Helen, Irene, Margaret, Myron, Nicholas, Peter, Philip, Sophia, Stephen, Theodore. Nowadays Greek morphemes, like Latin ones, are used in the formation of new terms: antiglobalist, hyperactive, paralinguistic, Pan-American, etc.

The first Scandinavian words began to penetrate into the English vocabulary at the beginning of our era during the occasional raids of the vikings. The languages and the cultures of the vikings and the Britons did not differ much which made the borrowing process easy. Many Scandinavian words used in everyday life entered the English language: egg, husband, root, wing, anger, weak, loose, wrong, happy, ugly, die, cut, take, give, call, want, they, their, them, both, same, till. Some Scandinavian words eventually replaced the native ones. (they Юa - hi, to take - the verb niman). The Viking invasion left its imprint in place names. The Scandinavian element is found in place names in -by: Derby [a:], Rugby; -thorp: Althrop, -toft: Eastoft, etc.

The French language is probably the third largest source of borrowings in English (after Latin and Scandinavian). French borrowings are subdivided into two main layers. The first layer is connected with the Norman conquest (1066). At the time of the Norman conquest common people spoke Anglo-saxon, while the government, the military, the church - and therefore education - were all dominated by the French speaking Normans. The Norman dialect of the French language penetrated into every aspect of social life.

French borrowings can be divided into several major groups:

1) religious terms: religion, clergy, paradise, prayer, saint, sacrifice, vice, virtue, preach;

2) administrative terms: state, government, parliament, nation, reign, country, power, authority, peer, baron, duke, prince;

3) legal terms: court, judge, justice, jury, plaintiff, defendant, crime, penalty, prison, accuse, marry, marriage;

4) military terms: army, war, battle, officer, enemy

5) educational terms: pupil, lesson, library, pen, pencil

6) terms of art, architecture and literature: art, literature, architecture, poet, prose, story,

7) words denoting pleasures: pleasure, joy, delight, comfort, flower, leisure, sport, cards;

8) words denoting food and ways of cooking: beaf, mutton, veal, pork, bacon, sausage, biscuit, cream, sugar, fruit, grape, orange, peach, pastry, tart, jelly, mustard, vinegar, soup, boil, fry, roast, stew, dinner, supper.

Words of the second layer of French borrowings pertain to the 17th century and are known as Parisian [z] French borrowings. They are borrowings from the Parisian dialect of the French language which preserved the peculiarities of their pronunciation and spelling: machine, bourgeois, ballet, naive, fatigue, grotesque. Among them are commercial terms (capital, manufacture), political terms (capitalism, regime, police), military terms (blockade, corp, marine), terms of literature and art (critique, miniature, memoir). Many of these borrowings denoted abstract notions and were borrowed from written texts, and therefore they were not completely assimilated unlike the words of the first layer of French borrowings which were borrowed in the process of oral communication.

Celtic borrowings were not numerous in the English language: down, cradle [ei], bard, brat, druid, bald. But Celtic elements are well preserved in place-names. The names of some British rivers contain the Celtic word uisge (вoда): Exe, Esk, Usk. It is also contained in the word whiskey, formerly meaning “the water of life”. The Celtic dun (крепость) is found in the town names Dundee, Dunbar; cum (долина) - Duncombe, Boscombe; llan (церковь) - in Llandovery, Llanely, Llangefni. London is of Celtic origin, too: llyn (река) and dun (крепость). Some male names are of Celtic origin: Arthur (благородный), Donald (гордый вождь), Evan (молодой воин). Late Celtic borrowings are more numerous and they came into the English language from Scottish, Irish and Welsh: clan, flannel, lock, shamrock (трилистник), slogan, Tori, whiskey. Some Celtic words came into English via French: tunnel, carry, cargo, gravel, etc.

In the 15th - 16th centuries many words were borrowed by the English language from Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian and other languages.

The process of borrowing from Italian started in the epoch of the Renaissance. Borrowings from the Italian language can be divided into several groups:

1) words from the sphere of art, (music, theatre, literature, architecture): aria, baritone, concert, opera, piano, violin, sonata [a:], tempo, scenario, fresco, studio, novel, sonnet, balcony, arcade, corridor, villa

2) military terms: alarm, cartridge, cavalery, regimen, captain, colonel, pistol, campaign, brave, ambush, attack;

3) names of food: ravioli, spaghetti, macaroni, pizza, chianti.

4) festive terms: confetti, costume, masquerade, carnival, carrousel, tarantella;

5) religious terms (^ Madonna, nuncio, cardinal);

6) words denoting aspects of crime: vagabond, charlatan, ruffian, bandit, assassin, contraband, vendetta, mafia, stiletto;

7) banking terms: cash, debit, credit, deposit, bank, bankrupt.

Dutch borrowings. As early as the Middle Ages there were close contacts between the British and Dutch traders, fishermen and seamen. Dutch borrowings are connected with weaving (to gloss - придавать блеск ткани, rock - прялка, spool - шпулька, stripe - лоскут ткани), seafaring and shipbuilding (deck, yacht, skipper, dock, reef), art, especially painting (sketch, landscape, easel, to etch), and everyday matters (luck, wagon, brandy, boss, booze, snatch).

Spanish and Portuguese borrowings. Early Spanish borrowings are connected with fighting for domination on the sea and in the world in general which took place in the 16th - 17th centuries: armada, galleon, grenade, escalade, etc.

A great number of Hispanic words penetrated into the English language in the 16th - 19th centuries due to the American settling of the West and contacts between Americans and speakers of Mexican Spanish: cannibal, negro, mulatto, quadroon, alligator, mosquito, ananas, cockroach, turtle, vanilla, canyon, lasso, hurricane, etc.

German borrowings. The process of borrowing from German bagan in the 16th century in connection with the establishment of cultural and economic ties between England and Germany. The Germans gave the English language a number of geological terms: zinc, quarz, calcit, cobalt, wolfram, nickel. Some biological, chemical, physical and terms of other sciences were borrowed as well: dahlia, kohlrabi, plankton, alkaloid, aspirin, polymer, function, monad, satellite, etc. A great number of German borrowings are words denoting social, political and philosophical terms: objective, determinism, intuition, dialectic, transcendental, class struggle, etc. During the Second World War some words characterizing the fascist army and regime entered the English vocabulary: wehrmacht, blitzkrig, gestapo, nazi, etc. Among German borrowings are also some words pertaining to the sphere of everyday life: sauerkraut, vermouth, schnaps, poodle, marzipan, waltz, swindler, lobby, iceberg, kindergarden, rucksack.

Arabic and Persian borrowings. In the Middle Ages the Arabs had a highly developed science which influenced the development of European science. Many medical, astronomical, mathematical, botanical, chemical and other terms were borrowd by the English language: elixir, hakeem, mummy, zenith, azimuth algebra, algorithm, zero, apricot, coffee, cotton, , sandal, spinach, alchemy, alcohol, arsenic, zircon, etc. Many other borrowings are connected with Arabian reality: harem, hashish, islam [ мizla:m], Moslem, gazelle, giraffe, zebra, baldachin, mohair, muslin, sherbet, kibitka, sirocco, typhoon, chess, kalian, bedouin, nabob, etc. To Persian borrowings are usually referred such words as divan, lemon, shah, dervish, caravansary (большая гостиница).

Russian borrowings. The process of borrowing words from Russian started in the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Early Russian borrowings reflect the peculiarities of Russian reality: tsar, kvass, vodka, telega, shuba, rouble, muzhik, steppe, taiga, samovar, troika, etc. In the 19th century words of different semantic spheres penetrate into the English vocabulary: narodnik, nihilist, Decembrist, intelligentsia, Periodic law, chernozem. After the Great October Socialist Revolution a number of Sovietisms were borrowed by English: Soviet, Bolshevik, Komsomol (rendered also as Young Communist League), kolkhoz, etc. The new epoch of borrowing from Russian began in the 90s of the 20th century and still continues: perestroyka, uskoreniye, hozraschet, etc.

With the beginning of England's colonial expansion in the 16th - 17th centuries many words penetrate into the English vocabulary from the languages of colonial countries.

From the Indian language came bandana, calico, cashmere, chintz, bungalow, jungle, khaki, nirvana, shampoo. Malayan - bamboo, gong, orang-outang; Chinese - ginseng, silk, nankeen, kaolin, serge; Japanese - geisha, harakiri, riksha, kimono, jiu-jitsu; Australian - boomerang, kangaroo; Polynesean - tattoo, taboo; African - baobab, chimpanzee, gorilla, guinea; the languages of North-American Indians - hickory, moccasin, oppossum, racoon, skunk, toboggan, tomahawk, etc.

6. Word structure in Modern English

Types of morphemes.

Most of the words have a composite nature and they are made up of morphemes - the smallest indivisable, two-faced language unit. Morphemes might be divided into phonemes. But if we divide morphemes into phonemes, phonemes unlike morphemes have no meaning. (ex.t/ea/ch/er-teacher). Phonemes are used to make up morphemes. So the difference between morphemes is that morphemes have meaning but phonemes have not. A morpheme differs from a word too. Unlike a word a morpheme does not occur separately in speech. It occurs in speech as a constituent part of a word.

All morphemes fall into two large classes: roots and affixes. Affixes, in their turn, are subdivided into prefixes, which precede the root (as in re-read), and suffixes, which follow the root (as in teach-er). There also exist infixes (as n in stand), but they are not productive in English.

Root morphemes carry the lexical meaning of the word. Affixational morphemes fall into derivational morphemes, (-less, -y, -ness, -er, re) which carry the lexico-grammatical meaning and serve to form new words, and functional morphemes having grammatical meaning (inflexions). Lexicology deals only with roots and derivational affixes, while inflexions are studied by grammar. Root and derivational morphemes constitute the stem of the word.

Roots are usually free morphemes: they often coincide with independently functioning words: pen, walk, good. Some roots may be bound as well: they may not coincide with separate word-forms as in possible, forty.

Morphemes may have different phonemic shapes. For example, the root morpheme in the words please, pleasant, pleasure is [pli:z], [plez], [pleћ]. Different phonemic representations of one morpheme are called allomorphs.

As far as the morphemic composition of words is concerned, words are classified into monomorphic and polymorphic. Monomorphic words consist of one morpheme - the root morpheme only. These words are called simple: dog, cat, boy, girl, etc. Polymorphic words consist of a root and one or several affixes or of two or several root morphemes. Accordingly, polymorphic words fall into three subgroups:

1) derived words, which contain a root and one or several affixes: hardship, unbelievable.

2) compound words, which consist of at least two root morphemes: handbag, merry-go-round.

3) compound derivatives, or derivational compounds, which are constituted by two or more roots modified by an affix: old-maidish, long-nosed.

Simple words are the most frequent lexical units in English. The most widely used words, such as pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, articles, are simple words. The least frequent in usage are compound words, though their number is steadily growing.

Some words that were compound in Old English are known as simple words in Modern English: woman - OE wif+man, window - OE wind+eage, etc. This process is named the simplification of the stem (опрощение морфологической структуры слова).

7. Morphemic analysis of words

There are three levels of analysis of the morphological structure of the word.

1. Morphemic analysis, which states the number of morphemes in a word and their types. At this level, the word friendliness, for instance, is characterized as a word containing three morphemes: one root morpheme (friend) and two derivational morphemes (ly, ness).

2. Derivational analysis, which reveals the pattern according to which the word is built. Thus, the word friendliness is built by adding to the stem friendly the suffix ness (not friend + liness as there is no suffix liness in English). Derivational analysis shows the structural correlation of the word with other words: friendly vs friendliness = happy vs happiness =easy vs easiness, etc.

3. Analysis into Immediate Constituents (непосредственные составляющие), which reveals the history of the word, the stages of the process of its formation. The analysis is binary: at each stage we split the word into two constituents. Thus, the word friendliness is first divided into friendly and ness, then the part friendly is further subdivided intofriend and ly. So, the Ultimate Constituents (конечные составляющие) look this way: friend+ly+ness. The results of the analysis coincide with the result of the morphemic analysis of the same word.

In most cases the morphemic structure of words is transparent enough and individual morphemes clearly stand out within the word. The segmentation of words is generally carried out according to the method of Immediate and Ultimate Constituents.

This method is based on the binary principle, i.e. each stage of the procedure involves two components the word immediately breaks into. At each stage these two components are referred to as the Immediate Constituents. Each Immediate Constituent at the next stage of analysis is in turn broken into smaller meaningful elements. The analysis is completed when we arrive at constituents incapable of further division, i.e. morphemes. These are referred to Ultimate Constituents. A synchronic morphological analysis is most effectively accomplished by the procedure known as the analysis into Immediate Constituents. ICs are the two meaningful parts forming a large linguistic unity. The method is based on the fact that a word characterized by morphological divisibility is involved in certain structural correlations. To sum up: as we break the word we obtain at any level only ICs one of which is the stem of the given word. All the time the analysis is based on the patterns characteristic of the English vocabulary. As a pattern showing the interdependence of all the constituents segregated at various stages, we obtain the following formula: un+ { [ ( gent- + -le ) + -man ] + -ly} Breaking a word into its Immediate Constituents we observe in each cut the structural order of the constituents.A diagram presenting the four cuts described looks as follows: 1. un- / gentlemanly2. un- / gentleman / - ly3. un- / gentle / - man / - ly4. un- / gentl / - e / - man / - ly A similar analysis on the word-formation level showing not only the morphemic constituents of the word but also the structural pattern on which it is built.The analysis of word-structure at the morphemic level must proceed to the stage of Ultimate Constituents. For example, the noun friendliness is first segmented into the ICs: [frendlэ-] recurring in the adjectivesfriendly-looking and friendly and [-nэs] found in a countless number of nouns, such as unhappiness, blackness, sameness, etc. the IC [-nэs] is at the same time an UC of the word, as it cannot be broken into any smaller elements possessing both sound-form and meaning. Any further division of -ness would give individual speech-sounds which denote nothing by themselves. The IC [frendlэ-] is next broken into the ICs [-lэ] and [frend-] which are both UCs of the word. Morphemic analysis under the method of Ultimate Constituents may be carried out on the basis of two principles: the so-calledroot-principle and affix principle.

According to the affix principle the splitting of the word into its constituent morphemes is based on the identification of the affix within a set of words, e.g. the identification of the suffix -er leads to the segmentation of words singer, teacher, swimmer into the derivational morpheme - er and the roots teach- , sing-, drive-.According to the root-principle, the segmentation of the word is based on the identification of the root-morpheme in a word-cluster, for example the identification of the root-morpheme agree- in the words agreeable, agreement, disagree.

As a rule, the application of these principles is sufficient for the morphemic segmentation of words.However, the morphemic structure of words in a number of cases defies such analysis, as it is not always so transparent and simple as in the cases mentioned above. Sometimes not only the segmentation of words into morphemes, but the recognition of certain sound-clusters as morphemes become doubtful which naturally affects the classification of words. In words like retain, detain, contain or receive, deceive, conceive, perceive the sound-clusters [rэ-], [dэ-] seem to be singled quite easily, on the other hand, they undoubtedly have nothing in common with the phonetically identical prefixes re-, de- as found in words re-write, re-organize, de-organize, de-code. Moreover, neither the sound-cluster [rэ-] or [dэ-], nor the [-teэn] or [-sэ:v] possess any lexical or functional meaning of their own. Yet, these sound-clusters are felt as having a certain meaning because [rэ-] distinguishes retain from detain and [-teэn] distinguishes retain from receive.It follows that all these sound-clusters have a differential and a certain distributional meaning as their order arrangement point to the affixal status of re-, de-, con-, per- and makes one understand -tain and -ceive as roots.

The differential and distributional meanings seem to give sufficient ground to recognize these sound-clusters as morphemes, but as they lack lexical meaning of their own, they are set apart from all other types of morphemes and are known in linguistic literature as pseudo- morphemes. Pseudo- morphemes of the same kind are also encountered in words like rusty-fusty.

8. Derivational analysis

The morphemic analysis of words only defines the constituent morphemes, determining their types and their meaning but does not reveal the hierarchy of the morphemes comprising the word. Words are no mere sum totals of morpheme, the latter reveal a definite, sometimes very complex interrelation. Morphemes are arranged according to certain rules, the arrangement differing in various types of words and particular groups within the same types. The pattern of morpheme arrangement underlies the classification of words into different types and enables one to understand how new words appear in the language. These relations within the word and the interrelations between different types and classes of words are known as derivative or word- formation relations.

The analysis of derivative relations aims at establishing a correlation between different types and the structural patterns words are built on. The basic unit at the derivational level is the stem.

The stem is defined as that part of the word which remains unchanged throughout its paradigm, thus the stem which appears in the paradigm (to) ask ( ), asks, asked, asking is ask-; thestem of the word singer ( ), singer's, singers, singers' is singer-. It is the stem of the word that takes the inflections which shape the word grammatically as one or another part of speech.

lexicology english semantic dialect

The structure of stems should be described in terms of IC's analysis, which at this level aims at establishing the patterns of typical derivative relations within the stem and the derivative correlation between stems of different types.

There are three types of stems: simple, derived and compound.

Simple stems are semantically non-motivated and do not constitute a pattern on analogy with which new stems may be modeled. Simple stems are generally monomorphic and phonetically identical with the root morpheme. The derivational structure of stems does not always coincide with the result of morphemic analysis. Comparison proves that not all morphemes relevant at the morphemic level are relevant at the derivational level of analysis. It follows that bound morphemes and all types of pseudo- morphemes are irrelevant to the derivational structure of stems as they do not meet requirements of double opposition and derivative interrelations. So the stem of such words as retain, receive, horrible, pocket, motion, etc. should be regarded as simple, non- motivated stems.

Derived stems are built on stems of various structures though which they are motivated, i.e. derived stems are understood on the basis of the derivative relations between their IC's and the correlated stems. The derived stems are mostly polymorphic in which case the segmentation results only in one IC that is itself a stem, the other IC being necessarily a derivational affix.

Derived stems are not necessarily polymorphic.

Compound stems are made up of two IC's, both of which are themselves stems, for example match-box, driving-suit, pen-holder, etc. It is built by joining of two stems, one of which is simple, the other derived.

In more complex cases the result of the analysis at the two levels sometimes seems even to contracted one another.

The derivational types of words are classified according to the structure of their stems into simple, derived and compound words.

Derived words are those composed of one root- morpheme and one or more derivational morpheme.

Compound words contain at least two root- morphemes, the number of derivational morphemes being insignificant.

Derivational compound is a word formed by a simultaneous process of composition and derivational.

Compound words proper are formed by joining together stems of word already available in the language.

9. Conversion. Conversion as a way of word-formation

Conversion is a very productive way of forming new words, chiefly verbs and not so offen-nouns. This type of word formation presents one of the characteristic features of Modern English. By conversion we mean derivation of a new word from the stem of a different part of speech without the addition of any formatives. As a result the two words are homonymous, having the same morphological structure and belonging to different parts of speech.

Conversion appeared in the 13^th century when the loss of inflexions made nouns and verbs look similar in form. The most productive pattern of conversion (конверсионная модель) is N>V: honeymoon>to honeymoon. Less productive is the pattern Adj>N: slow>to slow (us. to slow down - сбавлять скорость). The pattern V>N is much less frequent than the pattern N>V: to fall - a fall. Conversion is predominant in the sphere of verb formation.

The semantic relations between the members of converted pairs are various.

Verbs formed from nouns acquire such meanings as: 1) to fulfil the action characteristic of the noun (father>to father, ape>to ape); 2) to act with the instrument denoted by the noun (hammer>to hammer); 3) to provide with the thing denoted by the noun (cuff>to cuff); 4) to deprive of the thing (skin>to skin) 5) to put in the place denoted by the noun (bottle>to bottle, blacklist>to blacklist) and some other meanings.

Nouns formed from verbs may possess the following meanings: 1) a singular action (to jump>a jump), 2) the doer of the action (help>a help), 3) the place of the action (to dump>a dump), 4) the object or result of the action (to find>a find, to peel>a peel), 5) the distance covered by the action (to pace>a pace (величина шага)), etc.

It is often difficult to identify the direction of derivation in converted pairs. The following criteria may help to do this. A derived word usually a) is less frequent in usage (author>to author), b) has fewer meanings than the word it is derived from (book>to book). Besides, irregular verbs and nouns with noun-forming suffixes can't be derived: to catch>a catch, caution>to caution.

10. Word - composition in English

Specific features of English compounds.

Modern English is very rich in compound words. Compound words are made up by joining two or more stems. Ex. taxi-driver, paint-box, bookcase.

A compound word has a single semantic structure. We distinguish the mesning of the compound words from the combined lexical meanings of its components. Ex. “pencil-case” is a case for pencils. The meaning of the compound words is derived not only from the combined lexical meanings of its components but also from the order and arrangement of the stems. A change in the order of components of compound words brings a change in their lexical meaning.

Ex. life-boat- a boat of special construction for saving lives.

boat-life- life on board of a ship.

a fruit-market-market where fruit is sold, market-fruit-fruit for selling.

Compound words are classified into completely motivated, partially motivated and non-motivated compound words. In completely motivated compound words the lexical meaning of compound is easily deduced from the lexical meanings of the stems.

Ex. book-case, foot-step, door-handle, bottle-opener.

The compond words a flower-bed, walk-up are partially motivated compounds because we can guess their meaning partially. The compounds in which the connection between the meaning and structure and the meanings of components of compounds can not be seen from the meaning of its components are called nonmotivated compound words.

Ex. wall-flower -a woman who renains at wall and is not invited to a dance.

Night-cap -drink taken before going to bed at night.

Compound words may be classified from the functional point of view or according to their belonging to different parts of speech. Many of English compounds belong to nouns and adjectives.

N- armchair, sitting-room, looking-glass, blackboard, picpocket (a thief), bench-mark, homework, grammar-school.

ADJ- social-economic, hard-working, man-made,well-behaved, well-read, dry-drink,

V- whitewash, housekeep, etc.

ADV- indoors, within, outside.

From the point of view how the components are joined together the compound words may be classified into: compounds whose components are joined with a linking element. (afro-asion, angio-saxon, sportsman, speedometer, handicraft, statesman, landsman) and without a linking element (snowball, raincoat, door-handle, reading-room, paint-box, door-step).

Compound words are also classified according to different ways of compounding. In this case we divide them into two groups:

1) compound words proper. Such kind of compounds are formed by joining together stems of words and these compounds have no derivational affix. The components of such compounds are simple stems.

Ex. door-step, looking-glass, table-cloth, whitewash, book-case, bookshelf.

2) derivational compound. These compounds have a derivationa affix: longlegged, kind-hearted, schoolboyishness, blue-eyed, absentminded.

There are two types of relationship in linguistic literature: that of coordination and subordination and accordingly compound words may be classified into coordinative and subordinative. In coordinative compounds the components are structurally and semantically independent ( ex. reduplicative: goody-goody, fiftyfifty).

In subordinative compounds the components are based on the domination of one component over the other.

Ex.road-building, baby-sitter, woman-doctor.

Subordinative compounds may be syntactic which depends on syntactic rules. Ex. mad-doctor, bluebell, a slow-coach ( adj+ n) and asyntactic. Ex.red-hot, oil-rich, long-legged( adj+adj) there is no syntactic rule and it does not depend on the syntactic rules.

Compound words differ from word-groups, they are inseparable vocabulary units. Compound words structurally, phonetically and graphically are inseparable. Structurally compounds are inseparable because if we change the places of components of compounds we see change of meaning in compounds or they will not be compounds.

Ex. boat-life -life on ship, life-boat - a boat which is used for saving. If we change the places of components of compound word long-legged in this way “legged long” it will be not a compound word. So the inseparability in structure of compounds can be seen in their specific order and arrangement of stems.

The compounds are phonetically inseparable as the components of them have only one stress. Mostly the first component is stressed. Ex. pen-knife, book-case, doorway, bookshelf. There are some compounds which have a double stress. In this case we have the primary stress on the first component and a weaker secondary stress on the second component.

Ex. `mad-' doctor, `washing -' machine, `money -' order etc. These stress patterns in many cases may be used as a criteria of distinguishing compound words from free word groups. As we know both components of free word groups are always stressed.

Ex. a' green-house, a'green `house (word group)- a house that is painted green, `dancing-girl-a dancer, dancing `girl -a girl who is dancing. Graphically compounds have two types of spelling-they are written either together or with a hyphen.

This is also one of the criteria of distinguishing of compounds from wordgroups. Some linguists1 advocate the semantic criterion. They define a compound word as a combination of words expressing a single idea. This point of view causes some doubt. Because it does not give us sufficient ground to distinguish between the cases of compound words and idiomatic set phrases.

11. Classification of compounds

According to the degree of semantic independence of stems compounds are:

1) subordinative - the components are neither structurally nor semantically equal in importance, the head member is the 2nd component: baby-sitter, speedometer;

2) coordinative - both stems are semantically equally important, both words are structural and semantic centres.

Coordinative compounds may be:

a) reduplicative - made up by repetition of the same word: fifty-fifty, hush-hush, goody-goody;

b) phonetically variated rhythmic twin forms: chit-chat, zig-zag, claptrap, helter-skelter;

c) additive - are formed from stems of the independently functioning words of the same part of speech. They denote a person or an object that is two things at the same time.

Functional classification - compounds are viewed as different parts of speech, which is indicated by the second stem:

- nouns: birthday, week-end, mother-in-law;

- adjectives: peace-loving, long-legged;

- adverbs: somewhere, indoors, inside;

- pronouns: somebody, something;

- connectives: within, without;

- verbs:

a) verbal and adverbial stems: to bypass, to inlay, to offset,

b) verbs formed by means of conversion: to week-end, to gooseflesh, to blacklist.

According to the means of connection:

-formed by placing one simple stem with a linking element after the other: spedometer, Afro-Asian (o), handicraft (i); statesman, sales-man (s);

-without any linking element: headache, man-made.

According to the type of stems joined together:

-compounds proper: formed by joining together stems of words available in the language, with or without the help of special linking element, e.g. street-lamp, age-long;

-derivational compounds: one of the stems is derived, e.g. bed-sitter, type-writer, long-legged.

Patterns of Compounds Compound nouns: N + N - pencil-case [N + (V + er)] - peace-fighter

[N + (V + tion/ment)] - office-management, price-reduction

In general compounds are formed from the stems of words available in the language according to productive patterns: dog-days, rosy-cheeked.

Compounds can also be the result of a gradual process of semantic isolation and structural fusion of free word-groups, e.g.: forget-me-not, bread-and-butter, hook-and-ladder, man-of-war, up-to-date.

Compounding is a very interesting and problematic phenomenon. Though many investigations have been done in this field still there are many problems to be solved: typological study of patterns of compounds, motivation, compounds formed by means of conversion, the stone wall-problem (is it a free word-group or a compound word ?).



12. Shortening of words

Shortening (Clipping or Curtailment) is building new words by subtraction (отнятие, удаление) of a part of the original word. Shortenings are produced in two main ways: a) by clipping some part of the word; b) by making a new word from the initial letters of a word group.

According to the position of the omitted part, shortenings are classified into those formed by:

1) clipping the final part of the word (apocope): lab<laboratory;

2) clipping the initial part of the word (aphaeresis): phone<telephone;

3) clipping the middle part of the word (syncope): specs<spectacles;

4) clipping both the initial and the final part of the word: flue<influenza.

A lot of neologisms are formed by clipping: detox (клиника для лечения алкоголиков и наркоманов) <detoxification, lib<liberation, scrip<prescription. A clipped word differs from its prototype in meaning, style and usage.

According to their reading, initial shortenings, or abbreviations are classified into:

1) abbreviations which are pronounced as a series of letters: FBI, CIA, NBA (National Basketball Association), etc.

2) abbreviations which are read as ordinary English words (acronyms): UNO, NATO, radar (radio detection and ranging), etc.

A special group is represented by graphical abbreviations used in written speech: ^ N.Y., X-mas, PhD, etc. A number of Latin abbreviations are used in writing: e.g., p.m., i.e., P.S., etc.

13. Minor ways of word-building

Back-formation (Reversion) is a way of word-building by which a new word is formed by cutting off a real or supposed suffix: burglar>to burgle, enthusiasm>to enthuse. It is called back-formation, because the process of derivation is opposite to the traditional one. Usually, a derived word is longer (work>worker), in back-formation the derived word is shorter than the one from which it was derived. By way of back-formation verbs may be derived from nouns (beggar>to beg, television>to televise) and adjectives (peevish (сварливый) >to peeve), nouns from adjectives (greedy>greed). A very productive type of back-formation in present-day English is derivation of verbs from compounds in -er and -ing as final elements: to baby-sit (from baby-sitter), to air-condition (from air-conditioner), to house-clean (from house-cleaner).

Blending is a way bulding words by merging parts of words (not morphemes) into one new word. Thus, the noun smog is composed of the parts of the nouns smoke and fog, the noun brunch - of breakfast and lunch, motel - of motor and hotel. Such words are called blends (сращения), fusions, telescope words.

Blends are built either by merging two clipped stems (dramedy<drama+comedy) or merging one full and one clipped stem (teleplay<television+play). Most blends are nouns, but sometimes verbs and adjectives are formed by blending: flush<flash+blush, fantabulous<fantastic+fabulous.

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