English word-building system

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Contents

Introduction

1. About affixation

2. Composition

3. Structural types of compounds

4. Semantic types of compounds

5. Affixation

6. Shortening and it types

7. Abbreviations

8. Blending reduplication, back-formation

9. Conversion

References



Introduction

In the English language, the word formation process creates new words and puts them in different grammatical categories, as well as creates new meanings to some words. Word formation has different stages/processes, working in conjunction with each other in order to form words. The purpose of this investigation is to study word formation examples, and to investigate how word formation influences English language in terms of its grammatical categories and words meanings which have been created through the formation of word formation, as well as explaining the process that took place.

There are different processes of word formation in the English language: derivation, compounding, borrowing, coinage, affixation, blending, acronyms, clipping, back-formation, free and bound morphemes, and inflection). All these processes can show people the variations and changes in the word formation of languages. The processes will be explained throughout the essay.

1. Derivation: is the process of creating new words by a root modification without adding other roots. For example: happiness, resubmit, carefully etc.

2. Compounding: a compound is a word that consists of more than one lexeme (word). For example, the word "mailman" is a word formed by compounding two words together: "mail" and "man" to form one word which is defined by the man who delivers mail.

3. Borrowing: taking one or more words from a language into another language. The term borrowing is also called "loaning". English language has many loan words, for example:

4. Coinage: it is the invention of new words usually related to products, for example: "Kleenex" is the product of tissue paper, but consumers call all tissue paper brands as Kleenex. Also, "Xerox" is the product of a photocopying machine, but consumers call most photocopiers as Xerox despite the brand.



1. About affixation

In linguistics, affixation the process of adding a morpheme (or affix) to a word to create either (a) a different form of that word (e.g., bird > birds), or (b) a new word with a different meaning (bird > birder).The two primary kinds of affixation are prefixation (the addition of a prefix) and suffixation (the addition of a suffix). Clusters of affixes can be used to form complex words.

Examples and Observations:

· The Iliad is an exploration of the heroic ideal in all its self-contradictoriness.

· Mac duff: What three things does drink especially provoke?

· Porter: Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovoked; it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance. (William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act Two, scene 3).

Productivity. "If an affix is productive, i.e. capable of forming new words, it can sometimes generate an enormous number of new word forms. The process may be open-ended; this is particularly clearly illustrated by affixes which can attach to names to form new lexical items, like -ism in Thatcherism, Stalinism, etc. New derivational formations may be formed at almost any time within the context of a particular utterance."

Maintaining and Changing Word-Classes With Affixation. "Prefixation and suffixation are types of affixation (or derivation) that differ most obviously in positioning but also in another important respect. Typically, prefixation is class-maintaining in that it retains the word class of the base. Retention when a prefix is added is illustrated by the noun pair choice/pro-choice, the adjective pairgreen/ungreen, and the verb pair select/deselect. Suffixation tends to be class-changing. Change when a suffix is added is illustrated by the shift from the adjective fatto the noun fattism, the verb lug to the adjective luggable, and the verb highlight to the noun highlighter. There are exceptions in both directions.

Prefixation brings about a shift from the adjective sure to the verb ensure, from the noun mask to the verb unmask, and from the noun friend to the verb befriend. Suffixation has no effect on the word class of the noun pairs martyr/martyrdom, author/authorships, and host/hostess, or the adjective pairs kind/kindly and economic/economical, though there is a shift in subclass fromconcrete noun to abstract noun in the first two noun pairs."

Multiple Affixation. "Words may have multiple affixes either with different suffixes or with the same prefix recurring as below in:

a) The latest re-re-re-make of Beau Geste.

b) The great-great-great-great grandson of the last Tsar of Russia.

What shows is that, with a limited number of morphemes, morphological prefixation rules can apply recursively in English. However, performance difficulties in working out what exactly great-great-great-great grandson or re-re-re-make means do severely restrict the chances of such words being used. But the point is that the grammar cannot exclude them as ill-formed. Recursive rules are one of the devices that make morphology open-ended.

"Reattaching the same morpheme again and again is permitted, but unusual. What is common is multiple affixations of different affixes.

nation

nation-al

national-ise

denationalis-at-ion

anti-denationalisation

pre-antidenationalisation

Observe that where several prefixes or suffixes occur in a word, their place in the sequence is normally rigidly fixed."

2. Compositions

Word-composition (or compounding) is the type of word-formation, in which new words are produced by combining two or more Immediate Constituents (ICs), which are both derivational bases. Word-composition 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 the constituent bases and the semantic relations between them, which mirror the relations between the motivating units.

The ICs compound words represent bases of three structural types:

1) bases that coincide with morphological stems: to day-dream, daydreamer;

2) bases that coincide with word-forms: wind-driven, paper-bound.

3) bases that coincide with word-groups: blue-eyed, long-fingered.

The bases built on stems may be of different degrees of complexity:

1) simple, for example, week-end, pen-friend;

2) derived, for example, letter-writer, office-management;

3) compound, for example, fancy-dress-maker, aircraft-carrier, etc.

However, this complexity of structure of bases is not typical of the bulk of Modern English compounds.

In this connection care should be taken not to confuse compound words with polymorphic words of secondary derivation, i.e. derivatives built according to an affixal pattern but on a compound stem for its base such as, for instance, school-mastership ([n+n]+suf), ex-housewife (prf+ [n+n]), to weekend, to spotlight ([n+n]+conversion).

3. Structural types of compounds

Compounds are words produced by combining two or more stems which occur in the language as free forms. They may be classified proceeding from different criteria:

· according to the parts of speech to which they belong;

· according to the means of composition used to link their ICs together;

· according to the structure of their ICs;

· according to their semantic characteristics.

Most compounds in Modern English belong to nouns and adjectives. Compound verbs are less frequent; they are often made through conversion (N -> V pattern). Compound adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions and prepositions are rather rare. The classification of compounds according to the means of joining their IC's together distinguishes between the following structural types:

· juxtapositional (neutral) compounds whose ICs are merely placed one after another: classroom, timetable, heartache, whitewash, hunting-knife, weekend, grey-green, <deep-blue, H-bomb, U-turn, etc.;

· morphological compounds whose ICs are joined together with a vowel or a consonant as a linking element, e.g.: gasometer, handicraft, electromotive, Anglo-Saxon, sportsman, saleswoman, etc.;

· syntactic compounds (integrated phrases) which are the result of the process of semantic isolation and structural integration of free word- groups, e.g.: blackboard (<black board), highway (<high way), forget- me-not, bull's-eye, up-to-date, son-in-law, go-between, know-all, etc.

The classification according to the structure of immediate constituents:

· compounds, consisting of simple stems: film-star;

· compounds, where at least one of the constituents is a derived stem: chain-smoker;

· compounds, where at least one of the constituents is a clipped stem: math-mistress. The subgroup will contain abbreviations like: H-bag (handbag), Xmas (Christmas).

Compounds, where at least one of the constituents is a compound stem: wastepaper-basket.

4. Semantic types of compounds

The two categories of parts of speech especially affected by conversion are nouns and verbs. word building affixation shortening

1. Verbs converted from nouns are called denominal verbs. If the noun refers to some object of reality (both animate and inanimate) the converted verb may denote:

action characteristic of the object: ape (n) - ape (v) - `imitate in a foolish way'; butcher (n) ? butcher (v) ?`kill animals for food, cut up a killed animal';

instrumental use of the object: screw (n) ? screw (v) ? `fasten with a screw'; whip (n) - whip (v) - 'strike with a whip';

acquisition or addition of the object: fish (n) ? fish (v) ? `catch or try to catch fish'; coat (n) ?`covering of paint' ? coat (v) ? `put a coat of paint on';

deprivation of the object: dust (n) ? dust (v) ? `remove dust from something'; skin (n) ? skin (v) ? 'strip off the skin from'; etc.

Diagram 1. Denominal verbs

2. Nouns converted from verbs are called deverbal substantives. The verb generally referring to an action, the converted noun may denote:

a) instance of the action: jump (v) - jump (n) - 'sudden spring from the ground'; move (v) ? move (n) ? `a change of position';

b) agent of the action: help (v) ? help (n) ? `a person who helps'; it is of interest to mention that the deverbal personal nouns denoting the doer are mostly derogatory, for example, bore (v) ? bore (n) ? `a person that bores'; cheat (v) ? cheat (n) ? `a person who cheats';

c) place of the action: drive(v) ? drive (n) ? `a path or road along which one drives'; walk (v) ? walk (n) ? `a place for walking';

d) object or result of the action: peel (v) ? peel (n) ? `the outer skin of fruit or potatoes taken off; find (v) ? find (n) ? 'something found', especially something valuable or pleasant', etc.

Diagram 2. Deverbal substantives

In case of polysemantic words one and the same member of a conversion pair may belong to several groups. For instance, the verb dust belongs to Group d) of Denominal verbs (deprivation of the object) when it means `remove dust from something', and to Group c) (acquisition or addition of the object) when it means `cover with powder'.

5. Affixation

Affixation is one of the most productive ways of word-building throughout the history of English. It consists in adding an affix to the stem of a definite part of speech. Affixation is divided into suffixation and prefixation.

Suffixation. The main function of suffixes in Modern English is to form one part of speech from another, the secondary function is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech. (e.g. "educate" is a verb, "educate" is a noun, and "music" is a noun, "musicdom" is also a noun).

There are different classifications of suffixes:

1. Part-of-speech classification. Suffixes which can form different parts of speech are given here:

a) noun-forming suffixes, such as: -er (criticizer), -dom (officialdom), -ism (ageism);

b) adjective-forming suffixes, such as: -able (breathable), less (symptomless), -ous (prestigious);

c) verb-forming suffixes, such as -ize (computerize), -ify (micrify);

d) adverb-forming suffixes, such as: -ly (singly), -ward (tableward);

e) numeral-forming suffixes, such as -teen (sixteen), -ty (seventy).

2. Semantic classification. Suffixes changing the lexical meaning of the stem can be subdivided into groups, e.g. noun-forming suffixes can denote:

a) he agent of the action, e.g. -er (experimenter), -ist (taxist), -ent (student);

b) nationality, e.g. -ian (Russian), -ese (Japanese), -ish (English);

c) collectivity, e.g. -dom (moviedom), -ry (peasantry, -ship (readership), -ati (literati);

d) diminutiveness, e.g. -ie (horsie), -let (booklet), -ling (gooseling), -ette (kitchenette);

e) quality, e.g. -ness (copelessness), -ity (answerability).

3. Lexico-grammatical character of the stem. Suffixes which can be added to certain groups of stems are subdivided into:

a) suffixes added to verbal stems, such as: -er (commuter), -ing (suffering), - able (flyable), -ment (involvement), -ation (computerization);

b) suffixes added to noun stems, such as: -less (smogless), ful (roomful), -ism (adventurism), -ster (pollster), -nik (filmnik), -ish (childish);

c) suffixes added to adjective stems, such as: -en (weaken), -ly (pinkly), -ish (longish), -ness (clannishness).

4.Origin of suffixes. Here we can point out the following groups:

a) native (Germanic), such as -er,-ful, -less, -ly;

b) Romanic, such as: -tion, -ment, -able, -eer;

c) Greek, such as: -ist, -ism, -ize;

d) Russian, such as -nik.

5. Productivity. Here we can point out the following groups:

a) productive, such as: -er, -ize, -ly, -ness;

b) semi-productive, such as: -eer, -ette, -ward;

c) non-productive, such as: -ard (drunkard), -th (length).

Suffixes can be polysemantic, such as: -er can form nouns with the following meanings: agent, doer of the action expressed by the stem (speaker), profession, occupation (teacher), a device, a tool (transmitter). While speaking about suffixes we should also mention compound suffixes which are added to the stem at the same time, such as -ably, -ibly, (terribly, reasonably), -ation (adaptation from adapt).

There are also disputable cases whether we have a suffix or a root morpheme in the structure of a word, in such cases we call such morphemes semi-suffixes, and words with such suffixes can be classified either as derived words or as compound words, e.g. -gate (Irangate), -burger (cheeseburger), -aholic (workaholic) etc.

Prefixation. Prefixation is the formation of words by means of adding a prefix to the stem. In English it is characteristic for forming verbs. Prefixes are more independent than suffixes. Prefixes can be classified according to the nature of words in which they are used: prefixes used in notional words and prefixes used in functional words. Prefixes used in notional words are proper prefixes which are bound morphemes, e.g. un- (unhappy). Prefixes used in functional words are semi-bound morphemes because they are met in the language as words, e.g. over- (overhead) (cf over the table).

The main function of prefixes in English is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech. But the recent research showed that about twenty-five prefixes in Modern English form one part of speech from another (bebutton, interfamily, postcollege etc).

Prefixes can be classified according to different principles:

1. Semantic classification:

a) prefixes of negative meaning, such as: in- (invaluable), non- (nonformals), un- (unfree) etc,

b) prefixes denoting repetition or reversal actions, such as: de- (decolonize), re- (revegetation), dis- (disconnect),

c) prefixes denoting time, space, degree relations, such as: inter- (interplanetary), hyper- (hypertension), ex- (ex-student), pre- (pre-election), over- (overdrugging) etc.

2. Origin of prefixes:

a) native (Germanic), such as: un-, over-, under- etc.

b) Romanic, such as: in-, de-, ex-, re- etc.

c) Greek, such as: sym-, hyper- etc.

When we analyze such words as: adverb, accompany where we can find the root of the word (verb, company) we may treat ad-, ac- as prefixes though they were never used as prefixes to form new words in English and were borrowed from Romanic languages together with words. In such cases we can treat them as derived words. But some scientists treat them as simple words. Another group of words with a disputable structure are such as: contain, retain, detain and conceive, receive, deceive where we can see that re-, de-, con- act as prefixes and -tain, -ceive can be understood as roots. But in English these combinations of sounds have no lexical meaning and are called pseudo-morphemes. Some scientists treat such words as simple words, others as derived ones.

There are some prefixes which can be treated as root morphemes by some scientists, e.g. after- in the word afternoon. American lexicographers working on Webster dictionaries treat such words as compound words. British lexicographers treat such words as derived ones.

6. Shortening and it types

Word-building processes involve not only qualitative but also quantitative changes. Thus, derivation and compounding represent addition as suffixes and free stems respectively are added to the underlying form.

Shortening, on the other hand, may be represented as subtraction, in which part of the original word is taken away. The types of shortening are: clipping, blending, abbreviation and acronyms.

Clipping is a type of word-building shortening of spoken words. Shortening consists in the reduction of a word to one of its parts, as a result of which the new form acquires some linguistic value of its own. The part retained does not change phonetically, hence the necessity of spelling changes, e.g., double: dub, microphone: mike, tranquilizer: trank.

The generally accepted classification of shortened words is based on the position of the clipped part. According to whether it is the final, initial or middle part of the word that is cut off we distinguish:

1) initial clipping (or aphesis, i.e. apheresis, from Greek "aphaeresis" - a taking away), e.g., cap (captain), phone (telephone), story (history), chute (parachute);

2) final clipping (or apocope, from Greek "apokoptein" - cut off), e.g., cap (captain), gym (gymnasium, gymnastics), lab (laboratory), ed (editor);

3) medial clipping (or syncope, from Greek "syncope" a cutting up), e.g., fancy (fantasy), ma'am (madam).

Final and initial clipping may be combined and result in the curtailed words with the middle part of the prototype retained, e.g., flu (influenza), frig (refrigerator), etc (detective).

If we approach the shortened word from the point of view of the structure of the prototype we distinguish two groups:

1) shortened words correlated with words, e.g., cabbie (cabman), nightie (nightdress), teeny (teenager);

2) shortened words correlated with phrasea, e.g., finals (final examinations), perm (permanent wave), pop (popular music), pub (public house), taxi (taximeter-cab).

Unlike conversion, shortening produces new words in the same part of speech. The bulk of shortened words are nouns. Verbs are rarely shortened, e.g., rev (revolve), tab (tabulate). To phone, to taxi, to vac and others are converted nouns. Clipped adjectives are also very few, e.g., comfy (comfortable), awk (awkward), impos (impossible), mizzy (miserable).

Blending is a type of compounding by means of merging parts of words into new one word. The process of formation is also called telescoping, because the words seem to slide into one another like sections of a telescope. E.g., brunch (breakfast + lunch), smog (smoke + fog), smaze (smoke + haze), slimnastics (slim + gymnastics). It seems practical to distinguish the following groups of blends:

1) coining a new word from the initial elements of one word and the final elements of another, e.g., drunch (drink + lunch),skort (skirt + short);

2) coining a new word by combining one notional word arid the final element of another word, e.g., manglish (man + English), radiotrician (radio + electrician);

3) combining the initial elements of one word with a notional word, e.g., mobus (motors + bus), legislady (legislative lady).

Such coinages are often formed with a playful or humorous intent and have a stylistic status. They can convey various shades of emotive colouring (irony or mockery), which makes them most active in different types of slang: dopelomat (dope + diplomat), Yanigan (Yankee + hooligan), nixonomics (Nixon + economics).

Blends, although not very numerous altogether, seem to be on the rise, especially in terminology and also in trade advertisements.

Abbreviation is a type of shortening when words are formed from the initial letters of each part of a phrasal term. Abbreviations are pronounced as a series of letters, i.e. the alphabetical reading of the letters is retained. E.g., B.B.C. (The British Broadcasting Corporation), M.P. (Member of Parliament), P.M. (Prime Minister), T.V. (Television), Y.C.L. (The Young Communist League).

A specific type of abbreviations having no parallel in Ukrainian is represented by Latin abbreviations, which are not read as Latin words but substituted by their English equivalents, e.g., a.m. (ante meridium) - in the morning; p.m. (post meridiem) - in the afternoon; i.e. (id est) - that is; cp. (comparare) - compare; e.g., (exempli gratia) - for example.

Acronyms (from Greek "acros" end + "onym" name) are abbreviated words formed from the initial letters of word-combination; the abbreviated written form lends itself to be read as though, it were an ordinary English word and sounds like an English word. E.g., NATO /neitou/ - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, UNO /ju:nou/ - United Nations Organization,SALT /solt/ - Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, radar - radio detecting and ranging; laser - light amplification stimulated emission radio; maser - microwave amplification stimulated emission radio.

Christian names in acronyms:

Fred - fast reading electric device;

Oscar - orbiting satellite;

Eva - electronic velocity analyzer.

7. Abbreviations

In the process of communication words and word-groups can be shortened. The causes of shortening can be linguistic and extra-linguistic. By extra-linguistic causes changes in the life of people are meant. In Modern English many new abbreviations, acronyms, initials, blends are formed because the tempo of life is increasing and it becomes necessary to give more and more information in the shortest possible time.

There are also linguistic causes of abbreviating words and word-groups, such as the demand of rhythm, which is satisfied in English by monosyllabic words. When borrowings from other languages are assimilated in English they are shortened. Here we have modification of form on the basis of analogy, e.g. the Latin borrowing "fanaticus" is shortened to "fan" on the analogy with native words: man, pan, tan etc. There are two main types of shortenings: graphical and lexical.

Graphical abbreviations. Graphical abbreviations are the result of shortening of words and word-groups only in written speech while orally the corresponding full forms are used. They are used for the economy of space and effort in writing.

The oldest group of graphical abbreviations in English is of Latin origin. In Russian this type of abbreviation is not typical. In these abbreviations in the spelling Latin words are shortened, while orally the corresponding English equivalents are pronounced in the full form, e.g. for example (Latin exampli gratia), a.m. - in the morning (ante meridiem), No - number (numero), p.a. - a year (per annum), d - penny (dinarius), lb - pound (libra), i. e. - that is (id est) etc.

Some graphical abbreviations of Latin origin have different English equivalents in different contexts, e.g. p.m. can be pronounced "in the afternoon" (post meridiem) and "after death" (post mortem).

There are also graphical abbreviations of native origin, where in the spelling we have abbreviations of words and word-groups of the corresponding English equivalents in the full form. We have several semantic groups of them:

a) days of the week, e.g. Mon - Monday, Tue - Tuesday etc

b) names of months, e.g. Apr - April, Aug - August etc.

c) names of counties in UK, e.g. Yorks - Yorkshire, Berks -Berkshire etc

d) names of states in USA, e.g. Ala - Alabama, Alas - Alaska etc.

e) names of address, e.g. Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr. etc.

f) military ranks, e.g. capt. -captain, col. - colonel, sgt - sergeant etc.

g) scientific degrees, e.g. B.A. - Bachelor of Arts, D.M. - Doctor of Medicine. (Sometimes in scientific degrees we have abbreviations of Latin origin, e.g., M.B. - Medicinae Baccalaurus).

h) units of time, length, weight, e.g. f. / ft -foot/feet, sec. - second, in. -inch, mg. - milligram etc.

The reading of some graphical abbreviations depends on the context, e.g. "m" can be read as: male, married, masculine, metre, mile, million, minute, "l.p." can be read as long-playing, low pressure.

Initial abbreviations. Initialisms are the bordering case between graphical and lexical abbreviations. When they appear in the language, as a rule, to denote some new offices they are closer to graphical abbreviations because orally full forms are used, e.g. J.V. - joint venture. When they are used for some duration of time they acquire the shortened form of pronouncing and become closer to lexical abbreviations, e.g. BBC is as a rule pronounced in the shortened form.

In some cases the translation of initialisms is next to impossible without using special dictionaries. Initialisms are denoted in different ways. Very often they are expressed in the way they are pronounced in the language of their origin, e.g. ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand, United States) is given in Russian as АНЗУС, SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) was for a long time used in Russian as СОЛТ, now a translation variant is used (ОСВ -Договор об ограничении стратегических вооружений). This type of initialisms borrowed into other languages is preferable, e.g. UFO - НЛО, CП - JV etc.

There are three types of initialisms in English:

a) initialisms with alphabetical reading, such as UK, BUP, CND etc.

b) initialisms which are read as if they are words, e.g. UNESCO, UNO, NATO etc.

c) initialisms which coincide with English words in their sound form, such initialisms are called acronyms, e.g. CLASS (Computor-based Laboratory for Automated School System).

Some scientists unite groups b) and c) into one group which they call acronyms.

Some initialisms can form new words in which they act as root morphemes by different ways of word-building:

a) affixation, e.g. AWALism, ex-rafer, ex- POW, to waafize, AIDSophobia etc.

b) conversion, e.g. to raff, to fly IFR (Instrument Flight Rules),

c) composition, e.g. STOLport, USAFman etc.

d) there are also compound-shortened words where the first component is an initial abbreviation with the alphabetical reading and the second one is a complete word, e.g. A-bomb, U-pronunciation, V -day etc. In some cases, the first component is a complete word and the second component is an initial abbreviation with the alphabetical pronunciation, e.g.

Abbreviations of words. Abbreviation of words consists in clipping a part of a word. As a result, we get a new lexical unit where either the lexical meaning or the style is different form the full form of the word. In such cases as "fantasy" and "fancy", "fence" and "defense" we have different lexical meanings. In such cases as "laboratory" and "lab", we have different styles.

Abbreviation does not change the part-of-speech meaning, as we have it in the case of conversion or affixation, it produces words belonging to the same part of speech as the primary word, e.g. prof is a noun and professor is also a noun. Mostly nouns undergo abbreviation, but we can also meet abbreviation of verbs, such as to rev from to revolve, to tab from to tabulate etc. But mostly abbreviated forms of verbs are formed by means of conversion from abbreviated nouns, e.g. to taxi, to vac etc. Adjectives can be abbreviated but they are mostly used in school slang and are combined with suffixation, e.g. comfy, dilly, mizzy etc. As a rule pronouns, numerals, interjections. conjunctions are not abbreviated. The exceptions are: fif (fifteen), teen-ager, in one's teens (apheresis from numerals from 13 to 19).

Lexical abbreviations are classified according to the part of the word which is clipped. Mostly the end of the word is clipped, because the beginning of the word in most cases is the root and expresses the lexical meaning of the word. This type of abbreviation is called apocope. Here we can mention a group of words ending in "o", such as disco (dicotheque), expo (exposition), intro (introduction) and many others. On the analogy with these words there developed in Modern English a number of words where "o" is added as a kind of a suffix to the shortened form of the word, e.g. combo (combination) - небольшой эстрадный ансамбль, Afro (African) - прическа под африканца etc. In other cases, the beginning of the word is clipped. In such cases we have apheresis, e.g. chute (parachute), varsity (university), copter (helicopter), thuse (enthuse) etc. Sometimes the middle of the word is clipped, e.g. mart (market), fanzine (fan magazine) maths (mathematics). Such abbreviations are called syncope. Sometimes we have a combination of apocope with apheresis, when the beginning and the end of the word are clipped, e.g. tec (detective), van (avanguard) etc.

Sometimes shortening influences the spelling of the word, e.g. "c" can be substituted by "k" before "e" to preserve pronunciation, e.g. mike (microphone), Coke (Coca-cola) etc. The same rule is observed in the following cases: fax(facsimile), teck (technical college), trank (tranquilizer) etc. The final consonants in the shortened forms are substituted by letters characteristic of native English words.

8. Blending reduplication, back-formation

Blending reduplication. Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) or even the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change.

Reduplication is used in inflections to convey a grammatical function, such as plurality, intensification, etc., and in lexical derivation to create new words. It is often used when a speaker adopts a tone more "expressive" or figurative than ordinary speech and is also often, but not exclusively, iconic in meaning. Reduplication is found in a wide range of languages and language groups, though its level oflinguistic productivity varies.

Reduplication is the standard term for this phenomenon in the linguistics literature. Other terms that are occasionally used include cloning, doubling, duplication, repetition, and tautonym.

Reduplication is often described phonologically in one of two different ways: either as reduplicated segments (sequences of consonants/vowels) or as reduplicated prosodic units (syllables or moras). In addition to phonological description, reduplication often needs to be described morphologically as a reduplication of linguistic constituents (i.e. words, stems, roots). As a result, reduplication is interesting theoretically as it involves the interface between phonology and morphology.

The base is the word (or part of the word) that is to be copied. The reduplicated element is called the reduplicant, often abbreviated as RED or sometimes just R.

In reduplication, the reduplicant is most often repeated only once. However, in some languages, reduplication can occur more than once, resulting in a tripled form, and not a duple as in most reduplication. Triplication is the term for this phenomenon of copying two times. Pingelapese has both reduplication and triplication.

Back-formation. Back-formation is the process of creating a new lexeme, usually by removing actual or supposed affixes. The resulting neologism is called a back-formation, a term coined by James Murray in 1889. (OED online first definition of 'back formation' is from the definition to burgle, which was first published in 1889.)

Back-formation is different from clipping - back-formation may change the part of speech or the word's meaning, whereas clipping creates shortened words from longer words, but does not change the part of speech or the meaning of the word.

For example, the noun resurrection was borrowed from Latin, and the verb resurrect was then back formed hundreds of years later from it by removing the ion suffix. This segmentation of resurrection into resurrect + ion was possible because English had examples of Latinate words in the form of verb and verb+-ion pairs, such as opine/opinion. These became the pattern for many more such pairs, where a verb derived from a Latin supine stem and a noun ending in ion entered the language together, such as insert/insertion, project/projection, etc.

Back-formation may be similar to the reanalyzes of folk etymologies when it rests on an erroneous understanding of the morphology of the longer word. For example, the singular noun asset is a back-formation from the plural assets. However, assets is originally not a plural; it is a loanword from Anglo-Norman asetz (modern French assez). The -s was reanalyzed as a plural suffix.

Back-formation may be particularly common in English since many English words are borrowed from Latin, French and Greek, giving English a large range of common affixes. Many words with affixes have entered English, such as dismantle and disheveled, and it may therefore be easy to believe that these are formed from roots such as mantle (meaning to put something together) and shevelled (meaning well-dressed) when these words actually have no real history of existing in English.

9. Conversion

Conversion is a characteristic feature of the English word-building system. It is also called affixless derivation or zero-suffixation. The term "conversion" first appeared in the book by Henry Sweet "New English Grammar" in 1891. Conversion is treated differently by different scientists, e.g. prof. A.I. Smirntitsky treats conversion as a morphological way of forming words when one part of speech is formed from another part of speech by changing its paradigm, e.g. to form the verb "to dial" from the noun "dial" we change the paradigm of the noun (a dial, dials) for the paradigm of a regular verb (I dial, he dials, dialed, dialing). A. Marchand in his book "The Categories and Types of Present-day English" treats conversion as a morphological-syntactical word-building because we have not only the change of the paradigm, but also the change of the syntactic function, e.g. I need some good paper for my room. (The noun "paper" is an object in the sentence). I paper my room every year. (The verb "paper" is the predicate in the sentence).

Conversion is the main way of forming verbs in Modern English. Verbs can be formed from nouns of different semantic groups and have different meanings because of that, e.g.:

a) verbs have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denoting parts of a human body e.g. to eye, to finger, to elbow, to shoulder etc. They have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denoting tools, machines, instruments, weapons, e.g. to hammer, to machine-gun, to rifle, to nail;

b) verbs can denote an action characteristic of the living being denoted by the noun from which they have been converted, e.g. to crowd, to wolf, to ape;

c) verbs can denote acquisition, addition or deprivation if they are formed from nouns denoting an object, e.g. to fish, to dust, to peel, to paper;

d) verbs can denote an action performed at the place denoted by the noun from which they have been converted, e.g. to park, to garage, to bottle, to corner, to pocket;

e) verbs can denote an action performed at the time denoted by the noun from which they have been converted e.g. to winter, to week-end.

Verbs can be also converted from adjectives, in such cases they denote the change of the state, e.g. to tame (to become or make tame), to clean, to slim etc.

Nouns can also be formed by means of conversion from verbs. Converted nouns can denote:

a) instant of an action e.g. a jump, a move;

b) process or state e.g. sleep, walk;

c) agent of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been converted, e.g. a help, a flirt, a scold;

d) object or result of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been converted, e.g. a burn, a find, a purchas;

e) place of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been converted, e.g. a drive, a stop, a walk.

Many nouns converted from verbs can be used only in the Singular form and denote momentaneous actions. In such cases we have partial conversion. Such deverbal nouns are often used with such verbs as: to have, to get, to take etc., e.g. to have a try, to give a push, to take a swim.



References

1. Crystal, David. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, Sixth Edition, Blackwell Publishers, 2008.

2. The Funny Side of English, by O.A. Booty, p. 29.

3. Bryson, Bill (1990). The Mother Tongue. HarperCollins.

4. Brown, Lesley (1993). The New shorter Oxford English dictionary on historical principles. Oxford [Eng.]: Clarendon.

5. Albright, Adam. (2002). A restricted model of UR discovery: Evidence from Lakhota. (Draft version).

6. Alderete, John; Benua, Laura; Gnanadesikan, Amalia E.; Beckman, Jill N.; McCarthy, John J.; and Urbanczyk, Suzanne. (1999). Reduplication with fixed segmentism. Linguistic Inquiry, 30, 327-364. (Online version ROA 226-1097).

7. Botha, Rudi P. (1988). Form and meaning in word formation: a study of Afrikaans reduplication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

8. Broselow, Ellen; and McCarthy, John J. (1984). A theory of internal reduplication. The linguistic review, 3, 25-88.

9. Cooper, William E.; and Ross, "Hбj" John R. (1975). World order. In R.E. Grossman, L.J. San, and T.J. Vance (Eds.), Papers from the parasession on functionalism (pp. 63-111). Chicago, IL: Chicago Linguistic Society.

10. Dayley, Jon P. (1985). Tzutujil grammar. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

11. Diffloth, Gйrald. (1973). Expressives in Semai. In P.N. Jenner, L.C. Thompson, and S. Starsota (Eds.), Austroasiatic studies part I (pp. 249-264). University Press of Hawaii.

12. Fabricius, Anne H. (2006). A comparative survey of reduplication in Australian languages. LINCOM Studies in Australian Languages (No. 03). Lincom. ISBN 3-89586-531-1.

13. Haeberlin, Herman. (1918). "Types of Reduplication in Salish Dialects." International Journal of American Linguistics 1: 154-174.

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