Morphological structure of English words

1. The word morpheme is derived from Greek morphe -form. A morpheme is an association of a given meaning with a given sound pattern. Unlike a word, which is also an association of a given meaning with a given sound pattern a morpheme is not autonomous. Morphemes occur only as a constituent parts of words, not independently, though a word may consist of one morpheme. Morphemes are not divisible into smaller meaningful units. That is why the morpheme may be defined as the minimum meaningful language unit.

Morphemes are divided into two large groups: lexical morphemes and grammatical morphemes. Both lexical and grammatical morphemes can be free and bound. A morpheme is said to be free if it may stand alone without changing its meaning, for exemple: cat, sport, always. A morpheme is called bound because it is bound to something else. For exemple, in the word sportive sport- is a free morpheme, it can be used independently, there is the word sport. The morpheme -ive is a bound morpheme, it can not be used alone, there is no word like ive.

Free lexical morphemes are roots of words.

Free grammatical morphemes are function words such as articles, conjuctions and prepositions.

Bound lexical morphemes are affixes. Affixes are subdivided into prefixes, suffixes, infixes, combining forms or completives. Bound grammatical morphemes are endings (inflexions). For exemple: -s for the plural of nouns, -ed for the Past Indefinite of regular verbs and so on.

A prefix is a morpheme standing before a root and modifying its meaning, for exemple: hearten – dishearten. In some cases prefixes not only modify the meaning of a word but can form words of a different part of speech. For exemple: earth is a noun, to unearth is a verb. Prefixes can also express the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs, for exemple: to stay – to outstay.

A suffix is a morpheme following the root or a stem and forming a new word of a different part of speech or a different word class of the same part of speech. For exemple, the suffixes -en, -y, -less form such words of different parts of speech as hearten, hearty, heartless. The suffixes -ify, -er are verb-forming suffixes, but the suffix -ify forms causative verbs, for exemple: horrify, purify, while the suffux -er forms frequentative verbs, for exemple: flicker, shimmer, twitter.

An infix is an affix placed within the word, like -n- in stand, like -s- in statesman. Infixes are rare in the English language.

A combining form or completive is a bound form which can be distringuished from an affix historically. Combining forms are always borrowed from Latin or Greek. In Latin or Greek combining forms existed as free forms, as separate words. In English combining forms occur in compound and derivative words as their parts. These compound and derivative words did not exist in Latin or Greek, they were formed only in modern times in English. For exemple: megapolis (from mega- Greek and polis - Greek), AIDSophobia (from phobia – Latin), autocue (from auto - Greek), chimponaut (from naut - Greek). Combining forms are mostly international.

Some morphemes may have variants. For exemple, -ion, -sion, -tion, -ation are variants of the same suffix. They do not differ in meaning or function but show a slight difference in sound form which depends on the final sound of the preceding stem. Such variants are called allomorphs. An allomorph is from Greek allos – другой.

Analysing all the grammatical forms of a word, that is its paradigm, we may see the part which remains unchanged through the whole paradigm. This unchanged part is a stem of a word. Stems may be free or bound, simple or derived. For exemple, the paradigm of the adjective clean is clean – cleaner – cleanest. The stem of the word clean is clean-. This stem is free, not bound, because there is an independent word clean. At the same time, this stem is simple, because it coincides with the root of the word clean. In the words cordially and cordiality the stem is cordia-l. This stem is free as there exist the word cordial. But it is not a simple stem, it is a derived stem consisting of the root cord- and a suffix -ial. Bound stems are characteristic of loan words. Take for exemple French borrowings arrogance, charity, courage, coward, distort, involve, notion, legible. After the affixes of these words are taken away the remaining stems are arrog-, char-, cour-, cow-,-tort, -volve, not-, leg-. They are bound stems, they do not exist independently. Of course, the words cow, not, leg do exist, but the meaning of the stems -cow, not-, leg- and the meaning of the separate words cow, not, leg is different.

Stems have not only the lexical meaning, but also grammatical, part-of-speech meaning. They can be noun stems, as gir-l in the adjective girlish. They can be adjective stems, as girlish- in the noun girlishness. Stems can also be verb stems as in the noun expellee. Stems differ from words by the absence of inflexions in their structure, they can be used only in the structure of words.

2. According to the nature and the number of morphemes constituing a word there are different structural types of words in English: simple, affixed, compound, compound-affixed.

Simple words consist of one root morpheme and an inflexion. In many cases the inflexion is zero, for exemple: seldom, chair, asked, speaking.

Affixed words consist of one root morpheme, one or several affixes and an inflexion, for exemple: unemployed, underground, overestimation.

Compound words consist of two or more root morphemes and an inflexion, for exemple: wait-and-see, forget-me-not, baby-moons.

Compound-affixed words consist of two or more root morphemes, one or more affixes and an inflexion, for exemple: job-hopper, autotimer, hydroskimmer.

3. To define a structural type of a word, that is, to accomplish a morphological analysis, it is necessary to use the analysis into immediate constituents. It was first suggested by an American scientist L. Bloomfield. Immediate constituents are any of the two meaningful parts forming a larger linguistic unity. The main constituents are un affix and a stem.

L. Bloomfield analyzed the word ungentlemanly.

In the first stage of the analysis one breaks the word ungentlemanly into two immediate constituents: un + gentlemanly. The morpheme u- is a negative prefix, one has come across words built on the pattern un + stem: uncertainly, uncomfortably etc. And the adjective gentlemanly exists in the English language.

In the second stage one separates the stem gentleman and the morpheme ly. In English there are many words with the pattern stem + ly: womanly, masterly etc. There is also the noun gentleman. The immediate constituents of this pattern have the same semantic relationship: having the quality of the person denoted by the stem. Besides, there is the noun gentleman.

In the first two stages of the analysis one separated a free and a bound forms: un + gentlemanly and gentleman + ly.

In the third stage the cut gentle + man has its pecularities. The morpheme gentle is a stem. The element man may be classified as a semi-bound affix or as a variant of the free form man. A similar pattern can be found in the word nobleman.

To sum up: as one breaks the word, one obtains at any level only two immediate cobstituents, one of which is a stem. All the time the analysis is based on the patterns characteristic of the English vocabulary. As a result, we get the following formula: un + (gentle + man) + ly.

The above procedure is an elementary case of the analysis. There are complicated, open or unresolved cases.

An American scientist Eugine Nida discusses the morphological structure of the word untruly. This word might, it seems, be divided either un + truly or un + true + ly. E. Nida notices that the prefix un- is very rarely combined with adverb stems and is freely combined with the adjective stems. So the immediate constituents of the word untruly is untrue + ly. Other exemples of the same patterns are uncommonly, unlikely.

Some linguists think that words like pocket cannot be subjected to morphological analysis. They say that in the words pocket, hogget, locket it is possible to single out a diminutive suffix -et. In the words hogget, locket the remaining parts, that is, hog- and lock- are stems because there are independent words hog and lock. At the same time the remaining part of the word pocket, that is, pock- cannots be regarded as a stem. The element pock- does not exist independently.

Russian scientist Aлександр Иванович Смирницкий does not share the opinion of E. Nida. He believes that the stem is morphologically divisible if at least one of its elements belongs to a regular correlation. It means that if we agree that et- in the words pocket, hogget, locket is a suffix, we must agree that the elements pock-, hog, lock are stems. The words like pocket can be subjected to morphological analysis.

There are also cases, especially among borrowed words, that defy analysis altogether: calendar, perestroika.

Wordbuilding

1. Wordbuilding is one of the main ways of enriching vocabulary. There are four main ways of wordbuilding in Modern English: affixation, composition, conversion, abbreviation.

There are also secondary ways of wordbuilding: sound interchange, stress interchange, sound imitation, blends, back formation.

Affixation

Affixation has been one of the most productive ways of wordbuilding 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 first function of suffixes is to form one part of speech from another. The second function is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech.

There exist different classifications of suffixes: part of speech classification, semantic classification, lexico-grammatucal character of the stem, origion of affixes, productivity, structure.

According to the part of speech classification, suffixes are divided into:

1. noun-forming suffixes: -er (criticizer), -dom (officialdom), -ism (ageism),

1. adjective-forming suffixes: -able (breathable), -less (symptomless), -ous (prestigious),

1. verb-forming suffixes -ize (computerize), -ify (micrify), - en (shorten),

1. adverb-forming suffixes: -ly (singly), -ward (tableward), -wise (jetwise),

1. numeral-forming suffixes: -teen (sixteen), -ty (seventy), -fold (twofold).

Semantic classification arranges suffixes in accordance with the lexical meaning of the stem. For exemple, noun-forming suffixes can denote:

-the agent of the action: -er (experimenter), -ist (taxist), -ent (student),

-nationality: -ian (Russian), -ese (Japanese), - ish (English),

-collectivity: - ry (peasantry), -ship (readership), - ati (literati),

-diminutiveness: -ie (horsie), -ling (gooseling), -y (hanky) etc.

Classification of suffixes according to lexico-grammatical character of the stem supposes that suffixes can be added to certain groups of stems:

-suffixes added to verbal stems: -er (commuter), -able (flyable), -ing (suffering),

-suffixes added to noun stems: -ess (smogless), -ful (roomful), -nik (filmnik),

-suffixes added to adjective stems: -ly (pinkly), -ish (longish), -ness (clannishness).

Classification of suffixes according to their origin allows to distinguish:

-native (Germanic) suffixes: -er (teacher), -ed (talented), -teen (sixteen),

-Romanic suffixes: -age (carriage), -ment (development), -ate (dictate),

-Greek suffixes: -ize (organize), - ism (capitalism), -ist (racist) etc.

The term borrowed affixes is not very exact as affixes are never borrowed as suffixes, but only as parts of borrowed words. To enter the morphological system of the English language a borrowed affix, both a suffix and a prefix, must satisfy certain conditions. The borrowing of an affix is possible only:

-if the the number of words containing this affix is considerable,

-if its meaning and function are definite and clear,

-if its structural pattern corresponds to the structural patterns already existing in the language.

Productivity classification of affixes points out the following groups:

-productive: -ly (wetly), -ize (specialize), -er (dancer),

-semi-productive: -eer (profiteer), -ward (skyward), -ette (kitchenette),

-non-productive: -ard (drunkard), -th (length) etc.

According to the structure suffixes are divided into:

-simple: -er (speaker), -ist (dramatist),

compound: -ical (ironical), -ation (formation), -manship (sportsmanship), -ably / ibly (terribly, reasonably) etc.

Some suffixes can be polysemantic. For exemple, -er can form nouns with the following meanings: an agent or a doer of the action expressed by the stem (porter), a profession or an occupation (baker), a device or a tool (transmitter).

There are also disputable cases whether we have a suffix or a root in the structure of a word. In such cases these disputable morphemes are called semi-affixes. Words with semi-affixes can be classified either as affixed words or as compound words. For exemple: -gate (Irangate), -burger (cheeseburger), -aholic (workaholic), -man (postman) 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 are proper prefixes, they are bound morphemes: unhappy, rewrite, antiwar etc. Prefixes used in functional words are semi-bound morphemes because they are met in the language as words: overhead – over the table.

The main function of prefixes in English is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech. But some prefixes can form one part of speech from another. They are en / em-, a-, pre-, non-, anti- etc. For exemple the prefix be- forms verbs with adjective stems, and noun stems: to belittle, to befriend, to bemadam.

Prefixes can be classified according to different principles:

11. Semantic classification:

-prefixes of negative meaning: in- (invaluable), non- (non-person, non-book, nonformal), un- (unfree),

-prefixes denoting repetition or reversative actions: de- (decolonize), dis-(disconnect), un- (unpack),

-prefixes denoting time, space, degree: inter- (interplanetary), hyper- (hypertension), pre- (preelection), ex- (ex-student) etc.

2. Origin of prefixes:

-native (Germanic): under- (undernourish), over- (overfeed),

-Romanic: in- (inactive), de- (demobilize), re- (redo),

-Greek: sym- (sympathy), hyper- (hypertension) 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 affixed words. But some scientists treat them as simple words.

Another group of words with a disputable structure are such as contain, retain, detain or conceive, receive, deceive where we can see that con- and de- 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 affixed words.

There are some prefixes which can be treated as root morphemes by some scientists. For exemple after- in the word afternoon. American lexicographers treat such words as compound words, British lexicographers treat them as affixed ones.

Composition

2. Сomposition is the way of wordbuilding when a word is formed by joining two or more stems to form one word. The structural unity of a compound word depends on the following factors:

- the unity of stress,

- spelling,

- semantic unity,

- unity of morphological and syntactical functioning.

These are characteristics of compounds in all languages. For English some of these factors are not reliable. As a rule, English compounds have one uniting stress on the first component: hat-cover, best-seller. We can also have a double stress in English compouns, with the main stress on the first component and with a secondary stress on the second component: blood-vessel. The main stress can also be on the second component: snow-white, sky-blue. Besides, the stress may be phonological and help to differentiate the meaning of compounds: overwork – overwork, bookcase – bookcase.

Spelling in English compounds is not reliable as well. English compounds can have different spelling even in the same text: war-ship can be spelt through a hyphen, with a break or solidly.

The semantic unity of English compounds may be different. There are compounds in which the meaning of the whole is not a sum of meanings of its components: ghostwrite, skinhead, braindrain. There are componds the meaning of which is deduced from the meaning of the components: to blood-transfuse, airbus, astrodynamics.

English compounds have the unity of morphological and syntactical functioning. They are used in a a sentence as one part of it and only one component changes grammatically: These girls are chatter-boxes. The compound chatter-boxes is a predicative here and only the second component changes grammatically.

There are two characteristic features of English compounds:

-both components in an English compound are free stems. They can be used as words with a distinctive meaning of theit own. The sound pattern will be the same except for the stresses: green-house – теплица and green house – дом, выкрашенный в зеленый цвет;

-English compouns have mostly a two-stem pattern: railroad, homework.

Compounds in English can be formed not only by means of composition but also by means of:

-reduplication: too-too – sentimental, toy-boy – gigolo, shock-frock – bare-bosomed cocktail dress;

-conversion from word-groups: to micky-mouse, can-do, make-up;

-back formation from compound nouns or word-groups: to baby-sit from baby-sitter, to fingerprint from finger-printing;

-analogy: lie-in on the analogy with sit-in, brawn-drain on the analogy with brain-drain;

contrast: brain-gain in contrast to brain-drain.

There are different classifications of English compounds:

According to the parts of speech compounds are subdivided into:

nouns: baby-moon, globe-trotter;

adjectives: free-for-all, power-happy;

verbs: to henpeck, to honeymoon;

adverbs: downdeep, headfirst;

prepositions: into, within;

numerals: fifty-five.

According to the way components are joined together compounds are subdivided into:

neutral, which are formed by joining together two stems without any joining morphemes: ball-point, to window-shop;

morphological where components are joined by a linking element: astrospace, handicraft, sportsman;

syntactical where the components are joined by means of stems: here-and-now, free-for-all, do-or-die.

According to their structure compounds are subdivided into:

-compound words which consist of two stems: job-hunt, train-sick, tip-top;

- compound-affixed words, where besides the stems we have affixes: ear-minded, autotimer;

-compound words consisting of three or more stems: singer-songwriter, eggshell-thin;

-compound-shortened words: V-day, intervision.

According to the relations between the components compound words are subdivided into:

subordinative compounds where one of the components is the semantic centre and the structural centre and the second component is subordinate. These subordinative relations can be different. For exemple, they can be comparative : honey-sweet, goldfish; time relations: summer-house, spring-fresh; sex-relations: she-dog, he-goat, Tom-cat etc.

-coordinative compounds where both components are semantically independent: no-no, Anglo-Saxon, secretary-stenographer etc.

According to the order of the components compounds are divided into compounds with direct order: killjoy and compounds with indirect order: nuclear-free, rope-ripe etc.

According to the meaning of the whole compound we can point out idiomatic and non-idiomatic compounds. Compounds may be very different in meaning from the corresponding free phrase. Such compounds are calles idiomatic: a blackboard – a black board, a tall boy – a tallboy, a blue bell – a bluebell. Compounds which are not different in their meaning from corresponding free phrases are called non-idiomatic: swimming-pool, speedometer, airmail etc.

Lecture # 5

Wordbuilding

Conversion

Conversion is a characteristic feature of the English wordbuilding system. It is also called affixless derivation or zero-suffixation but it is not quite correct because there are other types of wordbuilding in which new words are also formed without affixes: compounds, contracted words, sound-imitation words etc. The term conversion first appeared in the book by Henry Sweet New English Grammar in 1891. Conversion is very productive way of worldbuilding. Its productivity is encouraged by the analytical structure of Modern Englisg which facilitates processes of making words of one category of part of speech from words of another. A great number of one-syllable words is also a factor in favour of conversion. Such words are more mobile and flexible than polysyllabic words.

Conversion is treated differently by different scientists. A.И. Смирницкий 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. For exemple, 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 treats conversion as a morphological-syntactical wordbuilding because we have not only the change of the paradigm, but also the change of the syntactical function. For exemple, in the sentence I need some good paper for my room the noun paper is an object in the sentence. In the sentence I paper my room every year the verb paper is the predicate in the sentence.

A word made by conversion has a different meaning from the meaning of the word from which it was made. Though both meaning can be associated. There are some regularities in these associations:

-the noun is the name of a tool or instrument, the verb denotes an action performed by the tool: to pencil, to nail, to pin;

-the noun is the name of an animal, the verb denotes an action or aspect of behaviour typical of this animal: to ape, to wolf, to fox;

-the name of a part of the human body – an action performed by it: to nose, to shoulder, to elbow;

-the name of a profession or occupation – an activity typical of it: to nurse, to maid, to groom;

-the name of a place – the process of occupying the place or of putting smth / smb in it: to room, to cage, to table;

-the name of a container – the act of putting smth within the container: to pocket, to bottle, to can;

-the name of a meal – the process of taking it: to lunch, to supper, to dinner.

In cases of conversion we have a question: which word is primary and which is converted from it? There are three approaches to this problem.

1.If the lexical meaning of the root morpheme and the lexico-grammatical meaning of the stem coincide the word is primary. For exemple, in cases pen – to pen, father – to father the nouns are names of an object and a living being. In the nouns pen and father the lexical meaning of the root and the lexico-grammatical meanings of the stems coincide. The verbs to pen and to father denote an action, a process. The lexico-grammatical meanings of the stems do not coincide with the lexical meanings of the roots. The verbs have a complex semantic structure and they were converted from nouns.

2. If we compare a converted pair with a synonymic word pair which was formed by means of suffixation we can find out which of the pair is primary. This criterion can be applied only to nouns converted from verbs. For exemple, chat as a noun and chat as a verb can be compared with conversation – converse.

3. We must take a word-cluster of relative words to which the converted pair belongs. If the root stem of the word-cluster has suffixes added to a noun stem, the noun is primary in the converted pair. For exemple, in the word-cluster hand n., hand v., handy, handful the affixed words have suffixes added to a noun stem, that is why the noun is primary and the verb is converted from it. In the word-cluster dance n., dance v., dancer, dancing we see that the primary word is a verb and the noun is converted from it.

What is relationship between conversion and substantivation? Some scientists refer substantivation of adjectives to conversion. But most scientists do not, because in cases of substantivation of adjectives we have quite different changes in the language. Substantivation is the result of syntactical shortening when a word combination with a semantically strong attribute loses its semantically weak noun: a grown-up person is shortened to a grown up. In cases of substantivation the attribute takes the paradigm of a countable noun: a criminal, criminals, a criminal’s, crimiunals’. There are also two types of partly substantivized adjectives:

1) those which have only the plural form and have the meaning of collective nouns: sweets, news, empties, finals, greens;

b) those which have only the singular form and are used with the definite article. They also have the meaning of collective nouns and denote a class, a nationality, a group of people etc.: the rich, the English, the dead.

These words are called partly substantivized because they do not get a new paradigm. Besides, they keep some properties of adjectives, they can be modified by adverbs: the enormously rich, the very unfortunate, the extravagantly jealous.

There is one more problem connected with convertion in English. In English there are a lot of word combinations of the type stone wall. For exemple: time table, homework, price rise, language teacher etc. If he first component of such units is an adjective converted from a noun, combinations of this type are free word-groups of the structure adjective + nouns. This point of view is proved by O. Yespersen by the following facts:

6. The word stone denotes some quality of the object named by the word wall.

7. The word stone stands before the word it modifies as adjectives do.

8. The word stone is used in the singular though its meaning may be plural, and adjectives in English have no plural form.

9. There are some cases when the first component is used in the comparative or the superlative degree, and adjectives can have degrees of comparison: the bottomest end of the scale.

10. The first component can have an adverb which characterizes it, and adjectives are characterized by adverbs: a purely family gathering.

11. The first component can be used in the same syntactical function with a proper adjective to characterize the same noun: lonely bare stone houses.

12. After the first component the pronoun one can be used instead of a noun: I shall not put on a silk dress, I shall put on a cotton one.

But other scientists say that these criteria are not characteristic of the majority of such units. They consider the first conponent of such units to be a noun in the function of an attribute because in Midern English almost all parts of speech and even word-groups and sentences can be used in the function of an attribute. For exemple: the then president (an adverb in the function of an attribute), out-of-the-way villages (a word-group in the function of an attribute), a devil-may-care speed (a sentence in the function of an attribute).

There are different semantic relations between the components of such combinations:

-time relation: evening paper,

-space relation: top floor,

-qualitative relations: winter apples,

-cause relations: war orphan etc.

Abbreviation

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 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. Among them are: demand of rhythm, which is satisfied by monosyllabic words and shortening of borrowings from other languages.

There are two main types of shortenings: graphical and lexical.

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 these abbreviations in the spelling Latin words are shortened while orally the corresponding English equivalents are pronounced in the full form. For exemple: a.m. – in the morning (ante meridiem), No – number (numero), i.e. – that is (id est), p.a. – a year (per annum), lb – pound (libra) etc.

In some cases initial letters are pronounced: a.m., p.m.

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

Graphical abbreviations of native origin represent several semantic groups:

- days of the week: Mon – Monday, Tue – Tuesday,

- names of months: Apr – April, Aug – August,

- names of address: Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr,

- military ranks: capt – captain, col – colonel, sgt – sergeant,

- scientific degrees: BA – Bachelor of Arts, DM – Doctor of Medicine,

- units of time, length, weight: f / ft – foot / feet, in. – inch, mg. – milligram etc.

The reading of some graphical abbreviations depends on the context. For exemple: m can be read as male, married, masculine, metre, mile, million, minute.