Курсовая работа "Лексикология. Словообразование". "Lexicology. Word formation".
статья по английскому языку на тему

Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation

Moscow University of Open Education

Section: Lexicology

Topic: Word-formation

Done by:

Teacher of English, state

secondary school 1055

Mayorova Svetlana Rudolfovna

________________________

Approved by:

Senior teacher, associate professor,

foreign languages department

Melchina Oksana Pavlovna

________________________

Moscow

2014

Contents

1. Introduction…………………………….3

2. Affixation          4

3.Conversion          7

4.Composition          8

5. Contraction        13

6. Exercises        14

7. Conclusion        22

8. Sources        23

1.Introduction. How English Words Are Made. Word-Building

Word-building  are  processes of producing new words from the resources of this particular language. Together with borrowing, word-building provides for enlarging and enriching the vocabulary of the language.

If viewed structurally, words appear to be divisible into smaller units which are called morphemes. Morphemes do not occur as free forms but only as constituents of words. Yet they possess meanings of their own.

All morphemes are subdivided into two large classes: roots (or radicals) and affixes. The latter, in their turn, fall into prefixes which precede the root in the structure of the word (as in re-read, mis-pronounce, unwell) and suffixes which follow the root (as in teach-er, cur-able, diet-ate).

Words which consist of a root and an affix (or several affixes) are called derived words or derivatives and are produced by the process of word-building known as affixation (or derivation).

Derived words are extremely numerous in the English vocabulary. Successfully competing with this structural type is the so-called root word which has only a root morpheme in its structure.

Another wide-spread word-structure is a compound word consisting of two or more stems. Stem is part of the word consisting of root and affix. Words of this structural type are produced by the word-building process called composition.

 Shortenings, contractions or curtailed words a are produced by the way of word-building called shortening (contraction).

The four types (root words, derived words, compounds, shortenings) represent the main structural types of Modern English words, and conversion, derivation and composition the most productive ways of word-building.

 Let us try and get a more detailed picture of each of the major types of Modern English word-building and, also, of some minor types.

2.Affixation

The process of affixation consists in coining a new word by adding an affix or several affixes to some root morpheme.

From the etymological point of view affixes are classified into the same two large groups as words: native and borrowed.

Some Native Suffixes

Borrowed affixes, especially of Romance origin are numerous in the English vocabulary. An affix of foreign origin can be regarded as borrowed only after it has begun an independent and active life in the recipient language, that is, is taking part in the word-making processes of that language.

Affixes can also be classified into productive and non-productive types. By productive affixes we mean the ones, which take part in deriving new words in this particular period of language development. The best way to identify productive affixes is to look for them among neologisms and so-called nonce-words.One should not confuse the productivity of affixes with their frequency of occurrence. There are quite a number of high-frequency affixes which, nevertheless, are no longer used in word-derivation (e. g. the adjective-forming native suffixes -ful, -ly; the adjective-forming suffixes of Latin origin -ant, -ent, -al which are quite frequent).

Some Productive Affixes

Some Non-Productive Affixes

Semantics of Affixes

Meanings of affixes are specific and considerably differ from those of root morphemes. Affixes have widely generalised meanings and refer the concept conveyed by the whole word to a certain category, which is vast and all-embracing. So, the noun-forming suffix -er could be roughly defined as designating persons from the object of their occupation or labour (painter — the one who paints) or from their place of origin or abode (southerner — the one living in the South). The adjective-forming suffix -ful has the meaning of "full of", "characterised by" (beautiful, careful) whereas -ish may often imply insufficiency of quality (greenish — green, but not quite; youngish — not quite young but looking it).

Such examples might lead one to the somewhat hasty conclusion that the meaning of a derived word is always a sum of the meanings of its morphemes: un/eat/able = "not fit to eat" where not stands for un- and fit for –able but the constituent morphemes within derivatives do not always preserve their current meanings and are open to subtle and complicated semantic shifts.

3.Conversion

Conversion is sometimes referred to as an affixless way of word-building or even affixless derivation. Saying that, however, is saying very little because there are other types of word-building in which new words are also formed without affixes (most compounds, contracted words, sound-imitation words, etc.).

Conversion consists in making a new word from some existing word by changing the category of a part of speech, the morphemic shape of the original word remaining unchanged. The new word has a meaning which differs from that of the original one though it can more or less be easily associated with it. It has also a new paradigm peculiar to its new category as a part of speech.

Conversion is both a highly productive and a particularly English way of word-building. Its immense productivity is considerably encouraged by certain features of the English language in its modern stage of development. The analytical structure of Modern English greatly facilitates processes of making words of one category of parts of speech from words of another. So does the simplicity of paradigms of English parts of speech. A great number of one-syllable words is another factor in favour of conversion, for such words are naturally more mobile and flexible than polysyllables.

Conversion is a convenient and "easy" way of enriching the vocabulary with new words. It is certainly an advantage to have two (or more) words where there was one, all of them fixed on the same structural and semantic base.

The two categories of parts of speech especially affected by conversion are nouns and verbs. Verbs made from nouns are the most numerous amongst the words produced by conversion: e. g. to hand, to back, to face, to eye, to mouth, to nose, to dog, to wolf, to monkey, to can, to coal, to stage, to screen, to room, to floor, to blackmail, to blacklist, to honeymoon, and very many others.

Nouns are frequently made from verbs: do (e. g. This is the queerest do I've ever come across. Do — event, incident), go (e. g. He has still plenty of go at his age. Go — energy), make, run, find, catch, cut, walk, worry, show, move, etc.

Verbs can also be made from adjectives: to pale, to yellow, to cool, to grey, to rough (e. g. We decided to rough it in the tents as the weather was warm), etc.

Other parts of speech are not entirely unsusceptible to conversion as the following examples show: to down, to out (as in a newspaper heading Diplomatist Outed from Budapest), the ups and downs, the ins and outs, like, n, (as in the like of me and the like of you).

4. Composition

In  this type of word-building new words are produced by combining two or more stems. It is one of the three most productive types in Modern English, the other two are conversion and affixation. Compounds, though certainly fewer in quantity than derived or root words, still represent one of the most typical and specific features of English word-structure.

There are at least three aspects of composition that present special interest.

The first is the structural aspect. Compounds are not homogeneous in structure. Traditionally three types are distinguished: neutral, morphological and syntactic.

In neutral compounds the process of compounding is realised without any linking elements, by a mere juxtaposition of two stems, as in blackbird, shop-window, sunflower, bedroom, tallboy, etc. There are three subtypes of neutral compounds depending on the structure of the constituent stems.

The examples above represent the subtype which may be described as simple neutral compounds: they consist of simple affixless stems.

Compounds which have affixes in their structure are called derived or derivational compounds. E. g. absent-mindedness, blue-eyed, golden-haired, broad-shouldered, lady-killer, film-goer, music-lover, honey-mooner, first-nighter, late-comer, newcomer, early-riser, evildoer.

The third subtype of neutral compounds is called contracted compounds. These words have a shortened (contracted) stem in their structure: TV-set (-program, -show, -canal, etc.), V-day (Victory day), G-man (Government man "FBI agent"), H-bag (handbag), T-shirt, etc.

Morphological compounds are few in number. This type is non-productive. It is represented by words in which two compounding stems are combined by a linking vowel or consonant, e. g. Anglo-Saxon, Franko-Prussian, handiwork, handicraft, craftsmanship, spokesman, statesman (see also p. 115).

  Syntactic compounds are formed from segments of speech, preserving in their structure numerous traces of syntagmatic relations typical of speech: articles, prepositions, adverbs, as in the nouns lily-of-the-valley, Jack-of-all-trades, good-for-nothing, mother-in-law, sit-at-home. Syntactical relations and grammatical patterns current in present-day English can be clearly traced in the structures of such compound nouns as

pick-me-up, know-all, know-nothing, go-between, get-together, whodunit. The last word (meaning "a detective story") was obviously coined from the ungrammatical variant of the word-group who (has) done it.

In this group of compounds, once more, we find a great number of neologisms, and whodunit is one of them. Consider, also, the two following fragments which make rich use of modern city traffic terms.

Another focus of interest is the semantic aspect of compound words, that is, the question of correlations of the separate meanings of the constituent parts and the actual meaning of the compound. Or, to put it in easier terms: can the meaning of a compound word be regarded as the sum of its constituent meanings?

To try and answer this question, let us consider the following groups of examples.

(1) Classroom, bedroom, working-man, evening-gown, dining-room, sleeping-car, reading-room, dancing-hall.

This group seems to represent compounds whose meanings can really be described as the sum of their constituent meanings. Yet, in the last four words we can distinctly detect a slight shift of meaning. The first component in these words, if taken as a free form, denotes an action or state of whatever or whoever is characterised by the word. Yet, a sleeping-car is not a car that sleeps (cf. a sleeping child), nor is a dancing-hall actually dancing (cf. dancing pairs).

The shift of meaning becomes much more pronounced in the second group of examples.

(2)        Blackboard, blackbird, football, lady-killer, pick
pocket, good-for-nothing, lazybones, chatterbox.

In these compounds one of the components (or both) has changed its meaning: a blackboard is neither a board nor necessarily black, football is not a ball but a game, a chatterbox not a box but a person, and a lady-killer kills no one but is merely a man who fascinates women. It is clear that in all these compounds the meaning of the whole word cannot be defined as the sum of the constituent meanings. The process of change of meaning in some such words has gone so far that the meaning of one or both constituents is no longer in the least associated with the current meaning of the corresponding free form.

The compounds whose meanings do not correspond to the separate meanings of their constituent parts are called idiomatic compounds, in contrast to the first group known as non-idiomatic compounds.

A further theoretical aspect of composition is the criteria for distinguishing between a compound and a word-combination.

This question has a direct bearing on the specific feature of the structure of most English compounds which has already been mentioned: with the exception

of the rare morphological type, they originate directly from word-combinations and are often homonymous to them: cf. a tall boy — a tallboy.

In this case the graphic criterion of distinguishing between a word and a word-group seems to be sufficiently convincing, yet in many cases it cannot wholly be relied on. The spelling of many compounds, tallboy among them, can be varied even within the same book. In the case of tallboy the semantic criterion seems more reliable, for the striking difference in the meanings of the word and the word-group certainly points to the highest degree of semantic cohesion in the word: tallboy does not even denote a person, but a piece of furniture, a chest of drawers supported by a low stand.

Moreover, the word-group a tall boy conveys two concepts (1. a young male person; 2. big in size), whereas the word tallboy expresses one concept.

Yet the semantic criterion alone cannot prove anything as phraseological units also convey a single concept and some of them are characterised by a high degree of semantic cohesion (see Ch. 12).

The phonetic criterion for compounds may be treated as that of a single stress. The criterion is convincingly applicable to many compound nouns, yet does not work with compound adjectives:

cf. 'slowcoach, blackbird, 'tallboy,

but: blие-'eyed, 'absent-'minded, 'ill-'mannered.

Still, it is true that the morphological structure of these adjectives and their hyphenated spelling leave no doubt about their status as words and not word-groups.

Morphological and syntactic criteria can also be applied to compound words in order to distinguish them from word-groups.

In the word-group a tall boy each of the constituents is independently open to grammatical changes peculiar to its own category as a part of speech: They were the tallest boys in their form.

Between the constituent parts of the word-group other words can be inserted: a tall handsome boy.

The compound tallboy — and, in actual fact, any other compound — is not subject to such changes. The first component is grammatically invariable; the plural form ending is added to the whole unit: tallboys. No word can be inserted between the components, even with the compounds which have a traditional separate graphic form.

All this leads us to the conclusion that, in most cases, only several criteria (semantic, morphological, syntactic, phonetic, graphic) can convincingly classify a lexical unit as either a compound word or a wordgroup.

5. Shortening (Contraction)

This comparatively new way of word-building has achieved a high degree of productivity nowadays, especially in American English.

Shortenings (or contracted/curtailed words) are produced in two different ways. The first is to make a new word from a syllable (rarer, two) of the original word. The latter may lose its beginning (as in phone made from telephone, fence from defence), its ending (as in hols from holidays, vac from vacation, props from properties, ad from advertisement) or both the beginning and ending (as in flu from influenza, fridge from refrigerator).

The second way of shortening is to make a new word from the initial letters of a word group: U.N.O. ['ju:neu] from the United Nations Organisation, B.B.C. from the British Broadcasting Corporation, M.P. from Member of Parliament. This type is called initial shortenings. They are found not only among formal words, such as the ones above, but also among colloquialisms and slang. So, g. f. is a shortened word made from the compound girl-friend.

6. Exercises on Word-Building

In my work I use student’ books and workbooks  “Enjoy English”  by Biboletova  M.Z.. Here are some exercises on this topic.

Ex.1. Fill in the gaps in the text with the correct forms of the words in CAPITAL LETTERS.

Finding his own way .

Though he is only twelve years old, Peter James Donnelly has already

tasted the rewards of finding his own way when it comes to (O) expressing himself. (1)... and record company Fatt Boy Records has just released his first record, Too Young, on (2)... to prove it. By day, Peter goes about his lessons like any other school (3) ... in Corby, Northamptonshire. By night he becomes PJ the DJ, spinning speed garage, drum and bass and hip hop at clubs such as Laposte in Corby, Generation X in Manchester and as far as Magalus on Majorca.

“I don’t get (4) ..., just a bit excited,” he says. “When I’m mixing at a club,

I have five or ten minutes to get used to the (5)... . I try a few tunes to see what the club’s like, see whether people are dancing and know the tunes. Then I play some older ones, then the (6) .... I love music.”

As an afterthought, he mentions that he’s the youngest DJ in the land to mix vocals.

1. EXPRESS 1. MUSIC 2. PROMOTE 3.STUDY 4. NURVE 5. EQUIP 6.FAVOUR

Answers: 1. MUSIC   2. PROMOTION  3. STUDENT  4.NURVOUS 5. EQUIPMENT 6.FAVOURITES

Ex.2 Complete the table with the correct form of the words.

Answers: argument, argumentative;                                                        relative/relationship, relate;                                                                                              suggest; change, changeable/changing;                                                                            provide, provided;                                                 employment/unemployment/employer/employee, employ;                                            compete, competitive;                                                                                                                       anxiety;                                                                                                                                    conclusion ,conclude;                                                                                                              believe, believable

Ex.3 WORD FOCUS: WORD FORMATION: NOUN SUFFIXES -ENCE, -ANCE, -ITY, -TY

Answers: activity, act; dependency, dependent; reliance, rely; humanise, humane  

Ex.4 Fill in the gaps in the text with the correct forms of the words in CAPITAL LETTERS at the end of each line.

Without my computer I would not have the pleasure of the getting to my favourite sites, I would have difficulty (1) ... with friends, and I would not be able to do my work for school. I often wonder how we all managed before computers were a common place in the home. I just don’t have the time to be always running to the post box to send letters. E-mail is very 2)...when you have a tough schedule. Most of my (3) ... time is spent at the computer as by the time I finish doing homework I am too tired and it is often too late to go out. It is a (4) ... reference aid and (5) ... tool. If all else fails, you can play cards on it, although my own (6) ... is for action games!

1. COMMUNICATE 2. IMPORTANCE 3. RELAX 4. WONDER 5. EDUCATION 6.PREFER

ANSWERS: 1. COMMUNICATING 2.IMPORTANT 3.RELEXATION 4.WONDERFUL 5.EDUCATIONAL 6.PREFERENCE

Ex.5 Fill in the gaps in the text with the correct forms of the words in CAPITAL LETTERS.

Bowing

The tradition of bowing is so (0) complex that Asians attend special classes to learn how to do it (1).... It’s unlikely that any (2) ... visitor would be able to appropriately carry out the formal bow, doing it to the right (3) ... and with the correct duration. However, a polite attempt to bow in (4) ... will be appreciated by your Asian (5) ... .If you want to express some special respect in the (6) ..., bow lower. Be sure to learn an appropriate verbal greeting to accompany the bow.

0.COMPLEXITY  1.PROPER  2.NATION  3.DEEP 4.GREET 5. ACQUAINT 6.RALATION

ANSWERS: 1. PROPERLY 2.INTERNATIONAL 3.DEPTH  4.GREETING  5.ACCUAINTANCE (S) 6.RELATIONSHIP

Ex.6  Fill in the gaps in the text with the correct forms of the words in CAPITAL LETTERS.

Origins of writing in China

Most linguists believe that writing was (0) invented  in  China during the latter half of the 2nd millennium BC.

Chinese is written with characters. Each character represents a syllable of (1) ... Chinese and also has a SPEAK meaning. The characters were originally pictures of people, animals or other things but over the centuries they have become (2) ... stylised and no longer look like INCREASE the things they represent.

The Chinese writing system is (3) ... . The largest LIMIT Chinese dictionaries include about 56,000 characters, but most of them are archaic, obscure or rare variant forms.

Knowledge of about 3,000 characters (4) ... you to read ABLE about 99% of the characters in Chinese newspapers and magazines. To read Chinese literature, technical writings or Classical Chinese, though, you need to be familiar with about 6,000 characters.

There are currently two systems for Chinese characters. The (5)... system, still used in Hong Kong and TRADITIO. Taiwan, comes from standardised character forms dating back to the late Han Dynasty. The Simplified Chinese Character System, (6)... in 1954 to promote mass literacy,

(7) ... most complex traditional characters to fewer strokes.

0. INVENT 1.SPEAK 2.INCREASE 3.LIMIT 4.ABLE 5. TRADITION 6.DEVELOP 7.SIMPLE

ANSWERS: 1. SPOKEN   2.INCREASINGLY  3. UNLIMITED   4. ENABLES   5. TRADITIONAL   6. DEVELOPED   7. SIMPLIFIES                                                                        Ex.7  Fill in the table with the correct form of the words.

ANSWERS: IMAGINATION, IMAGINE

                      PROFESSION

                      CREATION/CREATIVITY/CREATOR/CREATURE, CREATE

                      COMPETENCE

                      ENTHUSIAST/ENTHUSIASM,ENTHUSE

                      RESPONSIBILITY

                      COMPETITION/COMPETOR, COMPETE

                       PERSISTANCE, PERSIST

                     INSPIRATION, INSPIRE

Ex.8        Fill in the gaps in the text with the correct forms of the words in CAPITAL LETTERS.

Career choice

Making a career choice is one of the most difficult and most important (0) decisions we will ever make in our lives. It has to be made with much (1) ... and deliberation. Moreover, career choices cannot be made based on just a few criteria alone. Your job may carry great monetary (2) ... and perks, but if you do not enjoy what you do then you are (3) ... wasting a large part of your life. At the same time, remember that money is also important for you need it to survive. So, if a job is all (4) ... but no pay, things can get difficult.

Before you start choosing a perfect career, you need to know yourself first. But sometimes all this self-analysis leads to (5) ... . We end up more (6) ... than we were at the beginning. Then, the best way to deal with the dilemma is to think about (7) ... a career counselor.

A career development professional will use various tools to help you evaluate your interests, personality, (8) ... and values. He or she will then show you how all these things, combined, play a role in choosing a career. You can also learn about a career by interviewing people who are already in that profession.

Once you have all the information you need, list out all the pros and cons of that particular job. Look at the various (9) ... . Check to see if the job gives you what you want from a career. Passion is the key word in selecting a career. Select something because you feel passionate about it, not because it is the latest thing in the job market.

1. DECIDE 1.THINK 2. BENEFICIAL 3. FOOL 4. SATISFY 5.WHERE 6. CONFUSION 7. CONSULT 8.SKILLFULL 9.ALTER

ANSWERS: 0.DECISION 1. THOUGHT 2. BENEFITS 3. FOOLISHLY 4. SATISFACTION 5. NOWHERE 6.CONFUSED 7.CONSULTING 8.SKILLS 9.ALTERNATIVES

Ex. 9 Complete the sentences with the correct forms of the words at the end of the text.

Earth-friendly fabrics

Shopping for clothes involves tricky decisions about fit, colour, style, and price. And if a (1) ... number of companies have their way, you’ll soon start checking labels for another key detail: (2) ... impact.

Earth-friendly fabrics are in. It’s already (3) ... to buy shirts made from bamboo and socks made from corn. Shopping malls of the future might also carry clothes made from chicken feathers or rice straw.

The companies that make such fabrics are interested in (4) ... development. This means trying to (5) ... things that people need while protecting natural resources and preserving biodiversity.

“A fully sustainable business would be one that (6) ., negative impact on the environment,” says Gordon Rands, an environmental business expert at Western Illinois University in Macomb. “I don’t think such a business exists yet, but (7) ... it’s very possible. And companies are moving in this (8) ... .” So, (9) ... are now looking for new ways to make fabrics for clothes that are good both for your (10) ... and for the Earth.

1.GROW 2.ENVIRONMENT 3.POSSIBILITY 4. SUSTAIN 5.PROVIDER 6.CREATIVE 7.THEORY 8.DIRECT 9.SCIENCE 10.IMAGINE

ANSWERS: 1.GROWING 2.ENVIRONMENTAL 3.POSSIBLE 4. SUSTAINABLE 5. PROVIDE 6. CREATED 7. THEORETICALLY 8. DERECTION 9.SCIENTISTS 10.IMAGE

Ex.10 Fill in the gaps in the text with the correct forms of the words in CAPITAL LETTERS at the end of the text.

The dragon dance

The dragon dance was started by the Chinese who had shown great (0) belief and respect towards the dragon. The dragon is an important symbol of Chinese culture and tradition. The dragon dance has spread beyond China to the whole world. It has become a special (1) ... of arts in Chinese physical activities. It symbolises good luck and (2) ... in the year to come for all the human beings on Earth. According to ancient history, during the period of Chun Chiu, the learning of Chinese Martial Arts was very popular and in students’ spare time, the dragon dance was also being (3) ... to provide more (4) ... . From its origins in combining stylised depictions of natural animals, the Chinese dragon evolved to become a mythical (5)... in Chinese culture. Its physical form is a (6) ... of many animals, including the horns of a stag, ears of a bull, eyes of a rabbit, claws of a tiger and the scales of a fish, all on a long serpent’s body. With these traits, it was believed that dragons were amphibious with the (7) ... to move on land, fly through the air and swim in the sea. The emperors of ancient China considered themselves to be dragons. The dragon is also the emblem of Imperial Authority. It symbolises (8) ... power, goodness, fertility, and dignity.

0.BELIEVE 1. PERFORM 2. PROSPER 3. TEACH 4.ENCOURAGE 5. CREATE 6. COMBINE 7. ABLE 8. NATURE

ANSWERS: 0. BELIEF 1. PERFORMANCE 2. PROSPERITY 3. TAUGHT 4. ENCOURAGEMENT 5. CREATURE 6. COMBINATION 7. ABILITY 8. NATURAL/SUPERNATURAL

7.Conclusion

It is impossible to overestimate the importance of word-formation in the English language. Knowing the rules of word-building and understanding the meanings of affixes simplify the process of learning English and enrich students’ vocabulary. Word-formation is a part in the section” Use of English” in Single State Exam in English, so teachers should pay a lot of attention to it and spend  some time drilling students on this aspect.

8. Sources

1. Антрушина Г.Б. Лексикология английского языка. М., 2001

2. Биболетова М.З. Английский с удовольствием. Учебник и рабочая тетрадь для 10 класса. М., 2010

3. Биболетова М.З. Английский с удовольствием. Учебник и рабочая тетрадь для 11 класса. М., 2010

4. Смирницкий А.И. Лексикология английского языка. М.,1956

5 .Koonin A. English  Lexicology. M., 1940