English
Word-formation
Some examples:
This book is unputdownable.
The Smiths are Brownites/Blairites.
Derivation is the most frequent
process.
Word-formation is concerned with how
words are composed.
Different fields of word-formation:
- phonology
- inflection
- syntax
- word-formation
sit (an item)
base + zero morpheme -> MONEME
such simple words have no place in
word-formation.
un|happy – composed of two elements
prefix (un) + base (happy) – the
prefix gives the word a specific meaning (negation).
un= bound morpheme, happy= free
morpheme
WORD (beseda) vs. BASE (podstava)
sometimes also »osnova«. The difference between »podstava« and »osnova« is not
clearly defined.
LEXICAL UNIT (enota) must be
furnished with the necessary endings.
Examples:
I can sit (sit is a word with a zero morpheme suffix)
Lahko sedim. He sits. (s in sits is an overt morpheme).
BASE is the part that remains after
the word has been stripped of its endings. Sometimes BASE is identical with
WORD.
Word-formation alters the base of the
word, not the whole word. It is concerned with how words are made from the
base.
English has five inflections: s,
ing, ed, er, and est (the last two are used to form comparative and superlative
respectively). Inflections are not part of word-formation, they are part of
morphology of the language. There are no inflectional prefixes in English.
Two suffixes (-ed and –ing) are
common to both word-formation and morphology:
Example:
washing could be anything without the context.
She hung up the washing. Washing is a noun, but its
base is verbal – suffix –ing is used to make a noun out of a verb. The result
is a change of the word class.
I've been washing all morning. (the inflectional suffix has been added to the
base)
wash -> present participle –ing
=> verb
-> -ing
word-formational suffix => noun
Inflectional processes do not change
the word's class, word-formational sometimes do.
Semantic change (change in meaning)
in necessary for word-formational processes.
Syntax vs, Word-formation
Syntax requires certain word endings
to allow for, e.g, subject-verb agrement
bl`ack bi´rd (črn ptič) vs.
bla´ckbir`d (kos)
The first phrase is subject to
syntax, you can add other words to it, the stress is on the noun, the adjective
can also be in comparative or superlative form. Blackbird, on the other hand
has a different meaning (a specie of a bird), the stress is on the first part
of the word, it is a lexical unit and its meaning is fixed. It is a compound
(zloženka) whose meaning is not transparent.
WORD-FORMATIONAL
PROCESSES
Major word-formational processes:
1)
COMPOUNDING
(zlaganje)
2)
DERIVATION
(afiksacija, izpeljevanje)
3)
CONVERSION
(konvrzija)
Minor word-fornational processes:
4)
BLENDING
5)
CLIPPING
(krnitev)
6)
BACKFORMATION
7)
ROOT-CREATION
8)
REDUPLICATION
1) COMPOUNDING
Adding one base to another.
Individual bases are put together to form a new lexical unit with a special
meaning, It functions as a single word.
2) DERIVATION/AFFIXATION
An affix is either a prefix (unwanted) or a suffix (golden).
Slovene also knows infixes (stopicljati).
3) CONVERSION
A very important word-formational
process in English, but not in Slovene.
Nouns can be converted into verbs
and sometimes vice-versa.
Example: Wolf (n) volk, wolf (v)
požreti, e.g. He wolfed down his lunch. (Požrl je kosilo.)
crow (n) (vran) -> crow (v)
(kikirikati)
4) BLENDING
Two words blend into one, with
changed meaning:
smog < smoke + fog
5) CLIPPING
The original word is clipped
(shortened):
laboratory > lab
Very often used with names.
6) BACKFORMATION/BACKDERIVATION
Backformation:
From verb -> noun – very often
write -> writer (affixation)
sing -> singer
Backderivation
From noun to verb
beggar -> beg
babysitter -> babysit (the verb
was formed a lot later than the noun.)
typewriter -> typewrite
7) ROOT-CREATION
Was included into WF by Bradley due
to historical reasons. In 1704 he wrote a very influential book called »The
Making of Words«.
Root-creation concerns with words
that come and go with every generation, e.g. onomaetopoia, acronyms, common
names that have passed from personal to common names.
Such words have identical roots.
Modern linguists claim that this
process is not a part of WF
A)
ONOMATOPOETIC
WORD
-words after
sounds (imitation of the sounds produced by e.g. an animal)
-Onomatopoeia
is a Greek word
-Different
languages use different onomatopoetic words:
A cock: slo=kikiriki
ang=cockadoodledoo
A dog: slo=hov-hov
ang=wow-wow, bow-wow
See textbook
pp 18 and pp116
B)
SOUND
SYMBOLISM/PHONETIC SYMBOLISM
-Sound
symbolism tell us what goes together with certain animals (Lion roared)
- it widely
used in poetry
-closely
linked to onomatopoeia
-onomtopoetic
words also imitate sounds of nature, while sound symbolism can create
artificial words that do not exist in nature:
Martin looked
across the table at Jill and – zing – they fell in love.
Zing here
means speed, happy future, etc.
G.B. Shaw:
a critic once wrote a series of insulting words about him and at the end added
P-shaw. P
is often used as a pejorative, negative sound.
See-saw
has nothing to do with the verbal paradigms - it means up-and-down, and the
see-saw itself goes up and down.
tut-tut
denotes a sound of disapproval. cf. Slo, ccc, spelled differently, but
essentially the same sound.
ow,
ouch=au, auva, ajs in slo.
ugh=blek,
fuj
All these
expression are highly subjective and difficult to confirm with a large number
of speakers.
C)
ABBREVIATIONS/ACRONYMS
-English is more restricted in
respect to abbreviations than Slovene.
-Acronyms are used in Slovene on a
daily basis.
-It is best if we read out acronyms
in English letter by letter
-Some can be read as words, but we
have to know them (NATO)
-POW is read only letter by letter
GM (genetically, gene manipulated)
NGO (non-govermental organisations)
D)
PROPER
NAMES USED AS COMMON NOUNS AND VERBS
Proper names are divided into:
a)
Personal
names
b)
Geographical
names
c)
Names
of things
Proper names can be used as ordinary
common names
Kodak (surname) > kodak (a kind of camera)
Alessandro Volta (physicist) >
volt (a measure for voltage)
Timothy (surname) > timothy (a
kind of grass)
Common nouns should be spelt with a
small initial, but sometimes they are written with a capital to honor the
person after wich a think was named. The less a person has to do with the
present, the more likely it is to use small initial.
Duke of Wellington > wellingtons
(type of boots that were worn in Wellington's
times are now named after him. At first, the noun was spelt with a capital, now
with a small initial).
Pasteur > Pasteurize (very often
still spelt with a capital, however small initial is gaining on popularity;
pasteurized milk).
Calvary (place of Jesus' death > calvary
place of extreme torment
Dunkirk > dunkirk
(a narrow escape – at Dunkirk,
Allied forces executed a mass evacuation operation during WW II)
Lynch > lynch > linč, linčati (Lynch introduced
fast executions)
Earl of Sandwich > sandwich
Pompadour (hairstyle, a kind of
purse)
Sillhouette > sillhouette (a
drawing technique)
Robert Peel (Minister of the
interior in the Victorian age, who founded the Metropolitan Police) > Bob > bobbie
Watergate > -gate (every scandal
receives this suffix) E.g. Al ghraibgate
With conversion new words can become
verbs as well, though nouns are far more common:
McAdam > macadamize (the meaning
is not the same as in Slovene, macadamized road consists of asphalt, tar and
sand).
Bowdler (publisher of Shakespeare's
plays who edited out the most offensive words) > bowdlerize - to ameliorate
the words (olepšati besede)
Proper names from fiction and drama
can also be used in this way.
John Bunyan wrote a book titled
Pilgrim's Progress through which he introduced the phrase Vanity fair (semenj
ničevosti) into the English language. He also introduced the phrases Giant
Despair (velikan Obup) and the Slough of Despond (močvirje obupa)
Yahoo (Swift: the worst kind of
people)
We have some examples in Slovene as
well:
deseti brat=someone who is rejected
by everyone)
samorastnik= one who grew up in bad
conditions but managed to create a good life for himself
krpan=strong man
Hamlet=undecided
Iago= a very evil man
Malapropism
-confusion of two words
-mistakes made due to ignorance
Spoonerism
-Mistakes made in speech due to
brain defects
-he often made mistakes by switching
fones from one word with the fones from the preceeding or following word:
He said: »Is the bean dizzy?« but
wanted to say: »Is the dean buzzy?«
He said: »Our queer old dean.« but
wanted to say: »Our dear old queen.«
8) REDUPLICATION
Reduplication occurs if the same
element is repeated or if a slightly changed element is repeated.
Example:
What's the weather like? So-so.
(This is not a neutral answer. It also not a compound or a case of conversion).
Further examples:
-ping-pong
rhyme combinations: walkie-talkie
super-duper
tick-tock (onomatopoeia)
flip-flop (hrup, ropot)
rub-a-dub (ropot bobna – bobnanje)
=rompompom
humdrum (dolgčas)
goody-goody=pridkan, pobožnjaški
(negative reference)
zig-zag=cik-cak
shilly-shally=cincati, oklevati
fifty-fifty=pol-pol
9) BLENDING
Is a regular often used process
smoke + fog => smog (a blend/
pormanteau word
to don < do on
to doff < do off
Slovene examples:
kočerja < [ko]silo + ve[čerja]
brešplja < [bre]skev + če[šplja]
10) CLIPPING
-a minor process
-used in proper names
Example:
Elizabeth= Liz, Eliza, Bess…
Either the beginning or/and the end
of the word is clipped. Clipping is a speech economising device.
laboratory (standard) > lab
(colloquial)
refrigerator> fridge (change in
spelling)
bicycle > bike
microphone > mike
perambulator > pram
Personal names can become
diminutives
Alfred > Fred > Freddie (the
consonant is doubled, because there is only one vowel)
Elizabeth > Liz > Lizzie
If a multi-syllable word is stressed
on the last syllable, the last consonant must be doubled.
Victoria > Vic > Vickie (k is added to
retain the pronunciation)
Erovision < [Euro]pean tele[vision] Eurovision is just a shirt form, it does not
have a different meaning and as such cannot constitute as a case of blending
Gestapo < Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret state police)
11) BACKFORMATION
Etimology is very important with
this process.
sing (v) > singer (n)
Agent nouns: beggar (n) > beg (v)
pedlar
(n) > peddle (v)
The longer of the two words existed
first and was then reduced – unusual.
However, things are not always so
simple:
television (n) (earlier) >
televise (v) depends on the meaning of the noun.
The difference is in the BASE:
television is the base of televise.
sightseeing, sightseer, sightsee –
the two nominal forms are far common than the verb + the isn't tensed yet – a
sign of backformation.
typewriter > typewrite (the infinitive
or the past tense form isn't used, however, typewritten is pretty common).
brainwashing (n) > brainwash (v)
- rare
housekeeper (n) > housekeep (v)
not the same as »to keep a house«
gamekeeper (n) (sb who watches over
deer) gamekeep (not the same as to keep game)
12) CONVERSION
The process of shifting from one
word class to another without any
changes in form (those do occur occasionally)
-occasionally stress-shift occurs
im´port (v) ´import (n)
-sometimes the word does not switch
classes.
A proper name is switched to a common noun:
You are a new Shakespeare (changed
into a common noun and has an article. Sometimes such nouns are written with a
small initial.
Voicing of consonants
house (n) /haus/ > house (v)
/hauz/
The more the word is used, the
greater the possibility of it being written with a small initial.
This house is brick. (brick is an
adjective, but does not have all the features of adjectives – cannot be put
into a comaparative or superlative form
Full vs. Partial conversion
Partial=has a syntactic position of
the word but does not behave accordingly (like brick).
The wealthy (ha san article, but
cannot be plural)
Mean (adj.) -> the adjective is
far more common than the verb, that's why we usually perceive it as such. The
second reason lies in the word's roots.
Work, sleep, love: You cannot
consider only frequency here. Their etymology must be considered too, because
we don't know whether the noun or the verb had been used first, In OE verbs
were distinguished from nouns by their endings, but those have since been
dropped. We, therefore, don't speak about conversion, but agreement between
nouns and verbs.
Quirk says love is a deverbalised
noun, however, etimologically speaking that's not quite true.
Direction of the process of
cinversion:
N > V wolf
V >N drink
Adj > V clean
Some grammars say that conversion is
a free process, but this is not true. Not every noun can be converted.
paper (n) Collins Dictionary lists
twelve meanings in one of which the noun is converted into
verb: To paper the walls in your
room.
Examples:
The ups and downs of life
I'm fed up with your whys and hows.
Conversion is sometimes called ZERO
DERIVATION or ZERO SUFFIXATION – meaning that it is a subchapter of derivation.
Problems with zero derivation are encountered when translating (partial
conversion):
factory toy=tovarniška igrača
evening dress=večerna obleka
In Slovene, nouns cannot premodify
nouns, therefore adjectives are used instead. In English we are stuck
adjectivized nouns.
String adjectives are also a
problem:
mushroom (n) to mushroom (v) rasti
kot gobe po dežju
thumb (through) (v) brskati
Nouns converted into verbs often get
a particle or become phrasal vebs.
Slovene examples:
Mraz je (Toporišič says this is
conversion)
Vipavec, mariborčan= a train to
Maribor/Vipava
Vipavec is also wine from Vipava.
13) COMPOUNDING
-the result is a COMPOUND (zloženka)
-individual elements of a compound
are called COMPONENT ELEMENTS
Compound is a lexical unit
consisting of more than one base, functioning both grammatically and
semantically as one word. They can be found in any part of speech
Three basic criteria:
1)
FORM
2)
MEANING
3)
STRESS
+ a question of productivity
2 and 3) MEANING AND STRESS:
CRO´SSW`ORDS (križanka) vs CROSS
WORDS (jezne besede)
spelt solid=compound each word
is a syntactic unit on its own
The stress (´ `) is called COMPOUND
STRESS The stress is (` ´)
(first element heavily stressed,
second one (first element
weak stress, second heavy)
weakly)
In both cases CROSS is identified as
an adjective.
post office: even though there are
two words, it has a compound stress + a difference in meaning, so this is a
compound.
1) FORM: compounds are usually spelt
as a single word, solid spelling (without a hyphen) is the most usual.
Not all compounds follow all three
criteria:
post office (meaning and stress
adhere to the criteria, form does not)
hou´se-dog uni`versity
edu´cation
-compound the
meaning of the phrase can be
-meaning: pes čuvaj understood
from the two words.
PRODUCTIVY
You cannot just combine any words
together:
-house-dog
-house-wife
-housework
-household
-*housechild
Limited productivity
tax-payers – can also be written as
“taxpayers” and tax payers”-
Dictionaries must explain compounds
with special meaning, e.g.: blackbird, black sheep.
Some words don’t adhere to the
rules:
sti`ll-li´fe co`ld w´ar
a big boy: The boy is big
bigger
boy
the biggest boy
We can’t do that with “cold war” or
“still-life”
1)
THE
FORM OF COMPUNDS
judging cpds by their form, we have
two groups:
1)
PRIMARY/STEM
COMPOUNDS
2)
SECONDARY
COMPOUNDS
1)
PRIMARY
COMPOUNDS
Those are a common heritage of the
Indo-European languages, also called stem compounds (debelne zloženke)
a´pple tr`ee = it appears in its
stem form
semantic
relation between the two elements are quite diverse
Črt-o-mir (o is called stem formant – debelni formant – which links the
two stems together
handiwork, workaday, and now
obsolete handicuff are old words. During the transition from ME to NE all endings
and inflections were dropped. Distinguishing between primary and secondary
stress is only of historical relevance.
2) SECONDARY/SYNTACTIC COMPOUND
giant’s task cut-throat man-of-war
velikanska in ne okruten morilec bojna ladja
velikanova naloga syntactic relation between V and O syntactic relation between
saxon genitive not primary stress PP
and N
a) genitival compounds
giant’s task
Two kinds of genitive in English:
-specifying
-classifying
Specifying genitives: the normal
kind, express possession
John’s dog – the dog belongs to
John.
The main stress falls on the
headword John’s d´og (Whose dog?)
VS Classifying genitive: gi´ants
ta`sk (What kind of a task)¸
-are compounds
-have special meaning
-their productivity is limited
gi´ants ta`sk vs a
gi`ant’s ho´use
a doctor’s degree (classifying or
specifying? – usually classifying i.e. a kind of degree is meant)
her child’s face (usually
classifying)
Plural:
my wife’s hat -> our wives’ hats
a lady’s bike -> lady’s
bikes or ladys’ bikes (both forms possible, because it’s specifying genitive.
printer’s errors
printers’ errors - both mean the
same thing
lovers’ quarrel – usually in plural, because it takes two to quarrel
prisoners’ camp – many prisoners are there
Problems with:
a lion’s share =levji delež
a cat’s paw= nekdo, ki je orodje v rokah nekoga drugega
sheep’s eyes= ko je nekdo zaljubljen
busman’s holiday=če mora nekdo med dopustom delati
Judas kiss=judežev poljub
written without
the apostrophe, as it was in OE.
Also:
Achilles heel
Tantalus torment
Sisyphus labour
Zoisova zvončnica Zois
bellflower
b) Verbal compounds
break|fast V
(imperative) +O syntactic compound
pickpocket V + O -
also a person
cut-throat a
cruel murderer
breakneck vratolomen
killjoy spoil
sb else’s pleasure
spoilsport sb
who puts a stop to something
makeshift zasilen
save-all wants
to save everyone
scapegrace falls
out of grace
tosspot a
habitual drinker
Slovene:
kažipot
trinog
Triglav
2nd pattern: V+N
playground a kind
of ground
drawbridge a kind
of bridge
grindstone a kind
of stone
treadmill
chewing gum
sleeping bag
ING FORMS:
sle´eping-b`ag vs sl´eeping d´og
may have a hyphen a dog that is
sleeping
a bag used for sleeping a
syntactic unit with a present participle
in – a compound gerund
sin´ging te`acher vs sin´ging te´acher
a teacher who a
syntactic unit
teaches singing a
teacher who likes to sing
dan´cing t`eacher vs dan´cing te´acher
a teacher who teaches a teacher who
likes to dance
dancing
dan´cing gi´rl vs dan´cing gi´rl
professional dancer a girl who
likes to dance
3rd pattern: Phrasal verbs - a semantic unit of a verb and an
adverbial, it’s meaning may be metaphorical
Examples:
look up = look upwards
= look up in a
dictionary
= look me up =come
and pay me a visit
Look over the fence
a) Look over the fen´ce=Poglej
čez plot
b) Look ov´er=Preglej plot Look over is a syntactic unit
The wind blew down the chimney
a) Prep Verb= Veter zapihal dol po dimniku Phr verb= Ga je podrl
Phrasal verbs are compounds. They’re
always written apart, without hyphens. They don’t have compound stress. They
have a special meaning, which is why they are treated as compounds.
Many phrasal verbs can be converted
to nouns:
wa`ke u´p > wa`ke-u´p =maska
wa´keup (now a true compound.
Usually spelt with a hyphen,
sometimes as a whole word.
Phrasal verbs are always
spelt without a hyphen:
*He tried to make-up a good excuse.
Nouns: l´ay-b`y (počivališče ob
cesti)
no corresponding phrasal verb
lo`ck-o´ut=izprtje
the
verb was created from a noun.
break-out=pobeg
outbreak=izbruh
PARALLEL CREATIONS
take over vs overtake
set up vs upset
Phrasal verbs are a productive group
onlooker forthcoming particle
precedes the stem
bystander downtrodden suffix is
added as well
Three instances have their own
meaning, which is added to the verb: OVER, UNDER, OUT.
overwork undersell outdo
“too much” “too little” “better
than sb/sth else”
pretegniti se pod ceno prekositi
preveč delati prodajati
overdo outlive outbid
pretiravati preživeti več ponuditi
But one should distinguish them from
words such as:
understand, overtake (simple words)
outwit: biti bolj premeten od nekoga
drugega
to out-herod Herod – turned out to
be a quite productive way of foming new compounds (to out-zola Zola)
Up and out is said to be productive
still:
upset, upkeep, output, outcome
He’s trather slow on the uptake
bootblack= a person who polished
shoes
chimneysweep=take a wild guess
happy-go-lucky=fičfirič
stay-at-home zapečkar
forget-me-not=spominčica
Prepositional compounds
mother-of pearl=biserna matica
bill-of-fare=jedilnik
lilly-of-the-valley=šmarnica
will-o’-the-wisp=plini, ki se ponoči
dvigajo iz močvirja se ponočijo vidijo kot lučke
3) PARASYNTHETIC COMPOUNDS
Derived from verbs:
watch-maker, house-keeping
watch-mak[er] (er is a suffix) sb who makes watches
blue-eyed, long-tailed
Suffix can be placed on the last or
on the first element:
passers-by, by-standers
4) BACKFORMATION
housekeeper > housekeep
babysit < babysitter
sleepwalk < sleepwalking
Backformation can be classified as a
subgroup of syntactic compounds
5) CONVERSION OF SYNTACTIC GROUP
Conversion affects entire syntactic
groups. Nominal or adjectival compounds are used as verbs with idiomatic
meaning:
to give sb a cold shoulder
to cold-shoulder=prezirati
grown-ups, well-to-do, father-in-law
6) STRING COMPOUNDS
A process very productive in modern
English.
hot-water tap
The first element is a compound in
itself.
public schoolboy=a boy attending
public school
The first element may contain the
conjunction “and” or a preposition:
a cat-and-dog life
his matter-of-fact voice
Some strings may contain more than
three elements – often used newspaper headlines
Macmillan Refuses Bank Rate Rise Leak Probe (some think
this is not a string compound)
7) CLIPPING COMPOUNDS
The second element remains the same,
the first one is clipped:
Eurasia
Both elemenets clipped: Eurovison
8)
REPETITION COMPOUNDS
tick-tock, ding-dong
THE PRONUNCIATION OF COMPOUNDS
Those of more recent origin (the
majority) the two components are perceived as separate
Older compound elements are not
recognisable, In pronunciation we do not distinguish the two parts present:
holiday (holy day).
Sometimes both pronunciations are
possible side-by-side: ´forehead or ´fore`head
THE USE OF COMPOUNDS
Compounds can be written as a single
word, two words, or with a hyphen in between. Usually one of the form becomes
standard. The hyphen is loosing ground nowadays:
life span or lifespan
Adjectival compounds are usually
written with a hyphen
snow-blind, Anglo-Saxon,
Roman-Catholic
Hyphen is linked to the word
classification; if one of the elements is an adjective, there is a high
possibility of the presence of a hyphen.
In converted phrasal compounds use
hyphens:
stick-in-the-mud
This also goes for family relations:
mother-in-law
The hyphen is omitted wherever
possible, but is used when one meaning must be distinguished from the other
a man eating tiger vs. a
man-eating tiger
človek je tigra tiger ljudožerec
a tailor made dresses vs.
tailor-made dresses
action custom-made dresses
Boch’s 200 odd cantatas vs. Boch’s
200-odd cantatas
200 čudnih približno 200
HYPHEN WITH DERIVATIVES
Hyphen needed with the prefix re-
re-cover (ponovno pokriti) vs.
recover (ozdraveti)
re-sign (sing again) vs. resign
(dati odpoved)
re-pay (pay again) vs. repay (oddolžiti, poplačati)
Some prefixes are stressed, but
hyphen is preserved:
ex-husband, anti-Nazi
Sometimes it does not matter:
cooperate or co-operate
THE MEANING OF COMPOUNDS
Semantic relations between the
elements of compounds
The form does not tell us how to
interpret the compounds
Agent (subject) of the action: vs. sunspot
(place), sun-worship (object), sunbeam (source)
sunset, sunrise
These are stem compounds without
suffixes (the first element is not a word nut a stem), hence the meaning of the
compound varies. Usually there is little or no ambiguity in them. Often we
cannot decipher the meaning even if we know the meaning of both of the
elements. It is set by usage.
house-boat > boat used as a house
work house > sirotišnica (BrE)
> poboljševalnica (AmE)
> delavnica=workshop
Compounds can be classified
according to their meaning into three groups:
1) The meaning is based on one of
the elements – usually on the second one AB=B
house-boat is basically a boat, the
first element only limits it, distinguishes it from other boats.
This also helps to avoid ambiguity
with the so-called reversible compounds where the position of the two elements
is reversed: boat-house=čolnarna, housework=gospodinjska dela
Some syntactic compounds are
structured like that as well: wal´king stick, dr´aw bridge
2) Very rarely the meaning of the
compound can be deduced from the second element AB=A
gold leaf (a leaf of gold), tiptoe
(to walk on the tip of one’s toes) mid-ocean, McDonalds (Donald’s son),
Kirkpatrick (St. Patrick’s church)
Intermediate compounds explained as
either AB=A or AB=B:
boy-king > a king who is a boy
> a boy who is a king
girlfriend
3) Bahuvrihi compounds AB=C
red-coat=a soldier wearing a red
coat (dragonec)
=a person wearing that coat
These are very picturesque
expressions: red-skin, pale-face
Compounds express something that
someone has or is wearing
blockhead (tnalo + glava) =tepec
hunchback=grbavec
pot-belly=debeluh
blackshirt=fascist
brownshirt=Nazi
bluestocking=a woman with literary
taste and interests
lazybones=lenuh
butterfingers=štor
lightskirts=lahkoživka
f`ur co´at (comparison not possible) vs. long
road (comparison is possible)
N
+ N adj. N
The stress and form in “fur coat”
speaks against the idea that this is a compound, however because of the change
in meaning this is indeed a compound
le`ather ja´cket
fr`uit sa´lad
ap´ple ju`ice vs. ap`ple
pi´e
hladna vojna tihožitje novella
co`ld w´ar sti`ll li´fe sh`ort st´ory vs. lo`ng ro´ad (not
a compound)
-All these compounds consist of an
adjective and a noun
-comparison (gradation) is not
possible
- adjectives in compounds can’t be
modified at all
-see book p. 81,82
wo`man doc´tor wi´tch do`ctor
la`dy doc´tor fo´ot do`ctor
non-compound stress compound stress
´A´B=A/B Que´en Mo´ther
level stress
Specific category where
mispronunciation can lead to misunderstanding
Slee´ping-bags vs. slee`ping
do´gs
Fre´nch te`acher vs. Fr`ench
te´acher
a teacher who a teacher from France
teaches French
LOANWORWORDS/BORROWINGS
Celtic language
dim adj > mračen
mattock > kramp
Scottish Gaelic
clan, slogan, whiskey, glen (a
narrow valley, especially in Scotland)
Irish Gaelic
bog > močvirje
Welsh
flannel, cwm (krnica, kotanja
Gaelic influence – word order
Loch Ness (this word order is
strange in English – Lake
Ness)
Norse (especially in the north of
the UK)
Endings: -by, -beck, thorpe,
-thwaite, dale
borough
by-law=additional local laws
by-product, by-pass (these are
prefixes – no relation between by-law and these words).
Skirt (Norse) vs. shirt (Anglo-Saxon)
The
OE pronoun hie is still alive in sub-standard ‘em (We got ‘em.)
French
1066 Norman
conquest (Battle of Hastings)
1588 Beginnings
of the empire
1918 Start
of the empire’s descent
Norman French words
In three waves: 1066 The Norman
French
1415 The end of the war between Britain and France;
Henry IV won the battle at Agincourt (a huge
influx from Central-French words
1660 Cromwell is deposed; Restoration
begins; Charles II becomes the king, even Central-French words enter the
English language.
Geoffrey Chaucer created a unified
language from Norman-French, Anglo-Saxon, and Latin => Modern English, the
language in which Shakespeare wrote.
Later on came the vowel shift and the loss of endings
Feudal system was later introduced,
which resulted in duality: modern words were French, while Anglo-Saxon ones
were “obsolete”.
N-Fr A-S
table board
chair stool
serf=typical term descended from
A-S. This is not the Slovene “tlačan” (bondsman)
Several words still have Central French
doublets
NFr /k/ CFr /tš/
cattle chattel
catch chase
reward regard
warden guardian
See book p. 146
Religious, legal, military and art
terms are mostly French
See book p. 91, 92
3rd wave: Both French
spelling and pronunciation are preserved with such words
These words entered in the
Restoration period. Words that entered the language before tended to be
Anglicized.
STRESS
English has stress at the beginning
of the word
French has it at the end of the word
garage AmE: final stress
BrE:
first-syllable stress
ballet AmE: final
BrE:
first
message: initial stress and /dž/ at
the end – ancient borrowing
massage: final stress and /ž/ at the
end – recent borrowing
hors-d’ oeuvre
guay /ki:/ “pomol”
gauge /geidž/
Car industry: chauffeur, coupe
Mottoes and formulations: R.S.V.P. (répondez s'il vous plaît)
For every French word in English,
there are two English words
31% French words
52% English words
Latin Contribution:
Romans came at the time of
Christianization, Latin expressions connected with religion enter English.
Later they were Anglicized, so they are no longer perceived as foreign:
strata => street
vino => wine
episcopus => bishop
The educated people during the
Anglo-Saxon produced works in Latin, which was also the language in which they
taught at Oxford University. Latin was widely used until
the Renaissance. Also, with the development of politics it is normal to form
compounds out of Latin words.
Very often Latin and Greek words are
used to create new English compound:
Tele(Greek – for) + vision (Latin –
sight) = Television
oxy(Greek – acid) + gen (Latin –
create) = oxygen
mouth, ear… > Native English
nouns, but their adjectives are Latin:
mouth – oral
ear – aural
eye – ocular
nose – nasal
Sometimes two adjectives correspond
to the same noun – one English and one Latin:
Sun > sunny > solar
son > filial
daughter > filial
paternal vs. fatherly
heavenly vs. celestial
Some have more than two adjectives:
Man
manly – positive ending – something worthy of a man
mannish negative – used for women
manlike - likeness (manlike
creatures)
male – refers to the sex
masculine – refers to gender;
usually in grammar
virile – good qualities in a man
Woman
womanly – pohvalno
womanish – used for men (negative)
womanlike –
femače
feminine – političen prizvok
feminist
city/town – urban (mestni), urbane
(civlized, well-behaved
Greek contribution:
The English were interested in Greek
culture although the influx of Greek words stopped in the Middle Ages for a
couple of centuries. In the Renaissance the influx continued, but not with the
same vigor.
Greek words are nowadays used for
new words – inventions, they are found in internationalisms, especially in the
following fields:
psychiatry
drama
poetry
logic
pathos
Suffixes –ish < Gr. iskos
- can be also neutral – boyish
-denote nationality (Swedish)
Prefixes -atom
(a used to negate – atom means indivisible)
apolitičen: -apolitical
- non-political
Almost all words connected with
theatre are Greek. Greek words ending in –e; the e is sometimes pronounced
sometimes not:
apostrophe, catastrophe (e
pronounced as /i/, episode (mute e)
Daphne
Athene
Penelope
Aphrodite
Syllabic e is sometimes also
pronounced in Latin or Italian words: recipe, finale
Some slang expressions:
-kudos
-hubris
Italian contributions are connected
with food and music
Dutch:
-painting – easel – slikarsko
stojalo
-maritime affairs
Spanish comtribution: Florida, Nevada,
armada (a fleet of warships)
Potuguese: banana
German: mineralogy: zinc, gneiss
/nais/, lager (beer) delicatessen, kindergarten
Russian, tsar or tzar, knout (a whip
used for punishment)
Arabic: alcohol, alchemy, mosque
Slovene into English
1) Internationally used specialized
technical terms:
dolina (Slovene vrtača)
polje (kraško polje)
ponor (luknja skozi katero izgine
ponikalnica)
uvala (večja vrtača)
2) Expressions typical for Slovene
environment:
žganci / zhgantsi
The
Makers of Words – Author’s Contributions
Contributed by poets, writers,
politicians…
The work that contributed the most
words: The Bible. Wycliff’s
translation is the first known translation into vernacular (14th
century), followed by the translation by Tyndale and Coverdale (16th
century). In 1611 the Authorized Version funded by King James was published.
-many new words and phrases emerged.
-the Bible is the most frequently
quoted in the world
-known by all strata of the English
society
See book pp. 102-104
Eye for an eye, tooth for a
tooth=oko za oko, zob za zob
To go the way of all the earth (or
all the flesh)=prej ali slej bomo hrana za črve
To be saved by the skin of one’s
teeth=za las se rešiti
To set one’s house in order=pomesti hišo
Chaucer:
-the father of the English poetry
-basically he
was one of the first people who started the process Towards Modern English
-Canterbury
Tales is his most famous work
His phrases:
As fresh as the month of May
A verray parfit gentil knight (knight’s
served God, their master and his wife)
Spencer: by
that time poets stopped writing about knights and chivalry and started to write
about women (in that period Saavedra writes Don Quixote, a mockery of
knighthood)
Spencer’s phrase: squire of dames=osvajalec
žensk
William Shakespeare – 2nd most important – after the Bible
He influenced
almost all languages – the phrase “to be or not to be” is known world-wide.
Book pp. 105-106
He was important because of:
1)
the abundance and felicity of his compounds:
Heaven-kissing hill
2) Genius in the manipulation and
development of meaning
cudgelling one’s brain cudgel=cepec za žito
Explanation: Lazy people will never
do anything even if you cudgel them.
2)
Multitude
of phrases
hamlet=omahljivec
John Milton:
right after Shakespeare by the influence on the language
Pandemonium=huda zmešnjava
PROSE WRITERS
-Prose is more difficult than poetry
and drama
-Technical terms are also present
here
-At first it was written in Latin
only, vernacular started to be used much later.
Humanities and science
-educated people spoke Latin and
French
-English took over many Latin words
-in time English words were created
from Latin
-the word “scientist” was created
fairly late-
Thomas Carlyle
-was a Scot
-he liked compounds
-he translated from German and
created many composite words
Schadenfreude >
mischeifjoy=privoščljivost
Lewis Carrol:
-he created many nonsensical words,
some are used even today, others are not:
galumphing, chortle
Nietzsche:
Übermensch=superman
W. Churchill
iron curtain=železna zavesa
F. D. Roosevelt
New Deal =new deal – a social reform
(Slovene took the English phrase verbatim)
W. Wilson
the self-determination of peoples
pravica do samoodločbe See also book pp. 149
What is going to be in the exam?
1) Either explain the word or use it
in a sentence.
successful – successive (use it in
context)
to be good at something (not a good
explanation, since it can also be a verb)
being good at something is OK
invaluable (positive) valueless (negative)
wash-out
*Demonstration proved to be a
wash-out.
The demonstration… (it needs the
definitive article)
Be careful with
countable/uncountable nouns:
Strela (countable) Lightning (uncountable)
zelenjava (U) Vegetable (C)
DERIVATION/SUFFIXATION
Divided into: -prefixation
-suffixation
A prefix= a bound morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest
meaningful unit; can be bound (cannot stand on its own or free (stand-alone).
Prefixes and suffixes are present in
all languages, but infixes are not present in English (but are present in
Slovene)
It is a word-formational process,
the product of which is a new, which in turn can serve as a base for another
new word. A new lexical unit thus has a different meaning.
Use of inflection results in a new
word or a new word class, while affixation does not change the word class.
Derivational suffixes, y or ie are
problematic since they do not change the meaning of the word as expected, only
the stylistic level of the language changes.
V N
receive reception
/i:/ /e/
sincere sincerity
severe severity
supreme supremacy
penal penalty
legal legacy
discreet discretion
V N
intervene intervention
The BASE (podstava) of the words
changes as they are transferred to a new word class.
Spenser Spenserian
/E/ /i/
´Photograph pho´tography photo´graphic
(change in stress)
Dickens > Dickensian
Shaw > Shavian
With imported personalities it is
very hard to guess, which suffix is going to be used.
Milton > Miltonic
Hitler > Hitlerite
Turner > Turnesque
Rembrandt > Rembrandtesque
discuss -
the marked part is part of the base. It’s not prefix but a SIMPLEX
disappear and dishonest – dis here
stands for negation and is a prefix.
/-id/
naked
rugged
sacred - -ed is not a suffix here
wicked – SYLLABIC ed
He stopped smoking – has nothing to
do with word-formation, inflections belong to morphology.
There are only five inflectional
suffixes, but there’s lot more derivation suffixes.
If you want a past participle,
simply add the –ed inflection to the infinitive.
However, you cannot use any
derivational suffix, as they have limited applicability.
N Adjective
book bookish
king *kingish
kingly
It’s the same with prefixes.
AFFIXATION vs. COMPOUNDING
postman – can be interpreted as a
compound > post + man
Some grammarians believe it is not a
compound.
There are many such examples:
-policeman
-fireman
-man behaves as a suffix – the doer
of the action is produced in this way.
-man is pronounced with a schwa.
-doesn’t have compound stress.
playwright
-also, shipwright
-derived derived from the verb to
work
Derivational prefixes usually have a
clear meaning:
dis-, un- means “not”
re- means “again”
co- means “with”
Derivational suffixes are less
clear:
-ly and –ish – sometimes cause
change in word-class, however, sometimes word class doesn’t change, only the
meaning does.
N N
child > childhood (adds the
meaning of abstraction)
a`nti-so´cial
su´perman
Suffixes are usually not stressed,
however, this is not true if the suffix is of foreign origin:
-ee
-ette
-ese
(Japanese)
-ation
(organisation
-esque
(picturesque)
laughter - the suffix doesn’t exist elsewhere, it’s a DEAD SUFFIX.
sweetness – productive (used to produce a noun from an adjective)
The same goes for prefixes.
un – productive prefix
in – dead prefix
forgive vs. foretell
-old Germanic prefix alive
(productive) prefix – before
(ver-) forelegs
(sprednje noge)
-a dead historical prefix
withhold –
with is a dead prefix.
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