Topic 10 Lexis. Features of English word formation. Prefixation, suffixation and compounding

What is the aim of this topic?

to offer an in-depth study of the way English vocabulary works, analysing the features of word formation and examining in specific detail the concepts of prefixation, suffixation and compounding

The meaning of words themselves is not

constant, or fixed in time.

Words are a reflection of culture and as such,

new words are constantly coming into use as the need for new concepts arises.

A basic understanding of the key terminology involved can help students

to work out the meaning of words, which in themselves are a fundamental component of communicative competence.

What is linguistics?

It is the scientific study of the structure and development of language in general or of particular languages (Cambridge Dictionary).

What are the four traditional branches of linguistics?

1. Phonetics

2. Morphology

3. Syntax

4. Semantics

The study of encoding and decoding messages reveals four different levels of linguistic analysis

1. Sound level

2. Morphological level

3. Syntactic level

4. Semantic level

At the sound level:

Phonetics and phonology

At the morphological level:

Morphemes, allomorphs and morphology

At the syntactic level:

Syntax

Sentences> clauses > phrases > words

At the semantic level:

Semantics and pragmatics

What does phonetics study?

It studies speech sounds in general

What does phonology study?

It focuses on the specific sounds of a language

What are morphemes?

The basic meaningful units

What are allomorphs?

morpheme variants

What is morphology?

It deals with the internal structure of words and word formation.

What is syntax?

It refers to the set of rules governing language structure

Language structure

A sentence must contain at least one main clause, a clause is made up of phrases and phrases are formed by words

Sentences > Clauses > Phrases > Words

What is semantics?

It deals with the meaning of words and sentences

What is pragmatics?

It focuses on the intended meaning of speakers

Each language has a lexicon and a grammar, i.e.,

a set of elementary expressions and a set of rules according to which complex expressions are constructed from simpler ones.

What does the lexicon consist of?

It consists of individual lexical units which are somehow interrelated to each other, e.g. synonyms to begin and to start.

What is the focus of lexicological research?

Lexicology focuses on the interrelations between lexical units, such as synonyms, antonyms, and other connections.

What is the focus of lexicography?

It gives more weight to the lexical unit in itself.

Which is more extensive, lexicographical or lexicological work?

Lexicographical work

The lexicon consists of individual lexical units which are somehow interrelated to each other, e.g. synonyms to begin and to start. Lexicological research is often

oriented towards these interrelations whereas lexicography gives more weight to the lexical unit in itself. Generally, there is much more lexicographical work than lexicological

Both terms (lexicography and lexicology) are

derived from the Greek word Lexiko (‘word’). The common concern is the lexical unit of language, i.e. word

Lexicology:

The study of the structure, meaning and origin of words as units of language. It deals with how words are formed, their relationships and their meanings. It studies words, morphemes, word formation processes like compounding, and how words relate to each other.

It investigates both: diachronic aspects such as etymology and synchronic aspects related to contemporary meaning

Lexicography:

The art and science of dictionary-making. It involves compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. Their goal is to collect and define words, including their pronunciation and etymology.

They represent the meaning of words to either native speakers or learners of a language in different types of dictionaries

Lexicology investigates both:

diachronic aspects such as etymology and synchronic aspects related to contemporary meaning

What is Lexicology?

The study of the structure, meaning, and origin of words as units of language. It deals with how words are formed, their relationships, and their meanings.

What does Lexicology study?

Lexicology studies words, morphemes, word formation processes like compounding, and how words relate to each other.

What is the goal of Lexicography?

Their goal is to collect and define words, including their pronunciation and etymology.

How are words represented in dictionaries (in Lexicography)?

They represent the meaning of words to either native speakers or learners of a language in different types of dictionaries.

Morphology is the branch of Linguistics that studies

the internal structure and formation of words.

The term morphology is Greek, morph- meaning

‘shape, form’

Greek, -ology means

‘the study of something’

Morphology studies how words are built from smaller meaningful units called morphemes and

how these units combine to form new words or to convey grammatical functions

Morphology is divided into two main types:

1. Inflectional Morphology

2. Derivational Morphology

What is Inflectional Morphology?

It creates new forms of the same word to express different grammatical categories such as tense or number.

E.g. Dogs (plural form). It is affixation. They do not change the meaning of the word

Does Inflectional Morphology change the meaning of a word?

No, inflectional morphology does not change the meaning of a word. It only modifies its grammatical form.

What is Derivational Morphology?

Derivational morphemes are affixes which are added to a lexeme to change its meaning or function.

For example, Happy (adjective) and happiness (noun), the suffix -ness converted the adjective into a noun. It is compounding.

What is the key difference between Inflectional and Derivational Morphology?

• Inflectional Morphology modifies a word’s grammatical form without changing its meaning. (affixation)

• Derivational Morphology creates a new word with a different meaning or function. (compounding)

What is a morpheme?

It is the smallest unit of language that has its own meaning, either a whole word or part of a word (Cambridge Dictionary). It is the minimal meaningful unit of language.

What is a stem or base in Morphology?

It is the most basic form of a morpheme to which other morphemes can be added to create new words.

Example:

• Stem: expect

• Derived words: expected, unexpected

What are the two main types of morphemes?

• Lexical morphemes (denote objects, states, facts, relations...)

• Functional morphemes (denote grammatical functions)

What are lexical morphemes?

They denote objects, states, facts, and relations.

• They are an open class set (new words can be added).

• They can be:

  • free, i.e. full words that can occur independently on their own (e.g., book) or

  • bound, i.e. they must be attached to another morpheme to have meaning (e.g., dis-).

• They can combine with other lexical units to create new words through the word formation process.

What does it mean for a morpheme to be free?

It is a full word that can occur independently on its own.

Example:

• Book (free lexical morpheme)

• And (free functional morpheme)

What does it mean for a morpheme to be bound?

It must be attached to another morpheme to have meaning.

Example:

• Dis- (bound lexical morpheme)

• -ed (bound functional morpheme)

What are functional morphemes?

They denote grammatical functions.

• They are a closed class set (new words are rarely added).

• Similar to lexical morphemes, they can be free (e.g., and, but) or bound (e.g., -ed, -ing).

Free lexical morphemes also known as

stems

Bound lexical morphemes also known as

affixes

Free functional morphemes also known as

Function words

Bound functional morphemes also known as

Inflectional

What is the difference between lexical morphemes and functional morphemes?

• Lexical morphemes carry semantic meaning (e.g., book, dis-).

• Functional morphemes denote grammatical functions (e.g., and, -ed).

Give an example of a free lexical morpheme and a bound lexical morpheme.

• Free lexical morpheme: cat

• Bound lexical morpheme: un-

Give an example of a free functional morpheme and a bound functional morpheme.

• Free functional morpheme: but

• Bound functional morpheme: -ing

Are all stems free morphemes?

No, most stems are free morphemes, but some are bound morphemes.

Examples of bound stems:

• Re-ceive

• Con-tain

• Di-fer

What happens when a bound morpheme is added to a stem?

The stem plus a bound morpheme can form a base for new words.

Example:

• Friend → Friendly → Unfriendly

What are the two types of bound morphemes?

• Inflectional morphemes

• Derivational morphemes

What do inflectional morphemes do?

They modify the tense of a verb or the number of a noun without changing the word's meaning or class.

Examples:

• Love → Loved (past tense)

• Boy → Boys (plural)

What do derivational morphemes do?

They change either the meaning or the word class of a word.

Example:

• Historic → Prehistoric (changes meaning)

What is productivity?

It is a significant feature of bound phonemes: It refers to how often a particular morpheme is used in a language.

A productive morpheme is one that is actively used to create new words.

What is a unique or blocked morpheme?

It is a morpheme that only occurs once in a language and is not used productively.

Example:

• The cran- in cranberry is a unique morpheme.

What is a lexeme?

It is a family of lexical units that share the same core meaning and can have different forms.

Example:

• The lexeme love can be a noun or a verb and has forms like love, loved, lover, lovely.

Lexemes have a limited number and are

listed alphabetically in the dictionaries of a language

For example:

• Love (noun/verb) includes forms like love, loved, lover, lovely under one dictionary entry. And it can also take derivational morphemes, e.g. lover, lovely...

What is the main morphological process in word formation?

Derivation

Derivation is accomplished by

• Affixation

• Conversion

What is affixation (derivation)?

It is a word-formation process that involves adding bound morphemes to a base.

There are two types of affixation:

1. Prefixation (adding a prefix at the beginning)

   e.g. un-expect

2. Suffixation (adding a suffix at the end)

   e.g. expect-ed

What is conversion (derivation)?

It is a word-formation process where a word changes its grammatical category without adding an affix.

Example:

• Butter (noun) → Butter (verb)
  Pass the butter → I will butter the toast

Other morphological processes that result in the formation of new words are

1. Compounding

2. Reduplicative

3. Clipping

4. Blending

5. Eponymy

6. Acronym

7. Backformation

The process by which two or more stems/bases are combined to form a new word is called

Compounding

What is compounding in word formation?

It is the process by which two or more stems/bases are combined to form a new word.

Example:

• Website (from web + site)

Compound nouns can be written as:

• One word: e.g., bathroom

• With hyphens: e.g., father-in-law

• With spaces: e.g., Prime Minister

Complex words are formed by

reapplication of word formation processes,

For example, compounding and suffixation as in baby-sitting

What is reduplicative?

It is a special case of compounding where the two elements are identical or very similar.

Example:

• Walkie-talkie (from walk and talk)

What is clipping?

It is the process of word reduction, where a longer word is shortened.

Examples:

• Phone (from telephone)

• Lab (from laboratory)

What is blending?

It occurs when two words become one by combining parts of both words.

Example:

• Brunch (from breakfast + lunch)

What is eponymy?

It is the creation of a new word from a person’s name, usually to honor them.

Example:

• Washington, D.C. (named after George Washington)

What is an acronym?

It is formed by using initial letters of a phrase or name to create a new word.

Examples:

• GPS (Global Positioning System)

• IP (Internet Protocol)

What is backformation?

It is the process of creating a new word by removing affixes from an existing word.

Example:

• Edit (from editor)

• Donate (from donation)

What is prefixation?

It is defined as the process of forming a new word by adding a prefix to the stem.

• Example: Sane → Insane

Do prefixes alter the word-class of the stem?

No, prefixes do not generally alter the word-class of the stem.

• Example: Sane (adjective) → Insane (adjective)

Where does the main stress fall when a prefix is added to a word?

The main stress falls on the stem, and the prefix normally has a light stress.

• Examples: Unexpect, Prefabricated

Prefixes normally have a light stress, main stress comes on

the stem, e.g. unexpect, pre-fabricated

Types of prefixes

1. Negative prefixes

2. Locative prefixes

3. Prefixes of attitude

4. Prefixes of time and order

5. Number prefixes

6. Other prefixes

What are negative prefixes?

Negative prefixes create words with an opposite or absence of the meaning of the stem.

Examples:

• A- (lacking): Atheist

• Dis- (the opposite of): Dishonest, Distrust

• Mis- (wrongly): Mispronounce

• Pseudo- (false): Pseudonym

A- meaning

lacking in

Dis- meaning

the opposite of/not

Mis- meaning

wrongly

Pseudo- meaning

false

What are locative prefixes?

They relate to position or location.
Examples:

• Over- (too much): Oversleep

• Sub- (less than): Subordinate

• Super- (more than): Superman

Over- meaning

too much

Sub- meaning

less than

Super- meaning

more than

Negative prefixes

• A-

• Dis-

• Mis-

• Pseudo-

Locative prefixes

• Over-

• Sub-

• Super-

What are prefixes of attitude?

They express a position or opinion.
Examples:

• Anti- (against): Antisocial

• Pro- (in favor of): Pro-abortion

What are prefixes of time and order?

Prefixes of time and order refer to time or sequence.
Examples:

• Ex- (former): Ex-husband

• Pre- (before): Preposition, Prearrange

• Post- (after): Postwar

Anti- meaning

Against