Seminar 3

The structure of English words and word formation in English

1) The morphological structure of a word

2) The morphemic analysis of word structure
3) Word formation in English
A/ productive processes (affixation,conversion,word comosition,shertening)
B/ non productive precesses

Morphology mɔːˈfɒlədʒi  is a branch of grammar that concerns kənˈsɜːns itself with the

internal ɪnˈtɜːnl  structure of words and peculiaritiespɪˌkjuːliˈærətis of their grammatical
categories and their semantics.sɪˈmæntɪks
The word is not the smallest unit of the language. It consists of morphemes.
The morpheme ˈmɔːfiːm may be defined dɪˈfaɪnв as the smallest meaningful unit which has a
sound form and meaning and which occurs in speech only as a part of a word. Like a word,
it is an association of a definite /ˈdefɪnət,  meaning with the definite /ˈdefɪnət,  sound form but
unlike a word it is not autonomous,ɔːˈtɒnəməs i.e. it can occur əˈkɜ only as a constituent kən
ˈstɪtʃuənt part of a word, never separately.ˈsepərətli
Example:
writers can be divided into three morphemes:

(1) writ-, expressing the basic lexical meaning of the word,

(2) -er-, expressing the idea of agent ˈeɪdʒənt performing the action indicated by the root of
the verb,

(3) -s, indicating ˈɪndɪkeɪtin number, that is, showing that more than one person of the type
indicated is meant

Morphemes may have different phonemic ˈfəʊniːmik shapes in different contexts . They are
called allomorphs. They are positional variants ˈveəriənts of the same base (stem) or suffix
(e.g. the prefix in- (intransitive) /ɪnˈtrænsətɪv/ can be represented by allomorphs il-
(illiterate), im- (impossible), ir- (irregular)
Please,pleasure,pleasant

Lexical morphemes -consist of roots and affixes.The root morpheme is the lexical center
of the word. It is the semantic nucleus of a word with which no grammatical properties of the
word are connected.
friend (friendly), faith (faithful), joy (joyful), care (careful), build (rebuild), break
(breakable), read (reading), live (lively), play (replay), hope (hopeful)

Affixes əˈfɪksis (suffixes and prefixes) are word building elements which change or modify
the meaning of the root morpheme
Real- unreal, tidy-untidy ,reliable-rɪˈlaɪəbəl unreliable.
The grammatical morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a language that comprise
of practical and useful words in a language such as prepositions, conjunctions kənˈdʒʌŋkʃəns
determiners dɪˈtɜːmənəs , and pronouns.
Present progressive  (-ing) Baby crying.

in Juice in cup.

on Book on table.

Plural regular (-s) Daddy have tools.

Past irregular Doggie ate bone.

Possessive  ('s) Jake's apple.

Free morphemes-those which coincide ˌkoʊənˈsaɪd with the stem stem or root
morpheme and also can stand alone as words in isolation (e.g. friendly, friendship)
"A word like 'house' or 'dog' is called a free morpheme because it can occur əˈkɜː in isolation
and cannot be divided into smaller meaning units…
E.g. friend,
friendly, friendship; play, player, playing, playful.
Bound morphemes that occur əˈkɜː only as word constituents kənˈstɪtʃuənts . All affixational
morphemes are bounds
(for example, the plural marker -s, the past tense marker -ed)

1. Modify a Noun: -s / -es, -‘s / -s’ 

2. Modify an Adjective: -er, -est 
3. Modify a Verb: -ed, -ing, -en 

Root morphemes can be both free and bound theor (theory,theoretical)

Semi-bound morphemes (semi-free) are morphemes that can function in a morphemic

sequence siːkwəns both as an affix əˈfɪks and as a free morpheme.They behave more like
affixes than like roots. They lost their semantic and structural identity with the stem. For
example, the morpheme well and half on the one hand occur as free morphemes that
coincide with the stem and the word-form in utterances ˈʌtərənsis like sleep well, half an
hour,” on the other hand they occur as bound morphemes in words like well-known, half-
eaten, half-done.

Structural types of words

1) Simple (root words)
2) Derived words
3) Compound words (compounds proper and derived)
1) simple words (singleroot morphemes, e.g. agree, child, red, etc.);
2) Derived dɪˈraɪvd words are those composed of one root-morpheme and one or more
derivational morphemes.(governments, unbelievable)
; 3) Compound words have at least two root-morphemes, the number of
derivational morphemes being insignificant (e. g. dining-room, bluebell, mother-in-law,
goodfor-nothing, etc.).
The theory of immediate constituents analysis was originally elaborated as an
attempt to determine the ways in which lexical units are relevantly related to one
another
For example: англ. ful/ness;dis/cuss/ion;
As we break the word, we obtain at any level only two immediate constituents, one of which
is the stem of the given word. Breaking a word, we observe in each cut the structural order of
the constituents and only two ones at each cut. The analysis is completed when we arrive at
constituents incapable of further division, i.e. morphemes Words are segmented into
morphemes with the help of the method of Immediate and Ultimate Constituents, first
suggested by L. Bloomfield

Affixation-is the formation of a new word with the help of affixes:

The two main types of affixation are adding prefixes (affixes at the beginning of a root
word) and suffixes (affixes at the end of a word). Another type is circumfixes, which are
added to the beginning and end of a base word.

Affixis a type of morpheme, is generally defined as the smallest indivisible

component of the word possessing a meaning of its own
From the etymological point of view affixes are classified into native and borrowed.

Native Suffixes

-er,(worker,teacher, painter,)-ing, -ness,(coldness) -

Noun-forming suffixes
ism (materialism), -ist (impressionist), -ance
-y,(cozy, tidy, merry, snowy, showy) -ish,(English,
Adjective-forming suffixes Spanish, reddish, childish,) -ed (learned), -able, -less
(careless, sleepless, cloudless,)
Adverb-forming suffixes -ly warmly, hardly, simply, carefully, coldly)
Verb-forming suffixes -ize/-ise (realize), -ate
Prefixes un- (unhappy), re- (reconstruct), dis- (disappoint)
Borrowed affixes- -ment,-ous-,ism,-tion,-able,-extra,-super

If a word consists of morphemes of different origin ,it is called an etymological hybrid

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.
According to a part of speech:
noun building suffixes: -er, -ment, -ness, -ship;
adjective building suffixes: -full, -less, -ous, -able;
verb building suffixes: -ed, -ize, -ate, -fy.
• Prefixes are classified according to their meaning:
negative (un-, dis-);
repetition of the action (re-);
opposition (anti-, counter-, un-);
excessiveness or insufficiency (extra-, over-, mis-, under-)

Word building (word-formation) is the creation of new words from elements already
existing in a particular language. Every language has its own patterns of word formation.
Together with borrowing, word-building provides for enlarging and enriching the vocabulary
of the language.
Conversion is the formation of a new word by bringing a stem of this word into a different
formal paradigm:ˈpærədaɪm This phenomenon can be illustrated by the
following cases: work – to work, love – to love, water – to water
The term conversion was introduced by Sweet (1891)
Types of conversion
1) Substantivation-forming nouns of different parts of speech
To say-a say to call-a call to try-a try
2) Verbalization- the formation of verbs
ape (n) → to ape (v)
Better -to better
3) adjectivation (the formation of adjectives),
down (adv.) → down (adj.);
4) adverbalization (the formation of adverbs),
home (n.) → home (adv.)
She is a fast runner-she runs fast

Word-composition (compounding) is the formation of a new word by combining kəm

ˈbaɪnin two or more stems which occur /əˈkɜː in the language as free forms: door-bell, house-
keeper.
shortening is the formation of a word by cutting off a part of the word.
According to the parts of speech compounds are subdivided into:
a) nouns: baby-moon, globe-trotter, blueberry, blackberry, hothouse, pick-pocket;
b) adjectives: free-for-all, metallic-green, heart-broken, hard-working, blue-eyed, soft-
hearted, new-born;
c) verbs: to sweet-talk, to honey-moon, to baby-sit;
d adverbs: indoors, outside;
e) prepositions: into, within, throughout;
f) numerals: fifty-five
The structural unity of a compound word depends upon
the unity of stress;
the solid or hyphenated spelling;
the semantic unity;
the unity of morphological and syntactic functioning
According to the relations between the components
-----endocentric compounds where one or both components is the semantic and the structural
centre (the 'head') of the compound. e.g. boyfriend, armchair
-----exocentric compounds where neither root is the 'head'. e.g. pick-pocket, a turncoa
According to the type of composition compounds are divided into:
a) neutral are formed by joining together two stems without any joining morpheme, e.g. ball-
point, to windowshop, blue-bell, heartache, raincoat;
mere juxtaposition
b) morphological, e.g. craftsman, sportsman, statesman, handicraft, speedometer, Anglo-
Saxon;
c) syntactical, e.g. matter-of-fact, up-to-date, free-for-all, babe-in-arms, forget-me-not, devil-
may-care

Shortening is the process of substracting phonemes and / or morhemes from words and
word-groups without changing their lexico-grammatical meaning.

According to the meaning of the whole compound:

idiomatic (the semantic unity is often very strong), e.g. ghostwriter, buttercup, dragon-fly
non-idiomatic (they are not different in their meaning from corresponding free phrases), e.g.
airmail, swimming pool, sunlight

In colloquial speech, clippings tend to end in a suffix -y pronounced (and spelled -ie or
-y)
Gerry < Gerald
Monty < Montgomery
Lizzie < Elizabeth loony < lunatic telly < television

Types of word shortening

Fore-clipping (aphaeresis), where the front of the word is trimmed: telephone - phone;
airplane - plane; tobacco
- baccy; parachute - chute. Many first names were shortened in aphaeresis way: Rebecca -
Becky, Elizabeth - Beth, Albert - Bert.
Middle-clipping (syncope), where the middle of the word is dropped: madam - ma'am;
fantasy - fancy; market - mart; spectacles - specs; mister - Mr.
Back-clipping (apocope), where the end of the word is trimmed: doc, lab, gym, veterinary -
vet; mountain - mount; advertisement - ad; high fidelity - Hi-Ei; high technology - Hi-Tech,
wireless fidelity - Wi-Fi.
Mixed type (clipping both the initial and final part of the word): refrigerator - fridge;
influenza - flu; detective - tec; avanguard - van

Abbreviation is a short form of a word or phrase (Mr.” is the abbreviation of “mister)

 The meaning of a word can change if you stress a different syllable (present-present

Blending (telescoping)
the process of coining a new word by joining two clipped stems
e.g. smoke + fog is smog;
binary + digit is bit;
motor + hotel is motel:
positive + electron is positron; transfer + resistor is transistor;
television + broadcast is telecast;
channel + tunnel is chunnel

Sound imitation (onomatopoeia)

forming new words which reproduce natural sounds. They are emotionally coloured
There are such semantic groups as
sounds of animals, birds, insects: mew, roar, hiss, buzz.
twitter
words imitating the sounds of people: whisper, giggle, groan, babble
words imitating the sounds produced by water: splash, bubble
sounds made by metallic objects: clink, tinkle, clang
words imitating forceful motion: clash, crash, whip, whisk

Reduplication
the production of new words by repeating the stems in part (partial reduplication) or in
entirety (full reduplication)
e.g. ping-pong, murmur, hush-hush, puff-puff, shilly-shally, ding-dong, tittle-tattle, tick-tock,
roly-poly