Learn the basic definitions and principal concepts for the dictation or oral questioning
Seminar 5: Word formation means
Learn the basic definitions and principal concepts for the dictation or oral questioning
Word-Formation is the system of derivative types of words and the process of creating new words from the material available in the language after certain structural and semantic formulas and patterns.
Affixation is the productive process of forming a new word by adding a derivational affix to the root stem of a word.
Conversion is a productive way of coining a new word by changing the paradigm and distribution of the original word without transforming its morphemic shape.
Composition (compounding) is the way of wordbuilding when a word is formed by joining two or more stems to form one word.
Shortening is a comparatively new and highly productive way of word-building esp. in American English. It consists in substituting a part for a whole and can be achieved through the processes of clipping, abbreviation and blending.
Clipping is the reduction of a word to one or several syllables as a result of which the new form acquires some linguistic value of its own.
Abbreviation is the process and the result of forming a word out of the initial elements of a word-combination.
Blending designates the method of merging parts of words into one new word.
Be ready to answer the following questions:
- Give the definition of the word-formation.
- Affixation:
1) What do we mean by affixation? What does affixation result in?
2) What types of stems can affixes be added to?
3) What is understood by semi-affixes?
- Conversion:
1) How can you define the term “conversion”?
2) What meanings can verbs (derived from nouns) have?
3) What can converted nouns denote?
- Composition (compounding):
1) What is composition?
2) What are the criteria for classifications of compounds?
- Shortening:
1) What is shortening?
2) What is understood by clipping?
3) What are the main types of clipping?
4) How can you define the term “abbreviation”?
5) What types of abbreviations do you know?
6) What process is called blending?
7) What is the difference between additive and restrictive blends?
8) How can blends be formed?
Tasks and exercises
- Explain the difference between the meaning of the following words produced from the same root by means of different affixes:
Watery – waterish, embarrassed – embarrassing, manly – mannish, colorful – colored, distressed – distressing, respectful – respected – respectable, exhaustive – exhausting – exhausted, bored – boring, touchy – touched – touching.
- Form words with a negative meaning using in-, un-, il-, dis-, ab-, im-:
Regular, polite, rational, discreet, mortal, movable, legal, proper, experienced, decent, mobility, ability, normal, accessible, dispensable, expected, comprehensible, to tie, eatable, to bind, to charge, to obey, to organize, justice.
3. Find cases of conversion in the following sentences:
1. The clerk was eyeing him expectantly. 2. Under the cover of that protective din he was able to toy with a steaming dish which his waiter had brought. 3. An aggressive man battled his way to Stout's side. 4. Just a few yards from the front door of the bar there was an elderly woman comfortably seated on a chair, holding a hose linked to a tap and watering the pavement. 5. — What are you doing here? — I'm tidying your room. 6. My seat was in the middle of a row. I could not leave without inconveniencing a great many people, so I remained. 7. How on earth do you remember to milk the cows and give pigs their dinner? 8. In a few minutes Papa stalked off, correctly booted and well mufflered. 9. "Then it's practically impossible to steal any diamonds?" asked Mrs. Blair with as keen an air of disappointment as though she had been journeying there for the express purpose. 10. Ten minutes later I was speeding along in the direction of Cape Town. 11. Restaurants in all large cities have their ups and downs. 12. The upshot seemed to be that I was left to face life with the sum of £ 87 17s 4d. 13. “A man could be very happy in a house like this if he didn't have to poison his days with work,” said Jimmy. 14. I often heard that fellows after some great shock or loss have a habit, after they've been on the floor for a while wondering what hit them, of picking themselves up and piecing themselves together.
4. Add a preposition from the list below to complete appropriate compound adjectives:
back up out off on of
1 She's done the same low-paid job for so long that she's really fed-.......... with it now.
2 The two cars were involved in a head-............... collision.
3 He has a very casual, laid-................. approach to life in general.
4 It'll never happen again. It's definitely a one-.............. situation.
5 He's a smash hit here but he's unheard-............... in my country.
6 She bought a cut-…………paper pattern and made her own dress.
5. Pick out compounds in the sentences given below and group them into a) neutral compounds b) morphological compounds c) syntactic compounds.
1) It was a do-or-die for me. 2) We’ll buy him a put-it-together toy. 3) I don’t need advice from a has-been. 4) Are they hand-and glove friends? 5) They are weekending I the country. 6) This dress is not hand-washable. 7) She was wearing a light-green dress. 8) Color-blind people are not allowed to take a driving test. 9) he tried to make a getaway. 10) these goods are duty-free. 11) the material is water-repellant and crease-resistant. 12) A turnback is a cowardly person. 13) the demonstrators were teargassed. 14) the astronauts were waiting for a countdown. 15) Who taught you to skin-dive?
6. Determine the original components of the blends:
brunch
cablegram
dumbfound
flush
flurry
swellegant
smog
twirl
twinight
uffish
windoor
oilitics
crocogator
galumph
slimnastics
infortainment
7. Write out in full the following shortened words. Define the type of shortening.
BASIC
VIP
BBC
UNO
H-bag
MP
PM
SALT
tec
ad
V-day
mike
fancy