Tvorba reči u engleskom jeziku

Course in English Morphology

Summer Term 2019/20

Instructor: Valentina Budincic

INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH WORD FORMATION PROCESSES

Morphology

is the study of language which deals with words, word formation and word

classification. The term morphology comes from Greek word ‘moarphe’ meaning

form

and

‘logia’ meaning

learning

SUBRANCHES OF MORPHOLOGY

1. Inflection

2. Word formation (Derivation & Compounding)

3. Affixation (Prefixattion & Suffixation & Infixation)

4. Non-affixation (Conversion & Truncation & Blending)

Term

Word

is used intuitively in everyday language for a basic element of language.

There are numerous linguistic attempts at defining the concept of word, which are not

uniform and remain controversial. Here are some principles upon which words can be

defined:

(a) phonetic-phonological level: words are the smallest segments of sound that can be

theoretically isolated by word accent and

boundary markers

pauses,

clicks, and the

like;

(b) orthographic-graphemic level: word is any sequence of letters bounded on either side

by blank spaces in writing or print;

paradigms like

inflection

and are distinguished from the morphologically characterized

word forms,

cf.

write

vs.

writes, wrote, written

; they are structurally stable and cannot be

divided, and can be described as well by specific rules of

word formation;

(d) lexical-semantic level: words are the smallest, relatively independent carriers of

meaning that are codified in the lexicon;

(e) syntactical level: the smallest permutable and substitutable units of a sentence.

WORD CLASSIFICATION

All words in language can be classified into two groups: grammatical words and lexical

words.

Grammatical words

are pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, articles and auxiliary verbs.

They are also known as functional words. Their number is finite.

Lexical words are

nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs. They are also known as full or

content words. Their number is potentially unlimited.

PARTS OF SPEECH

SIMPLE, COMPLEX WORDS & COMPOUND WORDS

•

Simple

words consist of a single free base. e.g. spirit, long, free

•

Complex

words contain, as their immediate constituents, either two bound forms or

a bound and a free form.

e.g. two bound forms:

matri

cide,

tele

vise

e.g. bound and free forms:

lion

ess,

eras

•

Compounding

is the process of combining two or more words (free morphemes) to

create a new word.

•

Compound words

have free forms, usually two, as their immediate constituents

(IC).

e.g. green

house

, under

•

A small number of compound words have three or four free forms as coordinate ICs.

e.g. point-of-view, jack-of-all-trades

Compounds are written as:

1. one word (lipstick). They are called closed compounds.
2. two-hyphenated words (marry-go-round, well-being)
3. two separate words (football stadium, school bus, grapefruit juice). They are

called open compounds.

In each case compounds function as single units of meaning.

•

Compound words

cannot be divided by the insertion of intervening material

between the two parts, but

grammatical structures

can be so divided.

e.g. She is a sweetheart. (compound word)

She has a sweet heart. (grammatical structure)

Grammatical structure

can be divided by the insertion of intervening material between

the two parts.

e.g. She has a

sweater

heart than her sister.

She has a

sweet

, kind heart.

TYPES OF COMPOUNDS

Endocentric

A+B, where B is the head: e.g. text+book, black+board, sun+glasses, darkroom, smalltalk

Exocentric

A+B, where there is no expressed semantic head: e.g. four+eyes (person), spoilsport,
pickpocket, wagtail, breakwater, breakfast, turncoat, hatch-back (car), cutthroat (person)

Appositional

A and B provide different descriptions for the same referent:

e.g. maid-servant, hunter-gatherer, actor-manager, actor-director, player-coach

Copulative

A+B denotes ‘the sum’ of what A and B denote: e.g. red-orange, bitter-sweet

Rhyming Compounds

e.g. ding-dong, willy-nilli, hanky-panky, mumbo-jumbo, hoity-toity, hocus-pocus, snailmail,
backpack, fro-yo (frozen yogurt), boogie-woogie, roly-poly, hanky-panky, romcom
(romantic comedy), bofro ( boyfriend), chalk-talk (lecture with illustrations on the board),
okie-dokie, see-saw, pell-mell, mish-mash, tick-tock

Reduplicative Compounds

e.g. chi-chi, wee-wee, ack ack,

THE MORPHOLOGY OF ENGLISH: COMPOUNDING & DERIVATION

COMPOUNDING

Compounding = Combining two or more words to form a new one. Compounds do not
neccessarily bear a meaning wich is the combination of the meaning of their consituents.

COMPOUND NOUNS

NOUN+NOUN