Word FORMATION

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WORD FORMATION AND COMPOUNDS

INFLECTION: suffixes are added to words and they are inflected for the plural, -ed or –ing participles, the genitive, singular verbs, the comparative and superlative, etc. eg: girls, going, looked, lighter, biggest, children’s, etc.

AFFIXATION (DERIVATION):

a) adding a prefix to the base with or without a change of word or word-class eg.: author - co-author.

b) adding a suffix to the base, with or without a change in word-class eg.: drive – driver, patient – impatient, real – unreal, real – really, friend – friendly.

CONVERSION: assigning the base to a different word-class without changing its form (zero affixation) eg.: drive – drive.

COMPOUNDING: adding one base to another eg.: tea+pot = teapot

REAPPLICATION: Once a base has undergone a rule of word-formation, the derived word itself may become the base for another derivation: and so by reapplication an example is the word unfriendliness, the derivation of which is as follows: friend noun friend-ly noun adjective un-friend-ly adjective

Engli Negative prefixes: un, non, in, dis, a - unfair, non-smoker, insane, disloyal, amoral. Reversative or privative prefixes: un, de, dis - untie, defrost, discoloured. Pejorative prefixes: mis, mal, pseudo – misinform, malfunction, pseudo-intellectual. Prefixes of degree or size: arch, super, out, sur, sub, over, under, hyper, ultra, mini – archduke, superman, outrun, surtax, substandard, overeat, undersized, hypercritical, ultra-violet, mini skirt. Prefixes of attitude: co, counter, anti, pro – cooperate, counter-revolution, anti-social, pro-communist. Locative prefixes: super, sub, inter, trans – super-structure, subconscious, international, transplant. Prefixes of time and order: fore, pre, post, ex, re – foretell, pre-marital, post-war, ex-wife, rebuild. Number prefixes: uni, mono, bi, di, tri, multi, poly – unilateral, monotheism, bilingual, tricycle, multi-racial, polysyllable. Other prefixes: auto, neo, pan, proto, semi, vice – autobiography, neo-Gothic, pan-African, prototype, semicircle, vice-president. Conversion prefixes: be, en, a – bewigged, bewitch, enslave, afloat. SUFFIXATION: Unlike prefixes, suffixes frequently alter the word-class of the base; for example, the adjective kind can be changed into an abstract noun by adding ness: kindness. Noun to noun suffixes can have different meanings, for example: Occupational: ster, eer, er – gangster, engineer, teenage, Londoner. Diminutive or feminine: let, ette, ess,y, ie – booklet, kitchenette, flannelette, usherette, waitress, daddy, auntie. Status or domain: hood, ship, dom, ocracy, (e)ry – boyhood, friendship, kingdom, democracy, slavery, nunnery, machinery. Other: ing, ful – panelling, mouthful. Noun/adjective to noun/adjective: ite, (i)an, ese, ist, ism – socialite, Indonesian, republican, Chinese, violinist, idealism, communism. Verb to noun suffixes: er, or, ant, ee, ation, ment, al, ing, age – driver, inhabitant, employee, exploration, amazement, refusal, driving, drainage. Adjective to noun suffixes: ness, ity – happiness, sanity. Verb suffixes: ify, ize(ise), en – simplify, popularize, deafen, sadden Noun to adjective suffixes: ful, less, ly, like, y, ish, ian – useful, helpful, childless, cowardly, childlike, creamy, hairy, Turkish, Darwinian. Some adjective suffixes common in borrowed and neo-classical words: al, ic, ive, (also ative, itive) ous (also eous, ious) – criminal, musical, heroic, attractive, affirmative, sensitive, virtous, courteous, vivacious. Note: in some adjectives ic alternates with ical with a difference in meaning: An economic miracle – ‘in the economy’ The car is economical to run – ‘money-saving’ A historic building – ‘with a history’ Historical research - ‘pertaining to history’ Other adjective suffixes: able, ible, ish, ed – readable, forcible, youngish, balconied. Adverb suffixes: ly, ward(s), wise – happily, strangely, backward(s), crabwise, weather-wise. CONVERSION: Conversion and suffixation: conversion is the derivational process whereby an item changes its word- class without the addition of a suffix as in release which can be a verb or a noun, and this relationship may be seen as parallel to that between the verb acquit and the noun acquittal. Verb to noun: doubt, love, laugh, walk, catch, bore, cheat, cover, wrap, throw, retreat, turn. Adjective to noun: these can usually be explained as a well-established adjective+noun phrase from which the noun has been ellipted: daily, comic, marrieds. Noun to verb: bottle, corner, coat, mask, peel, skin, brake, knife, nurse, cripple, mail, ship, bicycle, motor. Adjective to verb: calm, dirty, dry, empty. Sometimes a phrasal verb is derived from an adjective by the addition of a particle: calm down. This category of conversion competes with en suffixation: blacken. Minor categories of conversion: From closed-system words to nouns: This book is a must for every student. From phrases to nouns: Whenever I gamble, my horse is one of the also-rans. From phrases to adjectives: I feel very under-the weather. From affixes to nouns: Patriotism, and any other isms you’d like to name. There are also changes of secondary word-classes, for example nouns can change from uncountable to countable and vice-versa from proper to common and from stative to dynamic: two coffees, some paints, a difficulty, a few square feet of floor, a Jeremiah, there are several Cambridges, a Rolls Royce, a complete Shakespeare, wellingtons, he’s being a fool. Verbs can change from intransitive to transitive and vice-versa, from monotransitive to complex transitive: Run the water. Your book reads well. The door opened. The milk turned. I wiped it clean. We catch them young. Approximate conversion: sometimes conversion is approximate rather than complete: that is the word, in the process of changing its grammatical function, may undergo a slight change in spelling or pronunciation, these changes usually are: voicing final consonants or stress shift. Voicing: advice – advise, thief – thieve, sheath – sheathe, house – house. Shift of stress: when verbs of two syllables are converted into nouns, the stress is sometimes shifted from the second to the first syllable: conduct, conflict, contrast, convert, convict, export, extract, import, insult, permit, present, produce, rebel, record. There are some cases where this does not happen: contact, debate. COMPOUNDS: A compound is a unit consisting of two or more bases. There is no formal criterion that can be used for a general definition of compounds in English or on stress, although they are generally stressed on the first element, specially if they are nouns, but with a strong secondary stress on the second element: blackbird, waiting room, earthquake, blackboard, fire extinguisher. A smaller number of compounds which are verbs, adverbs and specially adjectives have an inverted stress pattern where the main stress in on the second element and the secondary stress is on the first element: backfire, henceforth, knee-deep, flat-footed. NOUN COMPOUNDS: Subject and verb compounds: bee-sting, earthquake, headache, flashlight, hangman. Verb and object compounds: (X verbs something) air-conditioning, brainwashing, story-telling, gamekeeper, record-player, songwriter, window-cleaner, birth-control, haircut, book review, cooking apple, spending money. Verb and adverbial compounds: (X verbs somewhere) typing paper, walking stick, sun-bathing, sleepwalking, handwriting, factory-worker, sun-bather, daydreamer, boat-ride, dance-hall, plaything, homework, housework. Verbless compounds: are generally noun+noun but they can also be adjective+noun: windmill, hydrogen bomb, motorcycle, oil well, tear gas, hay fever, sawdust, table leg, shirt-sleeves, oak tree, tape measure, goldfish, tissue paper, bread-crumb, sand dune, facecloth, coffee break, fire engine, hardboard, madman. Bahuvrihi compounds: name an entire thing by specifying some feature they can be noun+noun: blockhead, hunchback, pot-belly, paperback or adjective+noun fathead, loudmouth, paleface. ADJECTIVE COMPOUNDS: Verb and object compounds: man-eating, breath-taking, heart-breaking. Verb and adverbial compounds: ocean-going, law-abiding, mouth-watering, handmade, self-employed, easy-going, good-looking, heartfelt, hard-working, far-fetched, new-laid. Verbless compounds: these can be noun+adjective: class-conscious, duty-free, grass-green, homesick, brick red, sea-green or adjective+adjective bitter-sweet, deaf-mute, British-American. VERB COMPOUNDS: Noun and verb compounds: house-hunt, lip-read, baby-sit, sleep-walk