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WORD:I. DEFINITION & CHARACTERISTICS

I.1> Definition A word is a free form that can not be dividedwholly into smaller forms.

a word comes into being when the concept(meaning) and sound (form) are united

the smallest unit of a language which areindependent in terms of both meaning andform

E.g.: sound; teacher

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I.2> Characteristicsa> Indivisibility

A word cannot be cut into without a

disturbance of meaning, one or two otheror both of the several parts remaining asa helpless waif on your hands

E.g.: sleep is a word because it is

indivisible, i.e. structurally impermeable:nothing can be inserted between itselements

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b> Internal cohesion & positional mobility. component morphemes of a particular word always

occur in a fixed order to form a meaningful unit

(internally stable)-E.g. acceptable:ac-, -cept, -able,these elements always combine in the order: ac- + -

cept + -able, never is there the possibility of a

sequence likecept-ac-able. the word, as a whole, is flexible in its position:words can change their positions in an order whichproduces an acceptable sequence.

-E.g.: we can form three meaningful sentences fromhe, slowly, left:

Slowly, he left. He left slowly. He slowly left.

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II> STRUCTURE-BASED CLASSIFICATION OFWORDS

Simple words are those which consist of a singlefree morpheme, e.g. man, work, horse.

Complex words are the ones made form one basewith the addition of (an) affix(es).

subclasses: 2 types:C-FB, complex words made up of one free base with

the addition of (an) affix(es); have 1 free form as anIC.

E.g.: care ful, homeless nessC-BB,complex words composed of one bound base

combining with (an) affix(es)

E.g.: in clude; infanti cide

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Compound words are those made fromthe combination of two or more than twoindependent words, with or without bound

morphemes

are written either as a single word (e.g.stomachache), as hyphenated words (e.g.

self-confident), or as two words (e.g.swimming pool).

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Types of compounds

1. Derivational compounds: derivational suffix

is attached to the combination as a whole:honeymooner, ill-mannered, heart-shaped,three-headed

2. Repetitive compounds:2a. Reduplicative compounds:the second

element is the proper repetition of the firstelement with intensifying effect: drip-drip(sound of rain drops dripping down), hush-hush (very secret or confidential)

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2b. Ablaut compounds:twin forms consistingof 1 basic morpheme (usually the second),

sometimes a pseudo-morpheme which isrepeated in the other constituent with adifferent vowel: chit-chat (gossip), ping-pong

(table tennis), ding-dong (fight, argument)2c. Rhyme compounds:twin forms

consisting of two elements (most of two

pseudo-morphemes), which are conjoined torhyme: lovey-dovey (darling), harum-scarum(disorganized)

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Differences between a compoundword and a grammatical structure

Phonologically: stress pattern

E.g.: in two-word compound nouns

dancing teacher dancing teachergerund + noun present part. + head N

compound noun noun phrase=GS

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Syntactically:

1. a compound word can not be separated by

the insertion of the other elements becauseit is an indivisible solid block; by thecontrast, a grammatical structure can.

E.g.: -the Cp.N dancing teacher(teacher who

teaches dancing) can not be inserted byany interfering material without changing itsmeaning

- with the noun phrase dancing teacher(teacher who is dancing) we can insertnationality adjective Englishto form a newphrase dancing English teacher.

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2. a component of a compound word cannot participatein grammatical structure while the one of agrammatical structure can

E.g.: -Cp.N dark room(a place where we can take outfilms out of a camera and develop photographs)an extremely dark room: wrong

-NP dark room(room with little light)Its not good toread books in an extremely dark room like this: O.K.

3. arrangement of elements

E.g.: -verb adverbial composite: turn down(verb root+adverbial particle)

-compound word: Cp.N downturn (particle + verb).

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Semantically:

while the meaning of a grammatical structure

is the total of the meanings of its elements,the meaning of a compound word isunpredictable (Cp.words have

specialized/idiomatic meanings).E.g.:-I had a birds eye view= I saw the eye of

a birdNP

-In my opening lecture I propose to give you abirds-eye view of the 18th century Frenchliterature.= an overall summary Cp. N

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No. Words Classifications

1 sharpener Complex-free base

2 book shop

3 container

4 portable

5 car pool

6 antiwar

7 pure

8 fatherland

9 highlander

10 occur

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11 cooperation

12 newly-wed

13 existentialism

14 armchair

15 combination

16 analyzing

17 touched

18 seize

19 interchangeable

20 carnal

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ANSWER KEY

1 sharpener C-FB

2 bookshop Cp

3 container C-BB

4 portable C-BB

5 car pool Cp(a group of car owners who taketurns to drive everyone in the

group to work, so that only 1

car is used at a time)

6 antiwar C-FB7 pure S

8 fatherland Cp

9 highlander C-FB

10 occur C-BB

11 cooperation C-FB

12 newly-wed Cp

13 existentialism C-FB

14 armchair Cp15 combination

16 analyzing C-BB

17 touched C-FB18 seize S

19interchangeable C-FB

20 carnal C-BB

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1. Davids car is a hardtopCp (a car with a metalroof)

2. This car has a ratherhard top. GS (The carhas a top which israther hard)

3. It was ajack-in-the-box.Cp (a toy in theform of a box withafigure inside that

springs up when the lidis opened)

4. The plant in the boxisrare. GS (The plant that

is grown in the box)

5. A ht dgis not a ht dg.Cp-GS (a hot sausageserved in hot bread roll, oftenwith onions & mustard; a dogwhich is hot)

6. He has a dog in the mangerattitude. Cp (He is a personwho stops others enjoy sthhe cant use or doesnt want)

7. He has a dog in the mangerattitude. GS (an annoyingattitude)

8. She has a strng hldonhim. GS (a hold which isstrong)

9. She has a strnghldonhim. Cp (support)

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10. He found his father-in-law. Cp (his wifes father)

11. He found his father in trouble. GS (his father who

is in trouble)12. They bought it in the blck mrket. Cp (market

where people sell & buy things illegally)

13. They caught in the black, completely lightless

marketbecause the electricity went off. GS (marketthat is black & completely lightless)

14. Her spnding mneywas a source of annoyance

to his father. Cp (the money spent by her)15. Her spnding mneywas a source annoyance to

his father. GS (the way according to which shespends her money)

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PROCESSES OF WORDFORMATION

I> DEFINITION

Word formation is the creation of newwords. Hereafter are several ways of

doing this.

II PROCESSES OF WORD FORMATION

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II> PROCESSES OF WORD FORMATIONII.1> Compounding

two or more independent existing words form a

new one. written either as a single word (e.g.

stomachache), as hyphenated words (e.g. self-confident), or as 2 words (e.g. bus stop).

occurs in all word classes:- Noun: coffee shop, egghead, sleeping bag,

swimming pool, tooth brush.- Verb: down size, download, upload, upgrade.

- Adjective: bad-tempered, hotheaded, newly-wed,home-made

- Adverb: furthermore, moreover, kind-heartedly

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- Pronoun: something, anything, nobody, nothing

- Preposition: across from, because of, next to, priorto.

- Auxiliary: be going to, had better, would rather.

- Conjunction: however, no matter what, in order that,wherever.

class of the final component determines thegrammatical category of the compound, e.g.mother-in-law(noun), download(verb), headstrong(adjective), etc.

compounds formed with a preposition usually fall inthe category of the non-prepositional components ofthe compound, e.g. workout, break-up, downturn,downfall, etc.

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II.2> Affixation/ derivation

the most common process

is accomplished by means of a large number ofaffixes which are added to base morphemes.

involves the changes of grammatical potential, form,

and/or meaning of a word consists of prefixation and suffixation.

Prefixation: the addition of a bound morpheme atthe beginning of a base to form a new word, e.g.

dislike, inject, repay.

Suffixation: the addition of a bound morphemetakes place at the end of a base, e.g. audience,

childlike, realism.

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II.3> Clipping/shortening

way of creating new words by omitting/cutting off the beginning,

the end, or both, of a word, resulting a part which can stand forthe whole original word and is referred to as clipped word.

words formed by this process are usually found in everydaycasual speech.

E.g.: airplaneplane

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ElizabethLiz

clipped words are also formed from grammatical units.

E.g.: American Indian (modifier+N)Ameriandian

medical care (modifier+N) medicare

usually occur first in slang & argot, & then some make their wayinto standard English.

E.g.: chapman (fellow) chap

quacksalver (very bad doctor) quack

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II.4> Blending

combing parts of other words/; fusion of 2 words into

1, usually the 1st part of 1 word with the last part ofanotherThe resultant blend partakes of both

original meanings [Stageberg, 1983:51].

-E.g.: slang language

slanguagepositive electronpositron

binary digit bit

words formed by this process are termed blendings,

or fusions, or portmanteau words.

Many blends are nonce words, here today & gonetomorrow.

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II.5> Acronymy

words are formed from the initial letters of a set of otherwords

words derived by this process are labeled acronyms. resulting words are either capitalized (NATO, AIDS) or written

in the same way as common nouns (laser, radar).

can be pronounced as the spelling indicates, e.g. NATO[1]

/ne1t6$/, AIDS[2]/e1dz/, laser[3]/le1z6/, radar[4]/re1d6/, orproduced by articulating each letter when the string of letters isnot easy to pronounced, e.g. IFM[5]/a1 em ef/, NFL[6]/en efel/.

[1] NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization

[2] AIDS: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

[3] laser: light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation

[4] radar: radio detecting and ranging

[5] IMF: International Monetary Fund

[6] NFL: National Football League

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Numerous in large organizations (army,government, big business): JVC (VictorCompany of Japan), Nabisco (National

Biscuit Company)

Military acronyms: CQ (call to quarters),TD (temporary duty), PX (post exchange),

C/O (care of)

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II.6> Back formation/reversion

a word of one type is reduced to form

another word of different type. a word is formed from the one that looks like

its derivative.

applies chiefly to the coining of verbsfromnouns.

e.g.: televise (v) television (n)

baby-sit (v) baby-sitter (n)

is the reverse of suffixation also calledreversion.

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Other processes of word formation

Coinage/Invention

-inventing names for new products: nylon, aspirin

-using specific brand names as the generic namefor different brands of these types of products:

Vaseline, Frigidaire-changing proper name of individuals or places to

common nouns: sandwich was named for the4thEarl (Count) of Sandwich who put his foodbetween 2 slices of bread so that he could eatwhile he gambled.

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Borrowing

- from French: champagne, beige, fianc

- from German rucksack, kindergarten- from Italian: cantata, opera, concerto,

hamburger

- from American Indian languages:shampoo, cot

- from Vietnamese: pho, ao dai

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Conversion/function shift/categorychange

E.g.: -This is a must. (The verb mustisconverted into a noun.)

-This room can house four persons

comfortably. (The noun houseis changedinto a verb.)

-The black are always the ones that suffer.

(The adjective blackbecomes a noun.)

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Semantic shift/semantic change/semanticprogression

E.g.: with the advent of computer technologymouse(a kind ofrodenthas been used torefer to the input deviceinto a computer).

whose metaphorical origins are all but lost

E.g.: broadcastoriginally meant "to cast seedsout"; with the advent of radio and television,the word has been extended to indicate the

transmission of audio and video signals.Outside of agricultural circles, very fewpeople use broadcastin the earlier sense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mousehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_(computing)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_(computing)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse

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Echoism/onomatopoeia(t tng hnh/tngthanh)

E.g.: -for natural sounds, words like quack(duck), bark

(dog), roar(lion), meow(cat) are typically used inEnglish

-machines and their sounds are also often describedwith onomatopoeia; e.g. in honkor beep-beepfor

the horn of automobiles; vroomor brumfor engines.Some of these words are used both as nouns andas verbs.

-sometimes things are named after the sounds they

make, e.g.: many birds are named after their calls,such as the cuckoo (grayish brown European bird),the whooping crane (American crane with loudwhooping).

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Antonomasia (tn ring ch loi)

is the use of a proper name to designate a

member of a class. For example,Solomonthe wisest king of Israel, nowrefers to a wise ruler, or Don Juanthe

name of a character in Spanish legend whois skilled at persuading women to haveintimacy with him, now is used to refer to alibertine man.

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Reduplication (hin tng ly)

Another way to invent words is

reduplicationthe process of making newwords by repeating parts of words. There isa variety of this: rhyming, exact and ablaut

(vowel substitution). Examples are respectively okey-dokey,

wee-wee, and zig-zag.

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III> Exercise: Identify the processes of word formation

N

o

.

Words Word formation process

1 door bell compounding2

bank draft3

TOEIC

4 megastar5

consultation6

dorm7

flu8

prof9

house keep1

0 transceiver

11S.O.S

12

newsboy13

Phil

14

promgirl15

escalator

16

splatter17

laze

18orate

19

unexpectedly

20FIFA

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Answer key

1 door bell Compounding (door + bell)2 bank draftCompounding (bank + draft)3 TOEIC acronymy (Test of English for

International Communication)4

megastar

prefixation (mega-+ star)5 consultationsuffixation (consult)6 dorm clipping (dormitory)7 fluclipping (influenza)

8 profclipping (professor)9 house keep back-formation (housekeeper)

10 transceiverblending (transmitter & receiver)

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11 S.O.S acronymy (Save Our Souls)12 newsboyclipping (newspaper boy)13 Philclipping (Philip)14 promgirlclipping (promotion girl)15 escalatorblending (escalate + elevator)16 splatterblending (splash + spatter)

17 laze

back-formation (lazy)18 orateback-formation (oration)19 unexpectedly

affixation=prefixation+suffixation (un-+expect+-

ed+-ly)20 FIFA acronymy (Federation of

International Football Association)