Main types of English dictionaries.

in matchmaker.

c) the loss of inflections: OE lufu (n) and lufian (v)- ModE love; OE sunne and sunu – ModE sun

and son.

Types of Homonyms:

Full vs partial homonymy; Lexical vs lexical-grammatical vs grammatical homonymy; perfect homonyms

vs homographs and homophones.

1) Full vs partial homonymy. Do all forms of the words different in meaning coincide or not?

a) Full homonymy – the homonymy of words in all their forms (the homonymy of paradigms). Examples:

seal 1 'a sea animal' and seal 2 'a design printed on paper by means of a stamp'; mole 1 'an animal' and

mole 2 'an excrescence on the skin'.

b) Partial homonymy – the homonymy of SOME word forms, whereas the paradigms are not identical E.

g.: seal 1 and (to) seal 3 'to close tightly'.

Homoforms: know,no; knows,nose; knew, new; read,reed; read [red],red,etc.

Full homonymy is found within one part of speech, whereas partial homonymy is found within

different parts of speech. Exceptions: to lie (lay, lain)'to be in a horizontal or resting position' and to lie

(lied, lied)'to make an untrue statement'; words whose paradigm is constituted by just one form: four (a

numeral) - for (a preposition) - for 'because'.

2) Which parts of the words are different in meaning and identical in form? Lexical - lexico-

grammatical – grammatical homonymy:

a) Lexical homonymy: the lexical meanings of two words identical in form, i.e. the lexical meanings of the

roots, are different, e.g. mole 1 and mole 2.

b) Lexical-grammatical homonymy: both the meaning of the root morphemes and the meanings of

grammatical morphemes identical in form are different, e.g.race 1 (n) and race 3 (v); seam (n) and seem

(v) .

Lexical homonymy is found within one part of speech, whereas lexical-grammatical homonymy is

found between different parts of speech. Exceptions: found (Past of to find) and found (Present of 'to

begin the construction of smth’). abo

3)Grammatical homonymy, i.e. the homonymy of grammatical morphemes, in which English

abounds, e.g. the homonymy of the plural, Possessive Case sing. and plural: bears - bear's - bears'.

Homomorphemes: -ed (Past Simple and Past Participle), e.g. asked.

The two lines of classification (full-partial / lexical- lexical –grammatical- grammatical) are not mutually

exclusive, e.g. lie 1 – lie 2.

Peculiarities of lexical-grammatical homonymy:

a) no semantic relationship: seal 1 'a sea animal'- to seal 3 'to close tightly'

b) a close semantic relationship, in instances of conversion, e.g. seal 2 'a piece of wax or lead' –

to seal ; work - to work; father - to father, etc. However, the whole of the semantic structure of such words

is not alike., e.g. paper 1 ’substance manufactured from wood fibre’ – to paper ‘to paste on walls’, ‘to

cover with paper’. paper 2 ‘newspaper’ – v?; paper 3 ‘money’ – v???, etc.

Two groups of lexical-grammatical homonyms:

a) words identical in sound form but different in their lexical and grammatical meanings.

b) words identical in their sound form, different in their grammatical meaning and only partly different in

their lexical meaning.

Homographs: bow [bou] 'a piece of wood curved by a string and used for shooting arrows' - bow [bau] 'a

bend of the head or body'; tear [tia]'a drop of water coming from an eye' - tear [tea] 'to pull apart by force'.

Homophones: read [red] - red; sun - son; see - sea. In Engl. in contrast to Russ., two words ending one

in voiced, another in a voiceless consonant, are not homophones. Cf dock – dog and дог – док in Russ.

Perfect homonyms: case 1 'something that happened' - case 2 'a box, a container'.

Homonymy and polysemy: the demarcation line.

•

Diachronically, cases of sound convergence are treated as homonymy, because homonymous forms

can be traced to etymologically different words, cf race 1 and race 2. Cases of semantic divergence

are difficult to interpret, as it is not clear when all semantic ties between all meanings are broken.

Speakers may comprehend historically related meanings as unrelated, cf.: table 'a piece of furniture'

'a chart of facts and figures that are shown in rows across the page'; 'food'. They are related through

the meaning ‘board’:

This idea is supported by the polysemy of the word board:

table '

board

'food'

'a board'

Sometimes speakers comprehend historically unrelated meanings as related, cf.: ear 'an organ of

hearing' <from Lat. auris, OE eare> and ear 'a part of a plant' (ear of corn) <from Lat. acus,aceris, OE

ear>.

weeds 'wild useless plants' < OE weod

weeds 'widow's garments' < OE woed

•

Synchronically, the criterion for distinguishing between homonymy and polysemy is a semantic

relationship. If speakers comprehend various meanings as related, they are considered to be different

meanings of one and the same word.

Between different meanings of a polysemous word there often exists a stable relationship that can’t

be found between meanings of homonymous words.

Two meanings can be proved to be related if the relation is systematic, or regular, cf the relationship

board- food, board - chart. Other examples. a) 'part-whole':apricot 1 a tree; 2 a fruit of that tree); b) ‘an

animal - a person behaving like this animal’: pig 1. 2. a dirty, greedy or ill-mannered person; c) ‘an organ

of the human body – part of a certain thing’: foot (of a human being) – foot (of the hill); eye (of a living

creature) – eye (of a needle); horn (of a cow) – horn (a musical instrument), etc.

Criteria for distinguishing homonymous words: spelling, e.g. pair – pear; context, e.g. Boxing Day

(26th of December) – a boxing match, a boxing champion.

•

The use of homonyms in fiction. Overlapping of homonyms in one context (their coexistence ) is

the basis for word play, in particular the puns.

Oscar Wilde.'The Importance of Being Earnest'

The advertisement in the metro: Mind the GAP! (gap ‘some space between the train and the

platform); Gap – a big department store in London.

Vocabulary

Divergence – дивергенция, расхождение

convergent – конвергенция, сближение

conversion - конверсия

'a piece of furniture'

?

?

'food’ ’a chart’

'a piece of furniture'

Lecture 6. THE STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH WORD AND THE ENGLISH WORD-FORMATION.

General notions

a. The relationship between the word structure and word derivation: the segmentation of existing words

vs the formation of new words

I. The morphological structure of English words

a. Divisibility: segmentable vs non-segmentable words.

(1) agree-ment, fear-less, quick-ly, door-handle

(2) house, girl, woman, husband

The smallest indivisible two-facet language units into which the word can be segmented are called

morphemes. Two-facet means possessing both sound-form and meaning. In the word morphemes can

be represented by different sound–shapes, e.g. please , pleasing , pleasure, pleasant. Different

representations of a given morpheme are called allomorphs.

b.

Principles of segmentation and the notion of proportion:

Each element into which the word is segmented should combine with at least two different elements

retaining its meaning

reader ac | reading ad

writer bc | writing bd

Compare:

hamlet ‘a village’, ‘a small village’ | ham ‘salted and smoked smoked meat’

ringlet ‘a small ring’

| ring finger ‘the finger on which the ring is worn’

streamlet ‘a small stream’

| streamline ‘the line of liquid flow ‘

b. Transparency of a morphemic structure:

(1) Words with a trasparent morphemic structure because each of their component morphemes can be

encountered within other words, e.g. : agreement - agree-able, predic-a-ment, This type of

segmentability is called complete

(2) Words, the structure of which is not transparent.

a.-for semantic reasons

retain:

retain ac | receive ad

contain bc | conceive bd

The proportion (the basis for segmentability is observed), but what is the meaning of the components?

Is re- the same as in reread? What is -tain and -ceive?

Bloomfield called this type of morphemic segmentability conditional, because the segments do not rise

to the status of morphs for purely semantic reasons. The segments are called pseudo- or quasi- morphs.

Other linguists consider these words non-segmentable.

b. words the component morphemes of which seldom or never occur in other words. -streamlet, ringlet,

leaflet, hamlet. Let- is a diminutive suffix. The denotational meaning of stream-, ring- leaf- is clear. What is

the denotational meaning of ham- if hamlet is a ‘small village’? Ham ‘smoked meat’ is a homonym of

ham- in hamlet. Ham- is a unique morpheme.

-locket, pocket, lionet, cellaret, hogget. –et is a diminutive suffix. Lion-, cellar, lock and hog occur in other

words, e.g. lioness, callarage, lock, hog, hogish. And pock-? Such morphemes as pock- and ham- are

called unique. These words are nonsegmentable or have defective segmentability.

To which type do gooseberry, cranberry, strawberry belong?

c. Classification of morphemes

a) from the semantic point of view: root-morphemes and non-root morphemes.

Root-morphemes are the lexical centers of the word. Each root-morpheme possesses an individual

lexical meaning shared by no other morpheme of the language. Root-morphemes are isolated as

common parts of the words constituting a word cluster, e.g. play, player, playing, playful. Root

morphemes do not possess the part-of-speech meaning.

Non-root morphemes: inflectional and affixational. Inflectional morphemes carry only grammatical

meaning and are relevant for the formation of word-forms. Affixational morphemes are relevant for

building various parts of stems and carry the most general lexical meaning + the part-of-speech meaning,

e.g. reader: -er ‘the action doer’ , ‘noun’.

b) Morphemic status of segments: free, bound and semi-bound (or semi-free) morphemes.

Free morphemes are those that coincide with the word stem or a word-form, e.g. friend- in friendship.

Usu. free morphemes are root-morphemes.

Bound morphemes occur only as a constituent part of a word, i.e. various affixes, e.g. -y: friendly, -ness:

whiteness, pre- : preview, un- , dis-, etc. A root-morpheme Barbar is a bound morpheme because it it is

found within adjectives (barbarian, barbarous only).

Semi-bound morphemes occur both as affixes and as stems, e.g. well- : sleep well vs well-known; half

past six - half-eaten.

A problem: What is the status of morphemes of Greek and Latin origin that combine in words telephone,

telegraph,telescope, microscope, etc.? They have a definite lexical meaning: tele ‘far’, graph ‘to write’,

scope ‘seeing’. Tele- may be a prefix, whereas -graph may be a root morpheme. Phonograph,

seismograph, autograph… is –graph a suffix? They never occur independently, so they are bound root-

morphemes.

What is the status of -man in postman, fisherman, gentleman vs man-made, man-servant? How id it

related to the noun man?

The difference in pronunciation: [‘fiſ m n] (the reduced vowel corresponds to a reduced semantic value);

The difference in meaning: in chairman -man is a human agent of any sex, synonymous to –er., cf

Madam Chairman, but man [m n]in cabman, postman still is semantically related to man [mæn] in man-

servant and to athe semantic opposition between man and woman.

But *She is a gentleman. –man can be classified as a semi-bound (or semi-free) morpheme.

Procedure of morphemic analysis. In the analysis into Immediate constituents at each stage the word

is segmented into two components it immediately breaks into until one comes to the two constituents

unable of further divisibility. Examples: readable, readability, friendliness, friendly-looking.

Morphemic types of words:

Monomorphic (root-words): dog, small, pen.

Polymorphic: monoradical (one-root) words: having one root- and one or more affixal morphemes: radical

prefixal: out-do, reenter

pleasurable, possibility, sufferer, etc.; polyradical (having more than one root): bookstand, safety-pin.

II. Derivational word structure.

The morphological analysis does not reveal how the words are constructed. . The process of deriving a

word on the basis of another word is called word formation.The basic word and derived word are related,

and all together they constitute a word-formation cluster.

E.g. the morphological and the derivational structure of unmanly, discouragement.

The nature, type and arrangement of the immediate constituents of a word (Ics) are its derivational

structure.

Basic units of the derivational structure: derivational affixes, derivational bases, derivational patterns.

Derivational word classes: Simple (non-derived words, simplexes) vs derivatives (complexes) (82%);

Classes of derivatives: derived words vs compounds (15%).

a. Historical changeability of word-structure

The process of simplification: husband - OE hus-bond-a.

Change of the type of a morpheme, e.g. a root-morpheme>an affixational morpheme, e.g. friendship: OE

freondscipe, a compound; Other former root-morphemes:

-hood, -dom, -like.

b. Word-formation. Derivation vs word-composition (compounding). Affixation and conversion. Productive

vs non-productive ways of word-forming. Productive means and ways easily derive new words. Non-

productiove do not derive new words/

(12) house - to house [hauz], full - to fill, to lie - to lay

(13) collarless appearance, a lungful of smoke

Productive and active ways of word-forming

(14) -ful (beautiful, hopeful, useful) vs -er (interrupter, breakfaster)

Synchronic and diachronic approach to word-formation

(15) beggar - to beg, editor - to edit.

Assignments for the seminar:

Explain the difference between productive and active affixes.

What is the morphological and the derivational structure of the words: refreshment, disillusionment,

overlooker, overproduction.

3. Pick out the words with the prefix pre-: prepay, prepare, prefer, prepossess, prevail, preside, president,

prevail, pretend, preview, previous.

4. Which morphemes are called bound?

5. What is the difference in meaning between the words perspiration and sweat? Inquisitive and nosy?

Beverage and drink? How to account for it?

1.

2.

Lecture 7. WORD FORMATION: AFFIXATION. PREFIXATION.

Types of word formation: word derivation and word composition.

Affixation.

Derived words:

- words of zero degree of derivation, e.g. yellow, dress, haste,devote, atom etc.;

-words of one degree of derivation, e.g.: yellowish, undress, hasty, devote, atomic, etc.

-words, of the second degree of derivation, e.g. atomical, hastily, devotion, etc.

Suffixal derivatives and prefixal derivatives, e.g. unjust (un+just) justify (just+ify); non-smoker,

prearrangement.

Morphemic vs derivational analysis: reappearance, unreasonable -prefixal-suffixal derivatives or prefixal

derivatives (un+reasonable; re+appearance). Cf. discouragement (discourage+ment).

Functions with respect to part of speech derivation: noun- and adjective-forming / verb-forming.

PREFIXATION vs word-composition and compounding.

The status of over- and under- in overdo, overturn, underestimate, underate etc. Cf. income, onlooker,

outcome, etc.;

afternoon, afterglow, afterthought, aftergrowthin Chamber’s dictionary..

Classification: bound (dis-, re-, anti-); semibound, e.g. out-, under-, over-, self- , etc (cf. out of the house,

under the bridge, over the bridge, self-esteem, , self-support, etc.).

verbs - 42,5% of prefixal derivatives; adjectives -33,5%.

Verbs: to engulf, to understand, recreate.

Adjectives: oversensitive, predetermined, bilingual.

Nouns: Ex-president, antifascist, disbelief.

Convertive prefixes: in be-, en- (and its variant em-) de-, etc.: begulf, embronze, encage, debase, etc..

Prefixes of native origin:be-, mis-, un-, under- , over-; of foreign origin: dis- , en- (em-), inter-, re-, non-,

ex-, anti-, extra-, ultra-

According to the type of the base they are added to:

a) deverbal: rewrite, overturn, return, etc.

b)denominal: ex-president, antifascist, disbelief.

c)deadjectival: antistatic, improbable, underestimated.

Mono- and polysemantic prefixes, e.g. out- 'to do better than somebody': to outdo, outclass, outfox,

outgrow, outlive, outnumber somebody; ‘to surpass the person in a certain well-known quality’ to out-

Herod Herod (Shakespeare) ‘to be more cruel than the ruler of Judea Herod"; ‘to stop to exist by breaking

physical borders’: to outbreak, to outburst, etc.; ‘to show the shape of smth’: to outline.

in-: negative: hospitable - inhospitable; causative: to flame - to inflame.

The generic denotational meaning:

negative prefixes: un-, non-,in-, dis-, a- , e.g. ungrateful, unemployment, non-politician, non-scientific,

disloyal, asymmetry. It illegal, irrational, improbable.

reversative, or privative: un-, de-, dis: untie, decentralize, disambiguate, etc.

pejorative: as mis-, mal-, pseudo-, e.g. miscalculate, maltreat, pseudoart.

of time and order: fore-, pre-, post-,ex-: foretell, preposition, pre-war, postposition, postclassical, ex-

champion.

prefixes of repetition: re-, e.g. reiterative, recreate;

locative prefixes: super-, sub-, inter-, trans-, e.g.: superstructure, submarine, interlinguistics,

transnational, transatlantic.

Stylistic reference: neutral (un- , re-, over-, under); literary-bookish (pseudo-, uni- super-, ultra-).

Productivity: highly productive (re-), productive de- (to undo what has been done, reverse an action or a

process: decentralize, desegregate)

Questions to the seminar

1. What is the origin of English prefixes?

2. What is the relationship between prefixes and root morphemes?

3. Which prefixes are productive and which are non-productive ?

4. Synonymy of prefixes.

5. In a book on Russian word-formation it is said that the function of prefixes is to give a new

shade of meaning to words without changing their part-of-speech characteristics, e.g. ехать - приехать

- подъехать, etc. Does the same hold for English?

6. Why do some linguists include prefixation into such means of word-formation as

compounding?

7. Do prefixes in the following words have the same meaning or different?

a)unwilling, untie, unbearable, unbind, unbend.

b)displease, disclose, disobey, disaffectation.

c) belittle, befriend, behead.

8. Pick out words with the prefix pre-: prepay, prepare, prefer, prepossess, prevail, preside,

president, prevail, pretend, preview, previous.

9. Pick out the prefixed words; state the meaning of a prefix:

Undoubtedly one of Mr. Parker Pyne’s assets was his sympathetic manner. It was Mr. Pyne’s task to

pave the way for the necessary disclosures. Mr. Wade, he deduced at once, was the inarticulate type.

Suppose your wife discovers that you are looking forward to regaining your freedom as much as she is?

The grounds of Lorrimer Court were lovely in the afternoon sunshine. Her figure was ungainly, and the

heavy fur coat she wore did not disguise the fact. Mrs Gardner re-entered the room with a bowl soup on a

tray. Mrs. Abner Rymer, widow of Abner Rymer, the “button shank” king was removed yesterday to a

private home for mental cases. “No,” said Mr. Parker Pyne,

“there you misjudge me”. A grand figure of a peasant woman, outlined against the setting sun.

(A.Christie)

10. What is the morphological and the derivational structure of the following words:

predeterminably; inaccessibilitty, refreshment, regretful, disillusionment, overlooker, overproduction.

Lecture 8. SUFFIXATION.

Functions: a) to transfer a word into a different part of speech, e.g. to read – readable, bright – brightness,

visual – visualize;

b) to transfer a word into a different semantic group e.g : brother - brotherhood, fellow - fellowship, etc.

Compound suffixes – chains of suffixes occurring in derived words: -ably = -able+-ly (profitably,

unreasonably); -ically= -ic+-al+-ly (musically); -ation=-ate+-ion (liberation, emigration).

Compound suffixes acquiring a new quality are coalescent suffixes or a group suffix.

Cf translation (translate + -ion), fascination (fascinate + - ion), adaptation (adapt + -ation [ei n] ). –ation is

a composite suffix (-ate + -ion) functioning as a single unit, so adaptation is a first-degree derivative.

Other examples: damnation (from damn), condemnation (from condemn), formation (from form).

Morphological changes due to combining the derivational morpheme with the base:

a) sound change: actor - actress, tiger - tigress ; liable - liability, possible - possibility.

b) Stress change:courage - courageous, investigate - investigation; employ - employee, government –

governmental, picture – picturesque.

Classification:

• with respect to the part of speech suffixes form:

a)noun-forming suffixes -er, -dom, -ness, -ation: writer, wisdom, cleanness, pagination.

b)adjective suffixes, -able, -less, -ful, -ic, -ous: likable, hopeless, fruitful, geographic, mountainous.

c) verb-suffixes, e.g. -en, -fy, -ize: to darken , exemplify, advertize.

d) adverb-suffixes, e.g. -ly, -ward: easily, westward

• according to the base suffixes are added to: deverbal: -er, -ment, -able; denominal:-less, -ish, -ful;

deadjectival: -en, -ish, -ness.

• according to the generic denotational sense:

a) the agent of an action: -er, -ant: speaker, participant.

b) appurtenance: -an, -ian, -ese,: Arabian, Elizabethan, Russian, Japanese.

c) collectivity: -dom, ery: freedom, peasantry.

d) diminutiveness: -ie, -let, -ling,: birdie, ringlet, wolfling.

• according to their stylistic reference: neutral (-er, -able); non-neutral (-oid , e.g. romboid ), -aceous ,

e.g. flirtatious.

• according to their meaning structure: mono- and polysemantic suffixes.

Polysemy of suffixes: –er and –y.

Cf a) a professional: a hunter, a baker b) a performer of an action at a given moment: a packer, chooser,

giver c) a device, a means: blotter , stain-remover, eraser .

Cf a) a bony fish, a stony ground; b)a rainy day , a cloudy sky; c) bushy beard, inky darkness.

Homonymy of suffixes: -ly: a lovely day; isn't it lovely; a friendly smile; his words sounded friendly. –en:

strengthen; golden, wooden. –ish: bluish, yellowish; girlish behaviour,a boyish voice .

Productivity. Dead vs living suffixes. -d (dead, seed); -lock (wedlock), -t (height, flight). Dead suffixes

are no longer felt as component parts of the words.

Living suffixes are easily singled out: -ate -dom, -en, -er, -ful, -ify, -ish,-ism, -less -ship, e.g.

Living suffixes : productive vs non-productive. -er, -ish, -less vs -dom, -ship, -ful, -en, -ify, -ate. On the