Word Formation in English: Conversion, Affixation, and More
Conversion in English Word Formation
Unlike reduplication, which is often debated as a non-concatenative morphological process, conversion is a straightforward word-formation process.
Conversion occurs when a word changes its grammatical category without any alteration to its internal structure. This process is also known as zero-derivation or zero-affixation. Although there’s no visible change in the word’s form, linguists propose the addition of a”zero morphem” to explain the shift in grammatical function. For example, the verb “cook” (to prepare food) becomes the noun “cook” (a person who prepares food) through conversion.
While the spelling remains the same, the word’s stress pattern might change. For instance, the noun “import” has the stress on the first syllable, while the verb “import” is stressed on the second syllable. To determine which word is derived from the other, factors like the date of first appearance, frequency of use, and semantic complexity are considered. Typically, the word with a simpler meaning and earlier appearance is considered the base.
Conversion is a highly productive process in English, capable of creating new words across various grammatical categories. However, four types of conversion are particularly common:
- Noun to Verb: a pilot (noun) → to pilot (verb)
- Verb to Noun: to cook (verb) → a cook (noun)
- Adjective to Noun: professional (adjective) → a professional (noun)
- Adjective to Verb: empty (adjective) → to empty (verb)
Furthermore, conversion can be categorized as either total conversion or partial conversion. Total conversion involves a complete change in grammatical category, adhering to all relevant grammatical rules. In contrast, partial conversion might involve minor adjustments, such as the change from /s/ to /z/ in advice (noun) → to advise (verb).
Lexicography: The Art and Science of Dictionaries
Lexicography, a vital branch of applied linguistics, focuses on the compilation of dictionaries. It intersects with various linguistic levels, including semantics, lexicology, grammar, phonetics, and stylistics. Dictionaries serve as comprehensive repositories of linguistic and encyclopedic knowledge.
Types of Dictionaries
Dictionaries can be broadly classified into two main categories: encyclopedic dictionaries and linguistic dictionaries. Encyclopedic dictionaries provide comprehensive information on a wide range of topics, while linguistic dictionaries focus specifically on language and its lexical units.
Linguistic Dictionaries
Linguistic dictionaries can be further categorized based on various criteria:
- Diachronic Dictionaries: These dictionaries trace the historical development of words, including changes in form and meaning. They can be further divided into historical dictionaries (recording changes over time) and etymological dictionaries (focusing on word origins).
- Synchronic Dictionaries: Also known as descriptive dictionaries, these dictionaries describe the current form, meaning, and usage of words.
Based on the scope of their wordlist, linguistic dictionaries can be classified as:
- General Dictionaries: These dictionaries aim to represent the vocabulary of a language as comprehensively as possible. The Oxford English Dictionary is a prime example of a large-scale general dictionary.
- Restricted Dictionaries: These dictionaries focus on specific areas of vocabulary, such as technical terms, idioms, slang, or abbreviations.
Other Types of Dictionaries
- Thesauruses: These dictionaries group words based on their meanings, helping writers and speakers find synonyms and related terms.
- Bilingual Dictionaries: These dictionaries provide translations of words and phrases between two languages.
- Phraseological Dictionaries: These dictionaries collect and explain idioms, proverbs, and other fixed expressions.
- Slang Dictionaries: These dictionaries document slang terms and expressions.
- Word-Frequency Dictionaries: These dictionaries provide information on how frequently words occur in a particular corpus of text or speech.
- Pronouncing Dictionaries: These dictionaries focus on the pronunciation of words, often including variant pronunciations.
Semantic Change: Amelioration
Amelioration is a type of semantic change where a word’s meaning becomes more positive or favorable over time. Here are some examples:
- Pretty: Originally meant “cunning” or “skillful” in Old English, but evolved to mean “attractive” and later “beautiful.”
- Nice: Initially meant “foolish” or “stupid” in Old French, but shifted to “timid,” then “fussy,” and finally “agreeable” or “kind.”
- Knight: Originally meant “boy” or “servant” in Old English, but evolved to denote a mounted warrior and later a rank of nobility.
- Geek: Once a derogatory term for a sideshow freak, “geek” now refers to someone with specialized knowledge, often in technology.
Semantic Structure of English Words
Semasiology, a branch of linguistics, delves into the study of word meanings. It explores topics like semantic development, types of lexical meaning, polysemy, semantic structure, and semantic relationships between words.
Lexical Meaning
Lexical meaning refers to the meaning of a word as it’s represented in a dictionary. It encompasses the conceptual content of a word and its relationship to other words in the language.
Grammatical Meaning
Grammatical meaning, on the other hand, relates to the role a word plays in a sentence and its relationship to other words based on grammatical rules.
Denotation and Connotation
- Denotation: The literal or dictionary definition of a word.
- Connotation: The emotional or cultural associations attached to a word, often subjective and context-dependent.
Types of Connotations
- Stylistic Connotations: Related to the level of formality or informality of a word.
- Emotional Connotations: Reflecting the speaker’s feelings or attitude.
- Evaluative Connotations: Expressing a judgment or opinion.
- Intensifying Connotations: Adding emphasis or strength to the meaning.
Affixation: Adding Prefixes, Suffixes, and Infixes
Affixation is a morphological process that involves adding affixes to a base word to modify its meaning, grammatical function, or both.
Types of Affixation
- Suffixation: Adding a suffix to the end of a base word (e.g., fond + -ness = fondness).
- Prefixation: Adding a prefix to the beginning of a base word (e.g., re- + start = restart).
- Infixation: Inserting an infix within a base word (less common in English).
- Circumfixation: Adding both a prefix and a suffix simultaneously (debated in English).
Non-Productive Word Formation Processes
Blending
Blending combines parts of two words to create a new word. For example:
- smoke + fog = smog
- breakfast + lunch = brunch
Sound Imitation (Onomatopoeia)
Sound imitation creates words that mimic natural sounds. For example:
- whisper, giggle, mumble (human sounds)
- hiss, buzz, bark (animal sounds)
- splash, rustle, clatter (sounds in nature)
Sound Interchange
Sound interchange, less common in Modern English, involves altering sounds within a word to create a related word. For example:
- strike / stroke
- sing / song
- bath / bathe
Antonyms: Words with Opposite Meanings
Antonyms are words with contrasting meanings, often belonging to the same grammatical category. For example:
- hot / cold
- lose / find
- friend / enemy
Types of Antonyms
??Antonymy is concerned with semantic opposition. Antonyms can be defined as words which are opposite in meaning. There are a variety of ‘oppositeness’. They can be classified into three major groups. ??1. Complementaries (contradictory terms). These antonyms truly represent oppositeness of meaning. They are so opposed to each other that they are mutually exclusive and admit no possibility between them. The assertion of one is the denial of the other. In other words, if one of the pair is true, then the other cannot be. For example, an animal is either dead or alive, and there exists no such a case where the animal is both dead and alive (Though figuratively, one can say `In a technical sense he was alive, but for practical purposes he was dead). The same is applicable to present/absent, male/female, boy/girl, true/false, same/different and so on. If something is imperfect, no matter how slight the imperfection, the fact remains that the thing cannot be perfect. ??Another distinctive feature of this category is that such antonyms are non-gradable. They cannot be used in comparative degrees and do not allow adverbs of intensity like very to qualify them. Take single/married for example. If someone is single, s/he cannot be married. It is incorrect to say *’S/He is very single, or more single, or extremely single.’ ??2. Contraries (Contrary terms). Antonyms of this type are best viewed in terms of a scale running between two poles or extremes. Antonyms such as rich/poor, old/young, big/small represent two points at both ends of the pole. The two opposites are gradable and one exists in comparison with the other. We can say: A man is rich or very rich; one man is richer than the other. Sue’s house is big and Mary’s house is small; Sue’s house is bigger than Mary’s. This shows semantic relativity. Sue’s house is relatively big, compared with Mary’s house. Mary’s house may be relatively big now than before, considering the fact that there are fewer people living with her. This is obviously subjective and depends on the speaker’s attitude. As we have already said, antonyms of this kind form part of a scale of values between two poles and can accommodate a middle ground belonging neither to one pole nor to the other as shown below:
More examples are:
??old, middle-aged, young,
??open, ajar, close,
??rich, well-to-do, poor,
??hot, warm, cool, cold,
??beautiful, good-looking, plain, ugly.
NON PRODUCTIVE WAYS -BLENDING
Is blending part of two words to form one word (merging into one word)
Smoke + fog = smog
Breakfast + lunch = brunch
Smoke + haze = smaze (дымка)
– addictive type: they are transformable into a phrase consisting of two words combined by a conjunction “and”
smog → smoke & fog
– blending of restrictive type: transformable into an attributive phrase, where the first element serves as modifier of a second.
Positron – positive electron
Medicare – medical care
SOUND INTERCHANGE
Sound interchange is the way of word building when some sounds are changed to form a new word. It is non-productive in Modern English; it was productive in Old English and can be met in other Indo-European languages.
The causes of sound interchange can be different. It can be the result of Ancient Ablaut which cannot be explained by the phonetic laws during the period of the language development known to scientists., e.g. to strike – stroke, to sing – song etc. It can be also the result of Ancient Umlaut or vowel mutation which is the result of palatalizing the root vowel because of the front vowel in the syllable coming after the root (regressive assimilation), e.g. hot – to heat (hotian), blood – to bleed (blodian) etc.
In many cases we have vowel and consonant interchange. In nouns we have voiceless consonants and in verbs we have corresponding voiced consonants because in Old English these consonants in nouns were at the end of the word and in verbs in the intervocal position, e.g. bath – to bathe, life – to live, breath – to breathe etc
NON PRODUCTIVE WAYS -2 SOUND IMITATION
It is the way of word building when imitating different sounds forms a word. There are some semantic groups of words formed by means of sound imitation
- a) Sounds produced by human beings, such as: to whisper, to giggle, to mumble, to sneeze, to whistle etc.
- b) Sounds produced by animals, birds, insects, such as: to hiss, to buzz, to bark, to moo, to twitter etc.
- c) Sounds produced by nature and objects, such as: to splash, to rustle, to clatter, to bubble, to ding-dong, to tinkle etc.
The corresponding nouns are formed by means of conversion, e.g. clang (of a bell), chatter (of children) etc.
OUND INTERCHANGE
Sound interchange is the way of word building when some sounds are changed to form a new word. It is non-productive in Modern English; it was productive in Old English and can be met in other Indo-European languages.
The causes of sound interchange can be different. It can be the result of Ancient Ablaut which cannot be explained by the phonetic laws during the period of the language development known to scientists., e.g. to strike – stroke, to sing – song etc. It can be also the result of Ancient Umlaut or vowel mutation which is the result of palatalizing the root vowel because of the front vowel in the syllable coming after the root (regressive assimilation), e.g. hot – to heat (hotian), blood – to bleed (blodian) etc.
In many cases we have vowel and consonant interchange. In nouns we have voiceless consonants and in verbs we have corresponding voiced consonants because in Old English these consonants in nouns were at the end of the word and in verbs in the intervocal position, e.g. bath – to bathe, life – to live, breath – to breathe etc.