Chapter 3 Word formation

Chapter 3 Word formation( the three major process of word-formation)

1.

Explain :

Word-formation rules:

Word- formation rules

define the scope and methods whereby speakers of a language may

create new themselves are not fixed but undergo changes

.

??

2.

Root,stem and base.

（词根

词干和词基）

Analyze the word denationalized into root,base and stem

1)Root: A root is the basic unchangeable part of a word,and it conveys the main lexical meaning

of the word.

Free root: A root which can stand itself and can be used seperately to form a new word. A word

consisting of one free root or one morhpeme is a simple word.e.g., man,talk,red,etc. A free root

is a free morpheme.

Bound root: A root which cannot stand itself and cannot be used seperately,but as an attachment

to be added to a word to fo

rm a new word. such as “tain,ceive”.Bound roots must be used

together with other elements to form a word, e.g. “con+tain” = “contain”

2)Stem: A stem refers to the surplus part after the cutting of inflectional morpheme (

曲折詞素

)in

a word with inflectional morphemes.e.g. 'worker' in 'workers' is a stem.

3)Base(

词基）

:A base is any form to which affixes of any kind can be added;it may also be defined

as ''a form to which a rule of word-formation is applied.''This means that any root or stem can be

termed a as,

desirable

is a base in undesirable.

4) The differences between root,stem,base:

A root is the basic unchangeable part of a word,no further as

nation

is a root

in

international.

A stem is the surplus part after the cutting of inflectional morpheme in a word with inflectional

morphemes,can be further analyszed,it

sometimes could be a root. e.g.

desire

is a stem in

desired

.

A base is a form to which a rule of word-formation is applied,it could be a root or a as

internation

is a base in

international.

3.

compounding

Composition or Compounding (27%)

（复合法）

a single idea and functions as a separate lexical nding is the most productive

word-formation process in contemporary English.

Definition: Compounding consists of combining two or more words into one which now expresses

4.

what are the relative criteria of a commound?

Orthographic criterion(

书写标准

) :Compounds are written in three ways,e.g. solid:

airmail

;

hyphenated:

air- conditioning

; open:

air force, air raid.

Phonological criterion(

语音标准

) :

Semantic criterion(

语义标准

)

5.

Affixation or Derivation (17.5%)

（派生法或词缀法）

@

1

It is a

process of forming new words by the addition of a word element,such as a prefix,suffix,or

combining form,to an already existing word. e.g. :

tele-

--telephone, telescope

6.

What is the difference between prefixation and suffixation?

Prefixation: the formation of new words by adding prefixes to stems. It does not change the

word-class of the stem but change its meaning.

Suffixation --Suffixation is the formation of new words by adding suffixes to stems. Change the

grammatical function of stems (the word class). Suffixes can be grouped on a grammatical basis.

7.

How are the marjor living prefixes classified?

1)''nagative ''

否定

prefixes:un-,non,in-,dis,a- etc.

相反

or pr ivative

否定的前缀

''prefixes:un-,d e-dis etc.

3)''pejorative

变坏的

,

轻蔑的

''prefixes: mis-, mal-, pseudo- etc.

4)''degree or size ''prefixes:arch-, super-,out-,sub-,over-,under-,hyper-,ultra-,mini- etc.

5)''attitude

态度

''prefixes:co-,counter-,anti-,pro- etc.

6)''locative

位置格

''prefixes:super-,sub-,inter-,trans - etc.

7)''time and order ''prefixes:fore-,pre-,post-,ex-,re- etc.

8)''number ''prefixes:uni-/mono-,bi-/di-,tri-,multi-/poly- etc.

8.

How can you form deverbal nouns,denominal nouns,deadjective verbs,and denominal adjectives

by suffixation?

Deverbal nouns:

來自動詞的名詞

a. Denoting people -- -ant

（

ass istant

）

, -ee (trainee), -ent (respondent), -er(-or)

b. Denoting action, result, process, state, ect. -- -age (linkage), -al (dismissal), -ance (attendance),

-ation(-ition, -tion, -sion, -ion), -ence (existence), -ing (savings), -ment

Denominal nouns:

來自名詞的名詞

a.

Concrete -- -eer (engineer), -er (teenager), -ess (hostess), -ette (cigarette), -let (booklet)

b. Abstract -- -age (wastage), -dom (

处于…状态

)(officialdom), -ery (slavery), -ery (-ry), -hood

(childhood), -ing (farming), - ism

（…主义）

(terrorism), -ship

（状态）

(sportsmanship)

Deadjective verbs:

來自形容詞的動詞

-ity (popularity), -ness (happiness)

Denominal adjectives:

來自名字的形容詞

ese (Chinese), -an (Australian), -ist (

主义

) (socialist)

Denominal suffixes -- -ed (wooded), -ful (successful), -ish (foolish), -less (priceless), -like

(lady-like), -ly (friendly), -y (smoky)

-al(-ial, -ical) (cultural, residential), -esque (picturesque), -ic (economic), -ous(-eous, -ious)

(coutageous)

-ic and

–

ical can be affixed to the stem in some cases, but differ in meaning.

Historic (important in history) historical (of history)

2

Classic (great, memorable) classical (of Latin or Greek)

Comic (of comedy) comical (funny)

Economic (in the economy) economical (money-saving)

Electric (powered by electricity) electrical (of electricity)

Deverbal suffixes -- -able (-ible) (washable), -ive(-ative, -sive) (active, decisive)

Adverb suffixes -- -ly (calmly), -ward(s) (homewards), -wise (clockwise)

Verb suffixes -- -ate(originate), -en (darken), -(i)fy (beautify), -ize (ise) (modernize)

9.

Conversion or Functional shift (10.5%)

（转成法或功能转换法）

It's a word-formation process whereby a word of a certain word-class is shifted into a word of

another word-class without the additon of an affix.

radio

n. -- to

radio

v.

cry v. -- cry n.

10.

what is the difference between conversion and suffixation?

Suffixation

@

: It's the formation of a new word by adding a suffix or a combining form to the

base,and usually changing the word- class of the base.e.g.

boy n. + -ish -- boyish adj.

boy n.

+

hood -- boyhood n.

11.

In a convrsion pair, how can you determine which of the two is the base and which the derived

word?

Wirter---a deverbal noun with er suffix

Spy

–

a deverbal noun without suffix

Derivation by zero suffix

12.

Illustrate the axiom,the actural grammatical classification of any word is depent upon its use

i.e. the second round was exciting(n)

any round plate will do (adj)

some drivers round coners too rapidly(v.)

the sound goes round and round

13.

why is the conversion from noun to verb the most productive process of conversion?

1.

first in contemporary English,there is tendencey of

―

a preponderance (

优势

)of nouns over verbs.

2.

there are only a few verb-forming affixes in english . they are be-,en-,ify,ize and en is now

scarcely productive, while ize is the ohly highly productively one. More over, new verbs formed

by other word-formation processes are also very few , except by back-fromation,which is,

however , not a very productive word- formation process iteself. We might therefore more and

more new verbs to be coined by means of conversion

14.

what are the marjor semantic types(

语义

)under noun to verb conversion

put in/on N: the nouns are usually locative nouns denoting a place ,a contianer or a special

location

. the workers canned apples=the workers put apples in cans

give N, to provide N

3

They sheltered the orphans

认为不太重要

,

不想往下写

15.

why is

―

the poor

‖

an example of partial conversion

some adjectives are used as nouns when preceded by the definite article such as the poor,the

wounded:yet these conveted nouns take only some of the features of noun, i.e. they do not take

plural(

复数

) and genitive

（所有格）

inflections, nor can they be preceded by determiners like a ,

this ,my .such adjective

—

noun conversion is partical

Chapter 3

Morphological structure of English words

Objectives: Discuss morphemes, their classification and identification;Explain the relationship between

morphemes and word-formation

Teaching focus:

Definition of morphemes

Definition of allomorphs

Types of Types of morphemes

free morpheme

bound morpheme

Definitions of root, stem and base

On the morphemic level,

Word

, according to the number and type of morpheme they, can be classified

into the below item

a.

the simple words: those consisting of a single morpheme,such as

man, work, kind

b.

derived words: those which are the result of a derivational process, such words usually consist of a

free morpheme and one(or more than one)bound morpheme, such as

fruitless,fruitful,

unfruitful, fruitfulness,

c.

compound wors: those which are composed of two or more free morpheme, e.g:

deep structure,

specesuit,forget-me-not,maid-of-all- work,and jack of all trades.

1. Morpheme

What is a morpheme

It is the minimal meaningful unit of English language,

possesses both sound and meaning

. Or it is the

smallest functioning unit in the composition of words.

语素是最小的有意义的单位

它是语言中最小的构词单位

2. Morph and allomorph

The definition of morphs:

The phonetic or orthographic strings or segments which realize morphemes are termed 'morphs'.

语素的语音或拼写法的体现叫形素

.

Morphs are actual spoken, minimal carriers of meaning.

形素是口语中最小的意义载体

.

What is an allomorph

An allomorph is one of the variants of the same morpheme.

4