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Monografia Maria

This document is a monograph presented by Ana Arena Rios to obtain a professional title in English and Italian from the National University of Education Enrique Guzman y Valle "La Cantuta" in Lima, Peru. The monograph focuses on word formation processes, defining key terms like words, morphology, and morphemes. It discusses word classes and parts of speech. The document contains 4 chapters that will examine word formation and its types of processes like coinage, backformation, borrowing, compounding, blending, clipping and derivation. It aims to help students and teachers understand how word formation processes work.
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0% found this document useful (1 vote)
329 views71 pages

Monografia Maria

This document is a monograph presented by Ana Arena Rios to obtain a professional title in English and Italian from the National University of Education Enrique Guzman y Valle "La Cantuta" in Lima, Peru. The monograph focuses on word formation processes, defining key terms like words, morphology, and morphemes. It discusses word classes and parts of speech. The document contains 4 chapters that will examine word formation and its types of processes like coinage, backformation, borrowing, compounding, blending, clipping and derivation. It aims to help students and teachers understand how word formation processes work.
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE EDUCACIN ENRIQUE GUZMN Y VALLE LA CANTUTA

Alma Mater del Magisterio Nacional

Facultad de ciencias sociales y humanidades


Departamento de Lenguas Extranjeras

WORD FORMATION PROCESSES


TRABAJO MONOGRFICO PARA OPTAR TTULO PROFESIONAL. INGLS - ITALIANO. PRESENTADO Y SUSTENTADO POR LA BACHILLER: ARENAZA RIOS ANA

LIMA PER 2010


MIEMBROS DEL JURADO

Lic. Rosa Maria Velasquez Flores

Presidenta...

Lic. Hector Gatilln Palacios

Secretario..

Lic. Edith Zrate Aliaga

Vocal.

La Cantuta, 19 de Noviembre del 2010


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To Lord of Luren, my guide and way. To Angelo my forever little kid teenager who teaches me to be a better human being. To my parents, the support to long life. To my dear teachers who support me when I needed it.
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INTRODUCTION The word formation can be a tedious topic and also this is full of problems for us, the foreign learners, because it does not have a clear cut. In the present time, we have an important tool which the internet so most of the parts of this humble work is based in the information that we could get by surfing on internet. This monograph is designed to attend the needs of students who have difficulty with the understanding of the word formation processes (what goes with what and how), since there are cases where they can get confused. In chapter 1, I start defining words, what are Morphology and Morpheme? As we know the Morphology is the study of the morphemes of a language and of how they are combined to make words. Then, in chapter 2, I talk about word classes and parts of the speech. Also function and content words. Considering that traditional grammar classifies words based on eight parts of speech: the verb, the noun, the pronoun, the adjective, the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction, and the interjection. Furthermore in chapter 3, I show word formation and its kinds of processes like: Coinage, backformation, borrowing, compounding, blending, clipping and derivation. Finally In chapter 4, you can see a didactic application where you will see how we can teach Affixes (prefix and Suffix). I should be very glad if it can help students and teachers to understand how are word formation processes.

CHAPTER 1 WORD FORMATION PROCESSES 1. DEFINING WORDS.


A word is the smallest free form (an item that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content) in a language, in contrast to a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning. A word may consist of only one morpheme (e.g. wolf), but a single morpheme may not be able to exist as a free form (e.g. the English plural morpheme -s). Typically, a word will consist of a root or stem, and zero or more affixes. Words can be combined to create other units of language, such as phrases, clauses, and/or sentences. A word consisting of two or more stems joined together form a compound. Word may refer to a spoken word or a written word, or sometimes, the abstract concept behind either. Spoken words are made up of phonemes, and written words of graphemes.

1.1.

Morphology:

In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description of the structure of morphemes and other units of meaning in a language like words, affixes, and parts of speech and intonation/stress, implied context (words in a lexicon are the subject matter of lexicology). Morphological typology represents a way of classifying languages according to the ways by which morphemes are used in a language from the analytic that use only isolated morphemes, through the agglutinative ("stuck-together") and fusional languages that use bound morphemes (affixes), up to the polysynthetic, which compress lots of separate morphemes into single words. While words are generally accepted as being (with clitics) the
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smallest units of syntax, it is clear that in most (if not all) languages, words can be related to other words by rules (grammars). For example, English speakers recognize that the words dog and dogs are closely related differentiated only by the plurality morpheme "-s," which is only found bound to nouns, and is never separate. Speakers of English (a fusional language) recognize these relations from their tacit knowledge of the rules of word formation in English. They infer intuitively that dog is to dogs as cat is to cats; similarly, dog is to dog catcher as dish is to dishwasher (in one sense). The rules understood by the speaker reflect specific patterns (or regularities) in the way words are formed from smaller units and how those smaller units interact in speech. In this way, morphology is the branch of linguistics that studies patterns of word formation within and across languages, and attempts to formulate rules that model the knowledge of the speakers of those languages. In synthetic languages, a single word stem (for example, love) may have a number of different forms (for example, loves, loving, and loved). However for some purposes these are not usually considered to be different words, but rather different forms of the same word. In these languages, words may be considered to be constructed from a number of morphemes.
1.1.1

The Morpheme:

The smallest units of language that have a meaning or a grammatical function and form words or parts of words are called morphemes. In writing, individual morphemes are usually represented by their graphic form, or spelling; e.g., -es, -er, un-, re-; or by their graphic form between bracers, { }; e.g., {-es}, {-er}, {un-}, {re}. The branch of linguistics in charge of studying the smallest meaningful units of language (i.e., morphemes), their different forms, the internal structure of words, and the processes and rules by which words are formed is called morphology.

Types of Morphemes:

Depending on the way morphemes occur in an utterance, they are grouped into two large groups: free morphemes and bound morphemes.
1. Free or independent morphemes are those morphemes which can occur

alone as words and have a meaning or fulfill a grammatical function; e.g., man, run, and. There are two types of free morphemes. a. Lexical (content or referential) morphemes are free morphemes that have semantic content (or meaning) and usually refer to a thing, quality, state or action. For instance, in a language, these morphemes generally take the forms of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs; e.g., dog, Peter, house, build, stay, happy, intelligent, quickly, always. Actually, lexical morphemes constitute the larger class of morphemes. They form the open class of words (or content words) in a language, i.e., a class of words likely to grow due to the incorporation of new members into it.

b. Function (al) or grammatical morphemes are free morphemes which have little or no meaning on their own, but which show grammatical relationships in and between sentences. For instance, in a language, these morphemes are represented by prepositions, conjunctions, articles, demonstratives, auxiliary verbs, pronouns; e.g., with, but, the, this, can, who, me. It should be said that function words are almost always used in their unstressed form.
2. Bound (or dependent) morphemes are those morphemes which never

occur alone as words but as parts of words; they must be attached to another morpheme (usually a free morpheme) in order to have a distinct meaning; e.g., -er in worker, -er in taller, -s in walks,-ed in passed, re- as in reappear, un- in unhappy, undo, -ness in readiness, -able in adjustable;-ceive in conceive, receive, -tain in
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contain, obtain, etc. There are two types of bound morphemes: bound roots and affixes. a. Bound roots are those bound morphemes which have lexical meaning when they are attached to other bound morphemes to form content words; e.g., -ceivein receive, conceive; -tain in retain, contain; plac- in implacable, placate; cran- in cranberry, etc. Notice that bound roots can be prefixed or suffixed to other affixes. b. Affixes are bound morphemes which are usually marginally attached to words and which change the meaning or function of those words; e.g., -ment in development, en- in enlarge; s in Johns; -s in claps, -ing in studying, etc.

Classification of morphemes:

1.1.2 Roots and Stems


Roots (or bases) are the morphemes (free or bound) that carry the principal or basic concept, idea or meaning in a word. They generally constitute the nuclei or cores of words.
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When roots are free morphemes, they constitute content (and function) words by themselves, such as book, dog, house, carry, quick, early, etc. When roots are bound morphemes, they form parts of words, such as ceive in perceive, -tain in attain, -sume in presume, etc. For their part, stems are free roots to which derivational affixes have been added or are likely to be added. In this sense, a stem = a root, as in fish, place; a stem = a root + one or more derivations, as in comfortable, uncomfortable, uncountableness. Notice that stems are words without inflectional morphemes. For example, in the word disestablishment, disestablish, establishment, and establish (which is a root at the same time) are stems.

CHAPTER 2 2. WORDS CLASSES AND PARTS OF SPEECH. FUNCTION AND CONTENT WORDS. 2.1 WORD CLASSES:

Words are fundamental units in every sentence, so we will begin by looking at these. My brother drives a big car We can tell almost instinctively that brother and car are the same type of word, and also that brother and drives are different types of words. By this we mean that brother and car belong to the same word class. Similarly, when we recognize that brother and drives are different types, we mean that they belong to different word classes. We recognize seven MAYOR word classes: Verb Noun Determiner Adjective Adverb Preposition be, drive, grow, sing, think brother, car, David, house, London a, an, my, some, the big, foolish, happy, talented, tidy happily, recently, soon, then, there at, in, of, over, with

Conjunction and, because, but, if, or

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You may find that other grammars recognize different word classes from the ones listed here. They may also define the boundaries between the classes in different ways. In some grammars, for instance, pronouns are treated as a separate word class, whereas we treat them as a subclass of nouns. A difference like this should not cause confusion. Instead, it highlights an important principle in grammar, known as GRADIENCE. This refers to the fact that the boundaries between the word classes are not absolutely fixed. Many word classes share characteristics with others, and there is considerable overlap between some of the classes. In other words, the boundaries are "fuzzy", so different grammars draw them in different places.

Criteria for Word Classes


We began by grouping words more or less on the basis of our instincts about English. We somehow "feel" that brother and car belong to the same class, and that brother and drives belong to different classes. However, in order to conduct an informed study of grammar, we need a much more reliable and more systematic method than this for distinguishing between word classes. We use a combination of three criteria for determining the word class of a word: 1. The meaning of the word. 2. The form or shape of the word. 3. The position or environment of the word in a sentence. 1. Meaning Using this criterion, we generalize about the kind of meanings that words convey. For example, we could group together the words brother and car, as well as David, house, and London, on the basis that they all refer to people, places, or things. In fact, this has traditionally been a popular approach to determining

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members of the class of nouns. It has also been applied to verbs, by saying that they denote some kind of "action", like cook, drive, eat, run, shout, and walk. This approach has certain merits, since it allows us to determine word classes by replacing words in a sentence with words of "similar" meaning. For instance, in the sentence My son cooks dinner every Sunday, we can replace the verb cooks with other "action" words:
My son cooks dinner every Sunday

My son prepares dinner every Sunday My son eats dinner every Sunday My son misses dinner every Sunday On the basis of this replacement test, we can conclude that all of these words belong to the same class, that of "action" words, or verbs. However, this approach also has some serious limitations. The definition of a noun as a word denoting a person, place, or thing, is wholly inadequate, since it excludes abstract nouns such as time, imagination, repetition, wisdom, and chance. Similarly, to say that verbs are "action" words excludes a verb like be, as in I want to be happy. What "action" does be referring to here? So although this criterion has certain validity when applied to some words, we need other, more stringent criteria as well.

2. The form or shape of a word


Some words can be assigned to a word class on the basis of their form or shape. For example many nouns have a characteristic tion ending:
action, condition, contemplation, demonstration, organization,

repetition.

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Similarly, many adjectives end in -able or -ible:


acceptable, credible, miserable, responsible, suitable, terrible.

Many words also take what are called INFLECTIONS, that is, regular changes in their form under certain conditions. For example, nouns can take a plural inflection, usually by adding s at the end:
car---- cars dinner --- dinners book --- books

Verbs also take inflections:


walk -- walks -- walked-- walking

3. The position or environment of a word in a sentence


This criterion refers to where words typically occur in a sentence, and the kinds of words which typically occur near to them. We can illustrate the use of this criterion using a simple example. Compare the following:
1) I cook dinner every Sunday. 2) The cook is on holiday.

In (1), cook is a verb, but in (2), it is a noun. We can see that it is a verb in (1) because it takes the inflections which are typical of verbs:
I cook dinner every Sunday.

I cooked dinner last Sunday.


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I am cooking dinner today. My son cooks dinner every Sunday. And we can see that cook is a noun in (2) because it takes the plural -s inflection:
The cooks are on holiday

It should be clear from this discussion that there is no one-to-one relation between words and their classes. Cook can be a verb or a noun; it all depends on how the word is used. In fact, many words can belong to more than one word class. Here is an example:
She looks very pale (verb)

She's very proud of her looks(noun)

2.2 PARTS OF THE SPEECH:


Traditional grammar classifies words based on eight parts of speech: the verb, the noun, the pronoun, the adjective, the adverb, the preposition, the

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conjunction, and the interjection. Each part of speech explains not what the word is, but how the word is used. In fact, the same word can be a noun in one sentence and a verb or adjective in the next.

2.2.1 THE VERB:


The verb is perhaps the most important part of the sentence. A verb or compound verb asserts something about the subject of the sentence and express actions, events, or states of being ( like run, initiate, judge, throw), but they can also denote less active notions and have more to do with mental processes and perception (like see, know, think and so on). The verb or compound verb is the critical element of the predicate of a sentence, as in the examples:
Dracula bites his victims on the neck.

The verb "bites" describes the action Dracula takes.


In early October, Giselle will plant twenty tulip bulbs.

Here the compound verb "will plant" describes an action that will take place in the future.
My first teacher was Miss Crawford, but I remember the janitor Mr.

Weatherbee more vividly. In this sentence, the verb "was" (the simple past tense of "is") identifies a particular person and the verb "remembered" describes a mental action.
Karl Creelman bicycled around the world in 1899, but his diaries and

his bicycle were destroyed. In this sentence, the compound verb "were destroyed" describes an action which took place in the past.

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2.2.2 THE NOUN:


A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, and abstract idea. Nouns are usually the first words which small children learn. The highlighted words in the following sentences are all nouns:
Late last year our neighbors bought a goat. The bus inspector looked at all the passengers' passes. According to Plutarch, the library at Alexandria was destroyed in 48

B.C. A noun can function in a sentence as a subject, a direct object, an indirect object, a subject complement, an object complement, an appositive, an adjective or an adverb.

Noun Gender
Many common nouns, like "engineer" or "teacher," can refer to men or women. Once, many English nouns would change form depending on their gender for example, a man was called an "author" while a woman was called an "authoress" but this use of gender-specific nouns is very rare today. Those that are still used occasionally tend to refer to occupational categories, as in the following sentences. David Garrick was a very prominent eighteenth-century actor. Sarah Siddons was at the height of her career as an actress in the 1780s.

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The manager was trying to write a want ad, but he couldn't decide whether he was advertising for a "waiter" or a "waitress"

Noun Plurals
Most nouns change their form to indicate number by adding "-s" or "-es", as illustrated in the following pairs of sentences:
When Matthew was small he rarely told the truth if he thought he

was going to be punished. Many people do not believe that truths are self-evident.
As they walked through the silent house, they were startled by an

unexpected echo. I like to shout into the quarry and listen to the echoes that return.
He tripped over a box left carelessly in the hallway.

Since we are moving, we will need many boxes. There are other nouns which form the plural by changing the last letter before adding "s". Some words ending in "f" form the plural by deleting "f" and adding "ves," and words ending in "y" form the plural by deleting the "y" and adding "ies," as in the following pairs of sentences:
The harbour at Marble Mountain has one wharf.

There are several wharves in Halifax Harbour.


Warsaw is their favorite city because it reminds them of their

courtship. The vacation my grandparents won includes trips to twelve European cities.

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Possessive Nouns
In the possessive case, a noun or pronoun changes its form to show that it owns or is closely related to something else. Usually, nouns become possessive by adding a combination of an apostrophe and the letter "s." You can form the possessive case of a singular noun that does not end in "s" by adding an apostrophe and "s," as in the following sentences:
The red suitcase is Cassandra's. The only luggage that was lost was the prime minister's. The exhausted recruits were woken before dawn by the drill

sergeant's screams. You can form the possessive case of a singular noun that ends in "s" by adding an apostrophe alone or by adding an apostrophe and "s," as in the following examples:
The bus's seats are very uncomfortable. The bus' seats are very uncomfortable. The film crew accidentally crushed the platypus's eggs. The film crew accidentally crushed the platypus' eggs.

You can form the possessive case of a plural noun that does not end in "s" by adding an apostrophe and an "s," as in the following examples:
The children's mittens were scattered on the floor of the porch. The sheep's pen was mucked out every day. The men's hockey team will be playing as soon as the women's

team is finished.
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You can form the possessive case of a plural noun that does end in "s" by adding an apostrophe:
The concert was interrupted by the dogs' barking, the ducks'

quacking, and the babies' squalling.


The janitors' room is downstairs and to the left. My uncle spent many hours trying to locate the squirrels' nest. The archivist quickly finished repairing the diaries' bindings.

Using Possessive Nouns


When you read the following sentences, you will notice that a noun in the possessive case frequently functions as an adjective modifying another noun:
The miner's face was covered in coal dust.

Here the possessive noun "miner's" is used to modify the noun "face" and together with the article "the," they make up the noun phrase that is the sentence's subject.
The concert was interrupted by the dogs' barking, the ducks'

quacking, and the babies' squalling. In this sentence, each possessive noun modifies a gerund. The possessive noun "dogs"' modifies "barking," "ducks"' modifies "quacking," and "babies"' modifies "squalling."
The film crew accidentally crushed the platypus's eggs.

In this example the possessive noun "platypus's" modifies the noun "eggs" and the noun phrase "the platypus's eggs" is the direct object of the verb "crushed."

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Types of Nouns
There are many different types of nouns. As you know, you capitalize some nouns, such as "Canada" or "Louise," and do not capitalize others, such as "badger" or "tree" (unless they appear at the beginning of a sentence). In fact, grammarians have developed a whole series of noun types, including the proper noun, the common noun, the concrete noun, the abstract noun, the countable noun (also called the count noun), the non-countable noun (also called the mass noun), and the collective noun. You should note that a noun will belong to more than one type: it will be proper or common, abstract or concrete, and countable or noncountable or collective. If you are interested in the details of these different types, you can read about them in the following sections.

Proper Nouns
You always write a proper noun with a capital letter, since the noun represents the name of a specific person, place, or thing. The names of days of the week, months, historical documents, institutions, organizations, religions, their holy texts and their adherents are proper nouns. A proper noun is the opposite of a common noun. In each of the following sentences, the proper nouns are highlighted:
Many people dread Monday mornings. Beltane is celebrated on the first of May. Abraham appears in the Talmud and in the Koran. The Marroons were transported from Jamaica and forced to build

the fortifications in Halifax.

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Last year, I had a Baptist, a Buddhist, and a Gardnerian Witch as

roommates.

Common Nouns
A common noun is a noun referring to a person, place, or thing in a general sense usually; you should write it with a capital letter only when it begins a sentence. A common noun is the opposite of a proper noun. In each of the following sentences, the common nouns are highlighted:
According to the sign, the nearest town is 60 miles away. All the gardens in the neighborhood were invaded by beetles this

summer.
I don't understand why some people insist on having six different

kinds of mustard in their cupboards. Sometimes you will make proper nouns out of common nouns, as in the following examples:
The tenants in the Garnet Apartments are appealing the large and

sudden increase in their rent.


The meals in the Bouncing Bean Restaurant are less expensive

than meals in ordinary restaurants.


The Diary of Anne Frank is often a child's first introduction to the

history of the Holocaust.

Concrete Nouns
A concrete noun is a noun which names anything (or anyone) that you can perceive through your physical senses: touch, sight, taste, hearing, or smell. A concrete noun is the opposite of an abstract noun.
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The highlighted words in the following sentences are all concrete nouns:
The judge handed the files to the clerk. Whenever they take the dog to the beach, it spends hours chasing

waves.
The real estate agent urged the couple to buy the second house

because it had new shingles.

Abstract Nouns
An abstract noun is a noun which names anything which you cannot perceive through your five physical senses, and is the opposite of a concrete noun. The highlighted words in the following sentences are all abstract nouns:
Buying the fire extinguisher was an afterthought. Tillie is amused by people who are nostalgic about childhood. Justice often seems to slip out of our grasp. Some scientists believe that schizophrenia is transmitted

genetically.

Countable Nouns
A countable noun (or count noun) is a noun with both a singular and a plural form, and it names anything (or anyone) that you can count. You can make a countable noun plural and attach it to a plural verb in a sentence. Countable nouns are the opposite of non-countable nouns and collective nouns. In each of the following sentences, the highlighted words are countable nouns:
We painted the table red and the chairs blue.

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Since he inherited his aunt's library, Jerome spends every weekend

indexing his books.


Miriam found six silver dollars in the toe of a sock. The oak tree lost three branches in the hurricane.

Non-Countable Nouns
A non-countable noun (or mass noun) is a noun which does not have a plural form, and which refers to something that you could (or would) not usually count. A non-countable noun always takes a singular verb in a sentence. Non-countable nouns are similar to collective nouns, and are the opposite of countable nouns. The highlighted words in the following sentences are non-countable nouns:
Joseph Priestly discovered oxygen.

The word "oxygen" cannot normally be made plural.

Oxygen is essential to human life.

Since "oxygen" is a non-countable noun, it takes the singular verb "is" rather than the plural verb "are."

We decided to sell the furniture rather than take it with us when we

moved. You cannot make the noun "furniture" plural.

The furniture is heaped in the middle of the room.

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Since "furniture" is a non-countable noun, it takes a singular verb, "is heaped."

Collective Nouns
A collective noun is a noun naming a group of things, animals, or persons. You could count the individual members of the group, but you usually think of the group as a whole is generally as one unit. You need to be able to recognize collective nouns in order to maintain subject-verb agreement. A collective noun is similar to a non-countable noun, and is roughly the opposite of a countable noun. In each of the following sentences, the highlighted word is a collective noun:
The flock of geese spends most of its time in the pasture.

The collective noun "flock" takes the singular verb "spends."

The jury is dining on take-out chicken tonight.

In this example the collective noun "jury" is the subject of the singular compound verb "is dining."

The steering committee meets every Wednesday afternoon.

Here the collective noun "committee" takes a singular verb, "meets."

2.2.3

THE PRONOUN:

A pronoun can replace a noun or another pronoun. You use pronouns like "he," "which," "none," and "you" to make your sentences less cumbersome and less repetitive.
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Grammarians classify pronouns into several types, including the personal pronoun, the demonstrative pronoun, the interrogative pronoun, the indefinite pronoun, the relative pronoun, the reflexive pronoun, and the intensive pronoun.

Personal Pronouns
A personal pronoun refers to a specific person or thing and changes its form to indicate person, number, gender, and case.

Subjective Personal Pronouns


A subjective personal pronoun indicates that the pronoun is acting as the subject of the sentence. The subjective personal pronouns are "I," "you," "she," "he," "it," "we," "you," "they." In the following sentences, each of the highlighted words is a subjective personal pronoun and acts as the subject of the sentence:
I was glad to find the bus pass in the bottom of the green knapsack. You are surely the strangest child I have ever met. He stole the selkie's skin and forced her to live with him. After many years, they returned to their homeland. We will meet at the library at 3:30 p.m. Are you the delegates from Malagawatch?

Objective Personal Pronouns


An objective personal pronoun indicates that the pronoun is acting as an object of a verb, compound verb, preposition, or infinitive phrase. The objective personal pronouns are: "me," "you," "her," "him," "it," "us," "you," and "them."

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In the following sentences, each of the highlighted words is an objective personal pronoun:
After reading the pamphlet, Judy threw it into the garbage can.

The pronoun "it" is the direct object of the verb "threw."

The agitated assistant stood up and faced the angry delegates and

said, "Our leader will address you in five minutes." In this sentence, the pronoun "you" is the direct object of the verb "address."

Possessive Personal Pronouns


A possessive pronoun indicates that the pronoun is acting as a marker of possession and defines who owns a particular object or person. The possessive personal pronouns are "mine," "yours," "hers," "his," "its," "ours," and "theirs." Note that possessive personal pronouns are very similar to possessive adjectives like "my," "her," and "their." In each of the following sentences, the highlighted word is a possessive personal pronoun:
The smallest gift is mine.

Here the possessive pronoun "mine" functions as a subject complement.

This is yours.

Here too the possessive pronoun "yours" functions as a subject complement.


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Demonstrative Pronouns
A demonstrative pronoun points to and identifies a noun or a pronoun. "This" and "these" refer to things that are nearby either in space or in time, while "that" and "those" refer to things that are farther away in space or time. The demonstrative pronouns are "this," "that," "these," and "those." "This" and "that" are used to refer to singular nouns or noun phrases and "these" and "those" are used to refer to plural nouns and noun phrases. Note that the demonstrative pronouns are identical to demonstrative adjectives, though, obviously, you use them differently. It is also important to note that "that" can also be used as a relative pronoun. In the following sentences, each of the highlighted words is a demonstrative pronoun:
This must not continue.

Here "this" is used as the subject of the compound verb "must not continue."

Three customers wanted these.

Here "these" is the direct object of the verb "wanted."

Interrogative Pronouns
An interrogative pronoun is used to ask questions. The interrogative pronouns are "who," "whom," "which," "what" and the compounds formed with the suffix "ever" ("whoever," "whomever," "whichever," and "whatever"). Note that either "which" or "what" can also be used as an interrogative adjective, and that "who," "whom," or "which" can also be used as a relative pronoun.

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You will find "who," "whom," and occasionally "which" used to refer to people, and "which" and "what" used to refer to things and to animals. "Who" acts as the subject of a verb, while "whom" acts as the object of a verb, preposition, or a verbal. The highlighted word in each of the following sentences is an interrogative pronoun:
Which wants to see the dentist first?

"Which" is the subject of the sentence.

Who wrote the novel Rockbound?

Similarly "who" is the subject of the sentence.

Whom do you think we should invite?

In this sentence, "whom" is the object of the verb "invite."

Relative Pronouns
You can use a relative pronoun is used to link one phrase or clause to another phrase or clause. The relative pronouns are "who," "whom," "that," and "which." The compounds "whoever," "whomever," and "whichever" are also relative pronouns. You can use the relative pronouns "who" and "whoever" to refer to the subject of a clause or sentence, and "whom" and "whomever" to refer to the objects of a verb, a verbal or a preposition. In each of the following sentences, the highlighted word is a relative pronoun.
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You may invite whomever you like to the party.

The relative pronoun "whomever" is the direct object of the compound verb "may invite."

The candidate who wins the greatest popular vote is not always

elected. In this sentence, the relative pronoun is the subject of the verb "wins" and introduces the subordinate clause "who wins the greatest popular vote." This subordinate clause acts as an adjective modifying "candidate."

Indefinite Pronouns
An indefinite pronoun is a pronoun referring to an identifiable but not specified person or thing. An indefinite pronoun conveys the idea of all, any, none, or some. The most common indefinite pronouns are "all," "another," "any," "anybody," "anyone," "anything," "each," "everybody," "everyone," "everything," "few," "many," "nobody," "none," "one," "several," "some," "somebody," and "someone." Note that some indefinite pronouns can also be used as indefinite adjectives. The highlighted words in the following sentences are indefinite pronouns:
Many were invited to the lunch but only twelve showed up.

Here "many" acts as the subject of the compound verb "were invited."

The office had been searched and everything was thrown onto the

floor.

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In this example, "everything" acts as a subject of the compound verb "was thrown."
Although they looked everywhere for extra copies of the magazine,

they found none. Here too the indefinite pronoun functions as a direct object: "none" is the direct object of "found."

Reflexive Pronouns
You can use a reflexive pronoun to refer back to the subject of the clause or sentence. The reflexive pronouns are "myself," "yourself," "herself," "himself," "itself," "ourselves," "yourselves," and "themselves." Note each of these can also act as an intensive pronoun. Each of the highlighted words in the following sentences is a reflexive pronoun:
Diabetics give themselves insulin shots several times a day. The Dean often does the photocopying herself so that the

secretaries can do more important work.


After the party, I asked myself why I had faxed invitations to

everyone in my office building.

Intensive Pronouns
An intensive pronoun is a pronoun used to emphasize its antecedent. Intensive pronouns are identical in form to reflexive pronouns. The highlighted words in the following sentences are intensive pronouns:
I myself believe that aliens should abduct my sister. 30

The Prime Minister himself said that he would lower taxes. They themselves promised to come to the party even though they

had a final exam at the same time.

2.2.4 THE ADJECTIVE:


An adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun by describing, identifying, or quantifying words. An adjective usually precedes the noun or the pronoun which it modifies. In the following examples, the highlighted words are adjectives:
The truck-shaped balloon floated over the treetops. The small boat foundered on the wine dark sea. The coal mines are dark and dank. Many stores have already begun to play irritating Christmas music. Mrs. Morrison papered her kitchen walls with hideous wall paper. A battered music box sat on the mahogany sideboard. The back room was filled with large, yellow rain boots.

An adjective can be modified by an adverb, or by a phrase or clause functioning as an adverb. In the sentence
My husband knits intricately patterned mittens.

For example, the adverb "intricately" modifies the adjective "patterned".

31

Some nouns, many pronouns, and many participle phrases can also act as adjectives. In the sentence
Eleanor listened to the muffled sounds of the radio hidden under her

pillow. For example, both highlighted adjectives are past participles. Grammarians also consider articles ("the," "a," "an") to be adjectives.

Possessive Adjectives
A possessive adjective ("my," "your," "his," "her," "its," "our," "their") is similar or identical to a possessive pronoun; however, it is used as an adjective and modifies a noun or a noun phrase, as in the following sentences:
I can't complete my assignment because I don't have the textbook.

In

this

sentence,

the

possessive

adjective

"my"

modifies

"assignment" and the noun phrase "my assignment" functions as an object. Note that the possessive pronoun form "mine" is not used to modify a noun or noun phrase.

What is your phone number?

Here the possessive adjective "your" is used to modify the noun phrase "phone number"; the entire noun phrase "your phone number" is a subject complement. Note that the possessive pronoun form "yours" is not used to modify a noun or a noun phrase.
The cat chased its ball down the stairs and into the backyard.

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In this sentence, the possessive adjective "its" modifies "ball" and the noun phrase "its ball" is the object of the verb "chased." Note that "its" is the possessive adjective and "it's" is a contraction for "it is."

The bakery sold his favorite type of bread.

In this example, the possessive adjective "his" modifies the noun phrase "favorite type of bread" and the entire noun phrase "his favorite type of bread" is the direct object of the verb "sold."

Demonstrative Adjectives
The demonstrative adjectives "this," "these," "that," "those," and "what" are identical to the demonstrative pronouns, but are used as adjectives to modify nouns or noun phrases, as in the following sentences:
When the librarian tripped over that cord, she dropped a pile of

books. In this sentence, the demonstrative adjective "that" modifies the noun "cord" and the noun phrase "that cord" is the object of the preposition "over."

This apartment needs to be fumigated.

Here "this" modifies "apartment" and the noun phrase "this apartment" is the subject of the sentence. Note that the relationship between a demonstrative adjective and a demonstrative pronoun is similar to the relationship between a possessive adjective and a possessive pronoun, or to that between an interrogative adjective and an interrogative pronoun.
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Interrogative Adjectives
An interrogative adjective ("which" or "what") is like an interrogative pronoun, except that it modifies a noun or noun phrase rather than standing on its own (see also demonstrative adjectives and possessive adjectives):
Which plants should be watered twice a week?

Like other adjectives, "which" can be used to modify a noun or a noun phrase. In this example, "which" modifies "plants" and the noun phrase "which plants" is the subject of the compound verb "should be watered":

Indefinite Adjectives
An indefinite adjective is similar to an indefinite pronoun, except that it modifies a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase, as in the following sentences: Many people believe that corporations are under-taxed. The indefinite adjective "many" modifies the noun "people" and the noun phrase "many people" is the subject of the sentence.

I will send you any mail that arrives after you have moved to Sudbury. The indefinite adjective "any" modifies the noun "mail" and the noun phrase "any mail" is the direct object of the compound verb "will send."

2.2.5 THE ADVERB:

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An adverb can modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a phrase, or a clause. An adverb indicates manner, time, place, cause, or degree and answers questions such as "how," "when," "where," "how much". While some adverbs can be identified by their characteristic "ly" suffix, most of them must be identified by untangling the grammatical relationships within the sentence or clause as a whole. Unlike an adjective, an adverb can be found in various places within the sentence. In the following examples, each of the highlighted words is an adverb:
The seamstress quickly made the mourning clothes.

In this sentence, the adverb "quickly" modifies the verb "made" and indicates in what manner (or how fast) the clothing was constructed.

The midwives waited patiently through a long labour.

Similarly in this sentence, the adverb "patiently" modifies the verb "waited" and describes the manner in which the midwives waited.

Conjunctive Adverbs
You can use a conjunctive adverb to join two clauses together. Some of the most common conjunctive adverbs are "also," "consequently," "finally," "furthermore," "hence," "however," "incidentally," "indeed," "instead," "likewise," "meanwhile," "nevertheless," "next," "nonetheless," "otherwise," "still," "then," "therefore," and "thus." A conjunctive adverb is not strong enough to join two independent clauses without the aid of a semicolon. The highlighted words in the following sentences are conjunctive adverbs:
The government has cut university budgets; consequently, class

sizes have been increased.


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He did not have all the ingredients the recipe called for; therefore, he

decided to make something else.


The report recommended several

changes to the ways the

corporation accounted for donations; furthermore, it suggested that a new auditor be appointed immediately.
The crowd waited patiently for three hours; finally, the doors to the

stadium were opened.


Batman and Robin fruitlessly searched the building; indeed, the

Joker had escaped through a secret door in the basement.

2.2.6

THE PREPOSITION:

A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence. The word or phrase that the preposition introduces is called the object of the preposition. A preposition usually indicates the temporal, spatial or logical relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence as in the following examples:
The book is beneath the table. She read the book during class.

In each of the preceding sentences, a preposition locates the noun "book" in space or in time. A prepositional phrase is made up of the preposition, its object and any associated adjectives or adverbs. A prepositional phrase can function as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. The most common prepositions are "about," "above," "across," "after," "against," "along," "among," "around," "at," "before," "behind," "below," "beneath," "beside," "between," "beyond," "but," "by," "despite," "down," "during," "except," "for," "from," "in," "inside," "into," "like," "near," "of," "off," "on," "onto,"
36

"out," "outside," "over," "past," "since," "through," "throughout," "till," "to," "toward," "under," "underneath," "until," "up," "upon," "with," "within," and "without." Each of the highlighted words in the following sentences is a preposition:
The children climbed the mountain without fear.

In this sentence, the preposition "without" introduces the noun "fear." The prepositional phrase "without fear" functions as an adverb describing how the children climbed.
There was rejoicing throughout the land when the government was

defeated. Here, the preposition "throughout" introduces the noun phrase "the land." The prepositional phrase acts as an adverb describing the location of the rejoicing.

2.2.7

THE CONJUNCTION:

You can use a conjunction to link words, phrases, and clauses, as in the following example:
I ate the pizza and the pasta. Call the movers when you are ready.

Co-ordinating Conjunctions
You use a co-ordinating conjunction ("and," "but," "or," "nor," "for," "so," or "yet") to join individual words, phrases, and independent clauses. Note that you can also use the conjunctions "but" and "for" as prepositions. In the following sentences, each of the highlighted words is a co-ordinating conjunction:
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Lilacs and violets are usually purple.

In this example, the co-ordinating conjunction "and" links two nouns.

This movie is particularly interesting to feminist film theorists, for the

screenplay was written by Mae West. In this example, the co-ordinating conjunction "for" is used to link two independent clauses.

Subordinating Conjunctions
A subordinating conjunction introduces a dependent clause and indicates the nature of the relationship among the independent clause(s) and the dependent clause(s). The most common subordinating conjunctions are "after," "although," "as," "because," "before," "how," "if," "once," "since," "than," "that," "though," "till," "until," "when," "where," "whether," and "while." Each of the highlighted words in the following sentences is a subordinating conjunction:
After she had learned to drive, Alice felt more independent.

The subordinating conjunction "after" introduces the dependent clause "After she had learned to drive."

If the paperwork arrives on time, your cheque will be mailed on

Tuesday. Similarly, the subordinating conjunction "if" introduces the dependent clause "If the paperwork arrives on time."
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Gerald had to begin his thesis over again when his computer

crashed. The subordinating conjunction "when" introduces the dependent clause "when his computer crashed."

Correlative Conjunctions
Correlative conjunctions always appear in pairs -- you use them to link equivalent sentence elements. The most common correlative conjunctions are "both...and," "either...or," "neither...nor,", "not only...but also," "so...as," and "whether...or." (Technically correlative conjunctions consist simply of a co-ordinating conjunction linked to an adjective or adverb.) The highlighted words in the following sentences are correlative conjunctions:
Both my grandfather and my father worked in the steel plant.

In this sentence, the correlative conjunction "both...and" is used to link the two noun phrases that act as the compound subject of the sentence: "my grandfather" and "my father".
Bring either a Jello salad or a potato scallop.

Here the correlative conjunction "either...or" links two noun phrases: "a Jello salad" and "a potato scallop.

2.2.8

THE INTERJECTION:

An interjection is a word added to a sentence to convey emotion. It is not grammatically related to any other part of the sentence.

39

You usually follow an interjection with an exclamation mark. Interjections are uncommon in formal academic prose, except in direct quotations. The highlighted words in the following sentences are interjections:
Ouch, that hurt! Oh no, I forgot that the exam was today. Hey! Put that down! I heard one guy say to another guy, "He has a new car, eh?" I don't know about you but, good lord, I think t

2.3 FUNCTION AND CONTENT WORDS


We can notice that since the earliest research on language, syntactic categorization of lexical items has played an important role in linguistic description and theorizing. A central dichotomy in the categorization of syntactic categories is that between Content Words open class (also called: lexical or substantive categories) and Function words closed class (also called: functional categories). Content words are often characterized as being those lexical items which have a relatively specific detailed semantic content and as such carry the principal meaning of the sentence. They name the objects (Noun), events (Verb), properties (Adjectives) and locations/directions (prepositions) that are at the heart of the message that the sentence is meant to convey. As opposed to content words, functional words have a more non-conceptual meaning and fulfill an essentially grammatical function; in a sense they are needed by the surface structure to glue the content words together, to indicate what goes with what and how. The abstract meaning of the functional domain comprises such properties as: tense, modality, definiteness, number, degree, interrogative, etcetera.

40

CONTENT WORDS Nouns Adjectives Full verbs Adverbs Numerals Interjections Yes/No answers FUNCTION WORDS Prepositions Pronouns Determiners Conjunctions Modal verbs Auxiliary verbs Particles

EXAMPLES John, room, answer, Selby happy, new, large, grey search, grow, hold, have really, completely, very, also, enough one, thousand, first eh, ugh, phew, well yes, no (as answers) EXAMPLES of, at, in, without, between he, they, anybody, it, one the, a, that, my, more, much, either, neither and, that, when, while, although, or can, must, will, should, ought, need, used be (is, am, are), have, got, do no, not, nor, as

41

Note the differences between content and function parts of speech: CONTENT/ FORM 1. Provide meaning, content. 2. Add prefixes or suffixes to change meaning or use. 3. Identifiable through signal words in sentences 4. Additions and deletions as language changes STRUCTURE /FUNCTION 1. Provide structure for open class parts of speech. 2. Do not change form or meaning 3. (exception personal pronouns). ARE often signal words

themselves. 4. no additions or deletions as language changes.

CHAPTER 3 WORD FORMATIO N


42

3. WORD FORMATION.
Nowadays, the terms word formation does not have a clear cut, universally accepted usage. It is sometimes referred to all processes connected with changing the form of the word by, for example, affixation, which is a matter of morphology. In its wider sense word formation denotes the processes of creation of new lexical units. Although it seems that the difference between morphological change of a word and creation of a new term are quite easy to perceive there is sometimes a dispute as to whether blending is still a morphological change or making a new word. There are, of course, numerous word formation processes that do not arouse any controversies and are very similar in the majority of languages:

3.1.

COINAGE:

Also called word coinage (or invention) is the process whereby new words are created outright, either deliberately or accidentally, to fit some purpose. Usually,
43

words are coined to express new ideas, processes, products, etc. in the language. This word formation process is not frequent; however large corporations attempt to outdo one another to invent short eye-catching names for their products (It is a creation of a totally new word).For example, brand names such as Xerox, Kodak, Exxon, Kleenex1, Nylon, Dacron, etc.; pooch, snob, nerd, blurb, googol, etc. Sometimes the products that the companies want to sell simply take over the name of the creator or inventor. In such case the new word is called an eponym. Some well-known eponyms include: sandwich, or hoover. They are very frequently used in science where units of measurement are named after people, like: hertz, volt, (degree) Celsius. It is worth pointing out that the invention of new words is sometimes based on existing words, such as Jell-oon gel, Kleenex on clean. Many acronyms such as Cobol, laser, etc. are based on phrases for which they stand. However, words are more often created out of thin air, i.e., without basing on any other pre-existing word.

3.2.

BACKFORMATION:

Backformation is the process by which new words are formed by the deletion of a supposed affix from an already existing word (cf. Quirk et al., 1985; Fromkin & Rodman, 1983; Richards et al. 1985). For example, the verbs peddle, edit, hawk, enthuse, stoke, swindle, televise, donate, sculpt, buttle have been created form the pre-existing nouns peddler, editor, hawker, enthusiasm, stoker, swindler, television, donation, sculptor and butler, respectively. The nouns have been thought to be derivatives of verbs on the analogy of cases such as revision, creation, formation, transmission, to name a few, which are true derivatives form the verbs revise, create, form, transmit, respectively. Notice that this process normally involves the transformation of one part of speech into another.
1

Sometimes brand names are used in a generic way to refer to the product itself, or to a process; e.g., a kleenexis a facial tissue, to xeroxis to photocopy, and so on.

44

3.3.

BORROWING:

Borrowing is the process whereby new words are formed by adopting words from other languages together with the concepts or ideas they stand for (cf. Brun, 1983; Pei 1966). E.g., tango, mango, taco, burrito from Spanish; fianc, very (adapted from Old French verai), garage from French; pizza, mafia from Italian; and so on. Usually, the pronunciation and morphology of the borrowings (borrowed terms or loanwords) are adapted to the phonology and morphology of the host language (i.e., the language which adopts the terms); e.g., guerrilla [g'ril] (English), [ge'ija] (Spanish); banana [b'n (English), [ba'nana](Spanish); mango (sing), n] mangoes (pl.) (English), mangos (Spanish). It is important to remark that, in many cases, words are borrowed due to historic occurrences, such as conquests and invasions, or to geographical proximity. The borrowed term may substitute for a native term or may live along with the native term in different social contexts. E.g., beginning and dbut (French), donkey and burro (Spanish). However, the most common reason for a language to borrow words is to fill lexical and semantic gaps, i.e., to express new concepts and ideas for which the borrowing language has no terms, such as in the fields of science, politics, culture (esp. cooking and music); e.g., guerrilla ,taco, tango, piano, junta, matador, arena, cole slaw (Dutch), alcohol, radio, etc. Thats the reason why we say thatEnglish language has been very absorbent and took over words from all over the world, some of them include: biology, boxer, ozone from German; jackal, kiosk, yogurt from Turkish; pistol, robot from Czech. There is also a special type of borrowing called calque or loan translation. Here there is a direct translation of the elements that a term consists of in the source language into the target language. For example the English word worldview is thought to be the calque of the German Weltanschauung, antibody calques German Antikrper.
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3.4.

COMPUNDING:

Compounding consists in the combination of two or more (usually free) roots to form a new word. For example, the word blackboard, heartfelt, brother-in-law are compound words; they are made up of the roots (at the same time words themselves) black and board, heart and felt, brother, in and law, respectively. Compounding is a very common process in most languages of the world (especially among synthetic languages). In English, for instance, compound words have the following characteristics: 1. Compounds words behave grammatically and semantically as single words.
2. Since compound words behave as units, between their component elements

no affixes (whether inflections or derivations) can usually occur; inflectional suffixes can appearonly after compound words. For example, bathrooms, school, buses, water resistant. Exceptions: passersby, brothers-in-law, courts-martial. 3. Compound words can be written in three different ways:
a. Open, i.e., with a space between the parts of the compound; e.g., toy

store, diving board, flower pot.


b. Hyphenated, i.e., with a hyphen (-) separating the elements of the

compound; e.g., flower-pot, air-brake, she-pony.


c. Solid, e.g., without a space or hyphen between the component

elements of the compound; e.g., flowerpot, washrooms, pickpocket. Preference for a particular form of writing the compound word depends largely on lexicographical conventions and the variety of English use. For instance, hyphenation (i.e., separating the elements of a compound with a hyphen) is more common in British English than in American English. In American English, the
46

tendency is to write the compounds open or solid (Quirk et al., 1985). However, hyphenation is quite common practice in both varieties of the language when ad hoc premodifying compounds2 are used; e.g., a much-needed rest; a state-ofthe-art report.
4. The global meaning of the compound word can often be guessed from the

individual meaning of each element of the compound. For example, a boathouse is a shed in which boats are stored; a bookstore is a store which sells books; and so on. But there are a few compound words whose global meanings have to be learned as if they were single words because such meanings cannot be guessed from the individual meanings of the component elements of the compounds. For instance, a Redcoat is a British soldier, not a coat that is red. Similarly, a flatfoot is a detective or policeman, a turncoat is a traitor, a hot dog isa kind of fast food, etc.
5. Compound words usually have the primary stress on the first element of the

compound;

e.g.,

'air-crafts,

'chewing-gum.

This

fact

differentiates

compounds from phrases that have the same elements and order as compounds. Phrases usually have their primary accent on the second (or nominal) element; e.g., a 'red coat vs. a 'Red coat; a flat footvs. a flat foot; the 'white house vs. the 'White House. Of course, there are a few compounds which have their primary stress on the second element as phrases; e.g., working 'man, flying 'saucer, woman 'writer, fancy 'dress.
6. The second element (or head word) of the compound usually determines

the grammatical category to which the whole compound belongs. Following are a few possible combinations: n + n = n; e.g., sunrise, dancing girl, hand-shake, air-conditioning, cigar smoker, windmill.
2

Ad hoc premodifying compounds could be defined as groups of words that do not occur as established compounds in the language but as a group of words that as a whole modifies another word. They do not often appear in the dictionaries as separate entries as true compounds do.

47

v + n = n; e.g., rattlesnake, call-girl, dance-hall. adj. + n = n, e.g., darkroom, highbrow. n + adj. = adj.; e.g., airsick, bottle-green. pron. + n = n; e.g., she-pony, he-goat. prep. + v = v; e.g., overtake, undergo. prep. + n = n; e.g., onlooker, off-day. adj. + adj. = adj.; e.g., gray-green, Swedish-American. However, there are some cases in which the headword does not determine the grammatical class of the compound; for example: n + v = adj.; e.g., man-eating, ocean-going, heartfelt. adj./adv. + v = adj.; e.g., hard-working, good-looking, dry-cleaned. n + prep. = n; e.g., passer-by, hanger-on. v + (adv.) prep. = n; e.g., show-off, holdup. v + adv. = n; e.g., have-not, get-together. It is important to point out that some compound words are made up of a bound root (or special combining form, as Quirk et al. (1985) call it), e.g., socio-, psycho-, and a free root; e.g., socioeconomic, psychoanalysis, biotechnology. The compound may also consist of two bound roots; e.g., Laundromat, nephrolithotomy, pornography.
7. Compounding is a recursive process; i.e., one compound itself may

become a constituent of a larger compound; e.g., lighthouse keeper, livingroom furniture.

3.5.

BLEDING:

Blending is the process whereby new words are formed by combining parts of two words, usually the beginning of one word and the end of another (cf. Godby et al,.
48

1982). For example, smog (smoke + fog), brunch (breakfast + lunch), heliport (helicopter + airport), motel (motor + hotel), FORTRAN (formula translation), etc. Notice that enough of each word is normally retained so that the complex whole remains fairly readily analyzable. Following is a partial list of other common blends: breathalyzer (breath + analyzer), electrocute (electro + execute), Eurovision (European + television), multiversity (multiple + university), newscast (news + broadcast), paratroops (parachute + troops), telecast (television + broadcast), travelogue (travel + catalogue), telex (teleprinter + exchange).We can say that blendingis very similar to compounding, but it is characterized by taking only parts of words and joining them. According to Quirk et al. (1985), acronymy, clipping and blending are three highly productive ways in which abbreviation (i.e., the shortening of words) is involved in English word-formation.

3.6.

CLIPPING:

Clipping is the processes whereby new words are formed by shortening other words; i.e., by eliminating the initial part, the last part, or both parts, of those words. E.g., phone from (tele) phone, plane from (air) plane, ad (advert (BrE)) from ad(vertisement), exam from exam(ination), flu from (in)flu(enza), fridge(esp. BrE) from refrigerator. Notice that the short form or clipping represents the word in its entirety; however, that fragment does not have to be the salient part of the original word, neither prosodically nor semantically. Also, the clipping may not be used in the same contexts as the longer word. For example, the word exam is mostly used to refer to academic examinations or tests, not to medical examinations or check-ups.

49

Clipped forms generally show a certain tone of informality, which is often reflected in their spellings; e.g., showbiz for show business, 'cause ('cuz or cos) for because, praps for perhaps. Note that in some cases the spelling is adapted to suit the pronunciation of the original word, as in mike for microphone, Mike for Michael, nark for narcotics, bike for bicycle. In other cases, the pronunciation changes, as in soc ['sk] (BrE) for society [s'saIti]. Still in other cases, neither spelling nor pronunciation changes as in veg ['ved]for vegetable (or veggies['vediz] for vegetables). Also, some clipped forms retain a final s present in the original longer forms, as in maths (esp. BrE) for mathematics, specs for spectacles. The tone of informality of some clippings is usually lost when they become well established in the language; e.g., plane, stereo (from stereophonic), taxi (from taxicab), cab (from cabriolet), pram (BrE for perambulator) and so on. In many long-established cases, the fuller form is rarely used or is not ordinarily known, as in omnibus for bus and mobile vulgus for mob (cf. Quirk et al., 1985). Other common clippings are cosec ['ksek] from cosecant [k'si:knt] in trigonometry), demo for demonstration, Doc from Doctor, Ed from Education, French fries (AmE) from French fried potatoes, gas from gasoline, gents from gentlemen's room (lavatory), gym from gymnasium, lab from laboratory, lib form liberation as in Women's Liberation Movement, mart from market, nark from narcotics (agent), photo from photograph, prof from professor, pseud (BrE) from pseudo (-intellectual), lit from literature, pub from public house, Stat from Statistics, telly(BrE) from television, hanky from handkerchief, tec or dick from detective, turps(BrE) from turpentine, van from caravan (or vanguard), etc.3

3.7.

DERIVATION:

Derivation is probably the most common word formation process in the English language. It is achieved by adding affixes4: prefixes are added at the beginning of
3

Abbreviations such as Dr. for Doctor, Mr. for Mister, etc. for etcetera could also be considered as clippings. Affixes may also consist of suprasegmental elements such as pitch or stress; in this case they are referred to as superfixes(Lehmann, 1983).
4

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a word, suffixes added to the end of a word, or infixes which are inserted inside a word, but infixes are unusual in English. English prefixes include for example re-, un-, mis-, pre-, dis-; suffixes include for instance -ful, -less, -able, -or. It seems that infixes in English are confined to curse words such as: absofuckinglutely, infuckingcredible. The above mentioned word formation processes are the most frequent or important in the English language, but it is rarely the case that only one process occurs in one word. Words can be loaned and then back formed, later on gaining an affix. There are practically no boundaries to those processes other that human ingenuity.
1. Types of Affixes:

Affixes can be classified into two different ways: according to their position in the word and according to their function in a phrase or sentence. 1. According to their position in the word (or side of the word they are attached to), affixes are classified into prefixes, infixes and suffixes. a. Prefixes are bound morphemes that are added to the beginning of the word; e.g., un- in unnoticed, a- in amoral, sub- in subway, etc. Notice that prefixes are represented by the morphemes followed by a hyphen (-). b. Infixes are bound morphemes that are inserted within the words. There are no infixes in the English language, but in the languages such as Tagalog and Bontoc (in the Philippines), Infixes are represented by the morphemes preceded and followed by a hyphen; e.g., -um-. c. Suffixes are bound morphemes which are attached to the end of the word; e.g., -able in noticeable, -less in careless, -s in seeks, -en in shorten, etc. Notice that suffixes are represented by the morphemes preceded by a hyphen.

51

2. According to the function affixes fulfill in the language, affixes are classified into derivational affixes (derivational morphemes or derivations) and inflectional affixes (inflectional morphemes or inflections). a. Derivational affixes are morphemes that create (or derive) new words, usually by either changing the meaning and/or the part of speech (i.e., the syntactic category), or both, of the words they are attached to (Godby et al., 1982). In English, derivational morphemes can be either prefixes or suffixes. For example, un-+ happy (adj.) = unhappy (adj.); re-+ classify (v) = reclassify (v.); by-+ product (n.) = by-product. (See Appendix for a list of derivational prefixes and suffixes in English). b. Inflectional affixes, for their part, are morphemes which serve a purely grammatical function, such as referring to and giving extra linguistic information about the already existing meaning of a word (e.g., number, person, gender, case, etc.), expressing syntactic relations5 between words (e.g. possession, comparison), among others. For instance, the different forms of the verb speak are all considered to be verbs too, namely, speak, spoken, speaking. In a like manner, the comparative and superlative forms of the adjective strong are also adjectives, namely, stronger, strongest. In English, there are only eight inflections. They are -(e)s6(third person singular marker of verbs in present tense), as in speaks, teaches; -(e)s (regular plural marker) as in books, oranges; s (possessive marker) as in Johns house; -(e)d (regular past tense marker) as in helped, repeated; -en (past participle marker) as in spoken, eaten; -ing(present participle marker) as in eating, studying;-er(comparative marker) as in faster, happier; and est (superlative marker) as in fastest, happiest.
5

In fact, some grammatical relations can be expressed either inflectionally (i.e., morphologically) or syntactically. E.g., The boys book = The book of the boy; He loves books = He is a lover of books; She is hungrier than you = She is more hungry than you (cf. Fromkin& Rodman, 1983). In general, when there are few inflectional affixes in a language, word order and function words are used to express certain grammatical meanings and relationships (cf. Byrne, 1978). 6 Some linguists prefer to use -(e)s1 for the third person singular and -(e)s2 for the plural. Similarly, -(e)d1 is often used for the past and, instead of -en, -(e)d2 is used for the past participle. -en is reserved for the past participle form of irregular verbs.

52

Some derivational affixes of English: Affix Class(es) of word to which Prefix 'non-' Suffix '-ity' Prefix 'un-' affix applies Noun, adjective Adjective Verb Adjective Nature of change in meaning Negation/opposite Changestonoun Reverses action oppositequality Noun: non-starter Adj.: non-partisan electric/electricity obese/obesity tie/untie, fasten/unfasten clear/unclear, Suffix '-ous' Prefix 're-' Suffix '-able' Noun Verb Verb Changestoadjective Repeataction Changes to adjective; means 'can undergo action of verb' safe/unsafe fame/famous, glamor/glamorous tie/retie, write/rewrite print/printable, drink/drinkable Examples

53

CHAPTER 4 LESSON PLANNING

54

4. LESSON PLANNING.
4.1. LESSON PLAN:

55

56

4.2.

CONCLUSSIONS:

A word is the smallest free form (an item that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content) in a language, in contrast to a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning. Morphology is the study of the morphemes of a language and of how they are combined to make words.

Morpheme is the smallest meaningful part into which a word can be divided: Run-s contains two morphemes and un-like-ly contains three.

There are two kinds of morphemes: free morphemes and bound morphemes.

Roots (or bases) are the morphemes (free or bound) that carry the principal

or basic concept, idea or meaning in a word. They generally constitute the nuclei or cores of words.
Traditional grammar classifies words based on eight parts of speech: the

verb, the noun, the pronoun, the adjective, the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction, and the interjection.

Noun describes a person, place, thing, event, idea, etc. Examples: Mom, coach, Book, etcetera.

57

Pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. Examples: She, he, it, they, us, I, you, we, them.

Adjective is used to describe a noun or pronoun. Example: green, fearless, quick, enormous, wonderful.

Verb tells of an action, a state of being, or an event. Examples: Am, is, are, run, jump, play, raining, reading.

Adverb is used to describe everything except nouns and pronouns. It

answers questions such as how, when, where or why and often ends in ly. Examples: Near, far, today, very, easily, quietly.

Preposition tells the relationship between nouns, pronouns, or other words

in a sentence. Most often used before the noun. Example: he jumped over the fence.

Conjunction joins words, phrases or sentences together. Some are used in pairs. Some are adverbs, being used as conjunctions. Examples: And, but, so, either, or, neither, nor, because, finally, still, yet.

Interjection is a word expressing emotions. Strong interjections are followed by exclamations points. Mild interjections are followed by commas. Examples: Hey! Wow! Ouch! Oh, I think Ive got it.
Words are divided into two categories: Function Words and Content Words.

58

Content words open class are often characterized as being those lexical

items which have a relatively specific detailed semantic content and as such carry the principal meaning of the sentence.

Functional words closed class have a more non-conceptual meaning and

fulfill an essentially grammatical function.

In a wider sense word formation denotes the processes of creation of new lexical units.

There are many kinds of word formation processes like: Coinage, backformation, borrowing, compounding, blending, clipping and derivation.

Compounding is a process in which two different words are joined together

to denote one thing. Examples: flower-pot is a compound made of two words: flower and pot.

Blending is very similar to compounding, but it is characterized by taking

only parts of words and joining them. Examples: smog which combines smoke and fog.

Clipping is shortening or reducing long words. Examples:

telephone is

clipped to phone.

Coinage is creation of a totally new word. Example: aspirin or xerox.

59

Borrowing is taking a word from one language and incorporating it into

another. Examples: biology, boxer, ozone from German; jackal, kiosk, yogurt from Turkish; pistol, robot from Czech.

Backformation is a process in which a word changes its form and function.

For example: the verbs edit, hawk, enthuse, televise, donate, have been created form the pre-existing nouns editor, hawker, enthusiasm, television, and donation.

Derivation is probably the most common word formation process in the

English language. It is achieved by adding affixes: prefixes are added at the beginning of a word, suffixes added to the end of a word, or infixes which are inserted inside a word, but infixes are unusual in English. For example: print-able.

4.3.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Oxford advanced learners dictionary of current English, Oxford University Press, Great Britain, 1974.

A. S. HORNBY

N. CORVER; H. V. RIEMSDIJK Semi-lexical Categories, Printing & Binding:Hubert &Co.Gottingen, Berlin Germany, 2001.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/wordclas/wordclas.htm

60

http://grammar.about.com/od/tz/g/wordclassterm.htm

http://members.chello.nl/r.kuijt/images/en_partsofspeech.gif

http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/partsp.html

http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/verbs.html

http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/nouns.html

http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/pronouns.html

http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/adjectve.html

http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/adverbs.html

http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/preposit.html

http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/conjunct.html

61

http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/interjct.html

http://www.speech.psychol.ucl.ac.uk/transcription/intro.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Function_word

http://www.towson.edu/ows/PtsSpch.htm

http://toefl.jumbotests.com/info/toelf-content-vs-function-words

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_word_classes

http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/wordform.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_formation

www.kwary.net/linguistics/lexi/lexi02

62

4.4.

APPENDIX:

Table 1. Suffixes that change the grammatical class of the words they are attached to. Noun-forming suffixes: Adjective-forming suffixes: Noun-forming suffixes: v + ~ = n assist + -ance = assistance assist + -ant = assistant confide + -ence = confidence confide + -ent = confident permute + -ation = permutation compete + -ition = competition attend + -tion = attention confess + -ion = confession adhere + -sion = adhesion employ + -ee = employee work + -er = worker act + -or = actor beg + -ar = beggar develop + -ment = development observe + -(at)ory = observatory close + -ure = closure break + -age = breakage type + -ist = typist survive + -al = survival Adjective-forming suffixes: v + ~ = adj. eat + -able = eatable reduce + -ible = reducible differ + -ent = different signify + -ant = significant act + -ive = active compulse + -ory = compulsory v fashion response magic planet affection disease gold Burma picture peace dictator poet + + + + + + + + + + + + + ~ -able -ible -al -ary -ate -ed -en -ese -esque -ful -ial -ic = = = = = = = = = = = = = adj. fashionable responsible magical planetary affectionate diseased golden Burmese picturesque peaceful dictatorial poetic
63

adj. young industrial crude dry free

+ + + + + +

~ -ster -ity -ity -ness -dom

= = = = = =

n youngster industrialist crudity dryness freedom

child tree god coward poison quarrel praise dust Brazil

+ + + + + + + + +

-ish -less -like -ly -ous -some -worthy -y -ian

= = = = = = = = =

childish treeless godlike cowardly poisonous quarrelsome praiseworthy dusty Brazilian

Verb-forming suffixes: = n v + ~ = n = blacken beauty + -ify = beautify = solidify computer + -ize = computerize length + -en = lengthen Table 2: Prefixes that change the grammatical class of the words they are v black solid + + + ~ -en -ify attached to. ~ a+ + n bed = = adv. abed ~ been~ aa+ + v sleep = = = adv. asleep aasinging em+ + + n friend danger power = v befriend endanger empower

+ singing

~ been-

adj. little

= + =

v belittle enlarge

large

Table 3: Suffixes that do not change the grammatical class of the words they are attached to.

n lemon Mexico Africa

+ + + +

~ -ade -an -ana

= n = lemonade = Mexican = Africana

Meaning of Morpheme

"collection of facts, objects, etc. Related to"


64

discipline function director boot mountain philosophy fish cook snob rival journal n lion cigar usher flannel hand boy mathematics music dog pig hero Buddha drama king pound tobacco Labor pig duck

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

-arian -ary -ate -ee -eer -er -ery -ery -ery -ry -ese ~ -ess -ette -ette -ette -ful -hood -ian -ian -ie -y -ism -ism -ist -dom -worth -ist -ite -let -ling

= = = =

disciplinarian functionary directorate bootee

practice of

= mountaineer = philosopher = fishery = cookery = snobbery = rivalry = journalese = = = = = = n lioness cigarette usherette flannelette handful

diminutive person concerned with the n practicer of place where an action is carried out art of, practice of state, quality, character of in the (literary) style of Meaning of Morpheme female of n diminutive female imitation amount that fills status, rank, condition of life specialist in pet name or familiar name showing qualities typical of specific doctrine, principle or movement agent of an ize verb (e.g.dramatize) domain using the amount of person concerned with a specific activity follower, devotee of a person or organization diminutive diminutive
65

= boyhood = mathematician = musician = doggie = piggy = heroism = Buddhism = damatist = kingdom = poundsworth = tabacconist = Laborite = piglet = duckling

hire country milk fish song land friend musician photograph adj. outer two red

+ + + + + + + + + + + + +

-ling -man -man -monger -ster -scape -ship -ship -y ~ -most -fold -ish

= hireling = countryman = milkman = fishmonger = songster = landscape = friendship = musicianship = photography = = = = adj. outermost twofold reddish

person connected with (used dispairingly) dweller in somebody connected by a specific activity to somebody who deals in somebody connected with the n a stretch of scenery a state of being, status, office skill, proficiency as system of

superlative of adj., very of (so many) parts somewhat, near to

66

INDEX
INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 1. DEFINING WORDS 1.1. Morphology 1.1.1 The Morpheme

3 5 6

7 8 10 11

Types of Morphemes

1.1.2 Roots and Stems CHAPTER 2 2. WORDS CLASSES AND PARTS OF SPEECH. FUNCTION AND CONTENT WORDS. 2.1 WORD CLASSES

12

Criteria for Word Classes

13

1. Meaning
67

2. The form or shape of a word 3. The position or environment of a word in a sentence 2.2 PARTS OF THE SPEECH 2.2.1 THE VERB 2.2.2 THE NOUN

14 15 16 17 18

Noun Gender Noun Plurals Possessive Nouns Using Possessive Nouns Types of Nouns Proper Nouns Common Nouns Concrete Nouns Abstract Nouns Countable Nouns Non-Countable Nouns Collective Nouns 25 24 23 22 19 21

2.2.3 THE PRONOUN

68

Personal Pronouns Subjective Personal Pronouns Objective Personal Pronouns Possessive Personal Pronouns Demonstrative Pronouns Interrogative Pronouns Relative Pronouns Indefinite Pronouns Reflexive Pronouns Intensive Pronouns

26

27

28 29 30

31

2.2.4 THE ADJECTIVE

Possessive Adjectives Demonstrative Adjectives Interrogative Adjectives Indefinite Adjectives

32 33 34

2.2.5 THE ADVERB

69

Conjunctive Adverbs

35 36 37

2.2.6 THE PREPOSITION 2.2.7 THE CONJUNCTION Co-ordinating Conjunctions Subordinating Conjunctions Correlative Conjunctions

38

2.2.8 THE INTERJECTION 2.3 CHAPTER 3 3. WORD FORMATION 3.1. 3.2. 3.3. 3.4. 3.5. 3.6. 3.7. COINAGE BACKFORMATION BORROWING COMPUNDING BLEDING CLIPPING DERIVATION 1. CHAPTER 4 4. LESSON PLANNING Types of Affixes FUNCTION AND CONTENT WORDS

39 40 42 43 44

45 48 49 50 51 54

70

4.1. 4.2. 4.3. 4.4.

LESSON PLAN CONCLUSSIONS BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX

71

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