英語詞匯學(xué)教程課件第5章English-Lexicology-5上

1、English LexicologyLecture FiveEnglish LexicologyLecture FiveWord Formation in EnglishThere are basically three ways of extending their word stock: they can borrow words that already exist in other languages, or they can create entirely new words, or they can form new words from existing resources wi

2、thin their own word stocks. Words can be coined through word formation. Word formation refers to the different devices used in English to build new words from existing ones. English has some built-in processes of creating words. Word Formation in EnglishThereFor example, the addition of prefixes and

3、 suffixes such as mis-, -ness, and ist, has given English such words as misunderstand, correctness, and economist. Blending parts of words produces new words such as motel. Compounding yields such words as lookout and greenhouse. Conversion turns the noun air into a new verb, to air. Back formation

4、suggests that the verb jell, for example, was formed from jelly. For example, the addition of pDerivationCompoundingConversionBlendingback formationShorteningproper names and metanalysisDerivationInflection and DerivationInflection results in the formation of alternative grammatical forms of the sam

5、e word, while derivation creates new vocabulary items. The verb work becomes worker if we add the derivational morpheme er. The adjective poor becomes poorer if we add the inflectional morpheme er. So, the suffix form er can be an inflectional morpheme as part of an adjective and also a derivational

6、 morpheme as part of the noun. Inflection and DerivationInfleInflectionInflection is a general grammatical process which combines words and affixes to produce alternative grammatical forms of words. English has no inflectional prefixes. Inflections in English are all suffixes and all occur at the ve

7、ry end of a word. They include the plural marker like s, the possessive marker like s, the comparative and superlative markers for adjectives and adverbs like er and est, tense markers for verbs like s and ed, and others. InflectionInflection is a geneEnglish today has only eight remaining inflectio

8、nal morphemes, two on nouns, four on verbs, and two on adjectives, as shown in the following table.English today has only eight r英語詞匯學(xué)教程課件第5章English-Lexicology-5上Certain inflections are no longer productive in English. Word sets like child/children, ox/oxen, and who/whom/whose reflect earlier produc

9、tive inflectional morphemes. The system of English pronouns also gives some hint of an earlier inflectional morphology. Except for you, English pronouns, like nouns, have distinct singular and plural forms (I and we; he, she, it, and they). Unlike nouns, pronouns exhibit distinct forms for use in ot

10、her than subject functions (I and me; we and us; he and him; she and her, they and them); you and it are exceptions. Certain inflections are no lonFunctions of InflectionInflection creates variant forms of a word to conform to different functional roles in a sentence or in discourse. They modify the

11、 form of a word so that it can fit into a particular syntactic slot. For nouns and pronouns, inflectional morphemes serve to mark grammatical functions like case or semantic notions like number. For verbs, they can mark such things as tense, while on adjectives they serve to indicate degree. Functio

12、ns of InflectionInflectMoreover, the addition of the possessive suffix fits the inflected noun for use in syntax as noun modifier. The noun with the possessive marker can be used as a modifier of another noun, never as a head or main element in a given structure. Thus, John + possessive becomes John

13、s as in Johns book. However, the word class of the noun has not changed. Moreover, the addition of the Sometimes inflectional morphemes serve merely to integrate a word into its sentence. For example, inflection in a verb can indicate that the subject of the verb is third person, as in She always re

14、ads in the library. With collect and collected, it would be accurate to think of them as meaning the same thing but orienting listeners (or readers) to different time frames.Sometimes inflectional morphemInflections attach grammatical information to the stem, but do not change its grammatical catego

15、ry. For example, the plural morpheme is an inflectional morpheme. The plural form books, for instance, does not represent any fundamental difference from the singular form book. Thus, book and books are both nouns referring to the same kind of entity. The -s ending merely carries information about t

16、he number of those entities. Inflections attach grammaticalIn English, there are regular and irregular inflections. Regular inflections are those that are formed according to a common pattern, e.g. -s for the plural of nouns, -ed for the past tense and past participle of verbs, -er for the comparati

17、ve of adjectives. Irregular inflections are those that do not follow this pattern and which usually apply to only one or a small number of members of the word class concerned. In English, there are regular For example, the following nouns form their plurals irregularly: datum data, fish - fish, goos

18、e geese, man - men, mouse - mice, tooth teeth, woman - women. The number of verbs that form their past tense and past participle irregularly is much greater. For example, the following nouThe knowledge of irregular inflection is very important for learners of English as a foreign language. MacMillan

19、 English-Chinese Dictionary for Advanced Learners lists about 280 irregular verbs in its appendix, e.g. arise arose arisen, drive drove - driven, fly flew - flown, give - gave - given, go - went - gone, keep - kept, sing - sang - sung, speak spoke - spoken, shake - shook - shaken, wring - wrung. The

20、 knowledge of irregular infDerivational AffixAffixation is the process whereby an affix is attached to a base. For example, the attachment of ness to full yields fullness. An affix is a bound morpheme. Derivational AffixAffixation iDerivation refers to the creation of a new word by means of the addi

21、tion of an affix to a stem. It is a lexical process which actually forms a new word out of an existing one by the addition of a derivational affix. For instance, the suffixes -ation and -ure may be added to the verbs resign and depart respectively to derive the nouns resignation and departure, which

22、 are different words. Derivation refers to the creatForming new words from existing words and morphemes is much easier for speakers to extend the meaning of a word to cover new but usually related referents than to invent an entirely new word, and it is easier to understand the meaning of a word who

23、se scope of reference has been extended in some way than to imagine the meaning of a newly coined word that lacks previous associations. Forming new words from existinFunctions of DerivationsA derivational affix can change the part of speech of a word (as -ment changes commit from a verb to a noun),

24、 or it can alter the meaning of a word (as re- changes the meaning of paint to paint again). Derivative morphemes are so called because they are used to derive new words and meanings. Functions of DerivationsA deriMost suffixal derivatives affect both the syntactic category and the meaning of the ro

25、ot to which they attach. English has over sixty common derivational affixes, and there is no theoretical limit to their number. Even though derivational affixes do have characteristics which may enable us to distinguish them from inflectional suffixes, the distinction between the two types of affixe

26、s is not always clear-cut, e.g. the past participle suffix -ed is used to form adjectives of the red-haired type.Most suffixal derivatives affeDerivational affixes can change the word class of the item they are added to and establish words as members of the various word classes. If derivations and i

27、nflections co-occur, derivations are closer to the stem, and inflections are furthest from the stem, as shown in the table below.Derivational affixes can chang英語詞匯學(xué)教程課件第5章English-Lexicology-5上Derivational affixes do not always cause a change in grammatical class. The derivational affix re-, for exam

28、ple, derives reconsider from consider, yet both are verbs. Also, compare populate/depopulate, intelligent/unintelligent, probable/improbable. Furthermore, a shift in grammatical class is not always signaled by an overt marker.Derivational affixes do not alstaff and star are basically nouns, but they

29、 can also be used as verbs, with no affix as in the sentence The manager did not staff the restaurant properly and I dont think Susan is the best actor to star in that new film. A change in word class without the addition of an affix is known as conversion. staff and star are basically nTypes of Der

30、ivational AffixIn English, there are two principal kinds of affixation: prefixing and suffixing. A prefix is an affix that precedes its base. Prefixes like un-, pre-, and dis- serve to change the meaning of words, though not usually their part of speech. Types of Derivational AffixIn Thus, the prefi

31、x un- added to an adjective creates a new adjective with the opposite meaning, as in unhappy, unlucky, untrue, and unfunny. Pre- serves as a prefix to several classes of words. It can be prefixed to verbs, as in prearrange, prepay, preform, and premix. It can also be prefixed to adjectives (e.g. pre

32、historic, preprofessional, presurgical) and to nouns (e.g. precaution, pre-examination, precondition). The prefix pre- means roughly the same thing in each of these words. It creates a new word in the same part of speech.Thus, the prefix un- added to Suffixes in English are different from prefixes.

33、They often change the grammatical class of words. The suffix ment, for example, when added to a verb makes a noun of it, as in displacement, development, encouragement, and movement. Suffixes in English are differThe suffix able appears to be a morpheme that can be freely conjoined with verbs to der

34、ive an adjective with the meaning of the verb and the meaning of able, as in change + -able, adjust + -able. However, there are some suffixes that do not change the grammatical class of words. For example, music + ian, short + est, column + ist. The suffix able appears to beTherefore, derivational a

35、ffixes can be divided into two types: class-changing and class-maintaining. Class-changing derivational affixes change the word class of the word to which they are added. Thus, brave, an adjective + -ly gives bravely, an adverb. Class-maintaining derivational affixes change the meaning of the deriva

36、tive. Thus child, a noun + -hood gives childhood, still a noun, but now an abstract rather than a concrete noun. Therefore, derivational affixeClass-changing derivational affixesClass-changing derivational affixes determine the word class of the stem. Nouns may be derived from either verbs or adject

37、ives; verbs from either nouns or adjectives; adjectives from either nouns or verbs; and adverbs from either adjectives or nouns. Class-changing derivational afThe largest group of class-changing derivatives in English is nominalizers which make nouns out of adjectives or verbs. English class-changin

38、g derivations are mainly suffixes. They include acy, -al, -ant, -ee, -ician, -ism, -ist, -ity, -ment, -ness, and ster. The largest group of class-chaagitation (agitate + -ation), arrival (arrive + -al), assemblage (assemble + -age), attendance (attend + -ance) correctness (correct + -ness), departure (depart + -ure) employee (employ + -ee), freedom (free + -dom)judgment (judge + ment), modernism ( modern + -ism)occupant (occupy + -ant), purity (pure + -ity)socialist (social + -ist), youngster ( young + ster)agitat