The etymology of English words I

A WORD. LEXICOLOGY.

(1) word? connection? object

(2) Lexicology – a branch of linguistics which studies words

(3) No definition is totally satisfactory in all aspects

(4) Word = fundamental unit of language ←?

(5)? origin of language? =›?origin of words?

(6) Speaker’s sound groups

mental = words

process = acoustic phenomena

= concepts, ideas

Two-way process of communication

(7) referent – object, phenomenon, quality, action, etc. denoted by the word

different sound groups

object referent in different languages

↑ = no direct relation

direct relation?

(8) vocabulary of the language = the stock of words – the total sum of words of the language

nothing accidental about it

wordwordword

wordword ← vast, efficient, perfectly balanced system

wordwordword why? how acquired?

 

We know:

1. a word is a unit of communication

2. word = the total of sounds which comprise it

3. word structurally possesses several characteristics

(3) Modern approach:

external structure of the word = morphological structure

e.g.: post-impressionists – in this word the following morphemes can be distinguished:

the prefixes post-, im- all these morphemes

the root press constitute the external

the noun-forming suffixes –ion, -ist structure of this word

the grammatical suffix of plurality s

 

(4) internal structure of the word = meaning = the word’s semantic structure – the word’s main aspect.

Unity

external (=formal) internal (semantic)

≠ indivisibility

(5) bright light, to take for granted

 

(6) e.g.: blackbird and black bird

1. formal unity

characterized by unity, each constituent can acquire

possesses a single grammatical grammatical forms of its own:

framing: blackbird/s the blackest birds I’ve ever seen.

The 1^st constituent black is not Other words can be inserted b/w

subject to any grammatical the components: a black night bird

changes

 

susceptibility to grammatical employment (words can be used in different grammatical forms in which their interrelations are realized)

2. semantic unity

conveys only 1 concept: each of the meaningful words conveys

the type of bird a separate concept: bird – a kind of

living creature; black – a colour

 

(7) SEMANTICS

Syntagmatic levelParadigmatic level

The semantic structure of the word The word is studied in its

isanalysed in its linear relationships relationships with other words

withneighbouring words in in the vocabulary system =>

connected speech, i.e. the semantic a word may be studied in

characteristics of the word are comparison with other words

observed, described and studied on - of similar meaning

the basis of its typical contexts. (work – labour; to refuse - to

reject – to decline) → synonimy

- of opposite meaning (busy -

idle; to accept – to reject) → antonymy

- of different stylistic

characteristics (man – chap –

bloke – guy) → functional styles

 

(8) e.g. to take the bull by the horns, to see red, birds of a feather, etc.

(9) the study of the vocab. as a system

 

synchronicallydiachronically

= at a given stage of its development = in the context of the processes

through which it grew developed

and acquired its modern form

opposition is disputable

FORMAL AND INFORMAL WORDS

(1) functional style – a system of expressive means peculiar to a specific sphere of communication.

sphere of communication – the circumstances attending the process of speech in each particular case: professional communication, a lecture, an informal talk, a formal letter, an intimate letter, a speech in court, etc.

 

(2) FUNCTIONAL STYLES

Informal style Formal style

- colloquial words - learned words

- slang - archaic and obsolete words

- dialect words - professional terminology

Neutral words

- basic vocabulary

 

(3) literary colloquial words – informal words that are used in everyday conversational speech both by cultivated and uneducated people of all age groups.

 

(4) “You’re at some sort of technical college?” she said to Leo, not looking at him …

“Yes, I hate it though. I’m not good enough at maths. There’s a chap there just down from Cambridge who puts us through it. I can’t keep up. Were you good at maths?”

“Not bad. But I imagine school maths are different.”

“Well, yes, they are. I can’t cope with this stuff at all, it’s the whole way of thinking that’s beyond me… I think I’m going to chuck it and take a job. ”

(From “The Time of the Angels” by I. Murdoch)

(5) “Fred Hardy was a bad lot. Pretty women, chemin de fer, and an unlucky knack for backing the wrong horse had landed him in the bankruptcy court by the time he was twenty-five …

… If he thought of his past it was with complacency; he had had a good time, he had enjoyed his ups and downs; and now, with good health and a clear conscience, he was prepared to settle down as a country gentleman, damn it, bring up the kids as kids should be brought up; and when the old buffer who sat for his Constituency pegged out, by George, go into Parliament himself.”

(From “Rain and Other Short Stories” by W.S. Maugham)

(6) Pal and chum are colloquial equivalents of friend;

Girl. when used colloquially. denotes a woman of any age;

Bite and snack stands for meal;

Hi, hello are informal greetings;

So long is a form of parting;

Start, go on, finish and be through are also literary colloquialisms;

To have a crush on smb. is a colloquial equivalent of to be in love;

A bit (of) and a lot (of) also belong to this group.

(7) exam, fridge, flu, prop (proposition), zip (zipper), movie

(8) put up, put over, make up, make out, do away, turn up, turn in

(9) doc (=doctor), hi (=how do you do), ta-ta (=good-bye), goings-on (=behaviour, usually with a negative connotation ), to kid smb. (=tease, banter), to pick up smb. (=make a quick and easy acquaintance), go on with you (=let me alone), shut up (=keep silent), beat it (=go away).

 

(10) slang – language of a highly colloquial style, considered as bellow the level of standard education speech, and consisting either of new words or of current words employed in some special sense (The Oxford English Dictionary)

(11) “ The one stream of poetry which is constantly flowing is slang. Every day some nameless poet weaves (плетет) some fairy tracery (узор) of popular language. …All slang is metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry. …The word of slang is a kind of topsy-turvydom of poetry, full of blue moons and white elephants, of men losing their heads, and men whose tongues run away with them (заставляюттерятьсамообладание, недаютсдержаться) – a whole chaos of fairy tales.” (G.K.Chesterton)

(12) once in a blue moon not slang, they are

the white elephant idioms

your tongue has run away with you

(13) mug (=face), saucers, blinkers (=eyes), trap (=mouth, e.g. Keep your trap shut), dogs (=feet), to leg (it) (=to walk)

 

(14) “Slang sets things in their proper place with a smile. So, to call a hat ‘a lid’ and a head ‘a nut’ is amusing because it puts a hat and a pot-lid in the same class” (Henry Bradley)

 

(15) “Originating as slang expressions often do, in an insensibility to the meaning of legitimate words, the use of slang checks an acquisition of a command over recognized modes of expression … and must result in atrophy of the faculty of using language”. (G.H.McKnight)

“As style is the great antiseptic, so slang is the great corrupting matter, it is perishable, and infects what is round it” (H.W. Fowler)

“No one capable of good speaking or good writing is likely to be harmed by the occasional employment of slang, provided that he is conscious of the fact…” (G.H.McKnight)

 

(16) “ Dialect – is a variety of language which prevails in a district, with local peculiarities of vocabulary, pronunciation and phrase” (H.W. Fowler)

(17) Standard English – the English language as it is written and spoken by literate people in both formal and informal usage and that is universally current while incorporating regional differences. (Random House Dictionary)

(18) car, trolley, tram began as dialect words.

(19) “’Na Jess!’ said the acquaintance, taking an imitation calabash (тыквенный)pipe out of his mouth and then winking (подмигнув) mysteriously.

‘Na Jim!’ returned Mr. Oakroyd. This ‘Na’ which must once have been ‘Now’, is the recognized salutation in Bruddersford, and the fact that it sounds more like a word of caution (предостережение) then a word of greeting is by no means surprising. You have to be careful in Bruddersford.

‘Well,’ said Jim, falling into step, ‘what did you think on ’em?’

‘Think on ‘em!’ Mr. Oakroyd made a number of noises with his tongue to show what he thought of them.

… ‘Ah ‘ll tell tha what it is, Jess,’ said his companion, pointing the stem of his pipe and becoming broader in his Yorkshire as he grew more philosophical. ‘If t’ United had less brassto lakewi’, they’d lake better football.’ His eyes searched the past for a moment, looking for the team that had less money and had played better football. ‘ Tha can remember when t’ club had nivver set eyes on two thousand pahnds, when t’ job lot wor not worth two thahsandpahnds, pavilion and all, and what sort of football did they lake then? We know, don’t we? They could gi’thee summat worth watching then. Nah, it’s all nowt, like t’ ale an’ baccy they ask so mich for – money fair thrawn away, ah calls it. Well, we mun‘a’wer teas and get ower it. Behave thi-sen, Jess!’ And he turned away, for that final word of caution was only one of Bruddersford’s familiar good-byes.

‘ Ay,’ replied Mr. Oakroyd dispiritedly. ‘So long, Jim!’”

Bruddersford – the scene of the extract, is easily recognizable as Bradford, Priestley’s birthplace.

Tha (thee) – the objective case of thou

United – the name of a football team

Brass – money

To lake – to play

Nivver – never

Summat – something

Nowt – nothing

Baccy – tobacco

Mich – much

Mun – must

Thi-sen (-thy-self) – yourself

Ay(e) - yes

 

FORMAL STYLE

(1) formal style – restricted to formal situations

 

words associated with learned words

professional communication (printed page)

poetry fiction

 

(2) “’book-learned’ and ‘bookish’ are now uncomplimentary (нелестный). The corresponding complimentaries are ‘erudite’, ‘learned’, ‘scholarly’. ‘Book-learned’ and ‘bookish’ connote ‘ignorant of life’, however much book-learning one may possess” (E. Partridge).

 

(3) learned words:

1) scientific – used in scientific prose (dry, matter-of-fact flavour) comprise (включать, заключать в себе, содержать, обобщать, суммировать, составлять) ,compile (выбирать информацию, собирать материал), experimental (экспериментальный), heterogeneous (разнородный), homogeneous (однородный), conclusive (завершающий, конечный, решающий, подводящий итог, определяющий, основополагающий, убедительный), divergent (расходящийся, отличающийся, отличный, другой);

 

2) “officialese” – words of the official, bureaucratic language assist (help), endeavour (try), proceed (go), approximately (about), sufficient (enough), attired (dressed), inquire (ask); “You are authorized to acquire the work in question by purchase through the ordinary trade channels.” (We advise you to buy the book in a shop);

 

3) “literary” – “refined”, used in descriptive passages of fiction, mostly polysyllabic, drawn from the Romance languages, solitude (одиночество), sentiment (чувство, сентиментальность), fascination (очарование, привлекательность), fastidiousness (привередливость, брезгливость, дотошность, высокомерие, презрительность, отвращение), facetiousness (шутливый; забавный, веселый; курьезный, радостный, оживленный, остроумный), delusion (обман, заблуждение), meditation (раздумье, размышление), felicity (счастье, блаженство, благословение), elusive (неуловимый, труднодостижимый, незаметный, мимолетный), cordial (сердечный; искренний; радушный, задушевный, теплый), illusionary (иллюзорный, обманный)

4) poetic – used in poetry, a lofty, high-flown, sometimes archaic, colouring:

“Alas! (Увы!) they had been friends in youth; But whispering tongues can poison truth

And constancy (стойкость, верность) lives in realms (царство) above; And life is thorny; and youth is vain; And to be wroth (разгневанный) with one we love, Doth (=does) work like madness in the brain...”

(Coleridge)

(4) “You should find no difficulty in obtaining a secretarial post in the city.”Carel said “obtaining a post” and not “getting a job”. It was part of a bureaucratic manner which, Muriel noticed, he kept reserved for her.”

(From The Time of the Angels by I. Murdoch)

 

(5) 1) When Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest recommends Jack “to make a definite effort to produce at any rate one parent, of either sex, before the season is over”, the statement is funny because the seriousness and precision of the language seems comically out-of-keeping with the informal situation.

The following quotations speak for themselves. (The “learned” elements are italicized.)

 

2) Gwendolen in the same play declaring her love for Jack says:

“The story of your romantic origin as related to me by mamma, with unpleasing comments, has naturally stirred the deepest fibres of my nature. Your Christian name has an irresistible fascination. The simplicity of your nature makes you exquisitely incomprehensible to me...”

 

3) Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion by B. Shaw engaging in traditional English small talk answers the question “Will it rain, do you think?” in the following way:

“The shallow depression in the west of these islands is likely to move slowly in an easterly direction. There are no indications of any great change in the barometrical situation.”

 

4) Freddie Widgeon, a silly young man in Fate by Wodehouse, trying to defend a woman whom he thinks unduly insulted, says:

“You are aspersing a woman’s name,” he said.

“What?!”

“Don’t attempt to evade the issue,” said Freddie...

“You are aspersing a woman’s name, and — what

makes it worse — you are doing it in a bowler-hat.

Take off that hat,” said Freddie.

 

(6) “... A bat had noiselessly appropriated the space between, a flittering weaving almost substancelessfragment of the invading dark.... A collared dove groaned once in the final light. A pink rose reclining upon the big box hedge glimmered with contained electric luminosity. A blackbird, trying to metamorphose itself into a nightingale, began a long passionate complicated song.”

(From The Sacred and Profane Love Machine by I. Murdoch)

 

(7) Archaic and Obsolete Words – associated with the printed page, but can never be used in conversational situations, they are moribund, already partly or fully out of circulation, rejected by the living language, used in historical novels and poetry, Thou,thy, aye (yes), nay (no), morn (morning), eve (evening), moon (month), damsel (girl), errant (wandering, e. g. errant knights).

 

(8) There are several such archaisms in Viola’s speech from Twelfth Night:

“There is a fair behaviour in thee, Captain, And though that nature with a beauteous wall Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee I will believe thou hast a mind that suits With this thy fair and outward character. I prithee — and I’ll pay thee bounteously — Conceal me what I am, and be my aid For such disguise as haply shall become The form of my intent...”

(Act I, Sc. 2)

(9) formerly archaic kin (for relatives; one’s family) is now current in American usage

 

(10) obsolete word - “no longer in use, esp. out of use for at least a century”, whereas an archaism is referred to as “current in an earlier time but rare in present usage” (The Random House Dictionary)

 

(11) historisms - words denoting objects and phenomena which are, things of the past and no longer exist.

 

(12) Professional Terminology - belong to special scientific, professional or trade terminological systems and are not used or even understood by people outside the particular speciality.

 

(13) Term, as traditionally understood, is a word or a word-group which is specifically employed by a particular branch of science, technology, trade or the arts to convey a concept peculiar to this particular activity.

e.g.: bilingual, interdental, labialization, palatalization, glottal stop, descending scale are terms of theoretical phonetics

 

(14) Problems in the field of terminology:

1) whether a term loses its terminological status when it comes into common usage unit (доза лекарственного препарата), theatre (операционная), contact (носитель инфекции)

2) polysemy– there are numerous polysemantic terms: semantics (a) the meaning of a word; b) the branch of lexicology studying meanings), colour (a) цвет; b) краска)

3) synonymy - terms possess synonyms: colour has several synonyms in both its meanings: hue, shade, tint, tinge in the first meaning (цвет) and paint, tint, dye in the second (краска).

 

(15) Basic Vocabulary - stylistically neutral opposed to formal and informal words, used in all kinds of situations, formal and informal, in verbal and written communication: house, bread, summer, winter, child, mother, green, difficult, to go, to stand

 

(16) to walk – to stride (шагать большими шагами),

to stroll (медленно и праздно бродить; скитаться),

to trot (спешить, торопиться, идти рысью),

to stagger (идти шатаясь)

 

basic vocabulary word belong to the periphery of the vocabulary

=”to move from place have elaborate (уточняющий) additional

to place on foot” information encoded in their meanings

direct broad meaning

 

(17) synonyms belonging to different stylistic strata

Basic vocabulary	Informal	Formal
begin	start, get started	commence
continue	go on, get on	proceed
end	finish, be through, be over	terminate
child, baby	kid, brat, beam (dial.)	infant, babe (poet.)

 

(18) the stylistic strata of English vocabulary

 

Stylistically-neutral words Stylistically-marked words

 

Basic Informal Formal

Colloquial Slang Dialect Learned Archaic Professional

words words words words and obsolete terminology

words

 

literary familiar low literary scientific poetic

officialese

 

 

WORD-BUILDING I

W ord-building - processes of producing new words from the resources of this particular language. Together with borrowing, word-building provides for enlarging and enriching the vocabulary of the language.

(1) Morphemes – units that constitute a word and do not occur as free forms but only as constituents of words, nevertheless they possess meanings of their own.

 

(2) MORPHEMES

roots (radicals) affixes

prefixessuffixes

precede the root follow the root

re read, mis pronounce, unwell teach er, cur able, dict ate

 

(3) root + affix (1 or more) = derived word (derivative) ←affixation (derivation)

↑

extremely numerous

 

(4) 1 morpheme (root) = root-word ← conversion (Mod.E.)

(hand → to hand, can → to can,

pale → to pale, to find → to find)

 

great number of original English stock

or earliest borrowings (house, room,

book, work, port, street, table)

 

(5) 2 or more stems = compound word ← composition

↑

(dining-room, bluebell, mother-in-law, good-for-nothing)

 

(6) short odd-looking words = shortenings ← shortening(contraction)

(contractions, curtailed words)

↑

(flu, pram, lab, M. P., V-day, H-bomb)

(7) Main structural types of Mod.E. words: root words, derived words, compounds, shortenings;

The most productive ways of word-building: conversion, derivation and composition.

 

(8) The process of affixation consists in coining a new word by adding an affix or several affixes to some root morpheme. The role of the affix in this procedure is very important.

 

(9) Some Native Suffixes (frequent ones)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Noun-forming	-er	worker, miner, teacher, painter, etc.
-ness	coldness, loneliness, loveliness, etc.
-ing	feel ing, mean ing, sing ing, read ing, etc.
-dom	free dom, wis dom, king dom, etc.
-hood	child hood, man hood, mother hood, etc.
-ship	friend ship, companion ship, master- ship, etc.
-th	leng th, bread th, heal th, tru th, etc.
Adjective-forming	-ful	care ful, joy ful, wonder ful, sin ful, skil ful, etc.
-less	care less, sleep less, cloud less, sense- less, etc.
-y	coz y, tid y, merr y, snowy, show y, etc.
-ish	Engli sh, Spani sh, reddi sh, childi sh, etc.
-ly	lonely, lovely, ugly, likely, lordly, etc.
-en	wooden, woollen, silken, golden, etc.
-some	hand some, quarrel some, tire some, etc.
Verb-forming	-en	wid en, redd en, dark en, sadd en, etc.
Adverb-forming	-ly	warm ly, hard ly, simp ly, careful ly, cold ly, etc.

 

(10) Borrowed affixes are numerous (esp. of Romance origin). Affixes are borrowed not in the same way or for the same reasons as words.

 

 

(11) AFFIXES

productive non-productive

take part in deriving new formed on the level of living speech and

words in this particular period reflect the most productive and progressive

of language development patterns in word-building

- neologisms thinnish,baldish, oldish, youngish, mannish,

- nonce-words (coined & used girlish, fattish, longish, yellowish

only for particular occasion) "I don't like Sunday evenings: I feel so

e.g.: unputdownable thriller; Mondayish ".

Professor Pringle was a thinnish, ↑

baldish, dispeptic-lookingish cove is certainly a nonce-word

with an eye like a haddock.

(From Right-Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse)

 

 

(12) productivity ≠ frequency of occurrence: the adjective-forming native suffixes -ful, -ly; the adjective-forming suffixes of Latin origin -ant, -ent, -al which are quite frequent, but are no longer used in word-derivation.

 

(13) Some Productive Affixes

 

Noun-forming suffixes	-er, -ing, -ness, -ism (materialism), -ist (impressionist), -ance (International suffixes)
Adjective-forming suffixes	-y, -ish, -ed (learned), -able, -less
Adverb-forming suffixes	-ly
Verb-forming suffixes	-ize/-ise (realise), -ate
Prefixes	un- (unhappy), re- (reconstruct), dis- (disappoint)

 

 

(14) Some Non-Productive Affixes

 

Noun-forming suffixes	-th, -hood
Adjective-forming suffixes	-ly, -some, -en, -ous
Verb-forming suffix	-en

 

 

(15) morpheme (=> affix being a type of morpheme) is generally defined as the smallest indivisible component of the word possessing a meaning of its own.

Meanings of affixes - specific& considerably differ from those of root morphemes, widely generalised & refer the concept conveyed by the whole word to a certain category, which is vast and all-embracing:

noun-forming -er = designating persons from the object of their occupation or labour (painter — the one who paints) or from their place of origin or abode (southerner — the one living in the South);

adjective-forming -ful = "full of", "characterised by" (beautiful, careful)

-ish = insufficiency of quality (greenish — green, but not

quite; youngish — not quite young but looking it)

 

(16) un/eat/able = "not fit to eat" where not stands for un- and fit for –able

 

(17) brainy (inform.) — intelligent, intellectual, i. e. characterised by brains

catty — quietly or slyly malicious, spiteful, i. e. characterised by features ascribed to a cat

chatty — given to chat, inclined to chat

dressy (inform.) — showy in dress, i. e. inclined to dress well or to be overdressed

fishy (e. g. in a fishy story, inform.) — improbable, hard to believe (like stories told by fishermen)

foxy — foxlike, cunning or crafty, i. e. characterised by features ascribed to a fox

stagy — theatrical, unnatural, i. e. inclined to affectation, to unnatural theatrical manners

touchy — apt to take offence on slight provocation, i. e. resenting a touch or contact (not at all inclined to be touched)

(18) meaning of the -y suffix by The Random-House Dictionary is "characterised by or inclined to the substance or action of the root to which the affix is attached". (touchy, fishy are not covered by the definition; those which are roughly covered, show a wide variety of subtle shades of meaning)

 

(19) The italicised words roughly convey the meanings of the suffixes in each adjective.

1. eatable (fit or good to eat)
lovable (worthy of loving)
questionable (open to doubt, to question)
imaginable (capable of being imagined)

2. lovely (charming, beautiful, i. e. inspiring love)
lonely (solitary, without company; lone; the meaning of the suffix does not seem to add anything to that of the root)

friendly (characteristic of or befitting a friend) heavenly (resembling or befitting heaven; beautiful, splendid)

3. childish (resembling or befitting a child)

tallish (rather tall, but not quite, i. e. approaching the quality of big size)

girlish (like a girl, but, often, in a bad imitation of one)

bookish (1) given or devoted to reading or study; (2) more acquainted with books than with real life, i. e. possessing the quality of bookish learning)

 

(20) Compare:

1) womanly (used in a complimentary manner about girls and women)

womanish (indicate an effeminate man and implies criticism),

2) flowery (applied to speech or a style (cf. with the R. цветистый))

flowered ("decorated with a pattern of flowers" (e. g. flowered silk or chintz, cf. with the R. цветастый))

flowering (= blossoming (e. g. flowering bushes or shrubs, cf. with the R. цветущий))

3) starry ("resembling stars" (e. g. starry eyes))

starred ("covered or decorated with stars" (e. g. starred skies))

4) reddened (imply the result of an action or process, as in the eyes reddened with weeping)

reddish (point to insufficiency of quality: reddish is not exactly red, but tinged with red)

5) shortened (imply the result of an action or process, as in a shortened version of a story (i. e. a story that has been abridged))

shortish (point to insufficiency of quality: shortish man is probably a little taller than a man described as short)

 

Conversion

One of the most productive ways of modern English word-building

 

(21) a splendid read (verb or noun?)

I was to room with another girl called Jessie. (verb or noun?)

… the one who had to be satisfied with the role of a has-been (verb or noun?)

 

(22) If ifs and ans were pots and pans? (an = if, dial., arch.)

(23) affixless way of word-building / affixless derivation = most compounds, contracted words, sound-imitation words, etc.

 

(24) nurse, n. > to nurse, v

-s, pl. -s, 3^rd p.sg.

Substantive -‘s. poss. c., Verbal –ed, past

paradigm sg. Paradigm indef., past part.

-s’, poss. c., pl. –ing, pres. part., gerund

 

 

(25) controversial question

 

not a word-building act, one of the major ways of enriching

but a mere functional change English vocabulary with new words

(e. g. H. Sweet) (universally accepted)

e.g.: Hand me that book main argument: semantic change that

not a verb but noun used in a verbal regularly accompanies each instance

syntactical function => hand (me) of conversion. Normally a word changes

and hands (in She has small hands) its syntactical function with no change

are not two different words but one in lexical meaning: e.g.:

=> the саsе cannot be treated yellow leaves colour

as one of word-formation for no new The leaves were turning yellow

word appears => conversion is a The leaves yellowed = ‘process of

specific feature of the English categories changing colour’= change in meaning

of parts of speech, which are supposed hand >to hand

to be able to break through the rigid face >to face obvious change

borderlines dividing one category from to go >a go in meaning

another thus enriching the process of to make >a make

communication not by the creation of another argument: regularity and

new words but through the sheer completeness in developing a

flexibility of the syntactic structures paradigm of their new category of part

of speech ← all the properties of the

new category => new words, not

functional variants.

In Modern Dictionaries converted pairs

= homonyms, 2 words, thus =>

conversion is a word-building process

 

(26) Conversion – highly productive & particularly English

↑

encouraged by certain features of Modern English

↑

analytical structure; simplicity of paradigms; many one-syllable words

↑

more mobile and flexible than polysyllables

 

 

(27) Conversion – convenient and "easy" way of enriching the vocabulary

↑

two (or more) words ← one, fixed on the same structural and semantic base

 

(28) high productivity of conversion → speech → occasional cases, due to the

immediate need of the situation,

not reflected in dictionaries, e.g.:

If anybody oranges me again tonight, I'll knock his face off

↑ (O’Henry"Little Speck in Garnered Fruit")

for brevity, expressiveness and humour

 

 

(29) Conversion – vital and developing process.

 

 

(30) Not every case of noun and verb (verb and adjective, adjective and noun, etc.) with the same morphemic shape results from conversion. Some pairs of words (e. g. love, n. — to love, v.; work, n. — to work, v.; drink, n. — to drink, v., etc.) may be a result of certain historical processes (dropping of endings, simplification of stems) when before that they had different forms (e. g. O. E. lufu, n. — lufian, v.) But first cases of conversion (which were registered in the 14th c.) imitated such pairs of words as love, n. — to love, v. for they were numerous in the vocabulary and were subconsciously accepted by native speakers as one of the typical language patterns.

 

 

(31) Verbs and nouns are mainly affected by conversion.

1) The most numerous nouns → verbs: e. g. to hand, to back, to face, to eye, to mouth, to nose, to dog, to wolf, to monkey, to can, to coal, to stage, to screen, to room, to floor, to blackmail, to blacklist, to honeymoon.

2) Verb → noun: do (e. g. This is the queerest do I've ever come across. Do — event, incident), go (e. g. He has still plenty of go at his age. Go — energy), make, run, find, catch, cut, walk, worry, show, move.

3) Adjective → verb: to pale, to yellow, to cool, to grey, to rough (e. g. We decided to rough it in the tents as the weather was warm), etc.

4) Other: to down, to out (as in a newspaper heading Diplomatist Outed from Budapest), the ups and downs, the ins and outs, like, n, (as in the like of me and the like of you).

 

(32) Semantic associations of the converted words:

I. The noun is the name of a tool or implement, the verb denotes an action performed by the tool: to hammer, to nail, to pin, to brush, to comb, to pencil.

 

II. The noun is the name of an animal, the verb denotes an action or aspect of behaviour considered typical of this animal: to dog, to wolf, to monkey, to ape, to fox, to rat.

Yet, to fish does not mean "to behave like a fish" but "to try to catch fish".

The same meaning of hunting activities is conveyed by the verb to whale and one of the meanings of to rat; the other is "to turn in former, squeal" (sl.).

 

III. The name of a part of the human body — an action performed by it: to hand, to leg (sl.), to eye, to elbow, to shoulder, to nose, to mouth.

However, to face does not imply doing something by or even with one's face but turning it in a certain direction.

To back means either "to move backwards" or, in the figurative sense, "to support somebody or something".

 

IV. The name of a profession or occupation — an activity typical of it: to nurse, to cook, to maid, to groom.

 

V. The name of a place — the process of occupying
the place or of putting smth./smb. in it (to room, to house, to place, to table, to cage).

 

VI. The name of a container — the act of putting smth. within the container (to can, to bottle, to pocket).

 

VII. The name of a meal — the process of taking it (to lunch, to supper).

 

(33) Difficulties in establishing semantic associations

↑

complex but sometimes perplexing

1) to fox - obviously derived from the associated reputation foxes for cunning:

=> to fox = "to act cunningly or craftily".

2) to wolf -?which of the characteristics of wolves was picked: ferocity, loud and unpleasant howling, the inclination to live in packs?

=> to wolf = "to eat greedily, voraciously": Charlie went on wolfing the chocolate. (R. Dahl)

3) to dog:

And what of Charles? I pity any detective who would have to dog him through those twenty months.

(From The French Lieutenant's Woman by J. Fowles)

=> to dog = to follow or track like a dog, especially with hostile intent.

4) to ape and to monkey seem to mean the same but share b/w themselves certain typical features of the same animal:

=> to ape = to imitate, mimic (e. g. He had always aped the gentleman in his clothes and manners. — J. Fowles);

=> to monkey = to fool, to act or play idly and foolishly.

To monkey can also be used in the meaning “to imitate”, but much rarer than to ape.

(34)

“Mother,” said Johnny, “is it correct to say you ‘water a horse’ when he’s thirsty?”

“Yes, quite correct.”

“Then,” (picking up a saucer) “I’m going to milk the cat.”

The joke is based on the child’s mistaken association of two apparently similar patterns: water, n. – to water, v.; milk, n. – to milk, v. But it turns out that the meanings of the two verbs arose from different associations: to water a horse means “to give him water”, but to milk implies getting milk from an animal (e.g.: to milk a cow).

 

WORD BUILDING II

Composition

(1) Combining two or more stems, one of the most productive → compounds - one of the most typical and specific features of English word-structure.

 

(2) 3 aspects of composition:

1^st aspect - Structural. Not homogeneous in structure. 3 types:

1) Neutral – no linking elements, mere juxtaposition of two stems:

blackbird, shop-window, sunflower, bedroom, tallboy, etc.

3 subtypes depending on the structure of the constituent stems:

a) simple neutral compounds ← simple affixless stems

blackbird, shop-window, sunflower, bedroom, tallboy, etc.

b) derived or derivational compounds ← affixes

absent-mindedness, blue-eyed, golden-haired, broad-shouldered, lady-killer, film-goer, music-lover, honey-mooner, first-nighter, late-comer, newcomer, early-riser, evildoer

Productivity is proved by:

- considerable number of comparatively recent formations:

teenager, babysitter, strap-hanger, fourseater ("car or boat with four seats"), doubledecker ("a ship or bus with two decks")

- numerous nonce-words:

luncher-out ("a person who habitually takes his lunch in restaurants and not at home"), goose-flesher ("murder story") or attention getter in the following fragment:

"Dad," I began... "I'm going to lose my job." That should be an attention getter, I figured.

(From A Five-Colour Buick by P. Anderson Wood)

c) contracted compounds ← shortened (contracted) stem

TV-set (-program, -show, -canal, etc.), V-day (Victory day), G-man (Government man "FBI agent"), H-bag (handbag), T-shirt, etc.

2) Morphological - few in number, non-productive, two compounding stems are combined by a linking vowel or consonant:

Anglo-Saxon, Franko-Prussian, handiwork, handicraft, craftsmanship, spokesman, statesman

3) Syntactic - articles, prepositions, adverbs (specifically English):

lily-of-the-valley, Jack-of-all-trades, good-for-nothing, mother-in-law, sit-at-home

Compound nouns showing syntactical relations and grammatical patterns current in present-day English:

pick-me-up, know-all, know-nothing, go-between, get-together, whodunit ("a detective story") ← ungrammatical variant of the word-group who (has) done it.

4) Neologisms:

whodunit

Following fragments make rich use of modern city traffic terms:

Randy managed to weave through a maze of oneway-streets, no-left-turns, and no-stopping-zones...

(From A Five-Colour Buick by P. Anderson Wood)

"... you go down to the Department of Motor Vehicles tomorrow and take your behind-the-wheel test."

(Ibid.)

 

(3) The structure of most compounds is transparent ≠ word-combinations

The fragments below illustrate the very process of coining nonce-words after the productive patterns of composition:

"Is all this really true?" he asked. "Or are you pulling my leg?"

... Charlie looked slowly around at each of the four old faces... They were quite serious. There was no sign of joking or leg-pulling on any of them.

(From Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by R. Dahl)

leg-pulling← neutral derivational compounds

 

"I have decided that you are up to no good. I am well aware that that is your natural condition. But I prefer you to be up to no good in London. Which is more used to up-to-no-gooders. "

(From The French Lieutenant's Woman by J. Fowles)

up-to-no-gooders ← a segment of speech which is held together by the -er suffix = combination of syntactic and derivational types

= nonce-word breakfast-in-the-bedder ("a person who prefers to have his breakfast in bed")

 

"What if they capture us?" said Mrs. Bucket. "What if they shoot us?" said Grandma Georgina. "What if my beard were made of green spinach?" cried Mr.Wonka. "Bunkum and tommyrot! You'll never get anywhere if you go about what-iffing like that....We want no what-iffers around, right, Charlie?"

(From Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by R. Dahl)

what-iffing & what-iffers = syntactic compounds

what - if -nucleus = frequent pattern of living speech

(4) 2^nd aspect – Semantic = can the meaning of a compound word be regarded as the sum of its constituent meanings?

 

(5) 1) Classroom, bedroom, working-man, evening-gown;

dining-room, sleeping-car, reading-room, dancing-hall- slight shift of meaning

↓

sleeping-car ≠ car that sleeps

denotes an action or state (cf. a sleeping child)

dancing-hall ≠ hall that dances

(cf. dancing pairs)

 

 

2) one of the components (or both) has changed its meaning:

blackboard - neither a board nor necessarily black

football - not a ball but a game

chatterbox - not a box but a person

lady-killer - kills no one but is merely a man who fascinates women

blackbird, pick, pocket, good-for-nothing, lazybones.

=>meaning of the whole word ≠sum of the constituent meanings

a white blackbird, pink bluebells accepted as normal

Blackberries are red when they are green

Still the meaning is transparent: blackbird = some kind of bird;

good-for-nothing = not meant as a compliment.

 

3) process of deducing the meaning of the whole from those of the constituents is impossible; the key to meaning seems to be lost:

ladybird ≠ bird, = insect,

tallboy ≠ boy, = a piece of furniture,

bluestocking = a person,

bluebottle = a flower & = an insect ≠ a bottle.

man-of-war ("warship"),

merry-to-round ("carousel"),

mother-of-pearl ("irridescent substance forming the inner layer of certain shells"),

horse-marine ("a person who is unsuitable for his job or position"),

butter-fingers ("clumsy person; one who is apt to drop things"),

wall-flower ("a girl who is not invited to dance at a party"),

whodunit ("detective story"),

straphanger (1. "a passenger who stands in a crowded bus or underground train and holds onto a strap or other support suspended from above"; 2. "a book of light genre, trash; the kind of book one is likely to read when travelling in buses or trains").

 

(6) The following joke rather vividly shows what happens if an idiomatic compound is misunderstood as non-idiomatic.

Patient: They tell me, doctor, you are a perfect lady-killer.

Doctor: Oh, no, no! I assure you, my dear madam, I make no distinction between the sexes.

In this joke, while the woman patient means to compliment the doctor on his being a handsome and irresistible man, he takes or pretends to take the word lady-killer literally, as a sum of the direct meanings of its constituents.

 

(7) Advantages of structural type of compound words and the word-building type of composition:

1) Flexible enough

2) Expressive &colourful(cf. snow-white — as white as snow)

3) Laconic (cf. The hotel was full of week-enders and The hotel was full of people spending the week-end there; snow-white — as white as snow)

 

(8) In the following extract a family are discussing which colour to paint their new car.

"Hey," Sally yelled, "could you paint it canary yellow, Fred?"

"Turtle green," shouted my mother, quickly getting into the spirit of the thing.

"Mouse grey," Randy suggested.

"Dove white, maybe?" my mother asked.

"Rattlesnake brown," my father said with a deadpan look...

"Forget it, all of you," I announced. "My Buick is going to be peacock blue."

(From A Five-Colour Buick by P. Anderson Wood)

Rattlesnake brown = "цвета гремучей змеи". The father of the family is absolutely against the idea of buying the car, and the choice of this word reflects his mood of resentment

 

(9) This is well shown in the fragment given above. If canary yellow, peacock blue, dove white are quite "normal" in the language and registered by dictionaries, turtle green and rattlesnake brown¹ are certainly typical nonce-words, amusing inventions of the author aimed at a humorous effect.

 

(10) Eng.: blue = Rus.: синий,голубой, but:

Built on comparison: navy blue, cornflower blue, peacock blue, chicory blue, sapphire blue, china blue, sky-blue, turquoise blue, forget-me-not blue, heliotrope blue, powder-blue

Built not on comparison: dark blue, light blue, pale blue, electric blue, Oxford blue, Cambridge blue

 

(11) the 3^rd aspect - criteria for distinguishing b/w a compound and a word-combination

Compounds (except rare morphological type) originate directly from word-combinations and are often homonymous to them: cf. a tall boy — a tallboy.

graphic criterion is sufficiently convincing but cannot wholly be relied on (tallboy) → semanticcriterion:

tallboy ≠ a person, = a piece of furniture, a chest of drawers supported by a low stand (1 concept);

a tall boy =1. a young male person; 2. big in size (2 concepts)

still not enough (phraseological units) → phoneticcriterion = single stress (doesn’t work with compound adjectives):

cf. 'slowcoach, blackbird, 'tallboy,

but: blие-'eyed, 'absent-'minded, 'ill-'mannered

still morphological structure & hyphenated spelling => words, not word-groups.

 

(12) Morphological & syntactic criteria:

a tall boy = word-group

- each of the constituents can be grammatically changed: They were the tallest boys in their form.

- other words can be inserted: a tall handsome boy.

tallboy = compound

- the 1^st component is grammatically invariable; plural form ending is added to the whole unit: tallboys

- no word can be inserted b/w the components, even with traditional separate graphic form

=> Only several criteria (semantic, morphological, syntactic, phonetic, graphic) can convincingly classify a lexical unit as either a compound word or a word group.

 

Semi-Affixes

(13) "... The Great Glass Elevator is shockproof, waterproof, bombproof, bulletproof, and Knidproof¹..."

(From Charlie and the Great Gl