Giáo trình tự vựng tiếng anh cơ bản (basic english lexicology) hoàng tất trường

Thus the subject matter of lexicology is the word, its structure, formation, meaning and history.. It is stress that often helps distinguish between compound words and free word groups s

1993

valueless

-She’s very stingy!

-No, she’s quite tight!

-Oh, she’s so thrifty!

girlishness

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PREFACE

This material is intended for the 4th year students of the English Department in the Hanoi University of Foreign Language Teachers It can also be, as a matter of fact, used for English students in the later years in other universities since it only treats of the essential facts of lexicology in general and English lexicology in particular

Having considered the level of our students’ knowledge of English, we have tried, as far as possible, to make this course not quite “theoretically theoretical” but “practically theoretical” English and Russian linguists look at the word from rather different angles thus describing it rather differently We have to combine those schools of thought in such

a way that our students will have less difficulties in the study of this subject To help improve our students’ comprehension a certain amount of time is to be devoted to seminars for which specific topic have been selected They are required to do all the exercises in the written form

We benefited greatly from talks and discussions with our colleagues Let us here thank all of them for what they have directly or indirectly contributed

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A INTRODUCTION

I/ Lexicology, its subject matter and task

Linguistic material is generally arranged into phonology, grammar and lexis (or vocabulary) These three distinct dimensions are the subject matter of the various linguistic branches

The word “lexicology” originates from Greek and is composed of two parts: “lexis” meaning “word” and “logos” meaning “science, learning”, thus “lexicology” literally mean “the science or the study of the word” However, this is just a vague notion about the subject matter and task of lexicology since all the other branches of linguistic science also refer to the word

As a branch of linguistic, lexicology has its specific sims and methods of scientific research, its essential task being the study and systematic description of the vocabulary of

a given language By “vocabulary” or “lexis” is meant the sum total or the system of all the words that a language possesses and by “word” is meant dialectical unity of form and content, independent unit of language capable to form a sentence by itself (it should be noted here that an exact definition of the word has so far not been arrived at) Thus the subject matter of lexicology is the word, its structure, formation, meaning and history Apart from these lexicology also investigates set expressions hence phraseology and the art of compiling dictionaries hence lexicography Lexicology cannot exclude lexicography because the latter is a practical application of the former and lexicographers are inevitably guided in their work by the principle laid down by lexicologists

Regional varieties of the word are dealt with in lexicology as well Take English for example, not only is there Britain English but there is American, Australian, Indian, Canadian English and so forth as English is extremely widely used in the world

In the broad sense, lexicology can be said to consist of five essential branches:

1) Word structure and formation: Investigates all the problems concerning the structure of the word and the way it is formed

2) Semasiology (or semantics): Focuses on the meaning of the word chiefly the lexical meaning because the grammatical meaning is studied in grammar (This will be dealt with in part C) It discusses the type of meaning, the change and development of meaning, the grouping of words and so on

3) Phraseology: Goes into set (fixed) expressions which are reproduced in speech as ready – made units There may be standardized word combinations, idioms, proverbs etc from only two phrases to very long sayings In English there are such set expressions as “good heavens, diamond cuts diamond, no pains no gains;

as strong as a horse, two heads are better than one, he who chatters to you will chatter of you and still others

4) Etymology: Refers to the history, the origin of words Etymologists divide the English vocabulary into two main layers: native words and borrowed words 5) Lexicography: Studies the problems related to dictionary compiling, they are the problems of the types of dictionary, the selection of words for each type, the arrangement of words and so on

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Lexicology approaches the words from different angles: general lexicology treats vocabulary in general and special lexicology treats the vocabulary of a given language Every special lexicology is based on the fundamental principles of general lexicology, which is a basic part of the general science of language Historical lexicology discusses the vocabulary in the diachronic aspect It studies the origin of words and their development, investigates the non-linguistic and linguistic forces modifying the structure

of words, their meaning and usage It surveys the vocabulary as a system in its evolution, describing its change and development in the course of time

Descriptive lexicology studies the vocabulary in the synchronic aspect, i.e at a given stage of its development.it deals with words in their morphological and sementical structures, investigating the interdependence between these two levels

Yet it is important to note that, being a social phenomenon, language develops together with society The vocabulary of a language is always in a state of constant development Almost every new object or phenomenon in human society and activity, as soon as it appears, finds its place in the vocabulary As human society develops, a great many new words are needed to express new ideas, new conceptions and new wants The vocabulary can be said to be a mirror that reflects man’s character, mentality and activity Therefore, both the diachronic and synchronic approaches are to be combined Every linguistic survey has to strike a reasonable balance beween the two

II/ The significance of lexicology:

As mentioned above, vocabulary is one of the three main dimensions of language, so lexicology is theoretically valuable in that it forms the study of this dimension Lexicology is specially practically useful in foreign language teaching It helps stimulate

a systematic approach to facts concerning vocabulary It is also valuable in building up students’ vocabulary by effectively selecting, grouping and analizing new words A clear understanding of the word forming system furnishes an instrument enabling students to guess and retain in their memory the meaning of: new words on the basic of their motivation or by comparing and constrasting them with the previously learnt elements and patterns Mistakes can be reduced by drawing students’ attention to the distributional features of words Lexicology also helps students distinguish between different styles of speech, spoken and written speech in particular thus making them more confident in contact with foreigners They can express more ideas within a limited vocabulary Lexicology imparts the essential skills of using various types of dictionaries and reference material and prepares for future independent work on the improvement of the learner’s stock of words With a good grasp of the theory of the word, teachers might be able to find out effective ways to test their students’ knowledge of vocabulary

Apart from all that lexicology makes it possible for students to gain a better insight into various cultural aspects of the people speaking the language they are learning and even of their own as well They can, to some extent, see the interest, the beauty of language

III/ Lexicology in its relation to phonology, grammar and stylistics:

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One level of linguistic structure can’t be well treated in isolation from the other No part of a language can be sufficiently investigated without referring to all other parts The survey of words in lexicology is not to be separated from that of the other elements in the language system to which words belong since all those element are, in fact, interdependent and closely related

Many phonological features take part in the conditioning of word unity and marking word limits Regarding English, there are two main phonological features associated with words, they are stress and juncture It is stress that often helps distinguish between compound words and free word groups such as “ ‘dancing ‘girl” and “ ‘dancing girl” or “

‘black ‘leg” and “ ‘black-leg” It is juncture that enables us to realize the difference between word groups that are almost homonymous like “a nation” and “an Asian” and so

be fulfilled by all intransitive verbs but are usually just taken up by verbs of motion or perception: “run short, go wrong turn yellow, get angry” etc and many other similar combinations conveying the meaning of “become sth”

On the other hand the grammatical form and function of the word affects its lexical meaning: “When halls and Baxter were going to realize everything it was already too late Coke was gone and so was their car” The same verb “go” here acquires definitely example is the varied meaning of the verb “boil” in the following: “The water is boiling, the water is being boiled, the water is boiled water”

Word forming patterns give enough evidence to say that word-formation can be well assigned to both lexical and grammatical fields

The lexicalization of a grammatical form is also worth mentioning A form that originally indicated grammatical meaning turns into a basis for a new lexical meaning, take such examples as nouns used in the plural having a special sense: spectacles, advices colours, customs etc The suffix –s in these words signals a new word with a completely new meaning

Concrete nouns are sometimes used both as mass-nouns (uncountable nouns) and as thing-nouns (countable nouns) In the latter meaning they may well take the suffix of plurality (-s/-es) For instance "meat, butter, rice, fish, hair" etc are usually used in the singular but once used in the plural they mean different things In such cases, figurative meanings are sometimes found as well: "Fruits of labour" Very often grammar plays the crucial role in deciding the meaning of words We can rely on it to compare the various lexical meanings of the verb "make" in the following: "made in Japan; He made her his wife; That boy will make a good teacher; She made away with herself; The whole story is

"What the hell are you saying?”

In conclusion, it goes without saying that all the levels of language are closely interconnected and can be said to overlap one another We separate them for convenience

of study, not because they are separate

IV/ Some general characteristics of the English language:

The mixed character of the vocabulary is the most characteristic feature of English since its grammar and phonetic systems are very stable and not easily, influenced by other languages The composite nature of the English vocabulary is an undenisable fact

As mentioned above, English words are devided into two main layers: native and borrowed The term "native" is used to indicate words of Anglo-Saxon origin brought to the British Isles from the continent in the 5th century by the Germanic tribes These words formed the foundation for the further development of the English vocabulary

It is surprising to note that the present-day English vocabulary contains over 600.000 words, while in old English period it was composed of only 30.000 words It underwent and is nowadays still undergoing considerable changes: New words or new meaning of old words appear while some old words and meanings are no longer used or even drop out of the language completely However, in English, as in any other languages, there is always a layer of words which is considered most stable, most significant for communicative purposes This layer of words is called the basic stock of words

The words making up the basic stock are usually the oldest and are mostly native words: Man, woman, hand, foot, house, door, sun, star, sat, drink, big, small and so on and so forth They denote the most common objects, actions, notions of everyday life thus being used most frequently The majority of these words are polysemantic and constitute the basis for the further developments of the vocabulary From them, a great number of new words have been formed: Hand; to hand; handicraft; handbag; handsaw; hand book; handout; red - handed and still others The basic stock of words may be said

to consist of five groups which denote:

1- The most common objects and phenomens of nature: sky, earth, sun, star, moon, rain, wind, water, tree, etc

2- The names of human beings, parts of the body relatives: man, woman, mother, father, brother, sister, arm, foot etc

3- Men's dwelling, domestic animals: House, roof, dog, cat, pig, cow, sheep, etc 4- Actions in everyday life, labour tools, eat, drink, do, make, hammer, etc

5- Main qualities and properties: Big, small, good, bad, old, young, cold, hot, etc SEMINAR: TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION:

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1 The subject matter of lexicology

2 The task of lexicology

3 Word and vocabulary

4 The five principal branches of lexicology

5 The types of lexicology

6 Why lexicology is studied, its significance

7 The relationship between phonology and lexicology

8 The relationship between grammar and lexicology

9 The relationship between stylistics and Lexicology

10 The growth of the English vocabulary and the reasons for that growth

11 The basic stock of words and its characteristics

12 The meaning of some essential terms: lexicology, vocabulary, diachronic, synchronic, semasiology, semantics, phraseology, stymology, lexicography

B WORD STRUCTURE AND FORMATION

I/ Word structure

1 The word:

As mentioned above, the term "word" appears to be a simple concept but in fact, it is extremely difficult to define Some linguists refer to semantics, some refer to phonology etc to define the word For instance, Palmer noted that a word is marked if not by

"spaces" or "pauses", at least by some features of the sound system of the language, for example, stress and juncture in English And yet, in rapid spoken English, we sometimes can hardly find stress and juncture; we might say "whatchagonna do?" for what in writing would appear "what are you going to do?" Is "whatcha" one word or three and "gonna" one or two? So, let us, for the time being, accept the following definition which seems to

be the most satisfactory: "A word is a dialectical unity of form and content, independent unit of language to form a sentence by itself, for example "book, bookish, unlucky, go, eat, lexicology, white-wash, kiss-me-quick" and so forth

2 The morpheme:

Looking at the words above, we can see that many of them are made up of various smaller meaningful elements: book +- ish = bookish; un -+ luck +- y = unlucky, etc These elements are called "morphemes" As they cannot be divided any further into meaningful parts, morphemes may be defined as the minimal meaningful language units

A morpheme has its sound form and meaning but unlike a word, it is not independent and ocours in speech only as part of a word although a word

may - consist of only one morpheme, is they coincide

3 The types of morphemes and words:

There are two main types of morphemes: The root morpheme and the affixational morpheme

3.1 The root morpheme is also called the lexical morpheme or simply the root Itis the primary element of the word and conveys its essential lexical meaning In the example above, we have the roots "book, luck, white, wash" etc The root remains after removing

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all the other elements and cannot be analized any further So we can easily pick out the

root in this "terrible looking" word set:

phonologist enphony, etc

Root morphemes are, in general, free morphemes because they can function

independently Very few roots are bound morphemes, ie the morphemes that cannot

function independently and have to be combined with other morphemes; for intance,

clude in "conclude include ,, exclude", or terr- in "terror, terrorize, terrific, terrible" etc

3.2 The affixational morpheme is further divided into grammatical morpheme and

derivational morpheme

a) The grammatical morpheme is also called inflection or ending Used to create

different forms of the same word it carries the grammatical meaning only and is,

therefore, studied in grammar: -s in "books", - ed in "asked, studied" etc

A complete set of forms of a word in an inflectional pattern is called "inflectional

paradigm" It is the system of grammatical forms characteristic of a word, eg:

girl, girl's, girls, girls'

quick, quiker, quickest

open, opens, opening, opened, opened

b) The dericational morpheme carries both lexical and grammatical meaning Because of

this dual nature it can be called lexico- grammatical morpheme e.g pre - ; un - ; re - ; -

ness; - ful;- ly

Derivational morphemes are used to create new words and are, therefore, studied in

lexicology

Here we can speak about derivational paradigm It is the system of derivational forms

characteristic of a word, e.g hope, hopeless, hopelessness, hopelessly

It should be noted that derivational paradigm is a new concept When linguists

mention "paradigm" they usually mean "inflectional paradigm"

To clarify the types of morpheme, let consider the following chart:

(-Mostly face-) (- All bound -)

MORPHEME

Root morpheme Affixational morpheme

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3.3 The types of words:

The concept of morpheme now allows us to classify words into three types: simple words, derived words and compound words

A simple word is one that only consists of a root morpheme: "boy, girl, table, small, green, yellow, speak, follow, establish"

A derived word is one chat consists of a root and one or more derivational morphemes: Teacher, "student, amusing, interested, antidisestablishmentarianism

A compound word is one that has at least two roots, with or without derivational morphemes: Blackboard, ladykiller, happy - go - lucky, white-wash The following is the chart of words:

II/ WORD - FORMATION

Word - formation is the process of building new words from the material already existing in the language according to certain structural and semantic patterns and formulae

The subject matter of word-formation is of course not simple words but the ones that are analizable structurally and semantically, i.e derived" and compound words Thus, word formation goes into such words as "learner, mouthy, baby - sitter "but not" learn mouth, baby" and "sit"

The following are the various principal ways of word - formation in English graded according to their productive degrees

1 AFFIXATION

AFFIXATION is the formation of new words with the help of affixes

Affixes consist of prefixes and suffixes, therefore affixation is devided into prefixation and suffixation

There are so - called semi - affixas but these are very few and will be dealt with in the lecture on compound words

1.1 PREFIXATION

Free root Bound root Inflectional

morpheme

Derivational morpheme

WORD

Simple word Derived word Compound word

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a) Characteristic Features:

(to) do - (to) redo

(to) like mm - (to) dislike

(to) eat - (to) overeat

(to) lave - - - (to) outlive

happy - unhappy

polite - impolite

standard - substandard

able - unable /(to) enable

Looking at the examples above, we can see that prefixes rarely from new parts of speech and this is considered to be their distinctive feature as compared with suffixes There are some prefixes which coincide with words mostly prepositions and adverbs: over - ; out - ; up - 'etc These prefixes can be considered as homonymous to words b) Classification of prefixes

Prefixes are classified in many ways, either according to their origin or meaning or function

Let us now deal with the classification based on meaning since it is of great practical value in classroom teaching and learning

In general, prefixes in English have three groups of meaning: the first has negative meaning, the second denotes reversal or repetision of an action, the third shows space and time relationship The table below helps illustrate our classification

Prefixes

un, dis -, non-, mis-, in-

(ill -, im-, ir-)

Meaning negation

Examples

unlucky, dishonest, nonsense, misunderstand, incorrect, illegal, impolite, irregular

un -, dis-, re- reversal or repetition unlock, disconnect, redo,

retell, replay pre-, post-, fore-, over-,

Among the prefixes we can pick out such productive ones as "re -, non-, super-, pre-" while "in -, de -, a -" etc are quite nonproductive By "productive" is meant the great ability to be combined with other words to create new words

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"Super -" nowadays is a very productive prefix, especially in advertisements We can easily add it to many adjectives and almost every noun: supernatural superdeluxe, superman, supermarket, supercub, etc For a stylistic effect we might say "supercar, superdog" and so forth

It is worthy of note that "in -" and "un -" are rather strangely distributed Sometimes they are interchangeably used:

No less strange are the following meanings

of the word "human" when going with "in -" and "un- ": "inhuman" means "savage, brutal", but "unhuman" means "not human, suferhuman"

In short, the meanings of prefixes in English as mentioned above, vary greatly and

we have to be "vigilant" when dealing with them

1.2 SUFFIXATION:

a) Characteristic features:

This is the formation of words by means of suffixes The most distinctive feature of suffixes is that they usually change the meaning of stems, both lexically and grammatically In other words, they modify the lexical meaning of stems and transfer words to different parts of speech:

(to) eat - eatable/eater

(to) love - lovely/lovable

Concerning the peculiarities of suffixes special attention must be paid to the so called

“Lexicalized grammatical suffix” (this was already dealt with in A.II)

It is clear that in “spectacles” (eye glasses), “colours” (flag), “customs” (duties, taxes) etc., the morpheme –s does not indicate plurality, so it is a derivational morpheme, not a grammatical one These words are homonyms of the plural forms of “spectacle”

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(sight), “colour” (a quality of visible things produced in the eye by rays of light) and

“custom” (habitual practice)

Apart from “-s” we can also mention “ing”, “-ed” etc, “ing” in “the baby is amusing”

is quite different from “-ing” in “the baby is amusing its parents” “-ed” in “he headed the group” is quite different from “-ed” in “he is hot-headed”

The polysemy of a suffix in no less peculiar “-er” means + the doer of an action: speaker, eater, player, teacher, etc

+ A person living in a certain place: Londoner villager, Sydneysider, etc

+ A devide, a tool or instrument: stopper, eraser, boiler, etc

“y” means: + characterized by …: windy, rainy

+ full of, composed of: watery, sandy

+ Dear, intimate: daddy, dolly

+ resembling what the stem denotes: busby, inky

These is, besides “-er”, “-y” a great number of polysemantic suffixes in English b) Classification of suffixes:

Like prefixes, suffixes can also be classified in different ways according to different principles The most practical principle for us is the part of speech formed Within this scope, suffixes fall into the following group:

b.1 Noun – suffixes: -er, -or, -ing, -tion, -ness, -ish, etc

b.2 Adjective – suffixes:-able, -ish, -ed, -less, -y, etc

b.3 Verb - suffixes: -ize, -en, -fy, etc

b.4 Adverb – suffixes: -ly, -ward (s), -wise, etc

Suffixes can also be graded according to their productive degrees or to their origin The table below is a combination of those classifications

Type Suffix Productive

degree

-er

(-or)

Pro Germanic Denoting agent,

resident of, device

Eater, islander, stopper actor, sailor

fact, etc

Meeting Wedding

Sameness

art

Friendship Scholarship -tion Action, state or result Devotion solution

(-sion)

-ee

Object of an action Decision

Trainee, examinee

SUFF

-age unpro Romanic Act or process,

collection or sum total

Passage marriage package

Assistance Dependence

Manhood Falsehood

Quality, in the sense

of teding to, given to, able to

In the sense of, somewhat like, belonging to, resembling

Quality (possessed of, furnished with, characterized by)

Quality (not possessed of)

Movable, readable drinkable

Visible

Whitish outlandish Wolfish

Bearded moneyed Sugared

Childless Useless

abounding in, inclined

to

Windy, rocky watery

useful

fatherly daily, weakly

woolen

native or

Vietnamese Journalese

form into)

beautiful, signify -en Unpro Germanic Denoting action redden, shorten

Carefully nicely

southward (s) forward (s)

saleswise otherwise

Mention should be made of the suffix "dom" For a long time, "-dom" was really non-productive but it has recently become productive especially in American English: moviedom, hippiedom, gangsterdom, stardom, etc

Distinction must also be made between living and dead suffixes

Living suffixes are clearly and easily felt as parts of words Dead suffixes, on the contrary, can hardly be recognized Only by special etymological analysis can they be singled out: "-t." in "flight, "-height"; ""-lock" in "wedlock" etc

1.3 Origin of derivational affixes:

First of all we have to distinguish between native and borrowed (foreign) affixes The common native affixes are: un-, out -, under -, over -, mis-, -ish, -ness, - ly, - hood, etc Many of them were originally independent works but gradually lost their independence and became affixes

Concerning foreign affixes English did not borrow them separately but together with words For instance "station, aviation" were borrowed and their suffix "action" has become an inseparable part of the English word formation system

Most of foreign affixes have Romanic, Latin, Greek, French, etc origins

It is necessary here, to mention hybrid derivatives" These are the words whose roots and affixes are of different origins: eatable, artist, etc ("eat, art" are English "able" is Latin and "-ist" is Greek)

SEMINAR

TOPICS

1 The concept of “word”, the difficulty to arrive at its definition

2 The morpheme and its types

3 The types of words

-ous “ “ Language of full of,

abounding in

Poisonous jealous

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4 Inflectional paradigm versus derivational paradigm

5 Prefixation and its features

6 The meanings of prefixes

7 Suffixation and its features

8 The sentences: "the baby is amusing" and "the baby is amusing its parents"

9 The reasons for the classification of suffixes as illustrated in the table

10 Productive suffixes

EXERCISES

1 How many morphemes are there in the following humourous sentence and what kinds of morphemes are they? "I asked my boyfriend if he was unmarried and unmarried and he said he’d been unmarried even twice”

2 In the above - mentioned joke, there are all main types of words; aren't there? What are they?

3 Discuss the meaning of the suffixes" in the words "trainer" and "trainee" Can you give a few more such pairs of words?

4 What types of morphemes are"-s" and "-ing" in this pun: "The Russian customs officers made him take out all his spectacles, which were then lying about in heaps What an amusing spectacle!"

5 Paraphrase the following sentences "using affixes :

- The flowers are rather blue

- There are no languages that have no grammar He's far from being polite while his wife is too polite

- Mr A.S Hornby tried to make his dictionary modern

6 Choose the correct answer (s) :

Both prefixes in the words: “unjust” and “injustice” are:

a) Free morphemes

b) Actually words as well

c) Derivational morphemes

d) Not roots

7 What is the Vietnamese for "supermarket, supercub, superflat"?

8 Not using, a dictionary, translate the sentence below basing yourself on the knowledge of prefixes you have just gained: "These scales are unjust"

9 Discuss the meaning of the suffixes added to the word "imagine" in this joke: The war game was just over when the tough officer approached private Smith

- What's the matter? Didn't you know "were exposing yourself to an imaginary enemy only 500 feet away? They must have discovered you

- Yes, sir, but I was standing behind an imaginary rock 30 feet high That's imaginable too, isn't it?

10 Can you solve this riddle:

"What word becomes shorter by: adding “a suffix?”

2 COMPOUNDING

2.1 Definition and characteristic features:

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Compounding (or word- composition) is the building of a new word by joining two

or more words A compound word (or just "compound" for short) is therefore a word, that consists of at least two root morphemes:

School-boy, goal-keeper, aircraft - carrier, easy -going, kind -hearted,(to) handwash, whole-heartedly, etc

It is clear that the components of a compound may be either simple or derived words

or even other compound words

Compound can function in a sentence as separate lexical units due to their integrity, semantic unity and so on

In general, English compounds have two stems

The second element usually express a general meaning In the examples above, "boy, keeper carrier" etc Express a general meaning thus being the basic part in the compound This basic part is called "determinatum".The first part, being the determining one, is called "determinant"

Grammatically, the determinatum undergoes inflection: keepers

blackboard -)blackboards

(to) handwash -) handwashes, handwased, handwashing

Concerning compound words there are still many problems that cause controversy, how to distinguish between compounds and free word groups, for example

2.2.Criteria of compound words

English compounds are generally composed of free forms, therefore it is sometimes very, difficult to distinguish them from free word groups Linguists often have different opinions

The following is a brief summary of the most useful and convincing criteria that have been suggested:

a) Phonological criterion

In English there is a great tendency to give compounds a heavy stress on the first element: Classroom, hothead, boytriend, greenhouse, dancing girl, (to) whitewash, (to) bottlefeed, Snubnosed

Most compound nouns are stressed on this pattern and the stress falls on the determinant

Free word groups have even stresses: green house, dancing girl, etc

Only stress can help us understand the following dialogue

- Look at the beautiful dancing girl

- She's a well known dancing girl

The importance of stress is also indicated in this joke: "If you don't drive away the bluebottle I'll throw the blue bottle onto your face"

However there are also many compound-words which have double stress (even stress): 'good' egg: 'bread-and 'butter’, ‘gray-green 'happy-go-'lucky

This criterion is, therefore, insufficiency

b) Inseparability criterion:

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This can be also called "criterion of structural integrity" It means that compounds are indivisible Between the elements of a compound word it is impossible to insert any other word These elements lose their grammatical independence and endings are added

to the whole word: armchairs, blackmarkets, handwashed, handwashing, etc

And yet, we can sometimes separate a compound's elements in cases like: "Both cigar and cigarette smokers have to spend a lot"

The Inseparability criterion is not sufficient either

c) Semantic criterion

According to this criterion, a compound word only expresses a single idea despite the fact that it consists of two or more words The meaning of the whole compound word is not the sum of the meanings of its components: Greenhouse # green house; red tape (bureaucratic) ≠ red tape (tape of red colour)

This criterion is quite useful for identifying idiomatic compounds: lip-service, dirty work, chatterbox, etc

However we can also see the insufficiency of this criterion because in a number of cases it is difficult to decide whether there is only one single idea: window-cleaner, Anglo -Saxon

d) Graphic criterion (spelling criterion)

This criterion means that we can rely on the spelling of a word group to discriminate between free word groups and compounds If that word group in spelt with hyphen or with no, separation at al It is a compound: daughter in-law, day-school, mankind, bookcase

This criterion often causes argument as well

In English spelling, there is lack of consistency

Different people, different dictionaries have different spellings We may come across two ways of spelling "bread and butter"; "She earns her bread-and-butter by teaching evening classes"

Sometimes a word may be spelled in three ways: matchbox match-box match box airline air-line airline

We are, moreover, often confused and "annoyed" with the spellings of some compound adjectives like "well-balanced, well-bred" and so on These are usually, hyphenated when attributive but not hyphenated when predicative: "They were well-balanced soldiers" "You have to be well balanced to cope with the stress of your job"

It goes without saying that we cannot base ourselves on only one criterion It is usually necessary to refer to-at least two or sometimes all these criteria to decide whether such and such word groups are compounds

2.3 Semi-affixes (affixal words)

In some cases we meet with difficulties in distinguishing between compound and derived words

Are these words composed of two roots or of only one rout and a suffix: "chairman, countryman, child-like"? "man, like " are, themselves, independent words having distinctive meanings, but here they lose their grammatical independence and even their

Businesslike, ladylike, manlike, suchlike, etc

The elements "- monger - wright" etc have completely lost their independence and are often used in combinations:

"Warmonger, newsmonger, playwright, shipwright" etc

Thus, such words can be called "semi- affixes" (half words, half affixes) They have generalised lexical meaning and great ability to be combined with a great number of roots The name "affixal words" might be applicable too Not only are there semi - affixes added to the end of root but there are some added to the beginning as well: mini - car, mini -club, mini - bus, mini – skirt, self - service, self - defense, self - reliant; self - respecting

We can also divide semi - affixes into semi - prefixes and semi - suffixes

So, composition may be said to be a source of building new prefixes and suffixes

2.4 Classification of compound words

There is a great variety of compounds hence a great variety of classifications Some practical ways to classify them are presented as follows:

a) Classification according to the meaning

This classification can be called "semantic classification"

According to their meaning, compounds can be non-idiomatic (motivated) or idiomatic (non- motivated) - Non idiomatic compounds: are those whose meanings are easily deduced from the meanings of the components: goa1- keeper, salesgirl, kind - hearted, good - looking, Anglo - Saxon, man - made wastepaper - basket

In some cases, they are partially non-idiomatic since the motivation is partial: newspaper, mother-in-law, (to) handwash, break-down; drop - out, listener - in

- Idiomatic compounds: Are those whose meanings cannot be deduced because there

is no relationship between the meanings of the components Lack of motivation in these words is related to figurative usage of their components: Lip – service, monkey – business, black1eg, teach – in

b) Classification according to componental relationship:

According to the connection between the components we have:

- Coordinative compounds: are those whose components are both structurally and semantically independent: actor - manager, Anglo - Saxon, willy – nilly, fifty – fifty These coordinative components are not numerous but we can coin many for the sake

of economy: parent-teacher (parent – teacher association)

- Subordinative compounds: are those that are characterized by the domination of one component over the other The second component is often the structural centre, the determinatum The first component is the determinant: book - keeper, spaceship, (to) bottlefeed

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However, there is often vague borderline between coordinative and subordinative compounds

c) Classification according to the part of speech

- Compound nouns: door - handle, lady - killer, black - board

- Compound adjectives: hot - tempered easy - going, up - and - coming

- Compound verbs: Whitewash, team - teach

- Compound adverbs: whole - heartedly, self - confidently, therein, herein

- Compound prepositions: onto, into

d) Classification according to compositional types

- Compounds formed by justaposition, i.e without connecting elements: backache, store - keeper, door - step, heart - broken

- Compounds formed by morphological means, i.e With vowel or consonant as a linking element, statesman, spokeman, Afro - Asian, speedometer, handicraft

- Compounds formed by syntactical means, i.e a group of words condensed into one word: merry-go-round, cash - and - carry, up - to - date, up - and - up

- Conpounds formed both by morphological and syntactical means i.e phrases turned into compounds by means of suffixes: long - legged, kind hearted, teenager

- Reduplicative compounds: are words built by imitating sounds or repeating one of their components in one way or another: ping – pong, tick – tack, singsong, chit – chat, harum - scarum, hoity – toity, fifty - fifty

- Faded compounds: are words whose compositional characteristics have “faded" and are hardly recognizabie: "breakfast, cupboard, sunday”

This phenomenon is due to partial simplification (their meanings and pronunciations are completely simplified, only their spellings are not)

- Dead compounds: are words whose composi-tinonal characteristics can be discovered

by etymological analysis only: “kidnap, husband, England”

In the word “kidnap”, there are two components: kid + nap, “kid” means “child” and

“nap” used to mean “steel, arrest” Similarly we have husband = house + bond (master); English = land of Angles

This phenomenon is due to complete simplification

- Compounds formed by “prepositional adverbs”: are words whose final elements are

“preposition-like adverbs”: “give up, give in, bring up, look for, look after, put up with, do away with, teach-in, breakdown”

Many linguists call them “the give – up type” because they are a borderline case between compounds and set expressions

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The reason for our putting them here, in the category of compounding is that they are more “tightly – packed” units thus looking more like words than phrases Moreover, when dealing with verbs of this type linguists call them “two – word verbs” (although there may be there) or “phrasal verbs” This means the whole group is one word – a verb Such verbs can be often turned into nouns by means of conversion: to drop – out ) a drop out, to shake down ) a shake – down, to give away ) a give – away

I SEMINAR

Topics:

1 The definition and features of English compounds

2 Discrimination between compounds and free word groups

3 The reason for the existence of semi – affixes and for calling them “affixal words”

4 The most useful and practical way to classify compound words

5 Compounds formed by prepositional adverbs

I Excercises

1 Distinguish between compounds and free word groups basing yourself on the criteria discussed in the lecture:

- The beautiful dancing girl is a dancing girl

- The White House is a white house but no other white house can be the White House

- On the red tape there is a lot of information about the government offices typical of red tape

- A blackleg is not a person with a black leg

- “She bought a lot of things: beef, cabbages, milk, bread and butter” “Yes, she is very fond of bread and butter”

2 Classify the compounds below according to their meaning: boyfriend, easy – going, (to) machinewash (to) give – in, long – legged, speedo – meter, table tennis, lady killer, whole – heartedly, happy – go – lucky

3 Comment on these compounds and write a sentence with each of them:

Fifty – fifty, harum – scarum, hoity – toity, hotch – potch, goody – goody

4 Make up four compound words using the suffixes “-ing” and “ed”

5 Basing yourself on the knowledge gained in the lecture, explain the meaning of these words: scandlemonger, minibar, minibike, self - taught, self – important

6 Not using a dictionary, build one with each of these affixal words: mini; self; man; like

7 In the dialogue below, the Vietnamese friend made a mistake, therefore the Australian friend did not understand him and was offended What is that mistake? Can you imagine the situation?

Nam: - John, there’s a bluebottle on the table

John: - Yes, I know Why?

Nam: - Bluebottles are dirty, you know

John:- Nonsense, I’ve washed it carefully

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8 Comment on the compound formed by the passer – by in the following story and make up two more like that:

Newsboy: -Great mistery! 49 victims, who’ 11 be the fiftieth?

Passer – by: - Fourty nine, victims already? How’s that?

Newsboy: That’s a mystery Buy one and you’ll know

Passer – by: - Ok I’ll get one

(after reading a moment) say, boy I can’t find the thirty-nine – victim story Newsboy: - That’s the mystery You’re the fiftieth victim

9 Explain the joke below:

First woman: - That’s doctor’s quite a lady – killer

Second woman (not very attentive): My God!

I’d better go and see another

10 (two men had just got on a crowded bus)

- The long-haired girl is so good – looking She’s got a snow white face

- She’s a pickpocket, you know

- Good Heavens! (being emphatic) I’ve got my “wage – packet” with me Let’s get off We’d better hotfoot it”

Choose the right answer and give reasons for your choice: In the above conversation, the two men used:

- 6 compound words – 8 compound word

- 7 compound words – 9 compound words

11 Comment on the compounds in this picture:

12 Pick out the derived and compound words in the picture below:

3 SHORTENING

3.1 Characteristic features:

Shortening is also a very productive way of building words in English New words formed by shortening appear continuously Shortening is specially productive in colloquial speech and advertisement It can be considered a good way of creating roots (root morphemes) since new morphemes are used as free roots and can take endings: exam, bike, fridge, fan, movie, TV, vosco, v – day, smog, brunch

There are many types of shorting Some linguists also call shortening “clipping”, this

is not accurate because “shortening” has a broader sense and includes “blending” as well The following are the specific types of shortening

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b) Clipping:

- Initial clipping: The first part of a word is clipped: phone, car, plane

- Final clipping: The last part of a word is clipped: exam, lab, sis, uni, prof, doc

- Initio-final clipping: both the first and the lant parts are clipped: fridge, flu, tec

- Medial clipping: the medial part is clipped: maths, specs, V-day, H-bomb

Elliptico – conversional clipping (phrasal clipping: this is a special case in which there is a combination of ellipsis, conversion and clipping: sitdow (a sitdow demonstration); pop (popular music); pub (public house); perm (permanent wave); prelim (preliminary examination)

Besides, there are many more mixed typed of abbreviation but it is not necessary to mention them because the words of such types are not numerous and do not follow a fixed rule

3.3 Blending is a special type of shortening where parts of words merge into one new word: brunch smog, motol, medicare Many scientific terms are built by blending

4 CONVERSION

4.1 Definition and characteristic features

Conversion is the formation of a new word in a different part of speech without adding any element

Conversion is also called “functional change” or “zero derivation”, e.g.:

Lecture -> to lecture; hand -> to hand; to drop out -> a drop out; to go -> to up The difference between the words in each pair is morphological syntactic and semantic:

- Morphological: the verb “to hand”, for example, has a new paradigm (the system of forms):

hand – handed – handing

- Syntactic: the function of “to hand” is new, it is predicate: “he handed me the watch”

- Semantic: the verb “to hand” has a completely new meaning: to give, to pass sth to…, but “hand” is part of the body

Conversion may be said to be most productive in forming verbs: arm -> to arm; elbow -> to elbow; foot -> to foot; skin -> to skin; bottle -> to bottle; honeymoon -

Occasional conversion refers to the individual use of conversion in- special situations, occations, to express one’s idea vividly, humourously, etc The words built by of course not present in dictionaries: for instance, when a person keeps saying "Hello, dear" to

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anyone he meets, coin the verb we can "hello - dear" by saying: "He hello - dears everybody" We can also make it a noun: I am tired of his "hello -dear"

4.3 Partial conversion

Partial conversion is the building of - some nouns from verbs These nouns usually

go with verbs like “have, take, make” to form verbal phrases They are not used quite independertly:

Have a look/ talk/ smoke etc

Give a ring/ kick/ blow etc

Some other nouns are used only in idiomatic phrases

To be in the know: in the long run, of Australian make

Let's have a dance, love

Oh, I'm having a smoke!

4.4 Substantivation

Whether substantivation belongs to conversion is still a matter of controvercy

One of reasons for including it here is that it adheres exactly to the definition of conversion, i.e the formation of a new word without adding any element As a matter of fact, substantivation is the formationa of nouns from adjectives In other words, it is the transition into nouns:

native -> a native; 2 natives; the native,

(fe) male > a (fe) male; 2 (fe) males; the (fe) male

Apart from these, we have sustantivation from ellipsis:

daily newspaper > a daily

elastic cord > an elastic

We also have partial substantivation:

rich -> the rich; happy the happy,

blind -> the blind; good -> the good

These nouns always go with "the" and are not inflected for the plural and in general cannot be used in the possessive case They do not undergo morphological changes (they,

do not have a new paradigm) They have properties of both nouns and adjectives: "The very unfortunate, the unusually good" etc This unusual combination is a good means of expression

5.2 Words showing movement of water: flush, splash, babble

5.3 Words showing actions made by man: giggle, chatter, grumble, murmur, whisper 5.4 Words showing sounds made by animals: cackle, moo, roar, howl

Some words formed by sound imitation have developed figurative meanings For example "to croak" mean "to make deep, harsh means sound", so it is also used about a person's voice “To roar” is often metaphorically used:

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"The hungry boy is roarıng in the kitchen"

“The whole room, is roaring with laughter”

Sometimes we can make use of sound imitation to create vivid words for special occasions

6 BACK DERIVATION (BACK FORMATION)

Back - derivation or back - formation is the building of new words by substracting areal

or supposed affix from existing words This is the opposite process to affixation For instance, "to beg" was built from "beggar", "to baby -sit" from "baby-sister" This means that the nouns "beggar, baby - sister" appeared before the verbs formed them hence the name "back - derivation" Some common words built by back-derivation are:

to window – shop (from window - shopping)

to house-keep (from house-keeping)

to edite (from editor)

to escalate (from escalator)

In modern English, back - derivation is fairly productive in building compound verbs from compound nouns with - er or - ing as their suffix:

to air-condition (from air-conditioner)

to tape – record (from tape -recorder)

to gate-crash (from gate -crasher)

For this phonomenon, we suggest the term "deaffixation" as opposed to "affixation"

7 SOUND AND STRESS INTERCHANGE

7.1 Sound interchange

This is a very unproductive way of word forming The new word is built by changing the root vowel or consonant of the old word:

food(n) -> feed(v); sing(v) -> song(n)

speak (v) - > speech (n) : life (n) ->live(v)

It may be combined with affixation:

strong (adj) -> strength (n)

7.2 Stress interchange

This is also very unproductive in English word formation The new word is built by changing the place of the stress on the old one:

‘export (n). -> ex' port (v) ;

‘perfect (a) -> per' fect (v)

Together with compounding, stress interchange helps in building new words:

'black 'board 'blackboard

'dancing 'gir1 'dancing girl

In modern English we cannot build new words by sound and stress interchange It is

a diachnonical problem

B WORDS FROM NAMES (METAPHOR AND METONYMY BASED WORDS)

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"Words from names" or "metapbor and metonymy based words" can be regarded as a new point of view in word formation This is as a matter of fact, fairly productive and is also studied by semantics (the next chapter) The number of words deriving from proper names obviously indicates the creativity of language word coinage This is the reason why we include "words from names" here as a means of word formation

For convenience's sake, we suggest the term "name motivation" For instance, an unusually big thing may be described as "jumbo" Jumbo was a huge elephant brought to the United States, so we have "jumbo jet plane, jumbo cassette - recorder" etc

Similarly there are: sandwich, robot, cardigan, diesel, mackintosh etc Names of authors come to mean the books, works written by themselves, for example: "Have you road Dickens?"

SEMINAR

Topics

1 Acronyms, monograms, homonymy, based acronyns

2 Clipping - the types of clipping

8 Back - derivation, the reason for calling it "deaffixation"

9 Sound and stress interchange

10 Name motivation

EXERCISES

1 State the types of shortening: B.A, M.A, M Sc, PhD, D Sc, P.S, OK, FAO, UNICEF, ABC, Co-op, prep, exam, ad, coke, tec, veggies, H -bomb, air-con, phone, transceiver

2 Comment on the verbs "to monkey" and "to fish" Build some more such verbs

3 Which means of word - building did the waiter use to make the word "shave", in the following joke:

"A customer sat down at a table in a smart restaurant and tied a napkin around his neck The annoyed manager called a waiter an instructed him, "Try to make him understand, as tactfully as possible, that that's not done here"

Said the thoughtful waiter to the customer:

"Pardon me, sir Shave or haircut sir?"

4 Look at the way to form words in this sentence and build 3 words in accordance to it: "The boy eating sandwiches is wearing a nice cardigan"

5 Paraphrase these sentences using conversion:

"They are progressing quickly"

"He wants to perfect his English"

6 Explain the following joke:

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"Mum! is it correct to say you water a horse when he's thirsty?"

"Yes, quite correct"

"Then" (picking up a saucer) “I'll milk the cat now"

7 Discuss the verbs in this sentence in terms of word - formation and find some more words formed in that way:

"The girls giggled when the cows mooed and the cat mewed"

8 What are the original words of the abbreviations in the joke below:

"Is he OK?" "No, he's got a KO"

9 Comment on the word "dance" in this joke in terms of word - buiding:

He (awkward dancer) "It was nice of you to give me this dance”

She (sweetly) - Not at all - this is a charity ball”

10 Pick out all the ways of word - formation in this story

An elderly lady was seated next to a young couple who were discussing the merits of their motor cars they'd just bought after seeing an ad on T.V:

"What colour is your body?" asked the young man, meaning of course the body of her motor car"

"Oh, mine is pink What is yours?"

"Mine", replied the man, "is brown"

This was too much for the old lady Rising from the table, she exclained:

“When young people come to asking each other the colour of their bodies at a dinner - party it is time I left the room"

Grammatical meaning is what unites words with different lexical meanings It is the meaning recurrent in identical sets of different words It divides words into groups with their own grammatical features So, the grammatical meaning of "house, book, man, word, etc" is that they are nouns in singular and common case The grammatical meaning

of “pretty, tall, dark, white, lexical, etc" is that they are adjectives

The basic lexical meaning of a word is retained in all its forms:

student - student's – students - students’

go - goes – went – gone - going

The words whose lexical meaning is clear are called notional words They name objects, actions, qualities etc

The words whose prevailing meaning is grammatical are called functional words They are particles articles, preposition etc

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Lexical an grammatical meanings do not exist separately but always go together to make

up the meaning of a word

II/ THE COMPONENTS OF LEXICAL MEANING

1 The denotational meaning (denotation)

The denotational meaning indicates (denotes) or points out things, concepts etc For example "bird" denotes an animal that can fly “Father, dad, daddy" denote the male parent "Rain, shine" denote phenomena of nature

When the referent is a concept, an abstract thing, we have significative denotation and when it is an individual object we have demonstrative denotation

2 The connotational meaning (connotation)

The connotational meaning show us how things, concepts etc are indicated (denoted) It conveys the speaker’s attitude, emotions and so on "Father, dad, daddy” as mentioned above, have the same denotational meaning but different connotational meaning, and so do "face, mug, muzzle" and so on

Connotation may consist of emotive charge (emotion), evaluation, intensity, and stylistic colouring Stylistic colouring means that a word may be colloquial, bookish, slangy etc

Connotation plays an important role in such spheres of life as advertising, politics, literature Many synonyms differ greatly due to their favourable and unfavourable connotations Advertizers are "afraid" to used the word "cheap" and refer to

"inexpensive" instead because the former has some connotation of poor quality

Similarly some girls do not like to be called "birds" In Vietnamese colleges nowadays, students of the "irregular system" prefer the word "open" to "irregular" also because of their connotation

So, connotation can be considered as an additional meaning to denotation

To sum up the meaning of a word, we can draw a chart as follows:

is the meaning that indirectly denotes something To understand it we have to compare it

or associate with other things, i.e we need contexts Indirect meaning is also called

IV/ MOTIVATION OF WORDS

Motivation means the relationship between structure and meaning and between direct and indirect meaning

There are three types of motivation: Morphologic, phonetic and semantic

1 Morphologic motivation:

is the direct relationship between the morphologic structure of the word and its meaning:

in other words, it is the relationship between morphemes of the word: “teacher” is a person who teaches, “aircraft-carrier” is something that carries aircraft

Morphologic motivation helps us guess words meaning fairly easily So there is no such motivation in all one – morpheme words: book, boy, table, baby etc

2 Phonetic motivation:

is the direct relationship between the phonetic structure of the word and its meaning In other words, there is similarity between the sound –form of the word and the sound produced by the object the word denotes:

“bang, ping –pong tick –tack, (to) moo, (to) giggle” E.g “I heard a big bang when the door closed suddenly”

“The hungry cat is mewing”

In the examples above, it is obvious that the sounds of the words are an imitation of those produced in nature

This is a good way to build words in human language (see the previous chapter – sound imitation)

3 Semantic motivation:

is the relationship between direct and indirect meaning There is co-existence of literal and figurative meaning based on the metaphor (see “metaphor” in this chapter):

“The foot of mountain”

“The head of a bed/staircase/cabbage/page etc.”

V/ Polysemy and semantic structure