Correlational types of compounds

Traditionally they distinguish three types of compounds:

-- neutral

-- morphological

-- syntactic

-- In the first type neutral compounds the process of compounding is realized without any linking elements, by a mere juxtaposition of two stems, such as:

blackbird

bedroom

tallboy

sunflower

The second subtype of neutral compoundsis called derived or derivational compounds. The productivity of this type is confirmed by a considerable number of comparatively recent formations, such as teenager, babysitter, double-decker.

The third subtype of neutral compounds is called contracted compounds. These words have shortened (contracted) stem in their structure

TV-set

V-day (Victory day)

G-man (Government man, "FBI agent")

T-shirt

2) Morphological compoundsare few in number. This type is represented by words in which two compounding stems are combined by a linking vowel or consonant.

e.g. Anglo-Saxon

handiwork

Franko-Prussian

statesman

3) In syntactic compounds we may find a feature of specifically English word-structure. These words are formed from segments of speech, preserving in their structure numerous traces of syntagmatic relations typical of speech: articles, prepositions, adverbs.

e.g. Jack-of-all-trades

good-for-nothing

mother-in-law

The compounds the meanings of which do not correspond to the separate meanings of their constituent parts (2,3 groups) are called idiomatic compounds, in the contrast to the first group known as non-idiomatic compounds.

PHRASAL VERBS

Phrasal verbs are combinations of a verb and adverb or a verb and preposi­tion (or verb with both adverb and preposition).

Phrasal verbs may be either non-idiomatic or idiomatic. Non-idiomatic phrasal verbs retain their primary local meaning, e.g. come in, come out, come out of, take off, put down, etc. They may also have a kind of perfective colour- ■’ ing, e.g. add up, eat up, drink up, swallow up, rise up, etc.

In idiomatic compounds meanings cannot be derived from their ICs: bring up - BHXOByBara, bear out - nijitbepj^KyBaxh, give in - niAflaBaTHca, fall out - CBapHTHCsi, take in- o6mamoBaxH, etc.

Exercise 24. Give Ukrainian equivalents of the following simple and phrasal verbs.

bear - + down, out, up, with; beat - + back, down, into, out, up; break - + down, off, up, with; call - + at, for, in, on (upon), over, up; come - + about, across, along, at, back, by, down, down upon, for, in, of, off, out, out with, over, round, to, up, up to, up with, upon; cry - + down, for, up; cut - + down, in, off, out; do - + away with, up, with, without; drop - + across, away, behind, in, into; fall - + away, back, back upon, behind, in, into, in with, off, out, through, to, under, upon; hang

- + about, back, on, out, together, up; pick - + apart, at, away, from, in, off, on, out, over, up, with.

- CONVERSION

- Conversion is a special type of affixless derivation where a newly-formed word acquires a paradigm and syntactic functions different from those of the original word.

- As a matter of fact, all parts of speech can be drawn into the wordbuilding process of conversion to a certain extent. Its derivational patterns are varied, the most widespread among them being^N —>V)|V —»Nj

- SUBSTantivation

- Substantiation is the process in which adjectives (or participles) acquire
the paradigm and syntactic functions of nouns. One should distinguish two main
types of substantivation: complete and partial.

- Completely substantivized adjectives have the full paradigm of a noun, i.e.
singular and plural case forms. They may be associated with various determin-
ers (definite, indefinite,and zero articles, demonstrative and possessive pro-
nouns, etc.), e.g $$official, officials, the officials, officials, offi-
cials’, this official, our officials, etc. Complete substantivation is often regarded
as a pattern of conversion (A —> N), though it may be argued, since, as a rule, it
is the^j^M^f Ellipsis in an attributive^hrase: a conservative politician —» a
conservative, a convertible car —> a COTveMS^fT

- In the case of partial substantivation adjectives do not acquire the full para-
digm of a noun. They fall into several structural-semantic groups:

- a) partially substantivized adjectives (PSA) or participles which are singu-
lar in form though plural in meaning. They are used with the definite article and
denote a group or a class of people, e.g. the rich, the accused, the English, the
blind, the living, etc.;

- ed mostly in the plural and denoting a group or a class of people

- ADJECTIVIZATION

- Prempdjfication of nouns by nouns is highly frequent in Modern English. Noun^aaji^re^hould not be considered as adjectives produced by means of conversion. Nevertheless, some nouns may undergo the process of adjectivi- zation and function as attributes with idiomatic meanings, e.g.:

- coffee-table (n.) —> coffee-table (adj.) - “Of a large size and richly illustrated.

PHRASAL NOUNS

Phrasal nouns are built from phrasal verbs as a result of a combined effect of compounding, conversion, and change of stress. They consist of ICs identical to those of the corresponding verbs, but obtain, as a rule, the single­

stress pattern and either soluH^yphenated spelling, e.g.: to break down —» a breakdown (a break-down).

SHORTENING

There exist two main ways of shortening: contraction (clipping) and abbre­viation (initial shortening).

Contraction. One should distinguish betwe&afour types,of contraction:

1)Final clipping ^w*p^^.€y0rn)^i^0r (^wraTpmr^f the word, e.g.: doc (< doctor), lab (< IabOTaxof^ rfrag (< magazine), prefab (< prefabri­cated), vegs (< vegetables), A1 (< Albert), Nick (< Nickolas), Phil (< Philip), etc.

2) Initial clipping (apheresis), i.e. omission of the fore part of the word, e.g.: phone (< telephone), plane (< aeroplane), story (< history), van (< cara­van), drome (< airdrorneJ^Dora C<TheodoraVFred (< Alfred), etc.

3) Medial clippingysl™^^ i.fe^f^slon of the middle part of the word, e.g.: maths (< mathematics), fancy (< fantasy), specs (< spectacles), binocs (< binoculars), through (< thorough), etc.

4) Mixed clipping, where the fore and the final parts of the word are clipped, e.g.: tec (< detective), flu (< influenza), fridge (< refrigerator), stach (< moustache), Liz (< Elisabeth), etc.

Contraction may be combined with affixation, i.e. by adding the suffixes y, -ie -o to clippings, e.g.: hanky (< handkerchief), comfy (< comfortable), unkie (< uncle), ammo (< ammunition), etc.

ABBREVIATION

Abbreviations (initial shortenings) are words produced by shortening the ICs of phrasal terms up to their initial letters. Abbreviations are subdivided into 5 groups:

1) Acronyms which are read in accordance with the rules of orthoepy as though they were ordinary words, e.g.: UNO /’ju:nou/ ( < United Nations Or­ganization), UNESCO /’ju:’neskou/ (< United Nations Educational Scientific ^and ?^rgf/- zation)f 3AlT7sQ:ltA |⁽<^trategic ArnYsHLimitation TaTfKsjTSTEM /stem/ (< scanning trar?lmis^Ti electrone microscope), radar /reida/ (< radio detecting and ranging), etc.

2) Alphabetic abbreviations in which letters get their full alphabetic pro­nunciation and a full stress, e.g.: USA /’ju:es’ei/ (< the United States of Amer­ica), B.B.C. /’bi:’bi:’si:/ (< the British Broadcasting Corporation), M.P. /’em’pi:/ (< Member of Parliament), G.I. /’d^": *ai/ ( < Goverrfm^iflssue), FBI /’ef’bi: ‘at/ (< Federal Bureau of Investigation), etc.

Alphabetic abbreviations are sometimes used for famous persons’ names, e.g.: F.D.R. (< Franklin Delano Roosevelt), G.B.S. (< George Bernard Shaw), B.B, (< Brigitte Bardot), etc.

3) Compound abbreviations in which the first IC is a letter (letters) and the second a complete word, e.g. A-bomb (< atomic bomb), V-day (< Victory day), Z-hour (< zero hour), L-driver (learner-driver), ACD solution (< acid

citrate de?

One or both ICs of compound abbreviations may be clipped, e.g.: mid- ■ August, Interpol (< International police), hi-fi (< high fidelity )*£ci-fic (< sci­ence fiction), etc.

4) Graphic abbreviations which are used in texts for economy of space. They are pronounced as the corresponding unabbreviated words, e.g.: Mr. (< Mister), m. (< mile), ft. (< foot/feet), v. ( < verb), ltd. ( < limited), govt. (< government), usu. (< usually), pp. (< pages), Co (< Company), Capt. (< Cap­tain), X-mas ( < Christmas), etc.

5) Latin abbreviations which sometimes are not read as Latin words but as separate letters or are substituted by their English equivalents, e.g.: le. /ai ‘i:/ -that is; a.m. /ei ‘em - before midday, in_the morning, e.g. - for example, Id. - in the same place, cf. - compare, etc. '

BACK-FORMATION (REVERSION)

BLENDING

Blending is the formation of new lexical units by means of mer|inglTag- ments of words into one new word, or combining the elements of one word with a notional word, e.g.: smog (smoke + fog), radiotrician (radio + electri­cian), drunch (drinks + lunch), cinemagnate (cinema + magnate), etc.

MINOR TYPES OF WORD-FORMATION: CHANGE OF STRESS

Several nouns and verbs of Romanic origin have a distinctive stress pat­tern. Such nouns, as a rule, are forestressed, and verbs have a stress on the second syllable, e.g.: ‘accent (n.):: ac’cent (v.),:: ‘contest (n.):: con’test (v.), record (n.):: re’cord (n.), ’attribute (n.):: at’tribute (v,), etc.

The same distinctive stress pattern is observed in some pairs of adjectives and verbs, e.g.: ‘absent (a.):: ab’sent (v), ‘abstract (a.):: ab’stract (v.), ‘frequent (a.):: fre’quent (v.), etc.

SOUND INTERCHANGE (GRADATION)

Words belonging to different parts of speech may be differentiated due to the sound interchange in the root, e.g.: food (n.):: feed (v.), gold (n.):: gild (v,), strong (a.):: strength (n.), etc.

SOUND IMITATION (ONOMATOPOEIA)^^^^^

4. Lexical meaning and semantic structure of the English word.

LEXICAL MEANING AND SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH WORDS

Semasiology is the branch of linguistics which studies the meaning of linguistic units, first of all, that of words and word equivalents.

Lexical meaning reflects the concept expressed by the given word.

The interrelation between the structural pattern of the word and its lexical meaning is called motivation. There are three main types of motivation: pho- netical motivation, morphological motivation, and semantic motivation.

Phonetical motivation is observed in words whose sound-clusters imitate the sounds they signify, e.g. boom, cuckoo, hiss, titter, whisper, murmur, etc.

Morphological motivation is apparent in derived words and nonidiomatic compounds due to their word-formation pattern, e.g. worker (work + er) = “one who works”; rewrite (re + write) = “write again or anew”; shoemaker (shoe + make + er) - “one who makes shoes”; bathroom (bath + room) = “room with a bath”, etc.

Semantic motivation is the relationship between the direct and the trans­ferred meaning of the word, e.g. a mother tongue, a summit meeting, the mouth of a river, a green beginner, etc.

The mistaken motivation due to the fancied analogy of borrowings with well-known native words is called folk (false) etymology. For instance, a cray­fish has nothing in common with fish. It originated from O.F. crevisse (cf. KpeBeTKa).

There are three main semantic structures of words: monosemy, polysemy, and semantic diffusion.

Monosemy is the existence within one word of only one meaning. Mono- semantic words are comparatively few in number. They are mainly scientific terms, e.g. biochemistry, cybernetics, molecule, radar, tungsten, etc.

Polysemy is the existence within one word of several connected meanings. One of them is the main (central) meaning, whereas the rest are associated (mar­ginal) meanings. Associated meanings of the word become evident in certain lexical and grammatical contexts. Polysemantic words constitute the bulk of the English vocabulary. E.g. face (n.) 1. the front of the head /the main meaning/.

1. the expression of the countenance. 3. the main or front surface. 4. the surface that is marked, as of a clock. 5. appearance; outward aspect. 6. Dignity; self- respect /associated meanings/ /After Webster’s New World Dictionary/.

Semantic diffusion is observed in words with a very wide conceptual vol­ume. Such words denote, in fact, one concept, but can name an indefinitely large number of objects (referents). For instance, the word thing denotes “any object of our thought”. Hence it can name various inanimate objects, living beings, facts, affairs, problems, possessions, pieces of writing, composition, etc.

CHANGE OF MEANING

If the polysemantic structure of the word is subjected to a diachronic se­mantic analysis, it becomes clear that the word, as a rule, retains its original meaning, but at the same time acquires several new ones.

Hence one should distinguish the following meanings comprising the set treked diachronically:

; _v I. The direct meaning, subdivided into:

_; a) the primary (etymological) meaning, e.g. wall (n.) < L. vallum -’’ram­part”, “fortification”;

b) the derived meaning: wall — “upright structure, forming part of a robm or building”.

II. The secondary meaning, subdivided into:

a) the secondary denotative meaning: wall - “inside surface of cavity or vessel”, e.g. walls of the heart; reactor wall;

b) the figurative meaning, e.g. wall of partition /between persons/; wall of fire; wall of hostility.

Semantic changes in denotation may lead to:

1) the extension (generalization) of meaning, e.g. barn n. OE bern -i place for storing barley” —> “a covered building for storing grain, hay, etc.”-,

2) the narrowing (specialization) of meaning, e.g. voyage n. OF v| age ’’any trip or journey” —> “a journey by sea or water”. ij

Semantic changes in connotation may result in: ^

1) the pejorative development of meaning (degradation), e.g. knave; OE cnafa - “a boy”, “a male servant” —»“a tricky rascal,” “a rogue”. ]

2) the ameliorative development of meaning (elevation), e.g. fame OF fame - “common talk”, “rumour” —> “reputation, esp. for good”. 1