THE HISTORICAL SOURCE OF ENGLISH

WORD FORMATION

By : Shela Sarmila 1810231026

Trisnanda Merdiana 1810231027
TOPIC :
• 9.1 Introduction
• 9.2 Germanic, Romance and Greek Vocabulary
• 9.3 The rarity of borrowed inflectional morphology
• 9.4 The Reduction in inflectional morphology
• 9.5 Characteristics of Germanic and non-Germanic
derivation
• 9.6 Fashion in morphology
• 9.7 Conclusion: History and structure
9.1 Introduction

This chapter does not attempt to summarise the whole history of

the English language. Instead, I will concentrate on just those aspects
of its history over the past thousand years or so that help to account
for some
of the peculiarities of word formation in contemporary. English.
9.2 Germanic, Romance and Greek Vocabulary

English is related with germanic languages :

West Germanic North Germanic

Dutch Norwegian
German Danish
Frisian Swedish
Afrikaans Icelandic
Faeroese
• The vocabulary of english words borrowed from french
and French is one of Romance languages, descended
from Latin along with:

 Spanish
 Portuguese
 Catalan
 Provencal
 Romansh
 Italian
 Romanian
Greek
• Until in the fifteenth century Western Europeans began to
learn about greek culture because the Romans revered
Greek Culture, therefore most of classical latin literature
emulates Greek Models. The main influence of Greek has
been in its use in the invention of scientific and technical
words.
Proto-Indo-European

Proto-Indo-European from which Greek and the Romance

and Germanic Languages are descended.

An example Proto-Indo-European root: heart

In Latin as cord-, In French as coeur from which was
formed a derivative courage, In latin cordial

cordial appears in cardiac, from Greek word kardiakos

Another Indo-European root : bear
In Latin as fer-, in Greek as pher,
The former as the bound root in verbs such as, confer and
latter in the name Christopher

English has also acquired the root via French suffer (or
in Modern french souffrir)
A striking feature of these words is that the inherited
Germanic forms, and in the forms borrowed from Latin,
French or Greek the cognitive roots are bound.

In borrowing words, english speakers borrowed not only the

roots and affixes but also the pattern of word formation that
they conform to
9.3 The Rarity of Borrowed Inflectional Morphology

English nouns have only two forms, singular and plural;

and, if a noun is borrowed from a source language that
also distinguishes singular and plural inflectional, then the
foreign inflected plural form may be borrowed too.
Example :

Source Language Singular Plural

Greek Phenomenon Phenomena

Schema Schemata

Latin Cactus Cacti

Formula Formulae

Datum Data

Hebrew Cherub Cherubim

Kibbutz Kibbutzim
 Just a few French borrowings sometimes retain, in formal
written English.
• Suffix –x
- Tableaux
- Plateaux
 The class of nouns with irregular plurals into two classes :
Nouns that belong to everyday vocabulary
Whose irregular plural survives because it is in
reasonably frequent use
 9.4 The reduction in inflectional morphology

(2) Singular Plural

Nominative nama ‘name’ naman
Accusative naman naman
Genitive naman namena
Dative naman namum

(3) Singular Plural

Nominative sta¯n ‘stone’ sta¯nas
Accusative sta¯n sta¯nas
Genitive sta¯nes sta¯na
Dative sta¯ne sta¯num
(4) Indicative Subjunctive
Person Present Present
Singular 1st (‘I’) helpe helpe
2nd (‘you’) helpest helpe
3rd (‘(s)he’) helpeð helpe

Plural 1st (‘we’) helpað helpen

2nd (‘you’) helpað helpen
3rd (‘they’) helpað helpen
Singular 1st healp hulpe
2nd hulpe hulpe
3rd healp hulpe

Plural 1st hulpon hulpen

2nd hulpon hulpen
3rd hulpon hulpen
9.5 Characteristics of Germanic and non- Germanic
derivation
At (5) are listed most of the derivational affixes that we have considered so far, classified
according to their origin:
(5) Germanic Romance or Greek
-ish -((a)t)ion de-
-ed -(i)an dis-
-en -(i)fy
-er -al
-hood -ance, -ence
-ie (as in doggie) -ar
-let -ent, -ant
-ship -ess
-y (as in misty) -ette
-ine
-ise
-ism
-ist
9.6 Fashions in Morphology

1. A fashion for certain Latin

and Greek derived
prefixes.

2. A fashion for a certain kind

of headless compound or
exocentric compound.
1. A fashion for certain Latin and Greek derived prefixes.

Prefixes
Latin Greek
Super Hyper
Sub Macro
Micro
Mega, Giga, Nano
 For example :

• Superstar, superman, super-rich,

supersede, superimpose,
hyperactivity, hypermarket, megastore,
megabucks, megalith, megaphone,
etc.
2. A fashion for a certain kind of headless compound or exocentric compound.

For example :
redhead, lazybones, pickpocket,
longneck, climbrock, etc.
But, there is another kind of exocentric
compound that involving a verb and adverb or
preposition.

For example : write-off, call-up, take-over

and breakdown.
- He was called up for military service.
However, there are compounds do not exist
corresponding to every phrasal verbs.

 For example : give-up or put-off.

Yet in the 1960s there is a class of compounds of the
form V-in.

For example : sit-in, talk-in, love-in, and think-in.

- We sat in for twelve hours.

It had previously been regular although not fully

general. It because there is no phrasal verbs.
9.7 Conclusion
• - Fashions in Morphology divided 2 kinds, they are a fashion for
certain Latin and Greek derived prefixes and a fashion for a certain
kind of headless compound.

- Some Latin derived processes as formally regular as processes such

as adverb formation with –ly.

- The vocabulary of English contains a West Germanic and North

Germanic languages.

- There are some words that used to be common but are no longer, such
as eximious and demit.

- There are compounds do not exist corresponding to every phrasal

verbs.