LEXIS

CHARACTERISTICS OF
ENGLISH WORD FORMATION.
PREFIXATION, SUFFIXATION AND
COMPOUNDING
 ENGLISH LEXIS AND WORD FORMATION
A morphosyntactic analysis of language uses criteria from both
morphology and syntax to study language.

-Morphosyntax is a branch of linguistics

2 subfields: morphology and syntax,

MORPHOLOGY
Morphology studies the way words are constructed with stems,
prefixes, suffixes.

The essential unit - the morpheme- smallest unit of meaning.

SYNTAX
Syntax studies the ways in which words combine to form higher
units of meaning: phrases, clauses and sentences.
The basic units of syntax are words and sentences.
THE MORPHEME
*morphemes are the smallest unit of meaning and the units of
morphology.

*Morphemes sometimes have more than 1 phonetic form,

( /id/, /d/, /t/)

(These variant forms/realizations of a morpheme are called
allomorphs).
*Morphemes can be :
- Free (occur on separate words: iron, cab)
-Bound (cannot occur on their own: inter-, -tic).
*Morphology has 2 branches:
- Inflectional morphology
-Derivational morphology
 Inflectional Morphology
Divides into grammatical categories.
Voice: active, passive, middle, causative,

Mood: indicative, subjunctive,

Aspect: perfective, imperfective, progressive, non-progressive.

Tense: present, past, future.
Case: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, partitive.

Gender: masculine, feminine, neuter, animate, inanimate.

Number: singular, dual, trial, plural.

Person: first, second, third, fourth.

 Derivational Morphology
The major processes are:

Affixation

Conversion

Compounding
But not least important are…

Acronym, Blending, Borrowing, Calque or Loan translation, Clipping &

Reduplication
Affixation:
. English language can add prefixes or suffixes to words to convey different meanings
and make them function differently.

- Adding a prefix to a base (prefixation)

- Adding a suffix to a base (suffixation)

the derived word itself may become the base for another derivation:

"unfriendliness" (base= "friend" > "friendly" > "unfriendly" > "unfriendliness")

 Conversion/ Zero derivation:
Assigning the base to a different word-class without changing its form.
- Change in the syntactic function and in the meaning of the item.

- It's an extremely productive way of producing new words.

- Zero derivation, as derivational words in general cannot undergo a

process of conversion;
bottle, bridge (n>v); laugh, walk (v>n); calm, dirty (adj>v);
'permit > per'mit; 'object > ob'ject.
Compounding:
● 3 possible ways of writing a compound:
● 2-independent words (recording material)
● joined by a hyphen (tax-free)
● joined in one word (bedroom).
● The meaning of the compound is not always the
combination of the meaning of the 2 bases:

a blackbird is a type of bird.

Acronym:Shortening words or phrases, writing the first letter of each word: BBC,
NATO.

-Blending: 2 words merge: smog (smoke+fog), brunch (breakfast + lunch).

-Borrowing: a word or phrase, taken from one language and used in another:
coup d’état from French or guerrilla from Spanish.
-Calque or loan translation, a type or borrowing , each morpheme or word is
translated into the equivalent morpheme or word in another language: almighty is a loan
translation from the Latin omni+potens, academic freedom are loan translations of the
Germ akademische Freiheit.

-Clipping: informal shortening of a word into a single syllable: ad (advertisement),

flu (influenza), tv (television), gents (gentlemen).

-Reduplication:type of compound. both elements are almost the same or with

a slight difference, for example: zig-zag, wishy-washy (desvaído), bye -bye..
AFFIXATION >> Prefixation
Negative prefixes

Reversative or Privative Prefixes They reverse the action of the base:

-Un combines with verbs: undo, untie.

–Dis is added to verbs and adjectives: disconnect, disinterested.

–De combines with verbs and nouns: defrost, denationalisation.

 Pejorative Prefixes
They convey the idea of bad(ly), wrong(ly) or false:

-Mal combines with verbs, participles, adjectives and abstract nouns: maltreat,
malformed, malfunction.

-Mis combines with verbs, participles and abstract nouns: misinform, misleading,
misconduct.

-Pseudo means “false” and is added to nouns and adjectives: pseudo-intellectual,

pseudo-scientific.
Prefixes of Degree or Size
Many denote “more” or “less”
-Over -Expresses “excessive”, combines with verbs and adjectives: overeat, overconfident.

-Super -“More than” or “special”, added to adjectives and nouns: supernatural,

supermarket.

-Ultra “extreme”,generally added to adjectives and nouns: ultra-modern, ultraviolet.

.-Arch: means “superior” as in Archbishop.

-
Prefixes of Degree or Size
-Hyper: gives an idea of excess as in hyperactive.

-Mini: small in mini-bus.

-Out: surpassing, i.e. outstanding.

-Sur: outside, as in surround.

Under: not enough, as in undercook, or bellow, as in undergraduate.

Prefixes of Attitude and Orientation
Generally express the idea of “for” or “against”:

-Pro “on the side of” and combines with adjectives and nouns: pro-American, pro-
student.

-Anti means “against”, added to adjectives and nouns: anti-social, anti-war.

Other prefixes in this category are :contra, counter.

Locative Prefixes
Generally refer to position, but can be used metaphorically:
-Super “above”, added to nouns: superstructure, superscript.
–Sub “under” , combines with adjectives, verbs and nouns: subnormal, subdivide,
subway.

*Other prefixes in this category are fore, inter, trans.

-Prefixes of Time and Order
-Ex “former” and is added to nouns: ex-wife, ex-President.
-Pre “before” or “in advance”, added to nouns, adjectives and verbs:
pre-school, pre-marital, pre-heat.
-Fore, before, as in foresee, forehead.
-Post, after, appears in some words as post-war, posthumous.
-Re, again, in redecorate and reactivate.
- Number Prefixes
-Mono “one”,combines with nouns and adjectives: (two possibilitior meaning “two”: -
Di in ditransitive, and -Bi, in bilingual, for TWO

- But there is just one prefix indicating “three”:

-Tri in tridimensional.
To talk about many things
-Multi, as in multilingual and -Poly, as in polysyllabic.
-Semi means “half” and combines with nouns and adjectives: semicircle, semi-detached.
Suffixation
Forming nouns–er/-or to the base form of a VERB, ( people who work in a certain
profession or carry out a particular action); By adding –al,-ion, -ment to refer to the
action expressed by the verb.

Other suffixes used to form nouns from verbs; –age (coverage), -ant (inhabitant), -ee
(employee) and –ing (painting).By adding the suffixes –dom, -ity, -ness to certain
ADJECTIVES; Creating Abstract Nouns

Adding the suffixes –hood, ship to other NOUNS. The abstract nouns created are
connected to the concept expressed by the original noun.

let as in booklet, and -ster, as in youngster or –y as in daddy

Suffixes forming adjectives-
Added to NOUNS to describe a particular quality; but many others can be added to nouns:

-ish,-like,-ly,-y which expresses comparison or connection of some kind

-proof indicates ability to resist or to protect from:
-ic, -al, -ar , common specially in technical or scientific English
-ful and –less express respectively possession and lack of possession

Some suffixes can also be added to ADJECTIVES in order to form a different

adjective, –ish that sometimes gives the meaning of “rather” as in smallish or greenish.

able or-ible are added to VERBS, they indicate possession of a quality or capacity.
 Suffixes forming:
to form Adverbs. -ly, -wards, and –wise are used to form adverbs
to form verbs.–en, -ify, -ise/-ize added to nouns or adjectives may form verbs,
describe a corresponding action or process ; –ize is the American suffix used instead of -
ise
. The invention of all kinds of new verbs by means of the suffix -ise/-ize, some disaprove.
- Important role in the field of scientific and technical English.
- They can be combined to create increasingly complex new words
(e.g. de-nation-al-ise; dis-courage-ment; un-employ-able).
COMPOUNDING
Noun compounds, Adjective compounds and Verb compounds

-Noun compounds Two or more written forms may be acceptable .. The first noun
qualifies the second almost in the same way as an adjective.The first noun is normally
singular even when the meaning is plural.formed with a verb and a noun.;also with a
verbal, deverbal and agentive noun. Two nouns or an adjective and a noun
Adjective compounds> Usually with hyphens between them and function as the
nucleus of an adjectival phrase or as modifiers of a noun phrase.

-Noun/adj/adv + participles, “mouth watering “,”hard-working person”, “well-read”.

- Noun + adjective, “homesick”, “Colour-blind”

- Adjective + adjective “deaf-mute”, “bitter sweet”.

Verb compounds n+v/v+n) baby-sit , pickpocket. - (v+v): hearsay, make-believe. - (adj/adv/prep+v): deepfreeze,
downcast, overbook.

- Back formation: These occur when a compound verbal noun is shortened to form a verb: sleep-walking, sleep-walk, brain-washing,
brain-wash.

- Adverb and Verb: These are generally formed with the adverbs out, over and under: outdo, overcome, underline.
Other Compounds
Reduplicatives: two or more constituents which are either identical or only slightly
different: goody-goody, walkie-talkie.
They are specially common in familiar speech.
Lots of onomatopoeic: tap-tap, chug-chug.
*The following categories are compounds but do not deal with the creation of new words:
Prepositions: alongside, notwithstanding. ,Conjunctions: whenever, whereas.,
Adverbs: indeed, moreover, Pronouns: you-all, myself, nobody.
Numerals:. twenty-five, nine-tenths. Indefinite: another.
CONVERSION
Assigning the base to a different word-class without changing its form, it brings about a
change in the syntactic function and the meaning of the item.
Some examples of conversion are:
-Verb > Noun: to walk > a walk; to doubt > a doubt Adj > Noun: it´s comic > a comic;
- Noun > Verb: a mask > to mask ; a brake> to brake.

- Adj > Verb: dry, to dry: dirty > to dirty.

*Note There are also changes of secondary word class.

*Derivational process whereby an item is adapted or converted to a new word class

without the addition of an affix. The accent very often changes: