Productive unproductive suffixes в чем разница

English Noun

Nouns in English: classification, rules, forms and exceptions. Their morphology, affixation and special usage.

Let’s figure out what is a noun and what role it plays in the English language. First of all, noun is a part of speech which defines an object. This should not necessarily be an inanimate object (table, house), but could also be a living creature (girl, man). Not to mention that nouns could be not only material, but also abstract.

Love, kindness, knowledge – these are the abstract nouns, those that cannot be touched or put into your pocket.

So we could say that a noun is an object with a variety of its characteristics.

The classification of English nouns.

By meaning the English nouns are divided into Proper Nouns and Common Nouns.

Let’s consider Proper Nouns in detail.

1. Personal names (Carl Bormann, Michael Standy)
2. Geographical names (Atlantic Ocean, Moscow)
3. Names of the months and days of the week (August, Wednesday)
4. Names of the ships, hotels, clubs (Mayflower, Tropicana, House of Blues)

Notably, many personal nouns became common nouns in the process of word formation (Take a bottle of champagne with you).

Common Nouns

1. A group of people or objects which is regarded as a single unit (family, peasantry).
2. Different materials (steel, iron ore, wood).
3. Abstract notions (kindness, responsibility).

By formation the English nouns are divided into:

1. Simple – nouns without suffixes / prefixes, words are presented only in the base form (mouse, chain, table).
2. Derivatives – nouns formed by adding a suffix / prefix. In turn, there could be productive and unproductive suffixes. Productive suffixes are called this way because they are involved in the word formation in the modern language. Unproductive suffixes are not involved.

Let’s present a small table:

3. Compound nouns are made up of two or more simple words.

Ways of forming compound nouns:

• Noun base + noun base (snowball, skyscraper)
• Adjective base + noun base (blackmail, gentleman)
• Verb base + noun base (ringtone, pickpocket)

Countable and uncountable nouns

Also, English nouns are divided into countable and uncountable nouns.

Countable nouns are nouns that we can count

I have two toys. How many toys do you have? – I have five toys (toy – toys)

My friends always help me with my homework. ( friend – friends)

Uncountable nouns are little bit complicated. These may include several categories of words, such as:

• Liquids (water, beer, wine)
• Materials (plastic, glass)
• Sciences (mathematics, history)
• Languages (Japanese, German)
• Illnesses (flu, mumps)

And many other categories.

As usual, uncountable nouns in English could be both in the singular and plural forms.

This news is very depressing. (News – always in the singular)

The police did all they could to arrest the criminal.

I want to buy a new pair of jeans, the old ones are torn. (Police, jeans – always in the plural)

Some words in the context could be both countable and uncountable.

This toy is made of paper. (Uncountable, material)

I want all you papers on my table by lunch time. (Countable, papers here meaning documents)

The category of number in English

The plural of countable nouns in English is formed by adding the ending (club – clubs), changing the existing endings (wife – wives), and even by changing the base form of the noun (mouse – mice).

Category of gender

It’s hard to say whether there is such a thing as the category of gender in the modern English. In fact, there is only one suffix that is used to form a gender of a noun. It is a feminine suffix “-ess”, and it is used quite rare (host – hostess, waiter – waitress, poet – poetess).

Video tutorial which explains the classification of English nouns and gives a lot of audio examples of words and sentences on the use of nouns:

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Продуктивные суффиксы английского языка

Продуктивные суффиксы – это суффиксы, благодаря которым можно самостоятельно создавать новые слова. В современном английском языке такие суффиксы применяются довольно часто. К тому же вы сами сможете придумывать новые слова, зная какое значение имеет тот или иной суффикс. Вот, к примеру, всем знакомый и популярный суффикс “able”. Его присутствие в слове означает, что слово будет означать что-либо, что можно осуществить (wash-стирать,washable- стирающийся; drink-пить, drinkable-питьевой, годный для питья). Сегодня мы рассмотрим и другие продуктивные суффиксы:

“-CONSCIOUS” — комбинируется с существительным, создает прилагательное с целью описания людей, которые считают определенный аспект своей жизни чрезвычайно важным. Например, в подростковом возрасте все девочки просто «помешаны» на моде – fashion-conscious girls. Перевести это словосочетание можно еще, как «девочки, следящие за модой». Еще пример:

He has always been a health-conscious and a weight-conscious person – Он всегда следил за своем здоровьем и весом.

Перед суффиксом –conscious вы также можете добавить следующие слова: cost, money, environment, body, calorie, class, safely, price, world (-conscious).

“-FREE” – также комбинируется с существительным, описывает и нейтрализует негативный и нежелательный аспект нашей жизни. Переводится, как «свободный от», «не содержащий»: sugar-free – не содержит сахар, GMO-free – без ГМО:

Let’s do the shopping here because this shop is tax-free – Давай сделаем покупки здесь, потому что этот магазин не облагается налогом.

Можно также комбинировать со словами: stress (-free life), fat (-free food), fancy-free (неженат, невлюблён), duty, addictive, car (-free city).

“-MINDED” – сочетается либо с прилагательным, либо с существительным. Описывает людей с особенными характеристиками (double-minded – нерешительный, absent-minded — рассеянный) и отношением к конкретному предмету. В случае с существительным переводится, как «склонный к чему-либо, увлеченный»: air-minded – интересующийся авиацией, любящий летать, money-minded – зацикленный на деньгах. К примеру:

Why doesn’t she want to have kids? Do you think she’s career-minded? – Почему она не хочет иметь детей? Ты думаешь, что ее интересует только карьера?

Запомните следующие комбинации: sports-minded friends, like-minded men (люди с одинаковыми взглядами).

“-RELATED” – сочетается с существительным, описывает связь между словами: age-related disease – возрастная болезнь (связанная с возрастом), employment-related documents – служебные документы (связанные с работой), work-related journey –служебная поездка (по работе):

My son doesn’t want to go to school anymore. He’s got school-related stress – Мой сын не хочет больше ходить в школу. У него стресс, связанный со школой.

“-RIDDEN” – комбинируется только с существительным, говорит о том, что человек или предмет находится во власти какого-либо состояния: crisis-ridden country –охваченная кризисом страна, crime-ridden block – квартал, наводненный преступниками, guilt-ridden – мучающийся от комплекса вины.

That actor in a horror movie was devil-ridden – Тот актер в фильме ужасов был одержим бесами.

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Affixation

The process of affixation consists of coming a new word by adding an affix or several affixes to some root morpheme. Affixes are classified into productive and non-productive types. By productive affixes we mean the one, which take part in deriving new words in this particular period of language development. For example, the suffix -ish produces a great number of adjectives such as baldish, oldish, youngish, mannish, fattish, longish, etc. By non-productive affixes we mean the one, which don’t take part in the process of derivation.

According to the part of speech suffixes are divided into:

adjective-forming suffixes„-able/-ible/

. Conversion

Conversionis a special type of affixless derivation where a newly-formed word acquires a paradigm and. syntactic functions different from those of the original word. Conversion consists in making a new word from some existing word by changing the category of a part of speech, the morphemic shape of the original word remaining unchanged. The new word has a meaning which differs from the original one, but it can more or less be easily associated with it. e.g. nurse to nurse (v.) ear («.) > to ear (v.)

clean (n.) > to clean (v.)

There are several types of converted words:

1. Verbs made from nouns (denominal verbs) [N>V]

2. Nouns made from verbs (deverbal nouns) [V>N]

3. Verbs made from adjectives (deadjectival verbs) [Adj>V]

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Productive and Non-Productive Affixes

The word-forming activity of affixes may change in the course of time. This raises the question of productivity of derivational affixes, i.e. the ability of being used to form new, occasional or potential words, which can be readily understood by the language-speakers. Thus, productive affixes are those used to form new words in the period in question.

The most productive prefixes in Modern English are: de- (decontaminate), re- (rethink), pre- (prefabricate), non- (non-operational), un- (unfunny), anti- (antibiotic).

The most productive English suffixes are:

4) adverb-forming suffixes: -ly (equally).

Non-productive affixes are the affixes which are not able to form new words in the period in question. Non-productive affixes are recognized as separate morphemes and possess clear-cut semantic characteristics. In some cases,

however, the lexical meaning of a non-productive affix fades off so that only its part-of-speech meaning remains, e.g. the adjective-forming suffix –some (lonesome, loathsome).

Some non-productive English suffixes are:

The productivity of an affix should not be confused with its frequency of

occurrence. The frequency of occurrence is understood as the existence in the vocabulary of a great number of words containing the affix in question. An affix may occur in hundreds of words, but if it is not used to form new words, it is not productive. For example, the adjective suffix –ful is met in hundreds of adjectives (beautiful, trustful, hopeful, useful), but no new words seem to be built with its help, and so it is non-productive.

CONVERSION

Conversion is one of the principal ways of forming words in Modern English. It is highly productive in replenishing the English word-stock with new words. Conversion consists on making a new word from some existing word by changing the category of a part of speech; the morphemic shape of the original word remains unchanged, e.g. work – to work, paper – to paper. The new word acquires a meaning, which differs from that of the original one though it can be easily associated with it. The converted word acquires also a new paradigm and a new syntactic function (or functions), which are peculiar to its new category as a part of speech, e.g. garden – to garden. (table, p.88)

Among the main varieties of conversion are: 1) verbalization (the formation of verbs), e.g. to ape (from ape n.); 2) substantivation (the formation of nouns), e.g. a private (from private adj.); 3) adjectivation (the formation of adjectives), e.g. down (adj) (from down adv.); 4) adverbalization (the formation of adverbs), e.g. home (adv.) (from home n.).

The two categories of parts of speech especially affected by conversion are nouns and verbs.

1. Verbs converted from nouns are called denominal verbs. If the noun refers to some object of reality (animate or in animate) the converted verb may denote:

1) action characteristic of the object: ape n. > ape v. “imitate in a foolish

2) instrumental use of the object: whip n. > whip v. “strike with a whip”;

3) acquisition or addition of the object: fish n. > fish v. “catch or try to catch fish”;

4) deprivation of the object: dust n. > dust v. “remove dust from smth.”;

5) location: pocket n. > pocket v. “put into one’s pocket”.

2. Nouns converted from verbs are called deverbal substantives. If the verb refers to an action, the converted may denote:

1) instance of action: jump v. > jump n. “sudden spring from the ground”;

2) agent of the action: help v. > help n. “a person who helps”;

3) place of the action: drive v. > drive n. “a path or road along which one drives”;

4) result of the action: peel v. > peel n. “the outer skin of fruit potatoes taken off”;

5) object of the action: let v. > let n. “a property available for rent”.

The courses that made conversion so widely spread are to be approached

Nouns and verbs have become identical in form firstly as a result of the loss of endings. When endings had disappeared phonetic development resulted in the merging of sound forms for both elements of these pairs, e.g. carian (v), caru (n) > care (v, n); lufu (n), lufian (v) > love (n, v).

The similar phenomenon can be observed in words borrowed from the French language. In French these words were of the same root but belonged to different parts of speech. In the course of time they lost their affixes and became phonetically identical in the process of assimilation, e.g. crier (v), cri (n) > cry (v, n).

Thus, from the diachronic point of view distinction should be made between homonymous word-pairs, which appeared as a result of the loss of inflections, and those formed by conversion.

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Lecture №3. Productive and Non-productive Ways of Word-formation in Modern English

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«Lecture №3. Productive and Non-productive Ways of Word-formation in Modern English»

Lecture №3. Productive and Non-productive Ways of Word-formation in Modern English

Productivity is the ability to form new words after existing patterns which are readily understood by the speakers of language. The most important and the most productive ways of word-formation are affixation, conversion, word-composition and abbreviation (contraction). In the course of time the productivity of this or that way of word-formation may change. Sound interchange or gradation (blood-to bleed, to abide-abode, to strike-stroke) was a productive way of word building in old English and is important for a diachronic study of the English language. It has lost its productivity in Modern English and no new word can be coined by means of sound gradation. Affixation on the contrary was productive in Old English and is still one of the most productive ways of word building in Modern English.

Word-building is one of the main ways of enriching vocabulary. There are four main ways of word-building in modern English: affixation, composition, conversion, abbreviation. There are also secondary ways of word-building: sound interchange, stress interchange, sound imitation, blends, back formation.

Affixation is one of the most productive ways of word-building throughout the history of English. It consists in adding an affix to the stem of a definite part of speech. Affixation is divided into suffixation and prefixation.

The main function of suffixes in Modern English is to form one part of speech from another, the secondary function is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech. (e.g. «educate» is a verb, «educator» is a noun, and music» is a noun, «musical» is also a noun or an adjective). There are different classifications of suffixes :

1. Part-of-speech classification. Suffixes which can form different parts of speech are given here :

2. Semantic classification. Suffixes changing the lexical meaning of the stem can be subdivided into groups, e.g. noun-forming suffixes can denote:

3. Lexico—grammatical character of the stem. Suffixes which can be added to certain groups of stems are subdivided into:

4. Origin of suffixes. Here we can point out the following groups:

5. Productivity. Here we can point out the following groups:

Prefixation is the formation of words by means of adding a prefix to the stem. In English it is characteristic for forming verbs. Prefixes are more independent than suffixes. Prefixes can be classified according to the nature of words in which they are used: prefixes used in notional words and prefixes used in functional words. Prefixes used in notional words are proper prefixes which are bound morphemes, e.g. un— (unhappy). Prefixes used in functional words are semi-bound morphemes because they are met in the language as words, e.g. over— (overhead) (cf. over the table). The main function of prefixes in English is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech. But the recent research showed that about twenty-five prefixes in Modern English form one part of speech from another (bebutton, interfamily, postcollege etc).

Prefixes can be classified according to different principles:

1. Semantic classification:

a) prefixes of negative meaning, such as: in— (invaluable), non— (nonformals), un— (unfree) etc,

b) prefixes denoting repetition or reversal actions, such as: de— (decolonize), re— (revegetation), dis— (disconnect),

2. Origin of prefixes:

Composition is the way of word building when a word is formed by joining two or more stems to form one word. The structural unity of a compound word depends upon: a) the unity of stress, b) solid or hyphеnated spelling, c) semantic unity, d) unity of morphological and syntactical functioning. These are characteristic features of compound words in all languages. For English compounds some of these factors are not very reliable. As a rule English compounds have one uniting stress (usually on the first component), e.g. hard-cover, best—seller. We can also have a double stress in an English compound, with the main stress on the first component and with a secondary stress on the second component, e.g. blood—vessel. The third pattern of stresses is two level stresses, e.g. snow—white, sky—blue. The third pattern is easily mixed up with word-groups unless they have solid or hyphеnated spelling.

Spelling in English compounds is not very reliable as well because they can have different spelling even in the same text, e.g. war—ship, blood—vessel can be spelt through a hyphen and also with a break, insofar, underfoot can be spelt solidly and with a break. All the more so that there has appeared in Modern English a special type of compound words which are called block compounds, they have one uniting stress but are spelt with a break, e.g. air piracy, cargo module, coin change, penguin suit etc. The semantic unity of a compound word is often very strong. In such cases we have idiomatic compounds where the meaning of the whole is not a sum of meanings of its components, e.g. to ghostwrite, skinhead, brain—drain etc. In nonidiomatic compounds semantic unity is not strong, e. g., airbus, to bloodtransfuse, astrodynamics etc.

English compounds have the unity of morphological and syntactical functioning. They are used in a sentence as one part of it and only one component changes grammatically, e.g. These girls are chatter-boxes. «Chatter-boxes» is a predicative in the sentence and only the second component changes grammatically. There are two characteristic features of English compounds:

a) Both components in an English compound are free stems, that is they can be used as words with a distinctive meaning of their own. The sound pattern will be the same except for the stresses, e.g. «a green-house» and «a green house». Whereas for example in Russian compounds the stems are bound morphemes, as a rule.

b) English compounds have a two-stem pattern, with the exception of compound words which have form-word stems in their structure, e.g. middle-of-the-road, off—the—record, up—and—doing etc. The two-stem pattern distinguishes English compounds from German ones.

WAYS OF FORMING COMPOUND WORDS

Compound words in English can be formed not only by means of composition but also by means of:

b) conversion from word-groups, e.g. to micky—mouse, can—do, makeup etc,

d) analogy, e.g. lie—in (on the analogy with sit-in) and also phone—in, brawn—drain (on the analogy with brain—drain) etc.

CLASSIFICATIONS OF ENGLISH COMPOUNDS

1. According to the parts of speech compounds are subdivided into:

a) nouns, such as: baby-moon, globe-trotter,

b) adjectives, such as : free-for-all, power-happy,

c) verbs, such as : to honey-moon, to baby-sit, to henpeck,

d) adverbs, such as: downdeep, headfirst,

e) prepositions, such as: into, within,

f) numerals, such as : fifty—five.

2. According to the way components are joined together compounds are divided into: a) neutral, which are formed by joining together two stems without any joining morpheme, e.g. ball—point, to windowshop,

b) morphological where components are joined by a linking element: vowels «o» or «i» or the consonant «s», e.g. («astrospace», «handicraft», «sportsman»),

c) syntactical where the components are joined by means of form-word stems, e.g. here-and-now, free-for-all, do-or-die.

3. According to their structure compounds are subdivided into:

a) compound words proper which consist of two stems, e.g. to job-hunt, train-sick, go-go, tip-top,

b) derivational compounds, where besides the stems we have affixes, e.g. ear—minded, hydro-skimmer,

c) compound words consisting of three or more stems, e.g. cornflower—blue, eggshell—thin, singer—songwriter,

d) compound-shortened words, e.g. boatel, VJ—day, motocross, intervision, Eurodollar, Camford.

4. According to the relations between the components compound words are subdivided into:

a) subordinative compounds where one of the components is the semantic and the structural centre and the second component is subordinate; these subordinative relations can be different: with comparative relations, e.g. honey—sweet, eggshell—thin, with limiting relations, e.g. breast—high, knee—deep, with emphatic relations, e.g. dog—cheap, with objective relations, e.g. gold—rich, with cause relations, e.g. love—sick, with space relations, e.g. top—heavy, with time relations, e.g. spring—fresh, with subjective relations, e.g. foot—sore etc

b) coordinative compounds where both components are semantically independent. Here belong such compounds when one person (object) has two functions, e.g. secretary-stenographer, woman-doctor, Oxbridge etc. Such compounds are called additive. This group includes also compounds formed by means of reduplication, e.g. fifty-fifty, no-no, and also compounds formed with the help of rhythmic stems (reduplication combined with sound interchange) e.g. criss-cross, walkie-talkie.

5. According to the order of the components compounds are divided into compounds with direct order, e.g. kill—joy, and compounds with indirect order, e.g. nuclear—free, rope—ripe.

Conversion is a characteristic feature of the English word-building system. It is also called affixless derivation or zero-suffixation. The term «conversion» first appeared in the book by Henry Sweet «New English Grammar» in 1891. Conversion is treated differently by different scientists, e.g. prof. A.I. Smirntitsky treats conversion as a morphological way of forming words when one part of speech is formed from another part of speech by changing its paradigm, e.g. to form the verb «to dial» from the noun «dial» we change the paradigm of the noun (a dial, dials) for the paradigm of a regular verb (I dial, he dials, dialed, dialing). A. Marchand in his book «The Categories and Types of Present-day English» treats conversion as a morphological-syntactical word-building because we have not only the change of the paradigm, but also the change of the syntactic function, e.g. I need some good paper for my room. (The noun «paper» is an object in the sentence). I paper my room every year. (The verb «paper» is the predicate in the sentence). Conversion is the main way of forming verbs in Modern English. Verbs can be formed from nouns of different semantic groups and have different meanings because of that, e.g.:

a) verbs have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denoting parts of a human body e.g. to eye, to finger, to elbow, to shoulder etc. They have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denoting tools, machines, instruments, weapons, e.g. to hammer, to machine-gun, to rifle, to nail,

b) verbs can denote an action characteristic of the living being denoted by the noun from which they have been converted, e.g. to crowd, to wolf, to ape,

c) verbs can denote acquisition, addition or deprivation if they are formed from nouns denoting an object, e.g. to fish, to dust, to peel, to paper,

d) verbs can denote an action performed at the place denoted by the noun from which they have been converted, e.g. to park, to garage, to bottle, to corner, to pocket,

e) verbs can denote an action performed at the time denoted by the noun from which they have been converted e.g. to winter, to week-end.

Verbs can be also converted from adjectives, in such cases they denote the change of the state, e.g. to tame (to become or make tame), to clean, to slim etc.

Nouns can also be formed by means of conversion from verbs. Converted nouns can denote: a) instant of an action e.g. a jump, a move,

b) process or state e.g. sleep, walk,

c) agent of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been converted, e.g. a help, a flirt, a scold,

d) object or result of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been converted, e.g. a burn, a find, a purchase,

e) place of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been converted, e.g. a drive, a stop, a walk.

Many nouns converted from verbs can be used only in the Singular form and denote momentaneous actions. In such cases we have partial conversion. Such deverbal nouns are often used with such verbs as: to have, to get, to take etc., e.g. to have a try, to give a push, to take a swim.

CRITERIA OF SEMANTIC DERIVATION

In cases of conversion the problem of criteria of semantic derivation arises: which of the converted pair is primary and which is converted from it. The problem was first analized by prof. A.I. Smirnitsky. Later on P.A. Soboleva developed his idea and worked out the following criteria:

2. If we compare a converted pair with a synonymic word pair which was formed by means of suffixation we can find out which of the pair is primary. This criterion can be applied only to nouns converted from verbs, e.g. «chat» n. and «chat» v. can be compared with «conversation» – «converse».

3. The criterion based on derivational relations is of more universal character. In this case we must take a word-cluster of relative words to which the converted pair belongs. If the root stem of the word-cluster has suffixes added to a noun stem the noun is primary in the converted pair and vica versa, e.g. in the word-cluster: hand n., hand v., handy, handful the derived words have suffixes added to a noun stem, that is why the noun is primary and the verb is converted from it. In the word-cluster: dance n., dance v., dancer, dancing we see that the primary word is a verb and the noun is converted from it.

SUBSTANTIVIZATION OF ADJECTIVES

Some scientists (Yespersen, Kruisinga) refer substantivization of adjectives to conversion. But most scientists disagree with them because in cases of substantivization of adjectives we have quite different changes in the language. Substantivization is the result of ellipsis (syntactical shortening) when a word combination with a semantically strong attribute loses its semantically weak noun (man, person etc), e.g. «a grown-up person» is shortened to «a grown-up». In cases of perfect substantivization the attribute takes the paradigm of a countable noun, e.g. a criminal, criminals, a criminal’s (mistake), criminals’ (mistakes). Such words are used in a sentence in the same function as nouns, e.g. I am fond of musicals. (musical comedies). There are also two types of partly substantivized adjectives: 1) those which have only the plural form and have the meaning of collective nouns, such as: sweets, news, finals, greens; 2) those which have only the singular form and are used with the definite article. They also have the meaning of collective nouns and denote a class, a nationality, a group of people, e.g. the rich, the English, the dead.

«STONE WALL» COMBINATIONS

The problem whether adjectives can be formed by means of conversion from nouns is the subject of many discussions. In Modern English there are a lot of word combinations of the type, e.g. price rise, wage freeze, steel helmet, sand castle etc. If the first component of such units is an adjective converted from a noun, combinations of this type are free word-groups typical of English (adjective + noun). This point of view is proved by O. Yespersen by the following facts:

1. «Stone» denotes some quality of the noun «wall».

2. «Stone» stands before the word it modifies, as adjectives in the function of an attribute do in English.

3. «Stone» is used in the Singular though its meaning in most cases is plural, and adjectives in English have no plural form.

4. There are some cases when the first component is used in the Comparative or the Superlative degree, e.g. the bottomest end of the scale.

5. The first component can have an adverb which characterizes it, and adjectives are characterized by adverbs, e.g. a purely family gathering.

6. The first component can be used in the same syntactical function with a proper adjective to characterize the same noun, e.g. lonely bare stone houses.

7. After the first component the pronoun «one» can be used instead of a noun, e.g. I shall not put on a silk dress, I shall put on a cotton one.

However Henry Sweet and some other scientists say that these criteria are not characteristic of the majority of such units. They consider the first component of such units to be a noun in the function of an attribute because in Modern English almost all parts of speech and even word-groups and sentences can be used in the function of an attribute, e.g. the then president (an adverb), out-of-the-way villages (a word-group), a devil-may-care speed (a sentence). There are different semantic relations between the components of «stone wall» combinations. E.I. Chapnik classified them into the following groups:

1. time relations, e.g. evening paper,

2. space relations, e.g. top floor,

3. relations between the object and the material of which it is made, e.g. steel helmet,

4. cause relations, e.g. war orphan,

5. relations between a part and the whole, e.g. a crew member,

6. relations between the object and an action, e.g. arms production,

7. relations between the agent and an action e.g. government threat, price rise,

8. relations between the object and its designation, e.g. reception hall,

9. the first component denotes the head, organizer of the characterized object, e.g. Clinton government, Forsyte family,

10. the first component denotes the field of activity of the second component, e.g. language teacher, psychiatry doctor,

11. comparative relations, e.g. moon face,

12. qualitative relations, e.g. winter apples.

In the process of communication words and word-groups can be shortened. The causes of shortening can be linguistic and extra-linguistic. By extra-linguistic causes changes in the life of people are meant. In Modern English many new abbreviations, acronyms, initials, blends are formed because the tempo of life is increasing and it becomes necessary to give more and more information in the shortest possible time. There are also linguistic causes of abbreviating words and word-groups, such as the demand of rhythm, which is satisfied in English by monosyllabic words. When borrowings from other languages are assimilated in English they are shortened. Here we have modification of form on the basis of analogy, e.g. the Latin borrowing «fanaticus» is shortened to «fan» on the analogy with native words: man, pan, tan etc. There are two main types of shortenings: graphical and lexical.

Graphical abbreviations are the result of shortening of words and word-groups only in written speech while orally the corresponding full forms are used. They are used for the economy of space and effort in writing. The oldest group of graphical abbreviations in English is of Latin origin. In Russian this type of abbreviation is not typical. In these abbreviations in the spelling Latin words are shortened, while orally the corresponding English equivalents are pronounced in the full form, e.g. for example (Latin exampli gratia), a.m. – in the morning (ante meridiem), No – number (numero), p.a. – a year (per annum), d – penny (dinarius), lb – pound (libra), i. e. – that is (id est) etc.

Some graphical abbreviations of Latin origin have different English equivalents in different contexts, e.g. p.m. can be pronounced «in the afternoon» (post meridiem) and «after death» (post mortem). There are also graphical abbreviations of native origin, where in the spelling we have abbreviations of words and word-groups of the corresponding English equivalents in the full form. We have several semantic groups of them: a) days of the week, e.g. Mon – Monday, Tue – Tuesday etc

b) names of months, e.g. Apr – April, Aug – August etc.

c) names of counties in UK, e.g. Yorks – Yorkshire, Berks – Berkshire etc

d) names of states in USA, e.g. Ala – Alabama, Alas – Alaska etc.

e) names of address, e.g. Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr. etc.

f) military ranks, e.g. capt. – captain, col. – colonel, sgt – sergeant etc.

g) scientific degrees, e.g. B.A. – Bachelor of Arts, D.M. – Doctor of Medicine. (Sometimes in scientific degrees we have abbreviations of Latin origin, e.g., M.B. – Medicinae Baccalaurus).

h) units of time, length, weight, e.g. f./ft – foot/feet, sec. – second, in. – inch, mg. – milligram etc.

The reading of some graphical abbreviations depends on the context, e.g. «m» can be read as: male, married, masculine, metre, mile, million, minute, «l.p.» can be read as long-playing, low pressure.

Initialisms are the bordering case between graphical and lexical abbreviations. When they appear in the language, as a rule, to denote some new offices they are closer to graphical abbreviations because orally full forms are used, e.g. J.V. – joint venture. When they are used for some duration of time they acquire the shortened form of pronouncing and become closer to lexical abbreviations, e.g. BBC is as a rule pronounced in the shortened form. In some cases the translation of initialisms is next to impossible without using special dictionaries. Initialisms are denoted in different ways. Very often they are expressed in the way they are pronounced in the language of their origin, e.g. ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand, United States) is given in Russian as АНЗУС, SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) was for a long time used in Russian as СОЛТ, now a translation variant is used (ОСВ – Договор об ограничении стратегических вооружений). This type of initialisms borrowed into other languages is preferable, e.g. UFO – НЛО, CП – JV etc. There are three types of initialisms in English:

a) initialisms with alphabetical reading, such as UK, BUP, CND etc

b) initialisms which are read as if they are words, e.g. UNESCO, UNO, NATO etc.

c) initialisms which coincide with English words in their sound form, such initialisms are called acronyms, e.g. CLASS (Computor-based Laboratory for Automated School System). Some scientists unite groups b) and c) into one group which they call acronyms. Some initialisms can form new words in which they act as root morphemes by different ways of wordbuilding:

a) affixation, e.g. AVALism, ex- POW, AIDSophobia etc.

b) conversion, e.g. to raff, to fly IFR (Instrument Flight Rules),

c) composition, e.g. STOLport, USAFman etc.

Abbreviations of words

Abbreviation of words consists in clipping a part of a word. As a result we get a new lexical unit where either the lexical meaning or the style is different form the full form of the word. In such cases as «fantasy» and «fancy», «fence» and «defence» we have different lexical meanings. In such cases as «laboratory» and «lab», we have different styles. Abbreviation does not change the part-of-speech meaning, as we have it in the case of conversion or affixation, it produces words belonging to the same part of speech as the primary word, e.g. prof. is a noun and professor is also a noun. Mostly nouns undergo abbreviation, but we can also meet abbreviation of verbs, such as to rev. from to revolve, to tab from to tabulate etc. But mostly abbreviated forms of verbs are formed by means of conversion from abbreviated nouns, e.g. to taxi, to vac etc. Adjectives can be abbreviated but they are mostly used in school slang and are combined with suffixation, e.g. comfy, dilly etc. As a rule pronouns, numerals, interjections. conjunctions are not abbreviated. The exceptions are: fif (fifteen), teen-ager, in one’s teens (apheresis from numerals from 13 to 19). Lexical abbreviations are classified according to the part of the word which is clipped. Mostly the end of the word is clipped, because the beginning of the word in most cases is the root and expresses the lexical meaning of the word. This type of abbreviation is called apocope. Here we can mention a group of words ending in «o», such as disco (dicotheque), expo (exposition), intro (introduction) and many others. On the analogy with these words there developed in Modern English a number of words where «o» is added as a kind of a suffix to the shortened form of the word, e.g. combo (combination) – небольшой эстрадный ансамбль, Afro (African) – прическа под африканца etc. In other cases the beginning of the word is clipped. In such cases we have apheresis, e.g. chute (parachute), varsity (university), copter (helicopter), thuse (enthuse) etc. Sometimes the middle of the word is clipped, e.g. mart (market), fanzine (fan magazine) maths (mathematics). Such abbreviations are called syncope. Sometimes we have a combination of apocope with apheresis, when the beginning and the end of the word are clipped, e.g. tec (detective), van (vanguard) etc. Sometimes shortening influences the spelling of the word, e.g. «c» can be substituted by «k» before «e» to preserve pronunciation, e.g. mike (microphone), Coke (coca-cola) etc. The same rule is observed in the following cases: fax (facsimile), teck (technical college), trank (tranquilizer) etc. The final consonants in the shortened forms are substituded by letters characteristic of native English words.

NON-PRODUCTIVE WAYS OF WORDBUILDING

It is the way of word-building when a word is formed by imitating different sounds. There are some semantic groups of words formed by means of sound imitation:

a) sounds produced by human beings, such as : to whisper, to giggle, to mumble, to sneeze, to whistle etc.

b) sounds produced by animals, birds, insects, such as: to hiss, to buzz, to bark, to moo, to twitter etc.

c) sounds produced by nature and objects, such as: to splash, to rustle, to clatter, to bubble, to ding-dong, to tinkle etc.

The corresponding nouns are formed by means of conversion, e.g. clang (of a bell), chatter (of children) etc.

As we can notice in cases of back formation the part-of-speech meaning of the primary word is changed, verbs are formed from nouns.

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