Філологічні науки/3.Теоретические
и методологические проблемы исследования языка.
Oksana S. Andriyevska
Principle Ways of the Word-Forming in the English Language
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, and back formation [1;
6].
In word-formation of the English language derivation
and compounding are known to occupy a very important place.
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 [2].
Suffixes may be classified proceeding from different
criteria. According to the part of speech classification they fall into:
a) suffixes forming nouns;
b) suffixes forming adjectives;
c) suffixes forming verbs;
d) and adverb-suffixes [5].
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 [2].
A compound word is a word composed entirely of smaller
words.
Blending is a special type of compounding by means of merging parts of
words into one new word. This category of word-formation is a development which
has linguistic value of its own in various languages. The tendency towards
shortness has become most active in recent times, in present-day English,
particularly [5].
Conversion is a characteristic feature of the
English word-building system. It is also called affixless
derivation or zero-suffixation [2].
Rayevska
thinks that derivative and compound words, as lexemes, have naturally the
properties revealed in their paradigmatic and syntagmatic
relations. But there are cases when some semantic elements of such words do not
find their formal expression and remain in "deep sense
word-structure" [5].
Meshkov defines that in English
words can be simple, derivative and compound. A simple word consists of a root
to which morphological flexions can join: for example “table”, “book” are
simple words. A derivative is a word which is formed by adding some affixes:
for example, “speaker”, “government”, “to bed” are derivatives. Thus a verb “to bed” on a morphological structure is a simple word, and in this
sense does not differ, from a noun, “a
bed”, however, a verb is the product of the word-formation act (conversion)
and, therefore, “to bed” is a
derivative word. Consequently, morphological and word-formation structure of
word can not coincide from the point of view of their divisibility and
indivisibility [4].
A compound word is a word
which appeared as a result of addition two or more bases: for example: “blackboard”, “handcraft”, “weekend”.
Also in linguistic literature it is accepted to determine derivative compound
words, these are compound words which have one or more derivative affixes.
Literature:
1. Бухбиндер В. А. Работа над лексакой
// Основы методики преподавания иностранных языков. – К.: Вища
школа, 1986. – с. 159 – 179.
2. Дубенец Э. М., Lexicology of the English Language, Курс лекций и
планы семинарских занятий по лексикологии английского языка (для студентов
третьего курса), Московский педагогический университет, 2004.
3. Каращук П. М. Словообразование английского языка. – М.:
Высшая школа. 1977 – 314 с.
4. Мешков О. Д. Словообразование современного английского языка. М.: Наука,
1976. – C. 248
5. Раевская Н.Н., Лексикология английского языка, – К.: «Высшая школа»,
1979. – 301с.