English lexicosemantics

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY AND
SEMANTICS
1
1.1. DEFINITION

1

1.2. LEXICOLOGY: SUBJECT MATTERS

1

1.3. BASIC CONCEPTS ABOUT ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY AND SEMANTICS 2
1.4. ITS RELATION TO OTHER BRANCHES OF LINGUISTICS

2

1.5. NOTIONS ON MORPHEMES TYPES OF MORPHEMES AND WORDS

5

1.6. MORPHOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF WORDS
1.7. THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF WORDS

8

1.8. THE MAIN LEXICOLOGY AND SEMANTIC PROBLEMS

8

1.9. CHARACTERITIC FEATURES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

9

1.10. QUESTIONS FOR DISSCUSSIONS

12

1.11. EXERCISES

12

CHAPTER II: WORD STRUCTURE AND FORMATION

18

2.1. INTRODUCTION
2.2. AFFIXATION

19

2.2.1 . Prefixation

20

2.2.2. Suffixation

23

2.2.3. Infixation

26

2.3. COMPOUNDING

24

2.3.1. Definition :
2.3.2. Criteria
2.3.3. Classification

27

2.4. SHORTENING

29

2.4.1. Abbreviation

29

2.4.2. Blending: (blends, fusions or portmanteau words)

30

2.5. CONVERSION

31

2.5.1. Substantivation of adjectives : (adj
2.5.2. Adjectivization of nouns (n

n) and verbs ( v

adj)

34

2.5.3. Verbalization of nouns or adjectives (n/adj
2.5.4. Adverbalization of adjectives (adj

n)

v)

34

adv)

2.5.5. Partial conversion

33

2.5.6. Individual coinage in conversation

35

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2.6. SOUND AND STRESS INTERCHANGE

36

2.6.1. Sound interchange
2.6.2. Stress interchange
2.7. SOUND IMITATION

36

2.8. BACK FORMATION / BACK DERIVATION

37

2.9. COINAGE AND REDUPLICATION

38

2.10. BORROWINGS

38

2.11. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSIONS

39

2.12. EXERCISES

39

REFERENCES

CHAPTER III: SEMASIOLOGY

45

3.1. INTRODUCTION

45

3.2. SEMANTICS AND ITS POSSIBLE INCLUDED ASPECTS

45

3.3. TYPES OF MEANINGS

46

3.3.1. Grammatical meaning:
3.3.2. Lexical meaning.

47

3.3.2.1. Conceptual Meaning ( denonational )

48

3.3.2.2. Associative meaning
3.3.2.3. Pragmatic meaning

50

3.3.3. Motivation of words

50

3.4. SEMANTIC STRUCTURE

51

3.5. POLYSEMY

51

3.6. POLYSEMY AND CONTEXT

52

3.6.1. Polysemy and Context
3.6.2. Types of polysemy

53

3.7. HOMONYMY

53

3.8. SYNONYMY AND ANTONYMY

55

3.8.1. Synonymy and definition
3.8.2. Antonymy and definition

56

3.9. DEVELOPMENT OF MEANING

57

3.9.1. Main ways of semantic change
3.9.1. 1. Extention/ generation of meaning

58

3.9.1.2. Narrowing/ specialization of meaning
3.9.1.3. Degradation of meaning.

59

3.9.1.4. Elevation of meaning.

4


3.9.2. Transference of meaning

59

3.10. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSIONS

62

3.11. EXERCISES

62

REFERENCES

CHAPTER IV: PHRASEOLOGY

67

4.1. DEFINITION AND CONCEPTS

67

4.2. PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS

67

4.3. STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF PHRASEOLOGY

68

4.4. SEMANTIC AND STYLISTIC FEATURES OF PHRASEOLOGY

68

4.5. CLASSIFICATION OF PHRASEOLOGY BASED ON THE DEGREE OF
MOTIVATION

69
4.6. CLASSIFICATION OF PHRASEOLOGY BASED ON THE FUNCTION
4.6.1 Noun equivalents :

70

4.6.2. Verb equivalents :
4.6.3. Adjective equivalents :
4.6.4. Adverb equivalents :
4.6.5. Connecting word equivalents:
4.4.6. Interjection equivalents:
4.6.7. Modal particle equivalents :
4.7. VERBAL COLLOCATIONS

71

4.7.1. Phrasal verbs:
4.7.2. Prepositional verbs:

72

4.7.3. Prepositional phrasal verbs :
4.8. PROVERBS AND QUOTATIONS

73

4.8. 1. Proverbs
4.8.2. Quotations:
4.8.3. Cliché

76

4.9. QUESTIONS FOR DISSCUSSIONS

76

4.10. EXERCISES

77

4.10.1. Use the bold phrases given to paraphrase the sentences below
REFERENCES

78

CHAPTER V: ETYMOLOGY AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE AMERICAN
ENGLISH
85
5.1. THE ETYMOLOGY OF ENGLISH WORDS

85

5.1.1. The earliest group of English borrowings
5.1.2. Celtic borrowings. The fifth century A.D.

5


5.1.3. The period of Christianization. The seventh century A.D.
5.1.4. The characteristic features of Scandinavian borrowings.

5.1.5. Norman French borrowings (1066).

85

5.1.6. The Renaissance Period.

85

5.2. THE MOST COMMON WAYS INFLUENCE THE ORIGINS OF WORDS 87
5.2.1. Derived from Foreign Words
5.2.2. Additions through Technology & Products
5.2.3. People's Names
5.2.4. Words from Letters
5.2.5. Word Histories
5.3. THE ETYMOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH VOCABULARY

88

5. 4. ETYMOLOGY AS A BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS

89

5.5. NATIVE WORDS IN ENGLISH

90

5.5.1. Indo-European group
5.5.2. Common Germanic group

91

5.5.3. The English Proper
5.6. BORROWED WORDS IN ENGLISH

91

5.6.1. Germanic period or Pre-Old English

92

5.6.2. Old English Period (600-1100)

92

5.6.3. Middle English Period (1100-1500)

93

5.6.4. Early Modern English Period (1500-1650)

94

5.6.5. Present-Day English (1650-present)

95

5.7. INTERNATIONAL WORDS

98

5.8. ETYMOLOGICAL DOUBLTES

98

5.9. TRANSLATION – LOANS

99

5.10. STANDARD ENGLISH, VARIANTS AND DIALECTS

100

5.11. PECULIARITIES OF THE AMERICAN ENGLISH

102

5.11.1. Pronunciation

102

5.11.2. Spelling

105

5.11.3. Synonyms

108

5.12. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSIONS

110

5.13. EXERCISES

111

REFERENCES

CHAPTER VI: STYLISTIC ASPECTS OF THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY
115

6


6.1. INTRODUCTION

115

6.2. STANDARD ENGLISH VOCABULARY

116

6.3. SPECIAL LITERARY VOCABULARY

118

6.3.1 Terms, poetic and highly literary words, archaic words
6.3.1.1. Terms
6.3.1.2. Poetic and highly literary words

119

6.3.2. Assimilation of Borrowed words

123

6.3.3 Literary coinages (including nonce-words)

126

6.4. SPECIAL COLLOQUIAL VOCABULARY

127

6.4. 1. Slang words
6.4. 2. Jagons

131

6.4. 3. Vulgar words
6.4. 4. Professional words

133

6.4. 5. Dialectal words

133

6.4. 6. Colloqial coinages (nonce-words)

132

6.5. QUESTIONS FOR DISSCUSSIONS

135

6.6. EXERCISES

136

ANSWER KEY

139

GLOSSARY

142

REFERENCES

145

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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY AND
SEMANTICS
Objectives:
By the end of this unit, students will be able to:
- get the general views on lexicology and know some approaches to Language Study

- understand the peculiar nature of lexicology
- identify the various types of word formation processes that exist in English
- explain what the early distinction between syntax and morphology is
The first chapter is about the general points of English Lexicology and Semantics with
the general definitions and concepts. This chapter is to help students understand fully and
thoroughly about the sub-field of linguistics which is called morphology with its meaning,
nature and problems. It also provides various concrete explanations of related branches, their
characteristic features and other aspects of the language.
1.1. DEFINITION
Lexicology is a branch of linguistics which studies the vocabulary of a language. Its
basic task is to study the origin, the different properties of the vocabulary of a language. In
other words, lexicology is concerned with words and set phrases which function in speech.
Lexicology also studies all kinds of semantic relations (synonyms, antonyms etc) and
semantic grouping (semantic fields).
Etymologically the word ―lexicology‖ is a Greek word: ―Lexis‖ means ―word‖ and
―logos‖ means learning.
Lexicology also means:
- a science / study which deals with words, morphemes and word groups.
- a science which studies and describes systematically the vocabulary of a given language.
The word can be defined as a structural and semantic entity of the language system. The
word is simultaneously a semantic, grammatical and phonological unit. Lexicology studies
various lexical units: words, variable word-groups, phraseological units, and morphemes
which make up words. The word as well as any linguistic sign is a two-faced unit possessing
both form and content or in other words sound-form and meaning.
The term vocabulary means the total sum of words that there are in the language. The size
of the vocabulary of any language is huge. No person can learn or know all the words of the
language. Individual people possess their own total vocabulary consisting of all the words
they know. Another word used to denote vocabulary is the term lexicon. In modern
Linguistics three main meanings of the term lexicon are distinguished: 1) the vocabulary
which a speaker of a language has in his or her head, that is, mental lexicon; 2) the set of

lexemes of a language and the processes which are related to them; 3) the set of lexical items
of a language.
1.2. LEXICOLOGY: SUBJECT MATTERS
The subject matters of lexicology are separate words, their morphological and semantic
structure, and the vocabulary of the language, which include words, word combinations, their
origin, developement and current use.

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We do not know much about the origin of language and, consequently, of the origin of
words. We know almost nothing about the mechanism by which a speaker‘s mental process is
converted into sound groups called ―words‖, nor about the reverse process whereby a
listener‘s brain converts the acoustic phenomena into concepts and ideas, thus establishing a
two-way process of communication.
We know very little about the nature of relations between the word and the referent
(i.e. object, phenomenon, quality, action, etc. denoted by the word). If we assume that there is
a direct relation between the word and the referent it gives rise to another question: how
should we explain the fact that the same referent is designated by quite different sound groups
in different languages.
We do know by now that there is nothing accidental about the vocabulary of the language
(the total sum of its words); that each word is a small unit within a vast, efficient and perfectly
balanced system.
What do we know about the nature of the word?
First, it is known that the word is a unit of speech which serves the purposes of human
communication. Thus, the word can be defined as a unit of communication. Secondly, the
word can be perceived as the total of the sounds which comprise it. Third, the word, viewed
structurally, possesses several characteristics.
The modern approach to word studies is based on distinguishing features between the
external and internal structures of the word.

By external structure of the word we mean its morphological structure. For example, in
the word post-impressionists the following morphemes can be distinguished: the prefixes
post-, im-, the root press, the noun-forming suffixes –ion, -ist, and the grammatical suffix of
plurality -s. All these morphemes constitute the external structure of the word postimpressionists.
The internal structure of word, or its meaning, is nowadays commonly referred to as the
word‘s semantic structure. This is certainly the word‘s main aspect, hence words serve the
purposes of human communication solely due to their meanings. The area of lexicology
specializing in the semantic studies of the word is called semantics.
1.3. BASIC CONCEPTS ABOUT ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY AND SEMANTICS
With regard to special lexicology the synchronic approach is concerned with the
vocabulary of a language as it exists at a certain time. The diachronic approach in terms of
special lexicology deals with the changes and the development of the vocabulary in the course
of time. It is special historical lexicology that deals with the evolution of vocabulary units as
time goes by.
The two approaches should not be contrasted, as they are interdependent since every
linguistic structure and system actually exists in a state of constant development so that the
synchronic state of a language system is a result of a long process of linguistic evolution.
As every word is a unity of semantic, phonetic and grammatical elements, the word is
studied not only in lexicology, but in other branches of linguistics, too, lexicology being
closely connected with general linguistics, the history of the language, phonetics, stylistics,
and grammar.
1.4. ITS RELATION TO OTHER BRANCHES OF LINGUISTICS
+ Lexicology consists of 5 essential branches :

9


Branch 1. Word structure and formation
Branch 2. Semiology (semantic structure of a word)
Branch 3. Phraseology (set expressions, word combinations, idioms,

proverbs, etc.).
Branch 4. Etymology (history and origin of words)
Branch 5. Lexicography (dictionary compiling)
+ It is considered from different angles, so there are 4 types of lexicology. It falls into:
Type 1. General lexicology
Type 2. Special lexicology
Type 3. Historical lexicology (diachronic aspect)
Type 4. Descriptive lexicology (synchronic aspect)
General lexicology is a part of General linguistics. It is concerned with the study of
vocabulary and its basic units, irrespective of the specific features of any particular language.
It works out basic notions and methods of vocabulary study. Within the frames of General
Lexicology many notions, such as the notion of the word, the notion of the meaning, the
notion of the context, the notion of system relations are investigated.
General lexicology studies the general properties of words, the specific features of words
of any particular language. It studies the pecularities of words common to all the languages.
General lexicology attempts to find out the universals of vocabulary development and
patterns.Linguistic phenomena and properties common to all languages are generally called
language universals.
Special lexicology deals with the words of a definite language. Special lexicology is the
lexicology of a particular language ( English, Russian, German, French, etc.). It describes
words and vocabulary of one particular language. Every Special Lexicology is based on the
principles of General Lexicology. Special Lexicology is further subdivided into Diachronic/
Historical and Synchronic/ Descriptive.
Historical or diachronic lexicology deals with the development of the vocabulary and
the changes it has undergone. To put it another way, Historical Lexicology deals with the
evolution of any vocabulary, the origin of words, their change and development. For example,
In descriptive lexicology the words ― to take ― ,―to adopt ― are considered to be English.
They are not different from such native words as ― child ‖,‖ foot ―,‖ stone ― etc. But in
historical lexicology they are treated as borrowed words.
In examining the word ―information‖in terms of its historical development, we establish

its French origin and study the changes in its semantic and morphological structures. If we
don‗t know the history of the language, it will be very difficult to establish different changes
in the meaning and form of the words which have undergone in the course of the historical
development of the language.
Descripitive/ Synchronic lexicology studies the words at a synchronic aspect. It is
concerned with the vocabulary of a language as they exist at the present time. The subject
matter of Descriptive/Synchronic Lexicology is the vocabulary of a particular language at a
given stage of its development. It studies mainly the structure and specific functions of words.

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Synchronic approach deals wich the vocabulary as it exists at a given time , at the
present time. The diachronic approach studies the changes and the development of vocabulary
in the course of time.
For example: Synchronically the words ―help‖ ,‖accept‖, work‖, ‖produce‖are all of
them English words. But diachronically they came from different languages. Such words as
―childhood‖, ‖kingdom‖, ‖friendship‖, ‖freedom‖ were at one time compound words because
the suffixes -dom, -hood, -ship were independent words but synchronically they are derived
words because ―dom‖ and ―hood‖became suffixes.
Lexicology is closely connected with other aspects of the language:
phonetics, grammar, stylistics and the history of the language.
►+ phonology (stress and juncture; phoneme and morpheme; homonyms)
►+ grammar (gram.meaning +lexical meaning; gram.functions, word
structure + formation)
►+ stylistics (stylistic aspect, synonyms, antonyms)
Lexicology is linked with phonetics because the order and the arrangement of phonemes
are related to its meaning. Ex. the words ―tip‖and ―pit‖ consist of the same phonemes and it
is the arrangement of phonemes alone which determines the meaning of the words. The
arrangement of phonemes in the words ―increase‖is the same. Only stress determines the

difference in meaning.
The interrelation between lexicology and phonetics becomes obvious if we think of the
fact that the word as the basis unit in lexicological study cannot exist without its sound form,
which is the object of study in phonology. Words consist of phonemes that are devoid of
meaning of their own, but forming morphemes they serve to distinguish between meanings.
The meaning of the word is determined by several phonological features: a) qualitative and
quantitative character of phonemes (e.g. dog-dock, pot-port); b) fixed sequence of phonemes
(e.g. pot-top, nest-sent-tens); 3) the position of stress (e.g. insult (verb) and insult (noun)). If
we change the stress, we change the meaning of the word and even part of the speech: rEcord
– recOrd, cOment – comEnt; blAckboard – black bOard, blAckbird – black bIrd.
Lexicology is connected with grammar because the word seldom occurs in isolation.
Words alone do not form communication. It is only when words are connected and joined by
the grammar rules of a language communication becomes possible. On the other hand,
grammatical form and function of the word affect its lexical meaning. For example, When the
verb ―go‖ in the continuous tense is followed by ―to‖ and an infinitive, it expresses a future
action. Ex. He is not going to read this book. The Past Participle of the verb ―go‖ following
the link verb ―be‖ denotes the negative meaning. Ex. The house is gone. So the lexical
meanings of the words are grammatically conditioned.
Grammar reflects the specific lexical meaning and the capacity of words to be combined
in human actual speech. The lexical meaning of the word, in its turn, is frequently signaled by
the grammatical context in which it occurs. Thus, morphological indicators help to
differentiate the variant meanings of the word (e.g., plural forms that serve to create special
lexical meaning: colors, customs, etc.; two kinds of pluralization: brother → brethren brothers; cloth → cloths - clothes). There are numerous instances when the syntactic position
of the word changes both its function and lexical meaning (e.g., an adjective and a noun
element of the same group can change places: library school - school library).

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Lexicology is bound up with Stylistics since there are problems of meaning, vocabulary

stratification, style treated in the frames of both the branches. There is also a close
relationship between lexicology and stylistics. The words ―to begin‖ and ‖to commence‖
mean one and the same meaning but they can never be used interchangeable because they
have different stylistic references. For a reader without some awareness of the connotations
and history of words, the images hidden in their root and their stylistic properties, a
substantial part of the meaning of a literary text, whether prosaic or poetic, may be lost. There
are words with negative, derogatory connotations, such as: desperate, paltry, gaudy, base,
lackeyed, slanderous, lowliest, meanest.
Lexicology is linked with the history of the language. English language belongs to West
Germanic language of the Indo-European language family that is closely related
to Frisian, German, and Dutch (in Belgium called Flemish) languages. English originated
in England and is the dominant language of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada,
Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and various island nations in the Caribbean Sea and
the Pacific Ocean.
The main periods of the English language are:
▬►. The Old English period (449-1066), Early Old English may be taken separately, as the
period of pre-written functioning of the language. The formation of kingdoms on the British
territory transformed the tribal dialects into regional (local) dialects that took place during the
later, Written Old English (or Anglo-Saxon period).
▬►. The Middle Eglish (1066-1475), the Early Middle English the writings of the period,
represented mainly by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Peterborough Chronicle, such poems as
Ormulum. Late Middle English which came to our times in writings of G. Chaucer already
presents a paragon of speech. London dialect becomes more and more prestigious, and what is
written in ―The Canterbury Tales‖ is already almost understood by a reader without a special
linguistic training.
▬►. New English 15th century. Early New English – known as Shakespeare‘s English is
represented by numerous writings of a whole bunch of prominent thinkers, writers, scientists.
Late New English is established and reviewed, and that is what you are studying in the course
of practical English.
It is also an official language of India, the Philippines, Singapore, and many countries in

sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa. English is the first choice of foreign language in
most other countries of the world, and it is that status that has given it the position of a
global lingua franca. It is estimated that about a third of the world‘s population, some two
billion persons, now use English.
English belongs to the Indo-European family of languages and is therefore related to
most other languages spoken in Europe and western Asia from Iceland to India. The parent
tongue, called Proto-Indo-European, was spoken about 5,000 years ago by nomads believed to
have roamed the southeast European plains. Germanic, one of the language groups descended
from this ancestral speech, is usually divided by scholars into three regional
groups: East(Burgundian, Vandal and Gothic, all extinct), North (Icelandic, Faroese,
Norwegian, Swedish and Danish) and West (German, Dutch [ and Flemish], Frisian and
English).
1.5. NOTIONS ON MORPHEMES TYPES OF MORPHEMES AND WORDS

12


Morpheme is the minimal meaningful indivisible two-facet unit. There are notions about
morph – concrete realization of the morpheme and morpheme variants – allomorphs (
inactive, irregular ).
Morpheme meanings belong to lexical (-ly, -ish), differential (cranberry, blackberry),
functional (just - justice), distributional (-er + sing- = ?) aspects.
The general classification of morphemes:
1. Semantic morphemes:
Root (lexicology) - the lexical centre (nucleus) of the word; words in word cluster are united
by the same root m. (hand, handy); affixational (lexicology ) - prefixes, suffixes, infixes
(inside the stem: E stand - stood), circumfixes (before and after: G haben - gehabt), tmesis
(abso-bloody-lutely); completives (lexicology) - borrowings from L or G, used to form terms,
neologisms: telephone, phonograph (pre- and postposition); inflectional (grammar).
2. Structural morphemes:

free (coincide with the stem);
bound: affixes, unique roots and pseudo-roots (barbarism, barbarian);
semi-bound (semi affixes): in some cases are considered affixes, but can be separate words
(proof, water-proof).
Valency is an ability to combine certain morphemes (experienced – inexperienced,
*unexperienced).
The relationship existing between words may be either syntagmatic or paradigmatic. The
syntagmatic relationship is found in the context. The context is the minimum stretch of speech
which is necessary to bring out the meaning of a word. The paradigmatic relationship is the
relations between words within the vocabulary: polysemy,synonyny,antonymy, of words etc.
SOME NOTIONS
+ Paradigm and syntagm
- Paradigm - ordered series of forms / comparable elements at a particular place in the
structure. They are formed by means of inflections / endings.
student

go

students

goes

student's

went

students'

gone

going
- Syntagm - word / phrase forming a syntactic unit or elements forming series of structures at
a given level in a linear stretch of writing.
SVA

Mary is in the garden.

SVC

Mary is kind.

SVO

Mary has got a new bicycle.

SVOA

Mary put the place on the table.

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SVOC

John thought Mary exceptionally clever.

SVOO

Mary gave me expensive presents.

SV(A)

Mary laughed (heartily).

1.6. MORPHOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF WORDS
Structural types of English words
A structural type of a word depends on the quantity and character of root morphemes as
well as absence or presence of word-building suffixes.
►Derivative and non-derivative words
Derivative words are produced by affixation, such as ―competition,‖ ―competitive.‖ Nonderivative or root words consist only of a root (e.g. ―compete‖).
►Simple and compound words
Simple words consist of one root, such as ―board.‖ Compound words consist of several roots,
such as ―blackboard.‖
►Full words and contracted words
Contracted words are shortened or abbreviated words, such as ―bike, USA.‖ Some
contracted words are composed of two or more word forms with shortened morphs.
(e.g. ―cineplex‖).
The modern approach to the word as a double-facet unit is based on distinguishing
between the external and the internal structures of the word. By the external structure of the
word we mean its morphological structure. For example, in the word post-impressionists the
following morphemes can be distinguished: the prefixes post-, im-, the root –press-, the
noun-forming suffixes -ion, -ist, and the grammatical suffix of plurality -s.
The minimal units of language that exhibit a systematic pairing of sound and meaning
thus do not correspond to words, but to in fact something more basic. These basic, minimal
units of sound and meaning are called morphemes. That, of course, now leaves us without a
clear definition of ‗word‘. For the moment, however, let‘s keep to a very intuitive idea about
what words are, and focus on morphemes. Once we better understand the nature of
morphemes, and the rules regulating how morphemes can be combined, and once we further
see how these units relate to ―higher level‖ units of linguistic expression (phrases/sentences,
which will be our next topic in this class), we will be in a better position to define words

properly.
As it turns out, a word (or, at least for the time being, something we intuitively think
of as being a word) can consist of one, two, three, four, five, six, or perhaps even more,
morphemes:
1 morpheme: desire

# desire #

2 morphemes: desirable

# desire+able #

3 morphemes: desirability

# desire+able+ity #

4 morphemes: undesirability

# un+desire+able+ity #

5 morphemes: unprofessionally

# un+profess+ion+al+ly #

6 morphemes: antidisestablishmentarianism
# anti+dis+establish +ment +ari+ an+ ism #

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1.7. THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF WORDS
The internal structure of the word, or its meaning, is nowadays commonly referred to as
the word's semantic structure. This is the word's main aspect. Words can serve the purposes of
human communication solely due to their meanings.
Word meaning is represented by different types of meaning: grammatical, lexical, lexicogrammatical.
Grammatical meaning is the component of word meaning, recurrent in identical sets of
individual forms of different words. It is expressed by:
word-form (such as books, girls, boys – the meaning of plurarity; looked, asked – tense
meaning); the position of the word in relation to other words (e.g. He sings well, She dances
badly – ‗sings‘ and ‗dances‘ are found in identical positions between a pronoun and an
adverb, their identical distribution proves that they have identical grammatical meaning.)
Lexico-grammatical meaning of the word is the common denominator to all the
meanings of the words belonging to a certain lexico-grammatical class or group of words.
Lexical meaning is the component of word meaning recurrent in all the forms of the word.
The word forms go, goes, went, gone, going have different grammatical meaning, but they
have one and the same lexical meaning. ‗the process of movement‘.
The main components of lexical meaning are:
The denotational meaning of words is the same for all the speakers. It is the realization of
the concept by means of the given language.
The pragmatic aspect of lexical meaning is the part of meaning, that conveys information
on the situation of communication: information on the ‗time and space‘ relationship of the
participants, information on the participants in the given language community, information on
the register of communication.
The connotational meaning conveys the speaker‘s attitudes, emotions and feelings toward
what he is speaking about.
1.8. THE MAIN LEXICOLOGY AND SEMANTIC PROBLEMS
The problem of word-building is associated with prevailing morphological wordstructures and with the processes of coining new words.
Semantics is the study of meaning. Modern approaches to this problem are characterized
by two different levels of study: paradigmatic and syntagmatic.
On the paradigmatic level (series of forms ), the word is studied in its relationships with

other words in the vocabulary system. So, a word may be studied in comparison with other
words of a similar meaning (e. g. work, n. – labor, n.; to refuse, v. – to reject v. – to decline,
v.), of opposite meaning (e. g. busy, adj. – idle, adj.; to accept, v. – to reject, v.), of different
stylistic characteristics (e. g. man, n. – chap, n. – bloke, n. — guy, n.). Consequently, the
key problems of paradigmatic studies are synonymy, antonymy, and functional styles.
On the syntagmatic level (series of structures), the semantic structure of the word is
analyzed in its linear relationships with neighboring words in connected speech. In other
words, the semantic characteristics of the word are observed, described and studied on the
basis of its typical contexts.
There are different approaches to the problem of word meaning:

15


▬► The referential, or denotational approach is characterized by the thought that the
essence of meaning lies in the interconnection and interdependence between: the word as the
soundform, the referent, and the concept. Here meaning is the realization of the concept/
notion by means of a definite language system.
▬► The functional, or contextual approach is characterized by the idea that the meaning of a
linguistic unit may be studied only through its relation to other linguistic units.
Thus, meaning is understood as the function of linguistic signs, or their use in context.
One further important matter of lexicological studies is the study of the vocabulary of a
language as a system. Revising the issue, the vocabulary can be studied synchronically (at a
given stage of its development), or diachronically (in the context of the processes through
which it grew, developed and acquired its modern form). The opposition of the two
approaches is nevertheless disputable as the vocabulary, as well as the word which is its
fundamental unit, is not only what it is at this particular stage of the language development,
but what it was centuries ago and has been throughout its history.
1.9. CHARACTERITIC FEATURES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
It's quite helpful and useful to know, but there are other reasons. For example, a nativeVietnamese teacher colleague may ask: What is special about the English language? You need

to try and answer this question.
Your colleagues-to-be in some countries may view you as an expert and may think you
know everything about the English language. Again, this type of question may come up in an
advanced class. We have been in this situation, and it could happen to you. So, absorb this. It
will enhance your knowledge, and it will get you out of a possibly tricky situation.
However, there is also another critical reason. There will likely be differences in
language structures in the native/first language of the learners you will be teaching, compared
to your native-English language.
You'll have grasped the importance of this already if you have studied a foreign
language at school or university. Or if you are a frequent traveler who likes to pick up a bit of
the native language.
Specific Characteristics
Here are some specific characteristics of the English Language:
a. Fairly easy to learn
English is one of the easiest and simplest natural languages in the world.
Of course, it's all relative. It depends on the learner's ability and previous language learning
experiences
Nevertheless, it's fair to say that English is a relatively easy language to learn, understand and
speak when compared to very complex languages such as Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin,
Korean and Japanese.
b. Latin alphabet
The English language uses the Latin alphabet. It is the most universal, short and
straightforward alphabet (only the Greek alphabet is shorter and simpler). Also, in English,
the Latin alphabet presents its cleanest form as a true alphabet with only 26 basic letters.
c. Its simple inflection

16


Inflection is the name for the extra letters added to nouns, verbs and adjectives in their

different grammatical forms, e.g., cat, cats; eat, eats; big, bigger.
English is considered to be a weakly inflected language when compared to, say, French or
Russian. Its nouns have only traces of inflection (plurals, the pronouns), and its regular verbs
have only four forms, e.g., look, looks, looked, looking.
Even for irregular verbs, there is almost no variation in person (except the 3rd person singular
in the present tense, e.g., I eat, you eat, she eats). The English language can indicate the
relationship of words in a sentence with only the minimum of change in their structure. There
are other languages that do this, but this is a strong characteristic of English.
d. Receptiveness
A significant feature of the English language is its receptiveness to accepting and adopting
words from other languages. Here are a few examples:
From Spanish:
Alligator: from el lagarto meaning the lizard
Cargo: from the verb cargar, meaning to load
From Hindi:
Bungalow: from the Hindi word bangla, a type of cottage built for early European settlers in
Bengal.
Jungle: from Hindi jangal, a desert, forest, wasteland, uncultivated ground
From Chinese:
Ketchup: from the Hokkien Chinese term kê-tsiap, a sauce made from fermented fish.
Europeans later added tomato as an ingredient.
Gung ho: it means to show enthusiasm. From a Chinese word, meaning work together.
You can find out the derivation of many common English words
at .
English has accepted and adopted words from Asian, European, African, Indian, Japanese,
Chinese and other languages. Also, English has accepted words from classical languages like
Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit.
e. Its (generally) fixed word order
Another strong characteristic of the English language is its (typically) fixed word order. Most
English sentences (clauses) conform to the SVO word order. This means that the Subject

comes before the Verb, which comes before the Object. Examples:
I (S) bought (V) a new top (O).
She (S) doesn't like (V) spiders (O).
Why did you (S) do (V) that (O)?
There are other word orders in English, but the SVO order is by far the most used, making it
easy for learners to grasp.
f. Pronunciation

17


The pronunciation of English words such as this, thin, clothes, thirteenth, months inevitably
causes problems for learners who do not need to use the tip of the tongue to produce words in
their language.
g. Continuous tense
Many languages do not have a continuous tense form, so English learners may make mistakes
such as: I had a bath when the phone rang; instead of I was having a bath when the phone
rang.
8. Articles (a, an, the)
The article system is another feature of English grammar that causes some students enormous
difficulties; mainly, of course, those whose native language does not use articles.
h. Phrasal verbs
A phrasal verb is an idiomatic phrase consisting of a verb and another item, typically either an
adverb, as in break down, or a preposition, for example, see to, or a combination of both, such
as look down on. (An item is the word for small self-contained pieces of language which you
can teach or practice in a lesson.)
These phrasal verbs are a VERY significant feature of the English language and can cause
severe difficulties for learners. Sentences such as I put it down to the weather, or I made it up
with my sister, are usually nonsense to beginner non-native-English speakers.
Unfortunately for the English language learner, phrasal verbs are extremely common in

colloquial (informal, everyday, conversational) English language. We‘ll explore these in
module 4.
i. Non-tonal
English is a non-tonal language.
In tone languages, e.g., Chinese and Vietnamese, pitch (the degree of highness or lowness of a
tone) is used to distinguish word meaning. So, a word said with high pitch may have a
different meaning from the same word said with a low pitch.
In English, changes in pitch are used to emphasize or express emotion, not to give a different
word meaning to the sound. It is not surprising that native speakers of tone languages often
have strong accents when speaking English.
k. Sound and spelling
A final feature of English that causes problems for non-native learners (and some nativeEnglish speakers) is the lack of a connection between word sound and word spelling.
It is difficult for non-native learners of English to predict the pronunciation of English words
they first come across in writing or the spelling of many English words they first hear.
The critical point is that this happens with some of the most common words in the language:
Words containing ough: thought, although, rough,
Words which have different spellings but they sound the same: ate, eight; hear, here; their,
there
Words with silent letters, not pronounced: know, could, hour
Words that look the same but must be pronounced differently: read (present tense), read (past
tense); present (a gift), present (to give to); close (near); close (to shut)

18


1.10. QUESTIONS FOR DISSCUSSIONS
1.What is the definition of the term 'Lexicology'?
2. What is the subject matter of Lexicology?
3. What does the term 'word' denote?
4. What is the term 'vocabulary' used to denote?

5. What are the definitions of the term 'lexicon'?
6. What do General Lexicology and Special Lexicology study?
1.11. EXERCISES
1.11.1. Fill in the each gap with a suitable word (part 1)
It is significant that many scholars have attempted to define the word .......1.............. a
linguistic phenomenon. Yet none of the definitions can be considered totally satisfactory in
......2.................. aspects. It is equally surprising that, despite all the achievements of modern
science, certain essential aspects of the nature ........3....... .........word still escape us. Nor do
we fully understand the phenomenon called ―language‖, of which .....4................. word is a
fundamental unit.
We do not know ......5.............. about the origin of language, and, consequently, of the
origin of words. It is true that there are several hypotheses, some of them no less fantastic
......6............. the theory of the divine origin of language and so many languages that
humankind has.
We know nothing - it would be more precise .......7............... say – almost nothing
........8............. the mechanism by which a speaker‘s mental process is converted
........9................. sound groups called ―word‖ nor about the reverse process whereby a
listener‘s brain converts the acoustic phenomena into concepts ......10...................... ideas, thus
establishing a two-way process of communication We know very little about the nature of
relations ......11........... the word and the referent (i.e.object, phenomenon, quality, action, etc.
denoted by the word). If we assume ......12....................there is a direct relation between the
word and the referent - which seems logical – it gives rise ..........13......... another question:
how should we explain ......14...............fact that the same referent is designated by quite
different sound groups .........15.... ... .... different languages.
However, we are not likely.......16.............be desperate not to know so many things. One
thing is clear – there is nothing accidental .........17............ the vocabulary of the language (as
well as there is nothing accidental in life). The vocabulary of language is understood with the
total stock of words that each word is a small unit ......18.......... a vast, efficient and perfectly
balanced system.
So far we have only underlined the word‘s major peculiarities. All that we have said

about the word can be summed up ........19.......... follows:
The word is a speech unit used .........20............. the purposes of human communication,
materially representing a group of sounds, possessing a meaning, susceptible to grammatical
employment and characterized by formal and semantic unity.
1.11.2. Fill in the each gap with a suitable word (part 2)
The list of unknowns can be extended, but it is probably high time ....1...... look at the
brighter side and register some of the things we do know .......2.......... the nature of the word.

19


First, we do know ........3........... the word is a unit of speech which, as such, serves the
purposes of communication. Thus the word can be defined ......4......... a unit of
communication.
Secondly, the word can be perceived as ........5............ total of the sounds which comprise it.
Third, the word, viewed structurally, possesses .......6............ characteristics. The modern
approach to word studies is based ......7............... distinguishing between the external
.......8.............. internal structures of the word.
By external structure of the word, we mean its morphological structure. For example, in
.......9............... word ― post-impressionists‖ the following morphemes can be distinguished:
the prefixes post-, im-, the root press, the noun-forming suffixes –ion, -ist, ........10...........
the grammatical suffix of plurality -s. All these morphemes ......11.............. the external
structure of the word post-impressionists The internal structure of word, or its meaning, is
nowadays commonly referred .......12..............as the word‘s semantic structure. This is
certainly the word‘s main aspect, hence words serve the .......13............. of human
communication solely due to their meanings. The area of lexicology
specializing.......14.............. the semantic studies of the word is called semantics. More than
hundred years ago, in 1883 the French philologist Michel Breal published an article where he
argued ......15............. alongside of phonetics and morphology, the study of .....16...........
formal elements of human speech, there ought also to be a science of meaning, which he

proposed to call ―la semantique,‖ by a word derived .....17............ the Greek ―sign.‖ The
branch of study advocated in this article was not entirely new, but it was the first time when
semantics as a discipline in its own right was established. Semantics ....18............. the study of
meanings.
Another structural aspect of the word is its unity. The word possesses both external
(formal) unity and semantic unity. Formal unity of the word is sometimes inaccurately
interpreted .......19................ indivisibility. The example of post-impressionists has already
shown that the word is not, strictly speaking, indivisible. Yet, its component morphemes are
permanently linked together in opposition to word-groups, both free .......20............... with
fixed contexts, whose components possess a certain structural freedom, e.g. bright light, to
take for granted.
1.11.3. Choose the best one to complete each sentence
1. The formal unity of a word can be best ........................ by comparing a word and a word
group comprising identical constituents.
a. illustrated

b. illustrate

c. illustration

d. illustrating

2. The difference between a blackbird and a black- bird is best explained by their relationship
with .......................... system of the language.
a. grammatician

b. grammar

c. grammatical

d. grammatically

3. A further structural feature of the word is its ................. to grammatical employment.
a. susceptive

b. susceptibly

c. susceptible

d. susceptibility

4. In speech most words can be used in different grammatical .............. ..... . in which their
interrelations are realized.
a. forms

b. form

c. formation

d. forming

5. Modern approaches to the problem of ....................... the meaning are characterized by
two different levels of study: syntagmatic and paradigmatic.

20


a. study

b. studying

c. studied

d. studies

6. On the syntagmatic level, the semantic structure of the word is analyzed in its linear
relationships with neighbouring words in .................... speech.
a. connecting

b. connection

c. connect

d. connected

7. In other words, the semantic characteristics of the word are observed, described and
studied on the basis of its typical contexts.
a. study

b. studying

c. studied

d. studies

8. On the paradigmatic level, the word is studied in its relationships ................ other words in
the vocabulary system.
a. with

b. for

c. within

d. after

9. One further important objective of lexicological studies is the ................. of the vocabulary
of a language as a system.
a. study

b. studying

c. studied

d. studies

10. The vocabulary can be studied synchronically, that is, at a given stage of its development,
or diachronically, that is, in the context of the processes through which it grew, developed and
......................... its modern form.
a. acquiring

b. acquired

c. acquirement

d. acquire

11. We have already mentioned that the internal structure of word, or its meaning, is
nowadays commonly .............. to as the word‘s semantic structure.
a. referring

b. reference

c. refer

d. referred

12. This is certainly the word‘s main aspect, hence words serve the purposes of human
communication solely due to their ...............................
a. means

b. meant

c. meanings

d. meaningful

13. The area of lexicology ......................... in the semantic studies of the word, as we have
mentioned is called semantics.
a. specializing

b. specialize

c. specialization

d. specialized

14. The linguistic science at present is not able to put forward a definition of meaning which
is ............................
a. conclusion

b. conclusive

c. concluding

d. conclude

15. The very function of the word as a unit of communication is made ............. by its
possessing a meaning. Therefore, among the word‘s various characteristics, meaning is
certainly the most important.
a. possibility

b. possible

c. possibly

d. possibilities

16. Meaning can be more or less described as a component of the word through which a
concept is communicated, endowing the word with the ability of ............................... real
objects, qualities, actions and abstract notions.
a. denoted

b. denotive

c. denotement

d. denoting

17. There is hypothesis that concepts can only find their realization through words. It seems
that thought is dormant till the word ...................... it up.

a. wake

b. awake

c. waken

d. wakens

21


18. It is only when we hear a spoken word or read a printed word .............. the corresponding
concept springs into mind.
a. that

b. when

c. what

d. why

19. The mechanism by which concepts are converted ................. words and the reverse
process by which a heard or a printed word is converted into a kind of mental picture are not
yet understood or described.
a. under

b. above

c. with

d. into

20. Probably that is the reason ................ the process of communication through words, if one
gives it some thought, seems nothing short of miracle.
a. what

b. where

c. why

d. when

1.11.4. Match the phases in the two columns
The subject

The predicate

1. Lexicology is a branch of

a. the phonetic structure of language, i.e. its
system of phonemes and intonation patterns.

2. The term Lexicology is composed of

b. of the grammatical structure of language.

3. The literal meaning of the term Lexiсolоgу

c. words, variable word-groups,
phraseological units, and with morphemes

which make up words.

4. Phonetics investigates

d. the vocabulary of a language as it exists at
a given time.

5. Grammar is the study

e. two Greek morphemes: lexis meaning
‗word, phrase‘ and logos which denotes
‗learning‘.

6. Lexicology is concerned with

f. to the study of language material, namely
the synchronic and the diachronic approach.

7. There are two principal approaches in
linguistic science

g. that deals with the vocabulary and
vocabulary units of a particular language at a
certain time.

8. The synchronic approach is concerned with h. linguistics, the science of language.
9. It is special Desсriptive Lexicology

i. with the changes and the development of
vocabulary in the course of time.

10. The diachronic approach deals

k. is ‗the science of the word‘.

1.11.5. Fill in the gap with one suitable word
The notion of word

22


The notion of ―word‖ is one of the central in lexicology. However, there is still no
unanimous opinion as to what the ......1.............. really is, that is to say. It is not amenable to
an unambiguous definition. The term ―word‖ usually designates a structure smaller
....2............... a word combination, but larger than a single sound segment. This simple and
comprehensible definition is not free ......3............. fault. The indefinite article in the English
language is a single ....4............... segment and yet it is ...5................ a word. Definitions of
the word are legion. Some of them have high-lighting structural, notional, functional,
phonological and other aspects of the word. From the structural perspective, a word can be
.....6.............. as a unit of language or speech that consists of one or ...7................ morphemes
at least one of which can be used independently. This is, so to speak, the ideal scenario,
because some words ....8............... of morphemes that are no longer used in speech
independently. Some examples are: receive, conceive, confer, refer, etc. These .....9..............
consist of a prefix and a remnant root which is, synchronically, a bound form, no longer
recognized by the majority .....10.............. native speakers as a meaningful element.
According to the notional criterion, the word is defined as a linguistic .....11..............
conveying a single notion. This definition purports to distinguish between a word
.....12.............. a phrase, which conveys not one but at least two notions. According to the
functional .....13.............. the word possesses a fully-fledged nominative function. Unlike that
of a word, the functions of a morpheme and a phrase .....14.............. be, respectively, defined

as constitutive and a poly-nominative, the function of a sentence being predicativecommunicative. According to the phonological criterion, the word is a combination of sounds
preceded and followed by pauses and conveying a .....15.............. which distinguishes it from
other words in a language.
REFERENCES
1. Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy ( 2002 ), An Introduction to English Morphology:
Words and Their Structure, Edinburgh . Edinburgh University Press.
2 . Cường, Trần Đặng (2001), Lectures on Lexicology, Tủ sách Viện Đại Học Mở Hà Nội.
3. Ginzburg , R. S.. Khidekel, S. S. Knyazeva, G. Y Sankin, A. A.(1979),
A Course in Modern English Lexicology, MOSCOW.
4. Harrison Adeniyi et al (2010), English Morphology, Lagos, National Open University.
5. Hurford, James R., and Heasley, B. (1983), Semantics - Course book, London and
New York: CUP.
6. Kaisse, Ellen and Patricia Shaw (1985), ‗On the theory of lexical phonology’, Edinburgh.
Edinburgh University Press.
7. Leonhard, L. (1992), An Outline of English Lexicology, Max Niemeyer Verlag Tübingen
8. Leech, Geoffrey ri (1983), Principles of pragm, London: Long man.
Morozova. N. N, Antrushina , G. B ( 2004 ), English Lexicology, Moscow.
9. Lieber, Rochelle (1992), Deconstructing Morphology: Word Formation in Syntactic
Theory, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

23


10. Nguyễn Hòa (2001), An Introduction to Semantics. VNU Press.

24


CHAPTER II: WORD STRUCTURE AND FORMATION
Objectives:

By the end of this unit, students will be able to:
- identify and explain what is meant by the morpheme
- state what free morphemes are, and how they can be identified
- state what bound morphemes are, and how they can be identified
- explain what words and word classes are
In this chapter students will have a chance to learn the definitions and the characteristic
features of morphemes and words. Students will find it interesting to know the structure of a
particular word as well as different ways of forming new words. Once students know the
word structure or formation, they can feel confident in using English words without looking
up the dictionary. Moreover, students can understand new words, phrases and do exercises
without revising grammar books.
2.1. INTRODUCTION
+ Word: an independent language unit which has both sound and spelling
forms and is capable to form a sentence by itself.
+ Morphemes: - occur in speech as parts of words, not independently,
although a word may consist of a single morpheme.
-are the smallest indivisible meaningful language unit.
Semantically, morphemes fall into two classes: root-morphemes and non-root or
affixational morphemes.
There are two kinds of morphemes. They are root morphemes and affixal (bound)
morphemes.
The root morphemes are divided into free root morphemes and bound root morphemes.
The examples of free root morphemes are: boy, table, cat, hat, eat, fit, use, stay, say, love...
The examples of bound root morphemes are:
-- Terrr...

terrible, terror, terrorize, terrorism, terrorist

-- ....clude

include, conclude, exclude

-- Horr....

horror, horrible, horrify, horrific

The affixal (bound) morphemes include grammatical/ functional morphemes and
derivational morphemes.
The examples of grammatical/ functional morphemes are: girl—girls, open—opens
Derivational morphemes consist of prefixes, infixes and suffixes
The examples of prefixes are: unkind, irrelevant, redo, reread, mislead, impossible, dislike...
The examples of infixes are: salesman, fisherman, sportsman, washerwoman, doomsday....
The examples of suffixes are: kindly, eatable, careful, useful, useless, interesting, beautiful...
There are three kinds of words:

25


Simple

Derived

Compound

(R)

( R+A )

( R+R )

heart

hearty

sweetheart

If viewed structurally, words appear to be divisible into smaller units which are called
morphemes. Morphemes do not occur as free forms but only as constituents of words. Yet
they possess meanings of their own.
All morphemes are subdivided into two large classes: roots (or radicals) and affixes.
The latter, in their turn, fall into prefixes which precede the root (re-read, mis-pronounce) and
suffixes which follow the root (teach-er, dict-ate).
Words which consist of a root and an affix (or several affixes) are called derived words or
derivatives and are produced by the process of word-building known as affixation (or
derivation).
Derived words are extremely numerous in the English vocabulary. Successfully
competing with this structural type is the so-called root word which has only a root morpheme
in its structure. This type is widely represented by a great number of words belonging to the
original English stock or to the earlier borrowings. (house, room, book, table, etc.), and, in
Modern English, has been greatly enlarged by the type of word-building called conversion
(e.g. to hand v. formed from the noun hand; to can v. from can n.).
Affixes are classified according to whether they are attached before or after the root
word to which they are added. Prefixes are attached before a root word and suffixes are
attached after a root word.
Morphemes that must be attached as word parts are said to be bound. Each must be
affixed (attached) to some other unit; each can only occur as a part of a word. A root
morpheme is the basic form to which other morphemes are attached. It provides the basic
meaning of the word. The morpheme {saw} is the root of { sawers }. To put it another way, a
root morpheme can stand on its own whereas a bound morpheme can not stand on its own.
Derivational morphemes are added to forms to create separate words: The morpheme-{er} is a derivational suffix whose addition turns a verb into a noun, usually meaning the

person or thing that performs the action denoted by the verb. For example, {paint}+{-er}
creates painter, one of whose meanings is ―someone who paints.‖
Inflectional morphemes do not create separate words. They merely modify the word in which
they occur in order to indicate grammatical properties such as plurality, as the {-s} of
magazines does, or past tense, as the {ed} of babecued does.
English has totally eight inflectional morphemes.
nouns:

{-s} plural

(the birds)

noun phrases:

{-s} genitive/possessive

(the bird‘s song)

adjectives/adverbs: {-er} comparative
{-est} superlative
verbs:

(faster)
(fastest)

{-s} 3rd person singular present tense

(proves)

{-ed} past tense

(proved)

{-ing} progressive/present participle

(is proving)

26


{-en} past participle

(has proven)
(was proven)

Notes:
Structurally, morphemes fall into three types: free morphemes, bound morphemes,
and semi-free (semi - bound) morphemes. Semi-bound (semi-free) morphemes) are
morphemes that can function in a morphemic sequence both as an affix and as a free
morpheme.
For example, the morpheme ―well‖ and ―half‖ on the one hand occur as free morphemes
that coincide with the stem and the word-form in utterances like ―sleep well‖, ―half an
hour,‖ on the other hand they occur as bound morphemes in words like ―well-known, halfeaten, half-done, bulletproof, ovenproof, dustproof, soundproof, waterproof...etc....‖.
2.2. AFFIXATION
The process of affixation consists in containing a new word by adding an affix or
several affixes to some root morpheme. The role of the affix in this procedure is very
important and therefore it is necessary to consider certain facts about the main types of
affixes.
From the etymological point of view affixes are classified into the same two large
groups as words: native and borrowed.

Borrowed suffixes are numerous in the English vocabulary. It would be wrong to
suppose that affixes are borrowed in the same way and for the same reasons as words. An
affix of foreign origin can be regarded as borrowed only after it has begun an independent and
active life in the recipient language, that is, is taking part in the word-making processes of that
language.
Affixes can also be classified into productive and non-productive types. By productive
affixes we mean the ones, which take part in deriving new words in this particular period of
language development. The best way to identify productive affixes is to look for them among
neologisms and so-called nonce-words, i.e. words coined and used only for this particular
occasion. The latter are usually formed on the level of living speech and reflect the most
productive and progressive patterns in word-building. The adjectives thinnish and baldish are
examples of nonce-words coined on the current pattern of Modern English. They bring in
mind dozens of other adjectives made with the same suffix: oldish, youngish, yellowish, etc.
proving that the suffix –ish is a live and active one.
The morpheme, and therefore affix, which is a type of morpheme, is generally defined
as the smallest indivisible component of the word possessing a meaning of its own. Meanings
of affixes are specific and considerably differ from those of root morphemes. Affixes have
widely generalized meanings and refer the concept conveyed by the whole word to a certain
category, which is vast and all-embracing. So, the noun-forming suffix –er could be roughly
defined as designating persons from the object of their occupation or labour (painter – the one
who paints) or from their place of origin or abode (southerner – the one living in the South).
The adjective-forming suffix –ful has the meaning of ―full of‖, ―characterized by‖ (beautiful,
careful) whereas –ish may often apply insufficiency of quality (greenish – green but not quite;
youngish – not quite young but looking it).
2.2.1 . Prefixation
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.

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