Include back-formation, blending, reduplication, sound imitation, sound interchange, shift of stress.

Back-formation is a way of WB by subtracting a real or supposed affix from existing words through misinterpretation of their structure. From “coordination” we have the verb “to coordinate”, from “diagnosis” – “to diagnose”. Back-form is based on analogy: the existence of agent nouns formed from verbs with the help of the suffix –er/-or: painter – to paint, teacher – to teach – gave rise to the formation of verbs from nouns misinterpreted as their derivatives: to beg – from beggar, to buttle –butler, to baby-sit –baby-sitter.

Blending is a way of WB by combining 2 subtracted words into 1 acquiring the m-ng of both. Words formed by blending are called blendings, fusions: smog – smoke + fog, brunch – breakfast + lunch, flush – flash+blush, slender – slight, slim + tender. According to Arnold 2 types of blends can be distinguished. One may be termed additive, the other restrictive. Both involve the sliding together not only of sound but of m-ng as well. Yet the semantic relations which are at work are different. The 1^st is transformable into a phrase consisting of the respective complete stems combined by the conjunction “and”: frenglish<Fr & Eng< smog; brunch. The restrictive type is transformable into an attributive phrase where the 1^st element serves as a modifier of the 2^nd: Medicare<medical care, telecast<television broadcast.

Sound imitation is the naming of an action or thing by a more or less exact reproduction of a sound associated with it. E.g. there are words naming: Sounds & movement produced by water: splash, splush, gush, flush, gurgle, bubble; Sounds produced by animals, birds & insects: purr, mew, hiss, buzz, moo; Sounds of human speech: chatter, babble, grunt, grumble, murmur, mutter, titter; Sounds produced by metallic things: clinc, tinkle, gingle; Sounds produced by forceful motions: crash, clash, bang, whack, whip.

Reduplication may be treated as a specific type of composition & words built by means of redup-n are called reduplicative compounds, are made by doubling a stem: a) either without phonetic changes (reduplicative compounds proper): blah-blah “nonsense”, quack-quack “duck”, goody-goody “sentimentally & affectedly good”, go-go “disco”; b) Or with the variation of the root vowel (ablaut combinations): dilly-dally “loiter”, shilly-shally “hesitate”, tip-top “first-rate”; c) Or with a variation of the consonant (rhyme combinations): boogie-woogie, helter-skelter “in disordered haste”, hurry-scurry “great hurry”, willy- nilly “volens-nolens”. Reduplicative compounds are usually jocular emotionally coloured colloquial or slang words. A lot of baby-talk words beljng here.

Sound-interchange is no longer an active method of WB in modern Eng. Now SI is rather a basis for contrasting words. SI is defined as an opposition in which words or word forms are differentiated due to the alternation in the phonemic composition of the root: 1. The alternation of the root vowel, as in food(n) – feed(v), proud (adj) – pride (n), blood (n) – bleed(v), hot(adj) – heat(n), full(adj) – fill(v); 2. The alternation of a consonant, as in speak(v) – speech(n), advise(v) –advice(n); 3. Or both, as in life(n) – to live(v), bath(n) – to bath(v).

shift of stress as a WB means is not productive in Modern Eng. Now it serves only as a means of distinguishing words, mostly nouns & verbs of Romanic origin: ‘compress – to comp’ress;‘object – to ob’ject; ‘insult – to in’sult. There are also pairs of adj & verbs differentiated by shift of stress:‘absent – to ab’sent; ‘perfect – to per’fect; ‘frequent – to fre’quent. All the ways of WB are closely connected & don’t contradict each other, e.g. blending is shortening on the one hand & composition on the other.

Synthetic, or mixed ways of WB combining 2 or more WB meansare very popular in Modern Eng.: Composition + Suffixation: blue-eyed; straw-haired; Prefixation+Suffixation: unbelievable; unforgettable; irresistible; Short-ng+Affixation (Prefixation/Suffixation): non-U (non related to upper classes); Baccy (tobacco+ -y); Compos-n+Conv-n: to knock-out – a knock-out; to set up – a set up; to hang over – a hangover; to set back – a setback. All the major & minor means of WB serve to develop the wealth of the Eng. voc-ry forming new words.

Q-16: Main approaches in Modern Semasiology.

The part of Ling-cs which studies the m-ng of ling-c units is called Semasiology. The subject matter of semasiology is the semantic structure of a word & changes in it. There is no universally accepted definition of the term ‘m-ng’.

There are diff-nt approaches to the problem of word-m-ng in modern Sem-gy. The referentional & the functional approach are among them.

The referentional approach is characterised by the thought that the essence of m-ng lies in the interdependence b/w word, thing or referents & concept. This idea is expressed in the referentional model of m-ng called the basic traingle. Concept (notion)Idea, referent, word (sound form). The sound form of a word is not identical with its meaning, as one & the same m-ng is conveyed with a help of diff-nt words in diff-nt lang-ges: Eng: dove; Ger: taube; Rus: голубка. The m-ng of the word is not identical with a concept either. Concept is the thought about the object that singles out only its essential features. Concept is a category of human cognition & is studied in logic, m-ng belongs to the sphere of the lang-ge. Notions are universal & international, m-ngs are usually nationally determined, the m-ngs of correlated words are not identical in diff-nt lang-ges, e.g. the concept of a structure of human habitation is expressed in Eng by the word “house” & in Rusn by the word “дом”. But the Rus word may also denote a fixed residence of a family or household. But this m-ng is expressed in Eng by the word ‘home’. Within 1 lang-ge the m-ngs of syn-ms which express 1 & the same notion differ in some components, e.g. child-baby-infant-kid. Notions emotionally & stylistically neutral while m-ngs may be emotionally charged & stylistically coloured. The m-ng of a word can’t be identified with a referent to the object which the word denotes, as they belong to diff-nt spheres. 1 & the same thing may be denoted in speech by diff-nt words: e.g. apple, fruit, this, it. Thus, though closely connected with m-ng all the points of basic traingle are not identical within the referentinal or denotational approaches. The m-ng of a word is treated as the expression of a notion, or concept of things fixed in sounds. M-ng is the realization of the notion about the thing by means of ling-c sign. The referetional approach theory mables to understand a word as a two faced unit.

The functional approach is characterized by the aspiration that the m-ng of a ling-c unit may be studied only through its relation to other ling-c units. M-ng is viewed as a function of distribution. Distribution is the position of a ling-c sign in relation to other ling-c signs, thus m-ng is understood as the function of ling-c sign or their use in context. This method of study which is based on the analysis of basic contexts is also called the contextual approach. Professor Mednikova calls the functional approach – textocentric while the referentional approach is called lexical-centric.

The 2 approaches shouldn’t be set against each other. Each of them handles its own side of the problem & neither is complete without the other.

Q-17: Semantic structure of the word.

Word-m-ng is represented by diff-nt types of m-ng.

Each word in speech bares some grammatical m-ng – may be defined as the component of m-g, recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of diff-nt words. It is an expression in speech of relationships b/w words based on contrastive features of arrangements in which they occur.It is abstract & general, belongs to all the words of a certain class & is expressed by:

1) word-forms (such as books-the m-g of plurality;looked-tense m-g);

2)the position of the word in relation to other words (“He sings well”, “She dances badly” –“sings” & “dances” are found in identical positions b/w a pronoun & an adverb, occupies the position according to syntact. character.

The lexico-grammatical m-g is the common denominator of all the m-g of the words belonging to a certain lexico-grammatical class of words. E.g. the common lex-gram. m-g of personal nouns is “person”. Words of a general character which can substitute any word of their class are called generic terms, “group” is a generic term for collective nouns, “matter” is a generic term for material nouns.

The lexical m-g is the component of m-g recurrent in all the forms of the word.The lexical m-g is individual & different for each separate word. The main components of lexical m-g are:the denotational & the connotational.

1) The denotational m-g of words is the same for all the speakers. It makes communication possible, because it is the realization of the concept by means of the given language.The denotational m-g is called a) significative,if the referent is a concept, or b) demonstrative, if the referent is an individual object.E.g.The letter she received was sad-the denotational m-g of the noun letter is demonstrative.But:Beauty lies in lover’s eyes – as beauty is an abstract notion, the denotational m-g is significative.

2) The connotational m-g is optional. It may convey the speaker’s attitude to what he is speaking about, his approval or disapproval, the functional style, the speaker’s emotion,or the degree of intensity.

There are 4 main types of connotations according to professor Arnold:

a) stylistic – determines the functional speech style characteristic of the word usage (dad-father-parent; kid-child-infant (colloquial-neutral-bookish);

b) emotional –expresses human emotions & feelings or evokes them. E.g. glorious, lovely, beastly, rotten,gangster,drunkard,weakling have morphological features signaling the emotional force. The emotional connotation is an objective semantic feature of words.It doesn’t depend on the feelings of the individual speaker. It is true for all the speakers of English.

C) evaluative – expresses approval or disapproval. E.g. “girlie” – “a little girl, but very little, nice & tender” – possesses the positive evaluation & emotional connotation; “planning” is neutral, but “scheming” expresses disapproval meaning “planning secretly, by intrigue or for private aims”; + “agent” & “spy”.

D) intensifying (emphatic or expressive) – adding emphasis to the m-g. E.G. the adjectives enormous, colossal,gigantic,huge,immense, tremendous have the intensifying component in their m-g, expressed in their dictionary definitions with the help of the word “very”. All the connotational components are optional & may occur in a word in different combinations.

Q-18 – The motivation of the word.

The term “motivation” is used to denote the relationship existing b/w the phonemic or morphemic composition & structural pattern of the word on the 1 hand, & its m-ng on the other.

There are 3 types of M: phonetical, morphological, and semantic.

(1) . When there is a certain similarity b/w the sounds that make up the word & those reffered to by sense: bang, buzz, cuckoo, giggle, and gurgle. this type of M is determined by the difference of echo-words for the same concept in diff Lang-s. Phonetic M is not a Perfect replica of any acoustic structure but only a rough approximation. This accounts for the variability of echo-words within one lang and b/w diff-nt lang-s. C f. cuckoo (Engl), Kuckuck (Germ), KyKguiKa(Russ) . Within the Eng voc-ry there are diff-nt words; all sound imitative, meaning “quick, foolish_, indistinct, talk”: babble, chatter, gabble, prattle. They combine pho­nological and morphological M cause they contain verbal suffixes -le and -er forming frequentative verbs. Words denoting noises produced by animals are mostly sound imi­tative. In Eng they’re motivated only phonetically so that nouns & verbs are exactly the same. In Rus the M combines phonetical and morphological M. The Rus words блеять & блеяние are equally represented in Eng by bleat. C f. also: purr (of a cat), moo (of a cow), crow (of a cock), bark (of a dog), neigh (of a horse) & their Rus equivalents.

(2) It may be quite regular. Thus, the prefix ex- means 'former' when added to human, nouns: ex-film star, ex-wife. There is a more general use of ex-: in borr-ed words it’s unstressed and M is faded (expect, export). Re- is one of the most common prefixes of the_Eng lang, it means 'again' & 'back', when added to verbs or abstract deverbal noun stems: re­build. again these formations should be compared with older borr-gs from L & Fr where re- is now unstressed, and the M is faded: re-cover = 'cov­er again'; recover= 'get better'. M is esp obvious in newly coined words, words created in the present century. In older words, root words and mor­phemes M is established etymologically. M is the way in which a given m-ng is represented in the word. M is the way in which a given m-ng is represented in the word. It reflects the type of nomination process chosen by the creator of the new word. Similarity in sound form doesn’t always corre­spond to similarity in morphol-l pattern. Suffix -er is affixable to any verb, so that V+-er means 'one who V-s' or 'something that V-s': writer, bomber, and rocker. The cases of regular MM ^outnumber irregu­larities, & yet one must remember the principle of "fuzzy sets" in the word smoker with its variants: 'one who smokes to­bacco' and 'a railway car in which passengers may smoke'. Instead of the term MM,the term WB m-ng is introduced now, it’s not the m-ng that’s dealt with in this concept, but the form of presentation.

(3) it’s based on the co-existence of direct and figurative m-ngs of the same word within the same synchronous system. Mouth continues to denote a part of the human face & at the same any opening or outlet: the mouth of a river, of a cave. Jacket- a short coat & also a protective cover for a book, an electric wire. . In their direct m-ng they are not motivated. As to compounds, their M is morphological if the m-ng of the whole is_based on the direct m-ng of the components, and semantic – if the combination of components is used figuratively. Headache ‘pain in the head' - morphol M, ‘anything or anyone very annoying' – semantic M. An example of morpho-semantic M is teenager: the inflected form of the numeral ten produced the suffix, -teen which produces a stem with a metonymical m-ng (semantic M), receives the plural ending -s, & produces a new noun teens.’the years of a person's life from 13 to 19'. In combination with age or aged the adj-ves teen-age and teen-aged are coined. A morphologically motivated noun teenager is then formed with the help of the suffix er.

When the connection b/w the m-ng of the word & its form is conventional that is there is no perceptible reason ior the word having this particular phonemic and morphemic composition, the word is said to be non-motivated for the present stage of lang-ge develop­ment. The verb earn 'does not suggest any connection with ag­riculture now, but it’s derived from OE earnian – “to harvest”. When some people recognize the M & others do not, M is_said to be faded. Sometimes to find M for a borrowed word the speakers change its form so as to give it a connection with some well-known word. These cases of mistaken motivation received the name folk etymology.

Some linguists consider one more type of M = “sound symbolism”. Some words are supposed to illustrate the m-ng more immediately than do or­dinary words. As the same sounds are used in many semantically similar words, they become more closely associated with the m-ng: fl- is associated with quick movement flash, flush, flare, gl- with light and fire glare, glitter, glow, sl- with mud sleet, slime, slush. In the process of voc-ry development, a speaker of a lang-ge creates new words & is understood cause the voc-ry system possesses established associations of form & m ng.

Q-19 –Semantic Analysis.

The analysis of the semantic structure of the word is called lexico-semantic analysis.