Lexical morphology

WORDS

Simple words: cannot be analysed into smaller units of meaning
ex.

WORD FORMATION

Main concepts and terms
Word formation strategies
Word formation and neologisms

MAIN CONCEPTS AND TERMS

Simple words: CAT, WOMAN, PREFER
Complex words: UNHAPPY, PLAYER
Compound

MAIN CONCEPTS AND TERMS

Productivity ? productive strategies
CAREFUL, BEAUTIFUL, USEFUL, SINFUL, POWERFUL…
*UNCEARE,

MAIN CONCEPTS AND TERMS

Potential productivity: ability to succeed (not systematic regularity):

WORD FORMATION STRATEGIES

English generates new words in three
different manners:
by making use of

THE INTERNAL METHOD

A) affixation
B) compounding
C) conversion
D) back-formation
E) less productive strategies

AFFIXATION

Word-initially ? prefix
Word-finally –> suffix
[word-medially ? infix]
More than one prefix/suffix:
ex.:

Affixation by prefix

Examples: UNable, DISagree
Prefixes are normally class-preserving
(But: slave ? enslave,

Affixation by suffix

Examples: drivER, kingDOM, useFUL, childISH, washABLE, widEN, careLESS
Suffixes are

Nomina agentis

-ER: driver, singer, employer, teacher….
-ANT: assistant, inhabitant, servant, participant..
-AR: beggar,

B) COMPOUNDING

The process by which 2 (or more) words are joined

COMPOUNDING
Very common and productive
Compounds and ‘strings’ (double/multiple compounds), very frequent in

Grammatical function of compounds

Compounds can be grouped according to their grammatical

nominal compounds

N+N ? N: baby sitter, birthday, bookshop, haircut, lipstick, safety

adjectival compounds

A+A ? A: Anglo-Saxon, bitter-sweet, deaf-mute, light blue, red-hot
N+A ?

verbal compounds

A+V ? V: to deep-freeze
Av+V ? V: to outlive, to

Compounds and lexical stress

Compound words, particularly nouns, are usually stressed on

Compounds and lexical stress

The first base (determinant) specifies the second one

A ‘green ‘house vs A ‘greenhouse

A green house

A greenhouse

A ‘dark ‘room vs A ‘dark-room

A dark room

A dark-room

Compounds and spelling

Solid form ,open form and form with hyphen:
bookshop

Compounds and meaning
Compounds can be paraphrased:
tea-cup ? a

C) CONVERSION

The process by which a new word is created by

CONVERSION

V ? N: answer, call, cheat, command, cover, desire, disgust, doubt,

CONVERSION: problems
Black ? to black (conversion) or to blacken (derivation);
Quiet

CONVERSION : borderline, special cases
Conversion and phonemes: house /s/ - to

CONVERSION : special cases

Conversion and meaning:
A1) photograph: fotografia

CONVERSION : special cases

C1) bottle: bottiglia
C2) to bottle: imbottigliare, conservare sotto

CONVERSION : special cases

E1) STONE: ? E2) TO STONE:
- sasso

D) BACKFORMATION

Is the process in which an affix is removed from

BACKFORMATION

Examples:
greedy ? greed
television ? to televize
editor ? to edit
babysitter

LESS PRODUCTIVE STRATEGIES
CLIPPING or SHORTENING:
- ad, exam, lab, pub, dino;

LESS PRODUCTIVE STRATEGIES
ACRONYM (formed by initial letters or syllables; pronounced as

LESS PRODUCTIVE STRATEGIES
BLEND (or PORTMANTEAU WORD): similar to compound but base

LESS PRODUCTIVE STRATEGIES

REDUPLICATION:
goody-goody (ipocrita), wishy-washy (acquoso, blando: vowel variation)
EPONYMS: sandwich,

THE EXTERNAL METHOD

Borrowings or loanwords, which are the result of languages

BORROWINGS or LOANWORDS

A loanword is a word which is brought wholesale

LOANWORDS FROM?

Pizza
Banana
Hamburger
Curry
Kangaroo
Totem
Robot

LOANWORDS FROM…

LATIN: gospel, interrogate,
FRENCH: question, guard, rouge
ITALIAN: violin, opera, balcony,

LOANWORDS FROM…

OTHER: robot (Czech), glasnost (Russian), assassin (North Africa), safari (Central

LOANOWORS

Necessity:
- lexical gap: stiletto/ topless, best-seller,
- new extralinguistic

LOANWORDS

Loanwords make the receiving language richer; its communicative potential gets greater

LOANWORDS: the adaptation process

Phonological adaptations (? It.):
- tunnel, jazz

LOANWORDS: the adaptation process

Morphosyntactical adaptations:
- natural gender: cowboy ? un cowboy,

LOANWORDS: the adaptation process

Morphosyntactical adaptations:
- word classes may change: i big della

LOANWORDS: the adaptation process

Semantic adaptations:
restriction in the number of acceptations: mouse (It.:

THE MIXED METHOD

Mixing (native) form and (foreign) meaning:
CALQUES

THE MIXED METHOD

Calques imply a deeper bilingualism in speakers than loanwords:

CALQUE

Compound or complex loanwords in which speakers analyse the parts and

CALQUE
From Ita. to Eng.:
Pizzeria ? pizza-place (BrE), pizza-house (BrE/AmE), pizza parlor

Exercises

For each of the following terms, choose a suitable example

Exercises

Say whether each of the following statements is TRUE (mark A