2. root, stem and base 2.1 Similarities They all refer to the part of a word when affixes have been removed. New words are created on the basic part. 2.2 Differences --- A root is the basic form which cannot be further analyzed. It is the part that carries the basic meaning when all affixes are removed. e.g. internationalists decontextualization greenhouse
4.3.2 adjective compounds N + v-ing record-breaking law-making Adj + v-ing easy-going N + adj/v-ed flood-hit gene-related Adj +adj deaf-mute bitter-sweet adj + n-ed short-sighted N + n-ed lion-hearted Adv + v-ing forth-coming out-going Adv + v-ed far-fetched well-behaved V-ed + adv worn-out made-up
Lecture 3 Word-formation (I)
ms to be tackled
1. General remarks 2. Basic concepts: root, stem and base 3. Three majors: affixation, compounding, conversion
Note: the covering area of base is wider than stem which is wider than root, i.e. base ﹥stem ﹥root
3. Derivation 派生法
or affixation 词缀法
3.1 definition a word-formation process by adding prefixes, suffixes, or both to the base. The words created in this way are called derivatives. 3.2 Features of affixes --- mainly come from Greek, Latin and Romanic languages (Fr. It. Sp.) cf. P17 --- affixes are polysemous and synonymous in meaning cf. 17-18 --- prefixes modify or restrict the lexical meaning of roots, suffixes change or determine grammatical class of roots. --- productivity of affixes 3.3 Classification prefixation & suffixation
These examples can be reclassified according to the syntactic relations of the components. e.g. Subject + verb: toothache earthquake & daybreak Verb+ object: brainwashing housekeeping sightseeing Verb + adverbial: moon walk diving board sunbathing outbreak downfall uphold Subject + object: news reporter stockholder restrictive relation: timetable watchdog hangman Appositive relation: girl friend & pine tree
4.3.3 verb compounds: two main groups by conversion (converted from nouns) e.g. to nickname to honeymoon to moonlight by back-formation (removing suffixes) e.g. to house-keep to mass produce to babysit
--- A stem (词干)is the part of the word-form which remains when all inflectional rather than derivational affixes have been removed. e.g. Internationalists writes—writing—writings easy—easier—easiest --- A base(词基) is the form to which affixes of any kind (both derivational and inflectional) can be added. It can be a root or a stem but not completely equal to the latter two concepts. e.g. nation (root, stem, base) national (stem, base) international (stem, base) internationalist (stem, base) internationalists (x)
4.2.1 orthographic criterion: a personal preference 4.2.2 phonological criterion: stress/accent e.g. a ’dark room V.S. a dark ’room ’greenhouse a green ’house ’hot line a hot ’line ’fat head a fat ’head 4.2.3 semantic criterion: a single semantic unit The meanings of most compounds cannot be easily inferred from the two components of the compounds.
e.g. red meat = beef or mutton a green hand = inexperienced person a hot dog = a typical American fast food
However, a lot of compounds obtain their meanings from the component parts. e.g. swine flu scarlet fever tax cut washing machine exam-centered gene-related Guangzhou-based 4.3 classification Compounding takes place within any of the word classes. The part of speech of a compound may or not be identical to that of its components. Compounds are classified according to their parts of speech. The classified ones are subclassified according to the parts of speech or syntactic relation of their components.
4. Compounding / composition （合成法） 4.1. Definition: compounding is the process of wordformation by joining two or more bases to form a new unit. It has been productive at every period of the English language. 4.2 characteristics: Compounds are largely the result of lexicalization of phrases (well-behaved; stay-athome; once-in-a-lifetime). They can be written solid (airline), hyphenated (air-line) and open (air line). They can be or formed from various parts of speech . There are different criteria to define a compound.
Note some adjective compounds that are formed by over two components. Such formations show the tendency of nominalization in modern English by putting compound modifiers ahead of noun phrases. When a word unavailable is needed, one can choose an phrase or even a sentence and then hyphenate the words. It is the common practice used by journalists and writers.