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• Latin: admit, client, conviction, discuss, equal, index, library, medicine, minor
• Greek: catastrophe, cosmos, criterion, idiosyncrasy
• Spanish and Portuguese: banana, barbecue, cafeteria, cargo, chocolate, cigar, cocaine, cockroach, cocoa, guitar, mosquito, negro, potato, tank, tobacco, tomato, vanilla
2021/2/2
4
Word-formation
• Invention/Coinage
– Mostly brand names: – Kodak, Coke, nylon, Band-aid, Xerox,
Lycra
2021/2/2
5
Conversion词类转换
• noun → verb: He is papering the wall. • Verb→ noun: a must • Verb→ adj: see-through material • Adj → verb: to empty • Adj → noun: a crazy
– history: Old French < Latin < Greek historia, meaning 'knowledge through inquiry, record, or narrative'.
– his story > herstory
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• Fake etymology: a kind of folk etymology
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• Back-formation: by removing the suffix to get a new word
– diagnose < diagnosis – enthuse < enthusiasm – laze < lazy – liaise < liaison – reminisce <
2021/2/2
11
• Initialism: formed by the first letters of a series of words, pronounced by saying each letter in them
– AI: artificial intelligence – a.s.a.p.: as soon as possible – ECU: European Currency Unit – HIV: human immunodeficiency virus – PC: personal computer – PS: postscript
17
• Loan translation, or calque
– free verse < L verse libre – black humor < Fr humour noir – found object < Fr objet trouvé
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• Folk etymology: a popular but mistaken account of the origin of a word or phrase .
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• Acronym: formed from the first letters of a series of words
– AIDS, Aids: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
– ASAP: as soon as possible – CD-ROM: compact disc read-only memory – WASP: white Anglo-Saxon protestant – dink(y): double income, no kids – nilk(y): no income, lots of kids
• Loanblend
– coconut: coco (Spanish) + nut (English)
– Chinatown: China (Chinese) + town (English)
• Loanshift
– bridge: meaning as a card game borrowed
2021/2/2 from Italian ponte
– RSVP: répondez s’il vous plait (‘please reply’ in French)
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Borrowing
• French: administration, parliament, public, court, crime, judge, army, enemy, officer, peace, soldier, war, faith, religion, coat, costume, dress, fashion, jewel, dinner, feast, fry, roast, supper, toast, customer, money, price, art, college, music, poet, prose, story, study
– modulator+demodulator>modem
– dance+exercise>dancercise
– advertisement+editorial>advertorial
– education+entertainment>edutainment
– information+commercial>infomercial
• Dutch: boss, brandy, cookie, cruise, deck, dock, dollar, freight, gin, kit, knapsack, landscape, luck, sketch, slim, smuggle, snap, trek, yacht
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• Arabic: admiral, alchemy, alcohol, algebra, alkali, almanac, assassin, candy, hazard, lemon, magazine, safari, sofa, zero
• Indian: bungalow, cashmere, curry, ginger, jungle, mango, polo, pyjamas (or pajamas), shampoo, swastika, thug, yoga
– Fore-clippings: (ham)burger, (omni)bus, (violin)cello, (heli)copter, (alli)gator, (tele)phone, (earth)quake
– Fore-and-aft clippings: (in)flu(enza), (de)tec(tive)
Week 5
Morphology
(7. words and word-formation processes; 8. morphology)
2021/2/2
1
Processes/Types of word formation
• Compounding • Derivation: adding affixes to other morphemes • Invention/ coining • Conversion词类转换 • Backformation逆向构词法 • Clipping截短构词法 • Blending混成构词法 • Acronym首字母拼音法(缩略词)能按单一的词读音：TV • Initialism首字母缩略词Abbreviation首字母的单独发音NATO • Borrowing • Multiple processes
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2
• The history of words: e.g. spoonerism
From: You have hissed my mystery lectures. I saw you fight a liar in the back yard. In fact, you have tasted the whole worm.
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9
Clipping
• Parts of a word have been cut off
– Back-clippings: ad(vertisement), chimp(anzee), deli(catessen), exam(ination), hippo(potamus), lab(oratory), piano(forte), reg(ulation)s
reminiscence – statistic < statistics – televise < television
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7
– burgle, commentate, edit, peddle, scavenge, sculpt, swindle
– air-condition, babysit, brainstorm, brainwash, browbeat, dry-clean, househunt, housekeep, sightsee, tape-record