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Classification of compounds

1) According to the type of word-formation:

a. compounds proper – are words made up of two derivative bases (red-current, goodwill);

b. derivational compounds – are words formed by affixation or conversion from a compound derivational base (blue-eyed, a breakdown);

c. pseudo-compounds – the constituent members of compound words of this subgroup are in most cases unique, carry very vague or no lexical meaning of their own, are not found as stems of independently functioning words. They are motivated mainly through the rhythmic doubling of fanciful sound-clusters (chi-chi).

2) According to degree of semantic independence of components:

a. subordinative (endocentric) – words where one of the derivative bases is the grammatical and semantical center of the word, as a rule – the second one – a head member. It expresses the general meaning of the word, and the first one specifies it (girlfriend);

b. coordinative (exocentric) – words where both components are equally important:

- reduplicated – formed by repeating the base blah-blah, chi-chi, hush-hush, fifty-fifty, bye-bye, ping-pong, chit-chat, riff-raff;

- rhyming walkie-talkie, hob-nob, willy-nilly;

- additive – denote an object or a person that is two things at a time Anglo-Saxon, an actor-manager.

3) According to linking element, the means of composition used to link the two ICs together:

neutral – formed by joining together two stems without connecting elements, e.g. scarecrow, goldfish, crybaby;

morphological – components are joined by a linking element, i.e. vowels ‘o’ and ‘i’ or the consonant ‘s’, e.g. handicraft, draftsman, speedometer;

syntactical – the components are joined by means of form-word stems, e.g. business-to-business, door-to-door, come-and-go, stock-in-trade.

4) According to way of naming the referent:

endocentric – the referent is named by one of the components and given a further characteristic by the other, e.g. sun-rise, colour-blind. In most cases, the second component specifies more narrowly the meaning of the right-hand component, which is the semantic head of the compound, for example, dog food is a type for food, cave man is a type of man;

exocentric – only the combination of both components names the referent. For example, scarecrow denotes the agent (a person or thing) who or which performs an action named by the combination of the stems. In this case it’s a person or a thing employed in scaring birds. Other examples: cutthroat, turn-coat, bigwig, fathead.

5) According to correlative relations with the system of free word-combinations:

idiomatic – the meaning of the whole is different from the meaning of corresponding free phrases, e.g. night-cap, butterfingers;

non-idiomatic – the meaning of the whole is the sum total of the meanings of the components, e.g. flowerbed, homeland.

The lexical meaning of compounds is determined by the lexical meanings of its bases and the structural meaning of its distributional pattern.

The distributional pattern shows the order and arrangement of the bases. Two compounds that have the same bases but different distributional patterns will have different meanings (a finger-ring, a ring-finger). As a rule a second base determines the part of speech meaning of the compound, e.g. redneck.

Word-building in English has a less word-building power as compared to other Germanic languages.

Shortening is the formation of a word by cutting off a part of the word without changing their lexico-grammatical meaning. There are three basic types of shortening abbreviation, clipping and blending.

Alphabetical abbreviation (initial abbreviation, initialism)is a shortening which is read as a succession of the alphabetical readings of the constituent letters, e.g. DVD, SMS, BBC, IQ (intelligence quotient), FBI, GPRS (general packet radio service), GPS (global positioning system), ICQ.

Acronymic abbreviation is a shortening which is read as a succession of the sounds denoted by constituent letters, i.e. as if it were an ordinary word, e.g. NATO, UNESCO, VIP, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), UNO, UNICEF, SCUM (self-centered urban male), SINK (Single, Independent, No Kids).

Graphical abbreviations are the result of shortening of words and word-groups only in written speech while orally the corresponding full forms are used. They are used for the economy of space and effort in writing. In graphic abbreviations of Latin origin Latin words are shortened in the spelling, while orally the corresponding English equivalents are pronounced in the full form, e.g. a. m. – in the morning (ante meridiem), No – number (numero), p. a. – a year (per annum), d – penny (dinarius), lb – pound (libra), i. e. – that is (id est), Cº – company, etc. There are also graphical abbreviations of native origin, where in the spelling we have abbreviations of words and word-groups of the corresponding English equivalents in the full form. We have several semantic groups of them:

a) days of the week, e.g. Mon – Monday, Tue – Tuesday;

b) names of months, e.g. Apr – April, Aug – August;

c) names of counties in UK, e.g. Yorks – Yorkshire, Berks –Berkshire;

d) names of states in USA, e.g. Ala – Alabama, Alas – Alaska;

e) names of address, e.g. Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr.;

f) military ranks, e.g. capt. – captain, col. – colonel, sgt – sergeant;

g) scientific degrees, e.g. B. A. – Bachelor of Arts, D. M. – Doctor of Medicine;

h) units of time, length, weight, money, e.g. f. /ft – foot/feet, sec. – second, in. – inch, mg. – milligram, J – pound sterling;

Clipping is the process of cutting off one or several syllables of a word.

Apocope (back-clipping) is a final clipping, e.g. hols (holidays), ad, exam, cuss (customer), pub (public house).

Aphaerisis (fore-clipping)is an initial clipping, e.g. plane (airplane), phone, fense (defense), gator (alligator).

Syncope is a medial clipping, e.g. Maths, mart (market), circs (circumstances).

Fore-and-aft clipping is an initial and final clipping, e.g. flu, fridge, Liz, tec.

Blending isthe formation of a new word by combining parts of two words. A blend (telescoped word, portmanteau word, fusion) is a word that combines parts of two words and includes the letters or/and sounds they may have in common as a connecting element, e.g. sm[oke] + [fo]g = smog, tele[vision] + [broad]cast = telecast, bi[nary] + [digi]t = bit, cam[era] + [re]corder corder = camcorder.

Backformation (reversion, regressive derivation, disaffixation) is the formation of a new word by subtracting a real or supposed affix from the existing word. For example, the word to butle ‘to act or serve as a butler’ is derived by subtraction of - er from a supposedly verbal stem in the noun butler; editor > to edit, baby-sitter > to baby-sit, finger-printing > finger-prints, kidnapping > to kidnap. The process is based on analogy. The noun critic was form from the verb to criticize by analogy with drama – dramatize.

Sound imitation (onomatopoeia, echoism)is the naming of an action or a thing by a more or less exact reproduction of the sound associated with, e.g. to babble, to hiss, to screech, to woof, to rumble.

Sound-interchange isthe formation of a word due to an alteration in the phonemic composition of its root. Sound-interchange falls into three groups:

1) vowel-interchange (or ablaut): to sing – song, man – men, strong – strength, to know – knew;

2) consonant-interchange: use – to use, advice – to advise, to speak – speech, defense – to defend, to practice – practice;

3) vowel and consonant interchange: batch (of rolls) – to bake, loss – to lose, glass – to glaze, watch – to wake, cloth – to clothe (надевать), bath – to bathe, to live – life.

Distinctive stress is the formation of a word by means of the shift of the stress in the source word, e.g. ' present – to pre ' sent, 'concrete – to con'crete,' frequent – to fre ' quent, an ' object – to ob ' ject, a 'suspect – to sus'pect.



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