Specific groups of morphemes

Speaking of word-structure on the morphemic level several groups of morphemes should be specially mentioned.

To the first group belong morphemes of Greek and Latin origin often called combining forms. A combining form (a completive) should not be confused with an affix. A combining form is also a bound form but it can be distinguished from an affix historically by the fact that it is always borrowed from another language (Greek and Latin) in which it existed as a free form, i.e. as a separate word, or also as a combining form. They differ from all other borrowings in that they occur in compounds and derivatives that did not exist in the original language but were formed only in modern times in English, Russian, French, etc., e.g. polyclinic, stereophonic, television, seismograph. Combining forms are mostly international. A combining form differs from an affix because it can occur as one constituent of a word whose only other constituent is an affix, e.g. graph ic, cycl ic, aer ate. Also an affix is characterized by its position to the stem, either before the stem (prefix) or after the stem (suffix), whereas the same combining form may occur in both positions, e.g. phono graph, micro phone. The combining form allo from Greek allos (other) is used in linguistic terminology to denote elements of a group whose members together constitute a structural unit of the language, e.g. allophones, allomorphs. Thus, for example, -ion / -sion / -tion / -ation are the positional variants of the same suffix. They do not differ in meaning or function but show a slight difference in sound form depending on the final phoneme of the preceding stem. They are considered as variants of one and the same morpheme and are called allo morphs.

Combining forms (completives) are often used in modern English to form neo-classical compound words, either as one of the stems, or both of them.

Both components are completives in such words as: aerogram, aeronaut (from Greek aer – air), astronaut (from Greek astro – star), biblioklept (from Greek biblio – book, kleptos – thief), claustrophobia (from Latin claustrum – closed space, phobia – fear), videophone ( from Latin video – I see).

The first component is a completive and the second is a free stem in such words as: aerocapture (торможение космического корабля), autohypnosis (самовнушение), cardioversion (электростимулятор сердца), multimedia (спектакль-лекция с использованием нескольких средств информации: кино, магнитофон, слайды), neurosurgeon (нейрохирург).

The second group is presented by splinters. In the second half of the 20^th century the English word-building system was enriched by creating so called splinters which scientists include in the affixation stock of the Modern English word-building system. Splinters are the result of clipping the end or the beginning of a word and producing a number of new words on the analogy with the primary word-group. For example, there are many words formed with the help of the splinter mini- (from clipping the word miniature), such as mini-jet, mini-cycle, mini-car, mini-radio and many others. All these words denote objects of smaller than normal dimensions.

On the analogy with mini- there appeared the splinter maxi- (from clipping the word maximum), such words as maxi-series, maxi-taxi and many others appeared in the language.

The word agriculture was a borrowing from Middle French, ultimately from Latin agricultura, in which agri- was a combining form of the Latin word ager (field). In modern English the form agri is used in the meaning of the whole word agriculture and has become a splinter to form such words as agribusiness.

From the word biology the splinter bio- has developed in such words as bio-robot which is a machine used in biological experiments. In the word biology bio- is a completive, in the word bio-robot it is a splinter. In the word biology it means life, in the word bio-robot it means biology or biological, so they can be treated as homonyms. Eco- has taken on sense of ecology, ecological in such words as eco-awareness, eco-menu, eco-note.

Another splinter which is used rather often in Modern English is Euro-, a clipping of the word European. With the help of this splinter many words were coined, such as Euro-atom, Euro-card, Euro-market, Euro-plug and the like.

There are also splinters that are formed by clipping words at the beginning. The origin of such splinters can be variable, e.g. the splinter burger appeared in English as a result of clipping the German borrowing Hamburger where the morphological structure was the stem Hamburg and the suffix –er. However in English the beginning of the word Hamburger was associated with the English word ham and the end of the word burger got the meaning “a bun cut into two parts”. On the analogy with the word hamburger quite a number of new words were coined, such as baconburger, beefburger, cheeseburger, fishburger and so on. Still another type of a splinter connected with food is wich- from the word sandwich, such as duckwich, turkeywich.

The splinter -cade developed by clipping the beginning of the word cavalcade which is of Latin origin. In Latin the verb with the meaning “to ride a horse” is cabalicare and by means of the inflexion –ata the corresponding Participle is formed. So the element –cade is the combination of the final letter of the stem and the inflexion. The splinter –cade serves to form nouns with the meaning “connected with the procession of vehicles denoted by the first component”, e.g. aircade – a group of airplanes accompanying the plane of a VIP; musicade – an orchestra participating in a procession.

The splinter –napper was formed by clipping the beginning of the word kidnapper and is used to denote different types of crimesters, such as busnapper, babynapper, dognapper, etc. Another splinter –eteria with the meaning self-service was formed by clipping the beginning of the word cafeteria. By means of the splinter the words groceteria, booketeria, booteteria were formed. The splinter – scape is used to form words denoting different types of landscapes – moonscape, streetscape, townscape and the like.

Splinters can be the result of clipping adjectives or substantivized adjectives. For example the splinter - aholic (holic) was formed by clipping the beginning of the word alcoholic of Arabian origin where al denoted the, koh’l – powder for painting lids. The splinter means “infatuated by the object expressed by the stem”, e.g. computerholic, workaholic, coffeeholic, etc.

As far as the verbs are concerned it is not typical of them to be clipped, that is why there is only one splinter to be used for forming new verbs in this way. It is the splinter –cast formed by clipping the beginning of the verb broadcast, e.g. telecast, newscast, narrowcast, etc. From these verbs compound nouns are formed with the help of suffixes such as sportscaster, beercasting and the like.

Splinters can be called pseudo-morphemes because they are neither roots nor affixes; they are more or less artificial. In English there are words that consist of two splinters, e.g. telethon – television marathon; therefore it is more logical to call words with splinters in their structure compound-shortened words consisting of two clippings of words.

Splinters have only one function in English: they serve to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech.

The third group of specific morphemes in English is called semi-affixes. Some elements of the English vocabulary occurring as independent nouns, such as man, berry, land, have been very frequent as second elements of words for a long time. They seem to have acquired valency (combining power) similar to that of affixes. They are unstressed, and the vowel sound has been reduced, although the reduction is not regular, for instance, when the concept “man” (a male gender) is clearly present in the word, there is no reduction, e.g. policeman. As to “land”, the full pronunciation is observed only in ethnic names Scotland, Finland, but not in homeland, fatherland. As these elements seem to come somewhere in between the stems and affixes, the term semi-affix has been offered to designate them.

The element –man is the most frequent, its combining activity is very great. In addition to seaman, airman and spaceman one may compile a very long list: chairman, clergyman, countryman, fireman, fisherman, gentleman, horseman, workman and many others. Though seaman and workman go back to the Old English period, the model is productive as ever.

As the second element –man is considerably generalized semantically and approaches in meaning the suffix –er (the doer of the action). For example when a woman chairs a sitting, the official form of addressing her is Madam Chairman.

A great combining capacity characterizes the elements –like, -proof and –worthy, so that they may also be referred to semi-affixes, i.e. elements that stand midway between roots and affixes: godlike, ladylike, manlike, unbusinesslike and so on. H. Marchand, the outstanding linguist, points out that –like as a semi-affix is isolated from the word “like” because we can form compounds of the type unmanlike which would be impossible for a free form entering into combination with another free form. The same argument holds good for the semi-affix –worthy and the word “worthy”, e.g. worthy of note and noteworthy, praiseworthy, trustworthy and untrustworthy, unpraiseworthy.

H. Marchand chooses to include among semi-affixes also the element –wise traditionally referred to adverb-forming suffixes: otherwise, likewise, clockwise, crosswise, etc.

Alongside with these, he analyses combinations with –way (-ways) representing the Genitive: anyway, otherways, always, likeways, sideways, crossways, etc. The analysis given by H. Marchand is very convincing: “ Way and wise are full words, so it might be objected that combinations with them are compounds. But the combinations are never substantival as their substantival bases would require. Moreover, wise is being used less and less as an independent word and may one day come to reach the state of French –ment, which went a somewhat similar way, being developed from the Latin mentle, Ablative of mens (spirit, character, and later – manner)”.

Two elements, very productive in combinations, are completely dead as independent words. These are –monger and –wright: fishmonger, ironmonger, playwright, wheelwright.

It seems right to include –proof among semi-affixes as it is extremely productive in combinations what cannot be said about the independent word: damp-proof, waterproof, bombproof, shockproof, foolproof (said about rules, mechanisms, etc., so simple as to be safe even when applied by fools).

In some cases the second element of Greek or Latin origin (a completive) is repeated in several words acting as a kind of semi-affix, e.g. –mania (madness) in discomania, Beatlesmania; -naut (from Greek nautos – sailor) in cosmonaut, hydronaut.

The factors conducing to transition of free forms into semi-affixes are high semantic productivity, adaptability, combinatorial capacity, and brevity.