English Words

8.4
SUMMARY
All morphemes must be listed in the dictionary since their meaning is not compositional. Many lexical
items too must be listed in the dictionary because their meaning is not deducible from the elements that they
are made up of. However, some lexical items are semantically compositional so they need not be listed. The
lexicon is not a closed list. Normally, word-manufacture employs standard rules to produce new words that
can be added to the lexicon (Bauer 1988:57–72).
Idioms are a theoretically challenging class of lexical items for they share the characteristics of both
words and phrases. Structurally, idioms are like ordinary syntactic phrases. But their meanings are
unpredictable, just like the meanings of simple words. So they must be listed in the dictionary.
Finally, in addition to affixes, we need to recognise a separate class of bound morphemes appended to the
hosts. These are the clitics which are attached to words to form clitic groups after words have been grouped
into syntactic phrases. Some clitics are always bound morphemes but others are capable of appearing in
some contexts as independent words. All clitics have a phonological deficiency which disqualifies them
from appearing as independent words. Further, unlike suffixes, clitics are capable of attaching to a
phonological host that is distinct from their syntactic/semantic host. Clitic groups are not lexical objects.
They are not listed in the lexicon. (For further discussion see Zwicky and Pullum 1983, Zwicky 1985,
Klavans 1985, Katamba 1993.)
EXERCISES
1.
a. Explain why the items n’t, ’ve, ’s, and ’d in the passage below should be treated as clitics rather than
suffixes,
b. What type of clitic is each item an example of?
‘Don’t
you think you’ve got your bottom corner a bit far out?’ came father’s voice from below.
‘You’d
better be drawing in now, hadn’t you?’
(Lawrence 1960:13)
2. Study the following idioms and answer the questions that follow:
stick-in-the-mud
to spill the beans
(to receive) a golden handshake
to take advantage of
to turn over a new leaf
to bury the hatchet
to feather one’s nest
WORD MANUFACTURE 111

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to be caught between a rock and a hard place
to show (someone) the cold shoulder
to throw out the baby with the bath water
a. Give a paraphrase of each idiom that clearly brings out its meaning.
b. Draw a phrase structure tree showing the syntactic structure of each idiom,
c. In the light of your answers to (a) and (b) discuss the role of compositionality in the study of lexical
items of this kind.
3.
a. Referring to at least two specific examples of compounds (e.g. drawing-board) and words
containing affixes (e.g. Holly-woodisation), show why many morphological objects (i.e. words)
need not be listed in the lexicon.
b. Should the words environmental, fantastic and modernism be listed in the dictionary or are they
semantically transparent enough for that to be unnecessary?
4. Find texts containing examples of at least two nonce words formed by affixation or compounding.
Explain how language users can work out the meanings of the words that you have chosen.
5. Why is it impossible to determine exactly how many words there are in English?
112 ENGLISH WORDS

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Chapter 9
Words galore