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1. What is a word?
Before turning to the various processes of making words, it would be useful to analyze the related problem of the composition of words of their constituent parts.
If viewed structurally, words appear to be divisible into smaller units, which are called morphemes. Morphs don't occur as free forms, but only as constituents of words. Yet, they possess meanings of their own.
All morphemes are subdivided into two large classes: roots and affixes. The latter, in their turn, fall into prefixes which precede the root in the structure of the word (as in re - read, mis - pronounce, un - well) and suffixes which follow the root (as in teach- er, cur - able, dec - ate).
Words which consist of a root and an affix (or several affixes) are called derived words or derivatives and are produced by the process of word-building, known as affixation (or derivation).
Derived words are extremely numerous in the English vocabulary. Successfully competing with this structural type is the, so-called, root word which has only a root morpheme in its structure. This type is widely represented by a great number of words belonging to the original English stock or to earlier borrowings (house, room, book, work, port,, street, table) and , in Modern English , has been greatly enlarged by the type oi word- building called conversion.
Another wide-spread word structure is a compound word consisting of two or more stems (dining-room). Words of this structural type are produced by the word-building process called composition.
The somewhat odd-looking words like flu, pram, lab, M.P., V-day, H-bomb are called shortenings. Derivation and composition are the most productive ways of word-building.
To return to the question posed by the title of this chapter, of how words are made, let us try and get a more detailed picture of each of the major types of Modern English word-building and, also, of some minor types.
1.1. Various Types and Ways of Forming Words
The available linguistic literature on the subject cites various types and ways of forming words. Books dealing with the problems of word-formation in the Russian language, as well as some books on English Lexicology usually mention morphologic, syntactic and semantic types of word-formation.
In conformity with the basic structural types of stems and words described above the following two types of word formation may be distinguished : word derivation and word-composition (or compounding) words created by word-derivation have only one primary stem and one derivational affix in terms of word-formation analysis, for example, cleanness (from clean), to overestimate (from to estimate), chairmanship (from chairman), waterproofness (from waterproof), openhandedness (from open-handed) etc. Some derived words have no affixes, because derivation is achieved through conversion, for instance, to paper (from paper), a fall, and so on.
Words created by word-composition have at least two primary stems, e.g. , coal-black , ice-cold , looking-glass , daydream, hotbed, speedometer etc. Besides, there are words built by a simultaneous application of composition and derivation (suffixation or conversion) - derivational compounds, eg., long- legged, open-minded, a breakdown and others.
The shortening of words stands apart from the above two-fold division of word-formation. It can not be regarded as part of either word-derivation or word-composition for the simple reason that neither the root morpheme nor the derivational affix can be singled out from the shortened word (lab, exam, V- day,) Consequently, the shortening of words should be treated separately as a specific type of word-formation.
Within the types, further distinction may be made between ways of forming words, he basic ways of forming words in word- derivation, for instance, are affixation and conversion. The lexicalization of grammatical forms, sound and stress interchange and some others are usually referred to as minor ways of forming words.
In describing the technique of word-formation it is important to point out the means by which word-formation is effected. For instance, affixation is characterized by the use of suffixes and prefixes, some cases of compounding by the use of connecting elements etc.
Another classification of the types of word-formation worked out by H.Marchand is also of interest. Proceeding from the distinction between complete motivation as found in such composites as rain-bow, do-er, un-do and others are partial motivation as exemplified by phonetic symbolism (pish, pooh, crack) he considers two major groups:
1. Words formed as grammatical syntagmas, i.e. combination of full linguistic signs;
2. Words which are not grammatical syntagmas, i.e. which are composites not made up of full linguistic signs.
To the first group belong Compounding, Prefvcation, Derivation by a Zero Morpheme and Back-derivation; To the second Expressive Symbolism, Blending, Clipping, Rhyme and Abhut Gemination, Word-manufacturing.
There are two types of word-formation in Modern English: word -derivation and word-composition. Within the types further distinction is made between the various ways and means of word-formation.
Sound and stress-interchange in Modern English are means distinguished between different words of different parts of speech.
The degrees of productivity and factors favoring it make an important aspect of synchronic description of every derivational pattern within the two types of word-formation.
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