On the Three Major Processes of English Word-Formation.docx

On the Three Major Processes of English Word-FormationAs we all know, there has a large number of English words, and new words are being created gradually. The reason of this phenomenon is mainly because of various ways of forming words, that is, diverse word- formation. Today, I am going to talk about the three major processes of English-formation. They are respectively compounding or composition, derivation or affixation, conversion. Firstly, I want to talk about compounding or composition. Compounding, namely, combines two or more than two words in order into new word called compound. Like lap and top combine into noun laptop, broad and cast into verb broadcast, English and speaking into adjective English-speaking , down and stairs into adverb downstairs. However, the interesting thing is, that university teachers consisted of university and teachers does not belong to compound. On the contrary, English teachers consisted of English and teachers is compound. Likewise, teachers college instead of college teachers can be regarded as compound. Two or more than two independent words can be combined into a compound, but it also can be a free combination of phrase or expression. Therefore, the question is followed that how can we distinguish it. Generally speaking, compound had its own features on grammar, semantic meaning, pronunciation and spelling, so that we can tell from it. Take spelling for example, some are solid, expressed such words as basketball, mailbox, breakthrough, outbreak; others are hyphenated, as for example, man-made, good-looking, above-mentioned, low-paid; the rest are open or written separately like reading material, remote control, general education, point of view. Whats more, compound has fixed semantic meaning: some can be analyzed according to literal meaning of components while this may not work to others. Words such as blogosphere is comprised of blogo and sphere, with the exact meaning of these two words meaning combined; yet words like white lie denote well-meaning lie. Besides, there are three types of compound: noun compound, adjective compound, and verb compound. Each kind is subdivided according to the syntactic relations of the component parts of a compound. Verb compound, for one thing, is transformed from compound noun by conversion or back-formation. For instance, these are compound verb transformed from compound noun by back-formation, footprints - to footprint, tape-recording to tape-record; while others by back-formation, baby-sitter-to baby-sit, housekeeper-to housekeep. For another thing, compound-verb is made of “adverb plus verb”. Here are some words reflect this: outweigh, upgrade, offset, undergo, and so on. Secondly, let me come to derivation or affixation. Derivation or affixation, combines derivational affixes (prefixes or suffixes) and roots into new words that called derivative. Root is the basis of derivative, and affix play the part of deciding it lexical and grammatical meaning. Prefixation and suffixation are the two processes of derivation. Adding a prefix before a word or a root is prefixation, which modify the meaning of the base, but do not generally alter its word-class. Every prefix has a specific meaning of its own; prefix are therefore classified into the following several categories: “negative” prefixes (un-,non-,dis-,); “reversative or privative” prefixes (un-,de-,dis-,); “pejorative” prefixes (mis-,mal-.pseudo-); “prefixes of degree or size”(super-,out-,under-,); prefixes of attitude(co-,pro-,anti-); “locative” prefixes(super-,sub-,inter); prefixes of time and order(fore-,pre-,post-); “number” prefixes(umi-/mono). As for suffixation, add suffix after a word or a root, which frequently alter the part of speech of original one. Here is an example: the noun child, by the addition of the suffix ish, is changed into the adjective childish.Last but not least, I should move on to conversion. Unlike compounding and derivation, conversion doesnt need any changes in form, and it only needs pay attention to the difference of word-meaning and function due to the change of word-class when use. In other words, conversion, means, a word of a certain word-class shifted into a word of another word-class without the addition of an affix. That is to say, the converted words are new not in form but in function. By functional shift, an old noun may come to be used as a new verb. Today the commonest conversions are from nouns into verbs, and from verbs into nuns. For instance, the verb help (as in “She helped me out when I was in trouble”) corresponds to the noun help( as in “She gave me help when I was in trouble ”);the process of verb help to noun help is conversion. For no affix or suffix added to the word, conversion also called derivation by zero suffix or zero derivation. Conversion has several characteristics. On the one hand, conversion generally happens to the simple words, especially most monosyllabic nouns and verbs such as pay, sleep, walk and so on having the same form. As a result, its very hard to tell whether they are nouns transformed to verbs or verbs transformed to nouns. On the other hand, derivate usually cannot be converted because they have obvious affixes as sign of word-class. In addition, conversion occurs among nouns, verbs and adjectives commonly. Furthermore, conversion has two types including partial conversion and complete or full conversion. Some adjectives converted into nouns had to be with preceded by the definite article “the”. Adjectives such as young, sick, rich, when turned into nouns, they must be accompanied with the definite article “the” ahead of themselves; that is, youngthe young, sickthe sick, richthe rich. As to complete or full conversion happens when the conversion of adjectives to nouns as well as the concerted form takes on all the features of a noun. As we can see, most country adjectives can be used as nouns, like an American, a Canadian, a Chinese. These nouns possess all the features of nouns, as plus s developing plurality, -s developing possessive. In conclusion, compounding, derivation, and conversion are the three major types of word-formation. Among them, compounding is the most productive word-formation. Certainly, derivation and conversion also make contribution to add words diversity. Therefore, it is compounding, derivation, and conversion, the three major types of word-formation, that endow English words with a fresh vitality, variety, and power.