A Linguistics Analysis of Word Formation and Its Application in English Teaching英语专业毕业论文.doc

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1、Contents Abstract.1I. Introduction .1II. Definition and Classification.1 1. The main definitions of words.1 2. The main classification of words.2 III. Morphemes in word formation .21. The influential factors in word formation . 2 2 .The definition of morpheme .3 IV. The classification of morpheme .3

2、 1. Free morphemes .3 2. Bound morphemes .3V. Root, stem, and affix .3 1. Root . .32. Stem .4 3. Affix .4 3.1 Inflectional affixes and derivational affixes . .43.2 Prefixes .53.3. Suffixes .6 3.4 The identification of inflection and derivation .7 VI. Compounds.71. Definition of compounds. .72. Word

3、formation of compounds . .73. The written way of compounds .8 4. Points of compounds .8VII. Word-formation.81. Invention .8 2. Blending . 93. Abbreviation .94. Acronym . 9 5. The other methods of word formation .10 VIII. The influence of phonetics of word formation.10IX. The application of word form

4、ation in English teaching and learning .11X. Conclusion.12Bibliography .13Acknowledgements . 13A Linguistics Analysis of Word Formation and Its Application in English Teaching Abstract:A great number of people are learning English recent years. However, learning English is not an easy work. During t

5、he process of learning English, people face many problems. The traditional Chinese culture is different from that of English-speaking countries. Whats more, in English there are a lot of slangs and idioms which are the obstacles to learning English. The other big block is the vocabulary. As we all k

6、now, there are some rules in forming Chinese characters. For instance, some characters we dont know them before, but when we see it we can guess the pronunciation and the meaning, because Chinese character is formed by several parts except some simple characters which can not be further divided into

7、 smaller components. Each part has its own meaning and pronunciation, so we can guess the whole meaning of the character from each part of it. Above all, there are many rules in studying Chinese characters, which help us remember more characters. It is also true in studying English, especially in le

8、arning English vocabulary. This paper, through the description of the composition of words and the ways of word formation, tries to offer the English leaners a better understanding of English vocabulary and some better ways of teaching English in order to help them find their own beat way to remembe

9、r words.Key Words: definitions; classifications;word formationI. Introduction Words play an essential role in learning English. Words like the fundation of a house. Only if we study words well can we learn English well. Many professors and researchers devoted themselves to the word formation and lef

10、t many useful methods for learning words. This can help English learners learn words in a more effective way. Though we human beings have showed interest in word formation for thousands of years, there still remain many open issues in this most secret area of language study (Bauer 1983: 293). Recent

11、 years, more and more researchers are studying how to study English in an effective way. Some research the influence of culture. Some research the difference of grammar between Chinese and English. Some others would like to study the influence of word formation in the process of English learning. Th

12、is paper centers on the study of word formation. At present, the main branches of word formation studied include inflection, derivation, compounds, invention, blending, abbreviation, acronym, back-formation, analogical creation, and borrowing and phonetic was also found influence the formation of wo

13、rds. II. The Definition and Classification of Words 1. The Main Definitions of Words When we learn words, we must know what is word, the main classification of words, and how words are formed. What is word? This question has been discussed for ages and numerous definitions have been suggested, but t

14、here is not a very clear and perfect definition of the words. However, when we talk about a word we can recognize it from the following aspects. Firstly, we can see it from the visual terms. In this line a word can be defined as a meaningful group of letters printed or written horizontally across a

15、piece of paper. Secondly, we can recognize a word from the terms of spoken language, a word is viewed as a sound or combination of sounds which are made voluntarily with human vocal equipment. Human vocal organs can help us make sounds, and sounds can form words. Thirdly, according to semanticists,

16、a word is a unit of meaning. At last we can recognize it on the grammatical level, that is a word should be a free form that can function in a sentence. To sum up, the definition of a word comprises the following points: A minimal free form of a languageA sound unit A unit of meaning A form that can

17、 function alone in a sentence According to Linguistics A Course Book (Hu, 2006), a word is a unit of expression that native speakers may recognize by intuition, whether it is expressed in spoken or written form. This definition is perhaps a bit unclear, because different criteria may identify and de

18、fine different phenomena. Therefore, it is hard for us to define word scientifically. However, it is agreed that there are three ways of defining word, even though these three definition cannot cover everything. Firstly, word is a physically definable unit, that means word may be seen as a set of so

19、und segments or writing letters between two pauses or blanks. Secondly, Word both as a general term and as a specific term. At last, word is a grammatical unit. The following three methods can help us identify a word: One is that words are the most stable of all linguistic unit, in respect of their

20、internal structure. That means it is hard for us to rearrange the internal structure of a complex word into a different order. Next is words are relative uninterruptibility. We mean that a new element can not be inserted into a word, even when there are several parts of the word. The last is word is

21、 a minimum free form. This was first suggested by Bloomfield (1993). He advocated that sentence should be treated as the maximum free form, and word is the minimum free form. Above all, it is difficult to define word, but we can easily identify a word by many methods as the above. 2. The Main Classi

22、fication of Words Words include closed-class words and open-class words. Closed-class words refer to whose membership is fixed or limited (Hu, 2006). To take examples as follows: Preposition (like in on under behind at of after between off with as by over below about without etc.), Pronouns (like yo

23、u I he she me us him her my his her they them their that these those it etc.), Conjunctions (like and but while so unless etc.), Articles (like a an the etc.), Auxiliaries and numbers are the closed-class words as well as. These words can also be understood as that they are finite and difficult to b

24、e changed. However, the open-class words are one whose membership is principle infinite or unlimited (Hu, 2006:59). Such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and many adverbs are all open-class items. When new ideas, inventions or discoveries emerge, the new parts may be added to the lexicon, and the old par

25、ts of the words may disappear to make a new word. Above all, after learning the classification of words we know that some words in English are invariable and the number of them is stable, so we can learn such words by rote to remember them. Because there are no obvious rules for closed-class words i

26、n word formation, but we can remember these words with sentences. The number of these words is small and stable, so it is easy for us to learn them. However, as for the open-class words, we should find some methods to learn them. Words can be simple and complex. There are simple words as book, form,

27、 place, even A etc. There are also many complex words which may be formed by several parts, such as indifferent, misfortune, uninterruptibility, and chairman etc. We can resort to word-formation to analyse these complex words.III. Morphemes in Word Formation 1.The influential factors in word formati

28、on Word formation in its restricted sense, refers to the process of how words are formed. The expansion of vocabulary in modern English depends chiefly on word-formation. English evolved from the old English (450-1150) to the middle English (1150-1500) to now the modern English (1500-up to now) (Zha

29、ng, 1997). It has undergone more than one thousand years. Today modern English originated from many aspects, among which word formation plays an essential role in forming words, and morpheme takes a decisive position on word formation Every word is formed by morphemes; morpheme is the basic part of

30、a word. If we are going to study word formation, we must know clearly about morphemes, including its definition and classification. 2. The definition of morpheme When talk about words, we should refer to morpheme. It seems to be generally agreed that a word is the smallest unit which can stand alone

31、 to communicate. However, word is not the smallest unit in the structure, because many words can be further divided into more than two parts, antidisestablishmentarianism for an example. This word can be divided into anti-, -dis-, -establish-, -ment-, -arian-, -ism-, each of them having its own mean

32、ing, and these fragments cannot be further divided, otherwise they would make nonsense. These fragments are morphemes. Morpheme is the smallest unit of language in terms of the relationship between expression and content, a unit that cannot be divided into further smaller units without destroying or

33、 drastically altering the meaning, whether it is lexical or grammatical (Hu, 2006:61). In other words, the morpheme is the smallest functional unit in the composition of words. Morphemes can form new words with other words. IV. The classification of morpheme Before studying word formation we should

34、know the types of morphemes. There are different ways of classifying morphemes. 3.1 Free morphemes The well known method is to group them into free morphemes and bound morphemes: Free morphemes are those that may occur alone, and can make up words by themselves, which are independent of other morphe

35、mes. These morphemes have complete meanings in themselves and can be used as free grammatical units in sentences. For example, apple, people, food and so on. Such words are also called mono-morphemic words. All mono-morphemic words are free morphemes. There are also poly-morphemes which are also cal

36、led compounds. These words consist wholly of free morphemes, such as chairman, and so on. 3.2 Bound morphemes Morphemes which can not occur as separate words are bound (Zhang, 1997). They are so named because they are bound to other morphemes to form words. Bound morphemes are chiefly found in deriv

37、ed words. They must appear with at least another morpheme, such as ly, a-, ir-, re-, -al, -ed. In the word friendly, -ly is a bound morpheme and it can not exist alone. Words consist wholly of free morphemes are poly-morphemic. V. Root, Stem, and Affix Poly-morphemic includes the morphemic which may be divided into roots and affixes and compounds. As illustrated by the example of impossible, which can be broken down into im- and possible, among them im- is the prefix which means n