Lecture VII.

06.12.2012

Introduction to Linguistics with Elements of History of English

WHAT IS A WORD?

The smallest form in a language which may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content.

CONTENT WORDS forms which carry out certain information, it may denote an action, person, state, object, quality, etc.

FUNCTION WORDAS perform grammatical function, do not carry out information.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO KNOW A WORD?

-form spoken + written:

pronunciation

spelling

situational appropriateness of a word

meaning

collocations

connotations

the grammar

ETYMOLOGY etymon (original form) + logia (study) = study of original forms of words.

NEOLOGISM a new word which enters the language, e. g. : laptop, palmtop.

COINAGE invention of totally new word (usually trade names of commercial products), e. g. : zipper, Teflon, adidasy

EPONYMS new words based on the name of a person or a place, e. g. : Idziesz na Szymańskiego?, jeans, hoover, sandwich

BORROWING the act of taking over words from one language to another, e. g. : piano (Italian), sofa (Arabic), alcohol (Arabic), yogurt (Turkish), tattoo (Tahitian)

LOAN TRANSLATION (CALQUE) direct translation of elements of a word into the target language, e. g. : Superman Ubermensch (German)

COMPOUNDING joining of two separate words to produce a single form, e. g. bookcase, textbook, wallpaper, good- looking, fast- food

BLENDING combining of two separate forms, but it's taking only the beginning of one word and joining to the end of the other word, e. g. : smoke + fog = smog, motor + hotel = motel

CLIPPING reducing words to one single syllable, e. g. : gasoline gas, fanatic fan, influenza flu, public house pub, Ed Edward, Liz Elizabeth, chem. chemistry

HYPOCORISM reducing a word to a single syllable and then “-y” or “-ie” is added, e. g. : Chrissy Christmas, Barbie barbecue, telly television, movie moving picture

BACKFORMATION a word of one type (usually a noun) is reduced to form a word of another type (usually a verbal, e. g. : enthuse- enthusiasm, babysit- babysitter

CONVERSION (category change/ functional shift) a change in the function of a word, e. g. : text- to text, vacation, to vacation

ACRONYMS new words formed from the initial letters of a set of other words, e. g. : CD= compact disc, VCR= video cassette recorder, NASA, USA, NATO, UNESCO

DERIVATION accomplishment by means of large number of small bits of by which are not usually separately listed in dictionary:

AFFIXES:

• PREFIXES added at the beginning of a word dishonest

• INFIXES inserted into a word Absgoddenlutely! Unfuckingbelivable !

• SUFFEXES added to the end of a word colorful

MULTIPLE PROCESSES a combination of all mentioned based processes to produce single form, e. g. :

The problems have snowballed. snow + ball (conversion) to snowball + -ed (suffixation)

1

---