BUT: in the course of language graph.abbrev turned into self-contained lex. unit used both in oral and written speech ? e.g. a.m.?in the morning?; p.m. ?in the afternoon?;S.O.S.

Transformation of w-groups into words involve diff. types of lex. shortening : substantivation; syllable abbreviation(also referred to acronyms), blending.

Substantivisation ? dropping of the final nominal member of a frequent used attributive w-group (e.g : an incendiary ? an incendiary bomb, the finals ? the final examinations).It is accompanied by productive by productive suffixation as in a one-winger from one wing plane, a two-deckerfrom two ?deck busorship.

Acronyms are regular vocabulary units spoken as words. They are formed in various ways :

a) from the initial letters or syllables of a phrase,which may be pronounced differently:

? as a succession of sounds denoted by the constituent letters forming a syllabic( e.g. UNO,NATO,UNESCO;

? as a succession of the alphabetical readings of the constituent letters (e.g. BBC,YCL,MP);

b) formed from the initial syllables of each word of the phrase (e.g. interpol=inter/national pol/ice;Capcome=Capsule Communicator);

c) formed by a combination of the abbreviation of the first or the first two members of the phrase with the last member undergoing no change at all (e.g. V-day=Victory day,H-bomb=hydrogen bomb)

All achronysms unlike letter abbreviations perform the syntactical functions of ordinary words taking on grammatical inflexions.

Blendingsare the result of conscious creation of words by merging irregular fragments of several words which are aptly called ?splinters?(e.g. tramsceiver,medicare=medical care,smog,brunch).Blends are coined not frequently in scientific and technical language as a means of naming new things,as trade names in advertisments.

2)Clipping ?shortening word of two or more syllables(us. nouns and adj.) without changing its class memebership.Clipped words function as independent lex. units with a certais phonetic shape and lex.m-ng of their own.Clipped words differ from other words in the emotive charge and stylistic reference,they are characreristics of colloquial speech.There do not seem to be any clear rules by means of which we might predict where a word will be cut,though there are several types of clipping;

- words shortened at the end ?pocope?(ad,lab,mike);

- shortened at the beginning ?aphaeresis?(car,phone,copter);

- in which some syllables or sounds have been ommitted in the middle ?syncope?( maths,pants,specs);

- clipped both at the beginning and at the end(flu,tec=detective,fridge)

Acronyms and clippings are the main ways of w-creation in pres,day Engl.

The shortening of words involves the shortening of both words and word-groups. Distinction should he made between shortening of a word in written speech (graphical abbreviation) and in the sphere of oral intercourse (lexical abbreviation). Lexical abbreviations may be used both in written and in oral speech. Lexical abbreviation is the process of forming a word out of the initial elements (letters, morphemes) of a word combination by a simultaneous operation of shortening and compounding.

Clipping consists in cutting off two or more syllables of a word. Words that have been shortened at the end are called apocope (doc-doctor, mit-mitten, vet-veterinary). Words that have been shortened at the beginning are called aphaeresis (phone-telephone). Words in which some syllables or sounds have been omitted from the middle are called syncope (ma'm - madam, specs - spectacles). Sometimes a combination of these types is observed (tec-detective, frig-refrigerator).

Non-productive means of word formation

Blendings (blends, fusions or portmanteau words) may be defined as formation that combine two words that include the letters or sounds they have in common as a connecting element (slimnastics < slim+gymnasttcs; mimsy < miserable+flimsy; galumph < gallop+triumph; neutopia < new+utopia). The process of formation is also called telescoping. The analysis into immediate constituents is helpful in so far as it permits the definition of a blend as a word with the first constituent represented by a stem whose final part may be missing, and the second constituent by a stem of which the initial part is missing. The second constituent when used in a series of similar blends may turn into a suffix. A new suffix -on; is, for instance, well under way in such terms as nylon, rayon, silon, formed from the final element of cotton. This process seems to be very active in present-day English word-formation numerous new words have been coined recently: Reaganomics,. Irangate, blacksploitation, workaholic, foodoholic, scanorama etc.

Back formation is a semi - productive type of word-building. It is mostly active in compound verbs, and is combined with word-composition. The basis of this type of word-building are compound words and word-combinations having verbal nouns,gerunds, participles or other derivative nouns as their second component (rush-development, finger-printing, well-wisher). These compounds and word-combinations are wrongly considered to be formed from compound verbs which are nonexistent in reality. This gives a rise to such verbs as: to rush-develop, to finger-print, to well-wish.

Onomatopoeia (sound-imitation, echoism) is the naming of an action or thing by a more or less exact reproduction of a natural sound associated with it (babble, crow, twitter). Semantically, according to the source of sound onomatopoeic words fall into a few very definite groups. Many verbs denote sounds produced by human beings in the process of communication or in expressing their feelings (babble, chatter, giggle, grumble, murmur, mutter, titter, whisper). There are sounds produced by animals, birds and insects (buzz, cackle, croak, crow, hiss, howl, moo, mew, roar). Besides the verbs imitating the sound of water (bubble, splash), there are others imitating the noise of metallic things (clink, tinkle) or forceful motion (clash, crash, whack, whip, whisk).

Sentence - condensation is the formation of new words by substantivising the whole locutions (forget-me-not, merry-go-round).

Sound and stress interchange (distinctive stress, the shift of stress). The essence of it is that to form a new word the stress of the word is shifted to a new syllable. It mostly occurs in nouns and verbs. Some phonetic changes may accompany the shift of the stress (export - to export, increase - to increase, break - breach, long -length

Date: 2016-06-12; view: 296