Chapter 3 Lexicon

1. Word2. The formation of word3. Lexical change

1.1. Word

1.1 three senses of “word”

1.2 identification of words

1.3 classification of words

1.1 Three senses of “word”1.1 Three senses of “word”

• A physical definable unit: a cluster of sound segments or letters between two pause or blank

• The common factor underlying a set of forms

• A grammatical unit

1.2 identification of words1.2 identification of words• Stability

• Relative uninterruptibility

• A minimum free form

1.3 classification of words1.3 classification of words

• Variable vs. invariable words

• Grammatical words vs. lexical words

• Closed-class words vs. open-class words

• Word classes

2. The formation of word• Morphology ： is a branch of linguistics,

which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.

• The two fields (p88)– Inflectional morphology: the study of infl

ections– Derivational morphology: the study of

word-formation

2.1 Morpheme2.1 Morpheme

• The minimal unit of meaning • Morpheme is the smallest meaning-bear

ing unit.

2.2 Types of morphemes2.2 Types of morphemes

• morpheme free: free root• bound bound root root• affix inflectional• derivational prefix• • suffix

• Free morphemes: morphemes which may constitute words by themselves

• Bound morphemes: morphemes which can not be used by themselves, but must be combined with other morphemes to form words

• Inflectional morpheme: a kind of bound morphemes which manifest various grammatical relations or grammatical categories such as number, tense, degree and case. – e.g. workers, children; walking, walked; biggest ; John’s

• Derivational morpheme: a kind of bound morphemes , added to existing forms to create new words. There are three kinds according to position: prefix, suffix and infix.– prefix: change meaning dis-; un-; mis-– suffix: change part of speech -ly; -ness; -tion – infix: some languages also have infixes, affix morphem

es that are inserted into root or stem morphemes to divide them into two parts.

2.3 Morpheme and honeme2.3 Morpheme and honeme• A morpheme is a linguistic abstraction; it is a

concept. It needs to be represented in certain phonological and orthographic forms. Those forms are called morphs.

• In morphemic transcription, morphemes in the abstract notion are put between braces like / /.

• Allomorph: A morpheme may have alternate shapes or phonetic forms. The variant forms of the same morpheme are called its allomorphs.

3.1 Lexical change proper3.1 Lexical change proper• Major ways to create new words:

– Compounding– Derivation– Blending– Abbreviation– Clipping– Acronym– Back-formation– Borrowing– Coinage

• Compounding: a process of combining two or more words into one lexical unit.– blackboard– godfather – baby-sit – cross-cultural

• Derivation: the process by which new words are formed by the addition of affixes to the roots or words. – Finalize– Widen– Hospitalize– Clockwise

• Blending : a process of forming a new word by combining parts of other words.– Smog (smoke + fog); – Brunch (breakfast + lunch);– Smaze (smog + haze); – Telecast (television + broadcast); – Motel (motor + hotel).

• Abbreviation: a shortened form of a word or phrase which represents the complete form.– TV(television)– Dr(doctor)– hr(hour)– ft(foot or feet)

• clipping: a kind of abbreviation of longer words or phrases– telephone---phone – memorandum---memo– electronic mail---e-mail – high fidelity---hi-fi

• Acronym: a word created by combining the initial letters of a number of words. – UNESCO APEC Sars CD laser– radar (radio detecting and ranging)– Cf. Initialism: VOA BBC WTO

• Back-formation: a process by which new words are formed by taking away the suffix of an existing word.– televise (from television) – donate (from donation) – enthuse (from enthusiasm)

• Borrowing: the taking over of words from other languages– Loanwords: encore, coup d’etat– Loanblend: Chinatown– Loanshift: bridge (card game)– Loan translation: almighty (from Latin omni

potens)

• Coinage : the invention of a new word– Kodak– Coke– nylon– Xeros frigidaire

3.2 Phonological change3.2 Phonological change

• Changes in sounds lead to changes in form

• (1)vowel sound change: Great Vowel Shift in history

• (2)sound loss • (3)sound addition• (4)metathesis

3.3 Morpho-syntactical change3.3 Morpho-syntactical change• Morphological change

– Thou, ye you– Thy your– ’s form “of phrase”

• Syntactical change– I love the not, therefore pursue me not.– Ever and anon + now and then every

now and then

3.4 Semantic change3.4 Semantic change• The change of meaning of a word• Broadening• Narrowing• Meaning shift: a process in which a word

loses its former meaning and acquires a new, sometimes related meaning.

• Class shift (conversion): • Elevation and degradation

• Homework– Questions and Exercises 1,2,3,5,13

• Self-study guide– Further reading– Adams,V. 1973. An Introduction to Modern English

Word-Formation.– Dai Wei-dong, 2002 A New Concise Course On Ling

uistics For Students Of English Chapter 3 Morphology