Sound Interchanges

Word-Derivation

Ways of Word-Formation

In OE there existed a system of word-formation of a com­plexity similar to that of Mod E. One of the most striking examples of the potentials of OE word-formation was the ability of a single root to appear in an abundant store of simple, derived and compound words. For instance, OE mōd (NE mood) yielded about fifty words: derived words, such as mōdi, emōded, ofermōd ('proud', 'disposed', 'arrogance'), compound words mōd-caru, mōd-lēof, mōd- epōht, l edmōdnis ('care', 'beloved', 'thought', 'kindness'). Scores of words contained the roots of OE d e, ōd, monn, weorp, lon (NE day, good, man, worth, long). Many derivational affixes appear to have been very productive as they occurred in numerous words: wip- a prefix in more than fifty words, ofer- in over a hundred words.

It is not always possible for the present-day linguist to assess cor­rectly the productivity of OE word-building means. It is difficult to distinguish processes which were active from those that had ceased to be productive but whose products were still in use. Due to the scarcity of written evidence sometimes we cannot say whether the word was in common use or it was created by the author of a certain text for one occasion –” these kinds of words "said once" are termed “hapax legomena”.

OE employed two ways of word-formation: derivation and word- composition.

Derived words in OE were built with the help of affixes: prefixes and suffixes; in addition to these principal means of derivation, words were distinguished with the help of sound interchanges and word stress.

Sound interchanges in the roots of related words were frequent, and nevertheless they were used merely as an additional feature which helped to distinguish between words built from the same root. Sound interchanges were never used alone; they were combined with suffixation as the main word-building means and in many cases arose as a result of suffixation.

Genetically, sound interchanges went back to various sources and periods.

The earliest source of root-vowel interchanges employed in OE word-building was ablaut or vowel gradation, inherited from PG and IE.

Vowel gradation was used in OE as a distinctive feature between verbs and nouns and also between verbs derived from a single root. The gradation series were similar to those employed in the strong verbs:

(The two latter verbs, settan and drencan were built with the help of the stem-suffix - i, therefore the vowels of the Past tense stems were narrowed; their earlier forms were *s etjan, *drankjan ─ see weak verbs of Class 1).

Many vowel interchanges arose due to palatal mutation; the element [i/j] in the derivational suffix caused the mutation of the root-vowel; the same root without the suffix retained the original non-mu­tated vowel, e.g.:

Vowel interchanges could also go back to Early OE breaking, or to several phonetic changes, including breaking. Cf. beran ─ bearn (NE bear, 'child', dial- barn) ─ breaking has modified the vowel [æ] which developed from the Germanic [a] by splitting; the original vowel interchange [e~a] is a case of ablaut.

The use of consonant interchanges as a distinctive feature in word-building was far more restricted than the use of vowels. Like most vowel interchanges consonant interchanges arose due to phonetic changes: Verner's Law, rhotacism, hardening of [ð] and the Early OE splitting of velar consonants. Cf. the following pairs:

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11