Ways of Word-Formation

Word-Formation in Old English

Lecture 21

In OE the vocabulary mainly grew by means of word-formation. The words fell into 3 main types:

· simple words (root-words) – a word consisting of a root-morpheme with no derivational suffixes (e.g. OE ζōd (good), land (land), d æ ζ (day), etc.);

· derived words – a word consisting of a root-morpheme + 1 or more then one affix (e.g. OE be-ζinnan (begin), ζe-met-inζ (meeting), etc.);

· compound words – a word consisting of more then one root-morpheme (e.g. OE mann-cynn (mankind), fēower-tīene (fourteen), etc.).

Word-Derivation:

· sound interchange – was employed frequently, but never alone (usually was accompanied by suffixation). Sources of sound-interchange:

- ablaut (OE rīdan (V) – rād (N) = NE ride (V) – raid (N); OE sinζan (V) – sonζ (N) = NE sing (V) – song (N), etc.);

- palatal mutation:

o verbs from nouns (doom à deem; food à feed, etc.);

o verbs from adjectives (full à fill; healthy à heal, etc.);

o nouns from adjectives (long à length; strong à strength, etc.);

- consonantal interchanges (death – dead; rise – rear, etc.).

· word stress – was not frequent; it helped to differentiate between parts of speech and was used together with other means (e.g. OE ‘andswa ru (N answer) – and’swar ian (V answer);

· prefixation – was a productive way (unlike in ModE):

- IE prefixes (OE un- (negative));

- Germanic prefixes (OE mis-, be-, ofer- (over-));

- prefixes were widely used with verbs, but were far less productive with the other parts of speech (e.g. OE ζān (to go) – ā-ζān (to go away) – be-ζān (to go round) – fore-ζān (to precede), etc.);

- prefixes often modified lexical meaning (e.g. OE siþ (journey) – for-siþ (death));

- there were grammatical prefixes, e.g ζe-:

o was used to build Participle 2 of strong verbs (e.g. OE sitten (to sit) – ζe sett (sat), etc.);

o turned durative verbs into terminative (e.g. OE feran (to go) – ζe feran (to reach), etc.).

· suffixation – was the most productive way, mostly applied to nouns and adjectives, seldom to verbs.

Classification of OE suffixes:

1. Suffixes of agent nouns (-end (OE frēond (friend)), -ere (OE fiscere (fisher)), -estre (feminine) (OE b æ cestre (female baker)), etc.);

2. Suffixes of abstract nouns (-t (OE siht (sight)), -þu (OE lengþu (length)), -nes/nis (OE beorhtnes (brightness), blindnis (blindness)), -unζ/inζ (OE earnunζ (earning)), etc.);

3. Adjectival suffixes (-iζ (OE hāliζ (holy)), -isc (OE mannisc (human)), -ede (OE hōcede (hooked)), -sum (OE lanζsum (lasting)) etc.);

4. New suffixes derived from noun root-morphemes (-dōm (OE frēodōm (freedom)), -hād (OE cīldhād (childhood)), -lāc (OE wedlāc (wedlock)), -scipe (OE frēondscipe (frendship)), etc.);

5. New suffixes derived from adjective root-morphemes (-lic (OE woruldlic (worldly)), -full (OE carfull (careful)), -lēas (OE sl ǽ plēas (sleepless)), etc.).

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