Practice 1

Some Non-Productive Affixes

Some Productive Affixes

Noun-forming suffixes	-er, -ing, -ness, -ism^1 (materialism), -ist (impressionist), -ance
Adjective-forming suffixes	-y, -ish, -ed (learned), -able, -less
Adverb-forming suffixes	-ly
Verb-forming suffixes	-ize/-ise (realize), -ate
Prefixes	un- (unhappy), re- (reconstruct), dis- (disappoint)

Noun-forming suffixes	-th, -hood
Adjective-forming suffixes	-ly, -some, -en, -ous
Verb-forming suffix	-en

The native noun-forming suffixes -dom and -ship ceased to be productive centuries ago. Yet, Professor I. V. Arnold in “The English Word” gives some examples of comparatively new formations with the suffix -dom: boredom, serfdom, slavedom. The same is true about -ship (e. g. salesmanship, companionship). The adjective-forming extremely productive -ish has comparatively recently regained it, after having been non-productive for many centuries. In other words, in the course of time the productivity of this or that way of word-formation and its corresponding affixational constituents may change.

Though English has many affixes, new word-building formative means continue appearing, among them the so-called affixoids. They have emerged due to affixalization of components of compound words (e.g. -(a)holic: workaholic, politicoholic; -head and -junkie: film-junkie, cyberhead; -friendly: customer-friendly, user-friendly; -watcher: Wall Street-watcher, newswatcher, etc.)

1. In what way can one analyze a word a) socially, b) linguistically?

2. What are the structural aspects of the word?

3. What is the external structure of the word irresistible? What is the internal structure of this word?

4. What is understood by formal unity of a word? Why is it not quite correct to say that a word is indivisible?

5. Explain why the word blackboard can be considered a unity and why the combination of words a black board doesn't possess such a unity.

6. What is understood by the semantic unity of a word? Which of the following possesses semantic unity — a bluebell or a blue bell?

7. Give a brief account of the main characteristics of a word. What are the main structural types of English words? Arrange the following words into^a) simple; b) derived; c) compounds; d) derivational compounds.

Railway, breakdown, ill-mannered, everything, honey-mooner, old, biggish, narrow-minded, handy, o[en-hearted, toy, boyishness, sunrise, whatever, exception, lovable, appearance, timesaving, measurable, powers, responsible, famous, week-end, deaf-mute, effortless, humanity, successfully, inscribe, polished, light-blue.

8. What are the main problems of lexicology? What are the differences between studying words syntagmatically and paradigmatically?

9. What are the main ways of enriching the English vocabulary?

10.What are the principal productive ways of word-building in English?

11.What do we mean by derivation/affixation?

12.What is the difference between frequency and productivity of affixes? Why can't one consider the noun-forming suffix -age, which is commonly employed in many words (cabbage, village, marriage, etc.), a productive one?

13.Write out from any five pages of the book you are reading examples which illustrate borrowed and native affixes in the corresponding tables. Comment on their productivity.

14.Explain the etymology and productivity of the affixes given below. Say what parts of speech can be formed with their help.

-ness, -ous, -ly, -y, -dom, -ish, -tion, -ed, -en, -ess, -or, -er, -hood, -less, -ate, -ing, -al, -ful, un-, re-, im (in)-, dis-, over-, ab-

15. Write out from the book you are reading all the words with the adjective-forming suffix -ly and not less than 20 words with the homonymous adverb-forming suffix. Say what these suffixes have in common and in what way they are differentiated.

16. What is meant by the term “morpheme”? Comment on the difference between a morphemic analysis and a derivational analysis. What are the criteria of the classification of morphemes? What is the difference between a morpheme, a morph, and an allomorph?

17. Describe all the stages of the morphemic analysis procedure. Comment on the essence of the morphemic analysis of the word. Analyze the following words into their ultimate constituents (UCs).

Suddenly, unconsciousness, uplifted, ex-seaman, half-finished, unworthiness, blue-eyed, agreement, reinforcement, supernaturally.

18. Define the morphemic and derivational structures of the following words: impossible, pseudo-democratic, unemployment, antidisestablishmentarianism, untrue, re-examine, non-autobiographic, sunny, womanlike, classical.

19. In your reading (lyrics, movie-scripts, etc.) write out those prefixes which have the generic denotational meaning of a) negation; b) reversion; c) location and disposition; d) time and order.

20. Arrange the following words into three groups, those having: a) free stems; b) bound stems; c) semi-bound stems.

Tremendous, weekly, speechless, personal, annual, waiter, voyage, longish, terrorist, likely, freedom, manly, unselfish, experience, mistress, collectivization, gifted, power.

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